Slayers - Volume 6 - Chapter SS

Bonus Translator/Editor Chat!

[Meg/ED]

I’ve really been looking forward to our fireside chat this time, because I’m actually still trying to parse the Evolution-R retelling of this volume.

[Liz/TL]

Yeah, this was an interesting one. In some ways it’s the closest adaptation from a novel we’ve had since volume 1.

[Meg/ED]

And in others, it’s one of the most confusing! A lot of the details and buildup are the same, yet they add up to a head-scratcher of an ending for me.

But instead of dividing this between the similarities and differences, maybe we should just start at the beginning and go from there?

[Liz/TL]

That’s pretty easy to do because the adaptation is so close, by which I mean that it follows the course of events almost to the letter... With the caveat that the Xellos/Claire Bible running plot stuff has already been covered by NEXT, so it gets replaced with material from Evo-R’s own original running plot. For instance, Raltark the Butler gets replaced by Ozzel the Maid, who’s been a major force through the Revolution/Evo-R plot. Ozzel has her own character and priorities, but having her there instead of Raltark doesn’t meaningfully alter the flow of events the way that, say, starting the Saillune arc with Amelia already in the party and Prince Phil faking his own death did.

[Meg/ED]

That’s the sort of variation I’ve come to expect at this point, although I suppose the concurrent plots take a little bit of the mystery out of the situation. Hellmaster’s Jar is openly on the table, for example, whereas Lina & Co. show up in Vezendi in the novels with absolutely no idea why Zuma has targeted Laddock.

[Liz/TL]

That’s true. The Hellmaster’s Jar is the MacGuffin of this season of the anime, and Laddock has it—it makes things a little more expedient in some ways, since it means Lina has to stick around for that, and we don’t need the slightly more complicated psychological reasons she has for putting up with Laddock’s abuse (although we do still get some of those scenes!).

But in terms of the flow of the plot, we still have Zuma, who lost his arms to Lina and Gourry in a previous plotline, showing up again to invite them to Vezendi so he can have his revenge. And we still have Lina and Gourry showing up in town, and getting noticed by a local ragamuffin who brings them to Laddock’s house to get a reward.

[Meg/ED]

At this point, I was thinking, “Oh, okay, we’re really playing this one by the book.” (Haha.) But then Laddock walks on screen... and he’s not even shouting at anyone!

[Liz/TL]

One interesting change they do make is that we see him give the kid his reward, and so we actually see the kinder side of his personality that we only hear about in the novel—a nice bit of show-don’t-tell that serves the format well. Granted, I also like the sense of mystery it cultivates in the novel, that we keep hearing about this gentler side and never see it ever.

On the other hand, I feel like the anime never... really goes there with Laddock? I was expecting to hear Nobuo Tobita really hamming it up, but he’s more gruff than he is angry. The anime doesn’t do as much with characters “detecting hostility” from each other (for obvious reasons) so they probably didn’t need his bellowing as a cover for Zuma’s hatred.

[Meg/ED]

It’s quite humanizing to see a side of him other than turned-up-to-ten mad. But there’s a funny consequence, because it makes Abel look all the more like the bad guy at the start.

[Liz/TL]

I think they needed to red herring that Abel is Zuma, because otherwise it’s really obvious that Laddock looks exactly like him! Secret identities are a lot easier to preserve in less-visual media, haha.

[Meg/ED]

Ahaha, I hadn’t considered that. I just assumed it was a way to add a little intrigue back into the story. Once we fully realize what’s going on, though, it’s fun to look back at those scenes through the lens of “Abel is suspicious of his father” rather than “Abel is suspicious.”

So, all in all, I think Evolution-R does both father and son some justice.

[Liz/TL]

Yeah, I think that aspect is nicely adapted. And we get what was promised us in the vol. 3 afterword, which is Zuma’s proper backstory!

[Meg/ED]

Indeed! You and I have speculated previously about some of the new, additional, or supplementary material that fleshes out certain arcs of the anime adaptation. (Looking at you, volumes 2 and 3!) But L was courteous enough to explain in the newer edition of the volume 3 afterword that it came straight from the horse’s mouth this time, so to speak.

[Liz/TL]

Yeah, and I like what they went with—it’s consistent with the things that we know from the novel, and you could maybe speculate it was something in that ballpark based on the novel alone. But you probably wouldn’t guess those specific events!

[Meg/ED]

Evolution-R makes for a satisfying watch after reading this volume... up to a point.

[Liz/TL]

Yeah, the choice to do an almost blow-by-blow adaptation, with changes made in deference to a totally different running plot, is, let’s say, a bit of a double-edged sword. So let’s get to the other edge in this case.

[Meg/ED]

Demon ex machina? That’s the part I’m still struggling to get my head around.

[Liz/TL]

Well, first demons first—Guduza and Duguld are there, and show up in the exact same contexts they do in the novel! They even have a fight in the barrier space at the inn but... Seigram is not involved, obviously, so they just ignore Lina and Gourry to fight Zelgadis and Amelia and if it’s explained why they do this I must have missed it.

[Meg/ED]

We’re left as oblivious as Lina is. It’s played for laughs since she, rightfully, doesn’t take kindly to being ignored. But it does leave some unanswered questions.

At this juncture in the novels, Seigram and Zuma are our two multi-volume villains (if you draw a distinction between Rezo and copy-Rezo, that is). Fusing them was a fun plot twist I didn’t see coming when I first read the books myself. But since Seigram was iced in NEXT, one of said unanswered questions by the tavern fight episode is... who did he fuse with, presuming he still did?

[Liz/TL]

I believe he says he used the Hellmaster’s Jar to subjugate Guduza and Duguld, who were previously pacted to the Red Priest. Since he then takes them in to enhance his new arms, maybe he was using any number of other unnamed Rezo-demons before them? Either way, though, it’s definitely not the equal-partners fusion with a single named demon like it is in the novel. Zuma has them completely in his thrall.

[Meg/ED]

An arrangement that doesn’t work out for any of them, huh?

Guduza and Duguld are recalled from their fights with Amelia and Zelgadis respectively to assist Zuma as he takes on Lina... and that’s about all she wrote. I was a little perturbed at first that Amelia and Zel don’t get their moments to shine against their demon rivals, but Lina really doesn’t get hers either!

[Liz/TL]

Yeah, you’re following the scenes from the novel pretty closely, and then Zuma just murders Guduza and Duguld, and then Xellos murders Zuma!

[Meg/ED]

In an extremely unceremonious fashion, no less. There’s this really tragic twist where Laddock kills his own son, and that’s pretty quickly undercut by Xellos showing up out of nowhere and absolutely destroying the guy...

[Liz/TL]

Admittedly, I got a pretty big laugh out of him bursting out of his chest with a ? face.

[Meg/ED]

It is kinda funny in a way it probably shouldn’t be...

[Liz/TL]

But Xellos steals the scene so hard I’d actually completely forgotten that Zuma kills Abel just before. Wow!

[Meg/ED]

It’s a blindsider for sure. Why did we spend several episodes building up the pathos for that? It’s not like the Slayers anime to darken a plot, but that was certainly a choice.

[Liz/TL]

It’s all very strange. The only thing I can think of, at least for why Xellos gets that last kill, is that maybe they don’t want Lina killing someone who’s still technically human. Unless I’m misremembering, I don’t think the anime ever goes there.

[Meg/ED]

I’m having trouble thinking of an example that was seriously rendered rather than haha-style cartoon violence.

[Liz/TL]

Which might also be why the anime never tried to adapt volume 5’s cultist plot, beyond Duclis showing up in a totally different context. Lina can blow up a town with a Dragon Slave and they can otherwise do violence to humans in comic relief ways, but otherwise I think their human opponents are either killed by someone else (Eris and Halciform), or survive and become good guys (Zangulus and Vrumugun).

[Meg/ED]

I mean, who’s to say what really happens to all those blown-up bandits?

Nevertheless, that’s part of the reason Abel’s death really threw me for a loop. Chris slaying Alfred back in volume 4 was pretty heartbreaking, so I understood treading that road differently in the lighter-hearted tone and style of the anime... but things took a turn for the darker here. Sadly, I suppose it’s just easier to tie up the loose ends of this storyline without Abel around.

[Liz/TL]

That’s very possible. They don’t have the downtime to escort Abel back to town, and they want to keep the momentum going for the running plotline, so getting rid of all the arc characters and focusing things back on Xellos makes sense from an expedience perspective, even if I think it diminishes the impact of the arc itself a bit. Granted, having read the novel first in this case, I’m going to be biased to its priorities, which just aren’t the same as the anime’s priorities.

[Meg/ED]

It’s something of a confounding capstone for me. I’ll probably be chewing on it for a while. I love that the anime is still getting mileage out of Rezo in season 4 (or 5, depending on how you count), but the death of Zuma-Seigram now means all of our known major villains have had their due.

Except... there is that sneaky butler who got away.

[Liz/TL]

But how much harm could a little butler do?

[Meg/ED]

Shall we just say that volume 7 opens with a bang?

[Liz/TL]

Just another day in the life of Lina...

[Meg/ED]

Girl can’t catch a break! I guess it’s fair to say someone, uh, much bigger is after her now... but I’m sure we’ll get into that next time. For now, finally, it’s on to Dils!

[Liz/TL]

Where the Claire Bible lies!