| Slayers: Special | |
| スレイヤーズすぺしゃる | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Adventure, comedy, fantasy |
| Original video animation | |
| Directed by | Hiroshi Watanabe |
| Studio | J.C.Staff |
| Licensed by | ADV Films |
| Released | 1996 |
| Episodes | 3 |
Slayers: The Book of Spells (スレイヤーズすぺしゃる Sureiyāzu Supesharu), also known as Slayers: Special, is a collection of three OVA episodes featuring Lina Inverse and Naga the Serpent, which was directed by Hiroshi Watanabe and released in Japan in 1996.
Contents |
Sorceress Lina Inverse is contacted by an alchemist named Diol, who had requested her help in one of his experiments. She then finds out that Diol plans to use her in creating a super chimera which would combine her with a Lesser Demon and a Sea Serpent. Lina turns him down, and after Lina's rival Naga the Serpent arrived, destroys Diol's lab, electrocuting Diol and Naga.
A month later, Lina and Naga are attacked by brigands. Lina kills two of her attackers and accidentally knocks out Naga with her "Explosion Array" spell. However, when she corners the last one, she finds that it is Diol, who has ten confederates with him concealed with cloaks. Diol later explains that he created his friends from a single strand of hair found in his wrecked lab, using a variation of the "Copy Homuculus" spell. Lina thinks that the copies are of her and challenges Diol, knowing that the copies will be unable to use her magic. However, when Diol unveils the copies, they are all copies of Naga, which frightens Lina so much that she faints.
Diol then spirits Lina way, where he was met by Vista, a brigand who had a grudge against the red-headed sorceress, and had sponsored Diol's experiments. It was later they found out that Naga was looking for Lina, and Diol sent his Naga clones to confront the sorceress. However, instead of defeating Naga, the clones bonded with her. Realizing the mistake he made, Diol ran back to Vista, where the both of them found that Naga and her clones were on their way (they could hear the laughter). In a panic, they abandoned the lab, leaving Lina - who was under the influence of a sleep spell - behind. Naga then found the sleeping sorceress, revived her, and confronted her about leaving her behind to make an alliance with Diol. Realizing there was no way to convince Naga otherwise, Lina convinced her that Diol had broken their agreement and took the money all to themselves. The two (with the clones staying behind) then caught up to Diol and Vista and captured them. Lina and Naga then collected the reward money for their capture... and wondered how in the world to deal with ten Naga clones.
Lina and Naga are contracted by Josephine, an ugly woman who is seeking to have the girls tutor her son Geoffrey in a quest of be a member of the royal guard. To accomplish this, Josephine told them that she had hired actors to pose as brigands so that the boy could easily defeat them and gain confidence in his abilities.
The two sorceresses then met Geoffrey... and were disappointed to find the boy was a sorry excuse for a soldier - he was skinny, clumsy, and despite his obvious bravery, lacked the proper conditioning to be part of the royal guard, not to mention he had the bad habit of blundering into a battle, mostly to show off. However, whenever the girls (Naga specifically) would try to point out his deficiencies, they were often met with an angry Josephine (her hidiously made-up face disguised by a hood), who would clobber them with a huge mallet, then dance off while making an excuse of being just a random tourist. Apparently this sort of thing happened quite often, and even Geoffrey was clueless about who the mystery woman was.
But when the three arrived at the brigands' hideout, Lina and Naga were shocked to find that the real brigands had returned from vacation and had captured the actors. Geoffrey, oblivious to the deception, attacked the villains - and was promptly defeated. The brigands then made the mistake of ridiculing Geoffrey, prompting Josephine to intercede. But when she was defeated, Geoffrey (not knowing it was his mother) scratched the leader in the face with his sword, drawing a slight amount of blood (for which Naga - and Geoffrey - had fainted from the sight of it). It was then up to Lina (and a recovered Naga) to defeat the brigands, using their magic.
Later, Lina and Naga were asked by Geoffrey to aid him in defeating an army of ogres led by a warlord. To aid them, Geoffrey then informed the girls that Josephine had contracted an army for her son (for which he named "the Flaming Knights"). It turned out that the "army" Josephine hired were as weak, if not weaker, that Geoffrey was, and quickly panicked at the sight of the ogre army. Lina and Naga defeated the ogres using their magic, but were stymied by the warlord Galda, who had magical armor. Geoffrey then took on Galda - and was quickly defeated. But when Galda insulted Geoffrey, he was just as quickly defeated by Josephine, who came out of nowhere and malleted him into submission. Galda then led Lina and Naga to his patron, the evil baron Goldias. While Galda and Goldias fought each other, Lina and Naga were forced to fight an army of living armor. Knowing that Galda would need her help, Lina then kicked Naga into the armor army... and was surprised to find that she dispelled the magic animating the armor. It was at that point that Geoffrey stupidly charged Goldias - and tripped over the fallen armor and fell in front of Goldias. Then a surprising thing happened - Goldias backpedaled in panic away from Geoffrey, calling him by name! It turns out that Goldias was Geoffrey's father, after which Josephine showed up and malleted her errand husband. Lina, Naga and Galda then left Goldias' castle, leaving Goldias, Geoffrey and Josephine to their happy (?) reunion.
Over 400 years ago, there lived a great magician named Shizaal Rigandi. His magic was well-known, but Rigandi's true talent was in the creation of magical items. One of the most mysterious of these was the Shadow Reflector, a mirror capable of making an exact copy of whomever's image is captured on its surface. The copy that would be created would have the same knowledge and skills as the original, but would be opposite in personality and loyal to the holder of the mirror. However, just as the mirror was created, Rigandi had mysteriously hid the Shadow Reflector.
As a result, the Shadow Reflector had become an object of legend, with many even wondering if Rigandi really had created it. But recently archaeologists from the Professional Magic-users Society (P.M.S.) had discovered maps and papers related to the Shadow Reflector. However, the society's vice president Lagen had stolen these documents, hoping to find the reflector for himself. The plan was obvious: Lagen planned to use the Shadow Refector to create an army of sorcerers that would be loyal only to him - and with that, take over the entire world.
Lina and Naga were in pursuit of Lagen, mainly for the 200-gold-piece reward the P.M.S. was promising for his capture and not for discovering the Shadow Reflector's existence. The girls had a difficult time tracking him down, mostly from fighting off Lagen's werewolf army. In time, however, Lina and Naga were able to track Lagen down—but it was too late. Lagen had found the Shadow Reflector and as a test, used it to create doubles of Lina and Naga. Bracing for a fight, Lina was horrified to discover that her double, while still having her magical abilities, had a complete opposite personality to hers - a simpering, peaceful, charitable person who didn't want to fight, the experience enough gave the original Lina a severe case of goose pimples. The shadow Naga was about the same as the original Naga, only overly modest and not wanting to be alone.
Recovering from her adverse reaction to her double, Lina then surmised that Rigandi, while brilliant in creating the Reflector, was embarrassed to discover that it worked too well and would create doubles that were unwilling to fight, and hid the defective mirror rather than having his blunder revealed to the world. Lagen, not caring about the obvious defects in the Shadow Reflector, fled with the remainder of his werewolf army. Lina then took off after him, but was stopped by her double, which pleaded with her not to harm him. Irritated by her double, Lina then reasoned with her by saying that Lagen had to answer for his crimes. The shadow Lina then released the original, for which she and the original Naga followed Lagen.
Lagen's flight from justice was interrupted by other magicians looking for the bounty, and Lagen soundly defeated them. He was then met by Lina and Naga—and was horrified to find that his shadow copies (especially shadow Lina) were pleading with him to turn himself in. Thinking that the doubles would disappear when the Shadow Reflector is destroyed, Lina and Naga attacked Lagen, and the reflector was destroyed. However, the copies of Lina and Naga didn't disappear, and later wandered off. Their last known sighting was of a "Save the Dragons" concert.
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