Slayers: City of Lost Souls 1997 CPM Press   Buy It Now

I am by no means an expert on anime and manga, but I have had an interest in it for quite some time now.  Slayers is one of the titles that I remember seeing all the time when I would hit the anime sections of various rental businesses or stores like Suncoast, but for some reason I never picked any of it up.  It’s not that I was opposed to the idea of a comical looking, fantasy-based show; I just never got around to it.  I have finally delved into this title in manga form.  It’s appropriate in a way to begin my Slayers journey in manga, considering that this title began in a manga format, just like so many other titles that are turned into anime.

This manga, Slayers: City of Lost Souls, contains episodes 17 through 23 of the Slayers series.  It follows the adventures of Lina Inverse, a teenage sorceress who seeks treasure and power, but still has a sense of justice and fights evil whenever she encounters it.  Several friends join her in her adventures.  There is Gourry Gabriev, a not-so-bright warrior who is willing to go to any lengths to protect Lina.  She is also joined by an altruistic young woman named Amelia, who constantly reacts quickly to any dangerous situation, but doesn’t necessarily have the skills or expertise to handle them.  Another helpful companion is the chimera, Zelgaldis, who has great skill in battle and magic.  To round off the group there is a girl named Sylfeer; a young healer who has an obvious crush on Gourry.

The story in this book begins with Lina and Gourry on a journey to Atlas city.  After having a couple comical misadventures, they meet up with Amelia, and discover that they have a price on their heads.  It seems that an old enemy that they had thought dead has reappeared, and now wants to take revenge on Lina, Gourry and Zelgaldis.  The trio sets off to find out what is going on and eventually run into their other friends.  The story concludes with a dramatic battle at the City of Lost Souls. 

I was quite impressed with the simplicity, and subtle complexities that this book was made up of.  The stories were easily understood, and comical, but they had some depth and emotion within them.  Also, the art was very cartoony and exaggerated, but they did wonderfully complex things with the shading and textures.  I particularly thought it was interesting how they expressed the texture of Zelgaldis’ stone like skin.  It was easy to get involved with the story, even though I came in on the fourth book.  Basically I found it to be an enjoyable and light read that didn’t require too much thought or knowledge of past events in the series.

The format of this “Americanized” book was also well done.  I love that CPM Manga prints their manga in the original right-to-left style.  This lets the story be shown the way it was meant to, without mirroring the images to simulate English reading patterns.  Other nice features that were included were the Character Profiles section, which gave helpful information about the main characters in the story.  Also, overview of the “Story So Far,” was given, which caught me up to speed with almost little effort on my part.  The other thing that was included that was cool was an interview with the creators.  A nice touch, especially for fans of the series.

I now see the appeal of Slayers.  It works on a very Sunday comic type level in many ways, using humor and cartoonish art to portray easy-going fantasy stories.  It’s something to have fun with, and that shouldn’t be taken too seriously.  Fantasy is an interesting and exciting genre that can sometimes be a little too dramatic and epic.  It is refreshing to see a lighter approach to the magic and monsters genre.

- brant -