Slayers NEXT

A Parent's Guide to Anime
Rated: PG
Parental Guidance Advised

Reviewed by Philip Gibbons:

The adventures of Lina Inverse and her guardian/sidekick/punching bag Gourry Gabriev continue right where the original 26-episode series left off, but with much better animation quality, and a large cast of new characters, both good and evil. And the improvements don't stop there... this series contains a much more engrossing plot than the first, where twists and turns can be found in nearly all episodes. It's the adventure that never seems to stop joking around... even during serious moments (and NEXT tends to have many more emotional scenes that could very well bring tears to your eyes--- especially the conclusion).

In my opinion, the subtitled version brings the story out slighter better than the dubbed, and if your opinions are a mix between the two formats, both the subbed and dubbed version are both avaliable at the exact same retail price. The dubbed edition tends to have small mistranslations here and there, and the voices--- done by most of the first season cast--- might start hurting your ears after a while.

Parent's Guide Rating:

yellow (parental guidance advised)

SEXUAL CONTENT: There isn't much in the way of sexual content, but there are some who may be offended. A few clothed, bouncing breasts here and there; it happens quite quickly, so you might miss it if you're not giving it your full attention. Lina and Amelia wrestle nude in the tub on the tape 2, but almost everything is covered up by tangled arms and legs. The bathing scene is nearly five minutes long, but all that's really shown are the top parts of the girls' breasts, and some rear-end nudity. Gourry's comments about Lina's underdevelopment is still present in the 2nd season, but you don't hear it nearly as much (either the dialouge was changed, or the writers felt it was getting old).

One of the new characters for the second season is Martina, an arrogant, vengeful former-princess who is out to kill Lina for destroying her castle in the first episode. Her outfit is a skimpy, slightly-revealing one, and it never changes, except for a filler episode on tape 5, where a Slayers version of tennis is played. And even then, her tennis outfit reveals some cleavage, but it's no worse than anything you've probably seen before.

VIOLENT CONTENT: Scattered throughout the entire series are several (minor) shots of blood being spilled. Keep in mind, blood is normally only shown when fights are serious. The only part of the body where blood is normally shown in battle is the face, which includes bleeding mouths and blood running down foreheads.

Tape 7 (covering a major battle) really gets more graphic in this area. Wounds are much more serious, and there is a very brief shot of Gourry spitting up blood (the villain they are fighting is rather merciless in his fast-paced punches and magic blasts, causing three of the main characters to suffer and bleed.) Although it sounds really bad, the extreme violence is nothing more than what's in every anime fight.

LANGUAGE: The language has taken a step-up from the first series, although it is much more present in the subtitled version. "Hell" and "Damn" are the most frequently used out of all the others, which briefly includes "bastard" and "b**ch".

Overall, the series has very well done, and like the first season, LOTS of elements and story material have been packed into twenty-six episodes. Pick this up if you want to enjoy a good laugh, a good fight, and a wonderful story.