Slayers Evolution-R 08
スレイヤーズ EVOLUTION－R Episode 08
Slayers EVOLUTION-R Ep. 08

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Radok decides he is going on a business trip and though the others suspect that Zuuma will surely nail them, Lina agrees. She explains to the others her reasons and the trip is on with Lina and Pokota riding in the carriage with Radok (driven by Ozel) and Gourry driving the cart with Amelia and Zelgadiss. Abel decides to go along as well since he will one day inherit the business and his father agrees. After traveling for a day, they stop to camp and let the horses rest.

Abel takes the opportunity to talk with his father about the situation and his dead mother. Radok tells the story of how bandits had captured himself and Abel’s mother for the misdeeds of Radok’s grandfather. His wife died in captivity and the bandits were killed. Lina, who’d been nearby, hears everything and reveals herself as well as Pokota, quietly figuring she may have been the one to kill Radok’s bandits.

After Abel leaves, the group comes under attack from a large group of lesser demons. Lina is able to shield them from the ranged attacks of the demons, but Radok is concerned for his son’s safety and leaves the area. Leaving the fighting of the lesser demons to Amelia and Zelgadiss, Lina, Gourry, and Pokota race to catch Radok, who’s disappeared. They find Abel at a stream washing his face, being attended to by Ozel. Radok also arrives to make sure is son is safe and orders him to flee as another group of lesser demons arrive. Abel does not want to leave and Ozel won’t leave Radok, but Lina tells them to get out of the combat zone.

Amelia and Zelgadiss are then attacked by the mazoku Dugld and Gduza while at the stream, Gourry, Lina, and Pokota clear out the lesser demons, only to be attacked by Zuuma. Amelia and Zelgadiss are losing the fight when suddenly the two mazoku are summoned away against their will. They arrive at Zuuma’s location and somehow Zuuma absorbs both mazoku into himself, giving himself their abilities. Abel arrives and confronts Zuuma, revealing that Zuuma is indeed Radok and that Abel has known for a long time about his father’s secret. In return, Zuuma-Radok murders his son.

In a flash of anger, Lina is able to cast Ragna Blade without an incantation and slices off Zuuma’s arms. Xellos arrives and in his cone-shaped true form, slays Zuuma. Xellos wants the Hellmaster Jar that Ozel is currently holding and killing Zuuma-Radok was the quickest way to get what he wants. Ozel refuses to give the powerful mazoku what he wants, threatening to destroy the jar. Xellos sees that she’s not bluffing and thus leaves the scene.

Thoughts/Review:

I have to say that of the main story arc, this has been the best episode yet. I liked the back history of Zuuma (Radok) and from what I read, Kanzaka-sensei has stated that this episode worked in the back history he could not work into his novels. I’m not sure if that means that Kanzaka-sensei had a role to play or not.

The one thing I really liked here is the show of how powerful Lina is. Normally, a spell like Ragna Blade is a long, incanted spell. Upon seeing Abel murdered by his father, Lina snaps and the vast power inside her and her exceptional gift at tapping into this power allowed her to skip the incantation and co straight to the “chaos words” (or activation words, whatever you want to call it), produce the Ragna Blade, and damage Zuuma. I loved it because this is Lina to me — someone who is so powerful that when angered, her threats to go on a rampage shift from being funny to deadly serious. We saw both sides of Lina this episode.

Now that Zuuma is gone, I did decide to look up how the story varied from the novel. In the novel, Zuuma was hired to kill Lina as part of Garv’s (Gaav’s) plan to remove her. He had been defeated by Lina and Gourry with the loss of both of his arms. The anime changes the setting and purpose of course, but the end result for Zuuma is the same.

Then in the novels, Zuuma merges with the badly injured mazoku Seigram (who’d been defeated by Lina and Gourry), resulting in their new form being half-demon rather than human or mazoku. As this new form, Zuuma and Seigram pretended to be separate beings as the attacked Lina, aided by the lower mazoku of Dugld and Gduza. Those two fought Amelia and Zelgadiss and ultimately, Dugld consumed Gduza for power before being defeated by Amelia and Zelgadiss. During the business trip, Zuuma attacks, reveals his merger with Seigram before Abel reveals that this is what has become of his father Radok. Lina slays Zuuma-Seigram with the Ragna Blade spell and Abel is not killed.

So you can see that the Zuuma arc in the anime is very similar to the novel one, with some changes made based in part because the anime has additional elements (Hellmaster’s Jar, Ozel, Pokota, etc.).

Back to the anime story, I like how Xellos’s true form is shown here — the cone. I do find it interesting how he backed down from Ozel. We still don’t exactly know what she is, but it seemed to me that Xellos is playing things very cautiously around her for some reason.

Five more episodes to wrap this puppy up. With the Zuuma story resolved, I’m wondering if the story from here on out will be anime-original.