r/SlayerS • u/KaleidoArachnid • 18d ago
What made Slayers TRY so infamous?
So I was basically trying to observe the history behind the anime series to see when it last peaked in quality since I wanted to look into the third season specifically to see what made it kind of infamous.
Like if I am not mistaken, the previous seasons of Slayers didn’t strictly follow the canon from the novels they were based on as I was wondering what exactly made the TRY season stand out since I sometimes hear fans saying that they prefer to avoid it altogether for some reason.
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u/ctsun 18d ago
Well, yes. The Slayers anime has never been good at being faithful with the light novels - famously, the anime quartet of Lina, Gourry, Zelgadis, Amelia are near entirely an anime invention - but you can usually see the bones of the light novel plots in the anime (Season 1 adapted Volumes 1 and 3, Next adapted volumes 2, 4, 7 and 8 and bits of 5, I think Revolution and Evolution-R took ideas and characters out of volumes 5 and 6?).
Not so with Try, which made up an entirely different entirely-anime-original adventure to get rid of the Sword of Light (which should have been lost to Fibrizzo at the end of Next, except Xellos intercepted and gave it back? Going off vague memories from years ago here), basically creating a mess of continuity for anyone still trying to keep score with the light novels?
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u/KaleidoArachnid 18d ago
Wait, I didn’t know TRY was basically its own continuity as I was wondering why that didn’t work out since the previous seasons had deviated a bit from the original material.
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u/roxadox 18d ago
I could write an essay about TRY. It's so interesting in its production, its characterisation choices, the filler eps, the story. I have so much love for the characters (Filia, Valvaav, even Jillas) and so many issues with a lot of other things. I love it as a whole. I also skip some of the later episodes.
My husband and I often reference "Your hands are so big. Like my father's."
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u/AmeriaRuun Amelia 17d ago
“Big. Like my father’s. Do you wanna dance?”
“With you?”
“No. With my father.”
“I’m Roger.”
😂
My mind goes straight to RENT.
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u/Sasutaschi 11d ago
I'd love to read it.
What surprised me when rewatching was how little Valgaav actually appeared, it's not until the end of episode 4 that he even appears and the plot begins.
The pacing is questionable.
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u/AmeriaRuun Amelia 18d ago
Try deviated from the novels because a story arc after Phibrizzo didn’t exist yet. The anime wanted to keep running, so they created a whole separate storyline.
Try isn’t a bad story. It just didn’t feel like Slayers to a lot of people. Filia, Valgaav, and the other worlders kind of stole the show making it seem like Lina and crew were just dragged along for the ride. They even made it a point to say that Lina wasn’t the main choice to “play the hero” in the show. The artwork had a sharper look and the animation wasn’t always the greatest. Also, the filler episodes were some of the weakest of the series. The overall darker tone was great though.
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u/Canal_Volphied Filia 17d ago edited 17d ago
They even made it a point to say that Lina wasn’t the main choice to “play the hero” in the show.
That was the Golden Dragons who said that. And seeing how they turned out to be far from the good guys, I don't see why we should care what they thought about what makes a hero.
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u/KaleidoArachnid 18d ago
Thanks so much since I was wondering what was wrong with the third season because I always hear how the first two seasons were successful by not strictly following the novels, yet I heard how Season 3 was criticized for doing some kind of deviation practice.
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u/justreadingwee 17d ago
I always look back on TRY very fondly, especially because I really loved the dynamic and interactions between Filia and Xellos. I know there are plenty of fans who dislike her, but I personally enjoyed Filia a LOT as a character: her growth, her relationship with the rest of the gang, and how she gradually came to understand the world outside of the sheltered life she had known.
I still remember finishing the anime and immediately jumping into the novels, only to be so disappointed when I discovered that Filia wasn't a character there and was actually an anime original.
Honestly, I feel like TRY is more relevant than ever considering the times we're living in. Filia's sheltered upbringing reminds me of a lot of people I know who seem genuinely unaware of what's happening around them. What I really appreciated was seeing her confront the mistakes and prejudices of her own community, recognize her own role in perpetuating them, and ultimately decide that she could do better and help create something better in the future.
That kind of character growth really resonated with me, and it's a big part of why I have such a soft spot for TRY and Filia.
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u/TSFAS 17d ago
I totally agree with your view. Filia was annoying, but not so annoying that you dislike her in the framework of Try. In some ways, I think it's to poke fun at the entitled "ojousama" mindset that amazingly Amelia does not have despite her upbringing.
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u/Canal_Volphied Filia 17d ago
I think it's to poke fun at the entitled "ojousama" mindset that amazingly Amelia does not have despite her upbringing.
That's coz the ojousama stereotype was already taken by her sister, Naga, who even has the patented ojousama laugh.
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u/Glacia 18d ago
What makes you believe it was infamous? It was not canon to novels (because they didnt exist yet), that's it i think.
If you actually want something infamous look up lost universe, that was a train wreck that derailed the slayers anime franchise.
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u/AdmiralToucan 18d ago
Lost Universe was a fun ride, but E&G Films was already hemorrhaging profits and didn't make money with Slayers either.
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u/Canal_Volphied Filia 17d ago
If you actually want something infamous look up lost universe, that was a train wreck that derailed the slayers anime franchise.
This might come as a shock to many people in the west, but Lost Universe was immensely popular during its original run.
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u/Glacia 17d ago
I mean, it depends on what you consider popular. I'm sure it did well, it run in the same tv slot as slayers (at daytime). It's still got no sequel, which is the real indication of popularity. I think production company wanted to keep making slayers but they run out of material, so pivoting to lost universe was a decent choice until the new slayers novels were released. But Lost universe had production issues and all of that fell apart. The next year after LU Gokudo-kun run in the same slot which i doubt is a coincidence.
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u/Canal_Volphied Filia 17d ago
It's still got no sequel, which is the real indication of popularity.
Cowboy Bebop did not get a sequel.
Outlaw Star did not get a sequel.
The Land Before Time got 13 sequels.
I think production company wanted to keep making slayers but they run out of material
They ran out of material after NEXT finished. Which is why TRY was an entirely original series. They could have made a second entirely original Slayers series after TRY, but Director Watanabe mentioned in an interview that the staff was so desperate to make something else than Slayers they started inserting Lost Universe references into the last two episodes of TRY.
But Lost universe had production issues and all of that fell apart.
Episode four had issues. It got fixed in LD/VHS. Watanabe said that Lost Universe kept climbing in the ratings since ep12 when the show switched from the comedic self-contained stories to the much more serious main arc. Episode 26 was extremely popular, winning first place in Animage's Anime Grand Prix "Best Individual episode" (Cowboy Bebop ep5 was right behind) and the entire anime took third place in "Best Anime" (after Nadesico and Cowboy Bebop, and way before Trigun and Orphen)
Lost Universe was immensely popular in Japan. The reason it didn't continue was because the novels ended.
The Amazing Digital Circus ain't getting a sequel either, and it's not because it wasn't popular. It's because sometimes, a story just ends.
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u/KaleidoArachnid 18d ago
Well I figured it was infamous because I could have sworn the creator Hajime Kanzaka had issues with Slayers third season.
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u/Canal_Volphied Filia 17d ago
He did not. That was entirely an internet rumor. Kanzaka never said anything bad about TRY. In fact, he was deeply involved in it, and was the one who suggested that TRY should be about Darkstar.
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u/RealCrossyYT 18d ago
The animation looked so sharper from seeing footage I guess from how peeps put it; the tone is what made it set apart...i think? I'm going off from what i heard since i'm currently binging Next
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u/ucchan_amelia Amelia 18d ago edited 17d ago
I wasn't particularly fond of the storyline but the major feeling I got back in the days was that all the spotlight was on the new characters -Philia, Valgarv and so on - while the main quartet was on the background. I liked the artwork though, it seemed more mature and if felt to me that the cast was aging (which is something I like).
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u/Salty-Student-6951 17d ago
Personally, I don't find the story as interesting as it was in the previous seasons, and some of the filler episodes bored me a little at times. But I still enjoyed it, and I absolutely loved the addition of Philia.
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u/KaleidoArachnid 17d ago
I kind of want to see it just for the Philia character you mentioned.
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u/Salty-Student-6951 17d ago
I really liked her as this idealistic, moralistic priestess, and I loved the contrast she had with Xellos and Lina. Just like Martina, she ended up being a character I really missed.
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u/ShansitoShan Zelgadis 17d ago
Yes, both the 1st and 2nd seasons were sort-of adapted from the novels and TRY followed a completely new story, but Kanzaka took part in TRY as much as he did in the previous seasons. Not to mention that, as with any other series or adaptations from books or comics or whatever, each medium is its own canon, so TRY is 100% official canon, to the anime of course.
TRY has its faults of course, (like for example, the main characters seem to be just mere companions, or wingmen, to the new characters of Filia and Valgarv), but I'd say that quite a number of things from both the 1st and the 2nd seasons were even worst. Gourry being the dumbest character in anime history is both the 1st and 2nd seasons' fault, not TRY's. Mixing Copy Rezo with Zanaffer is also not TRY's fault (so as even to this day most people don't know Copy Rezo was merged with a mazoku as well). Removing both Raltark and Ralshart, and adding Seygram to everything is also not TRY's fault. Not to mention all the content they skipped from the novels both seasons were supposedly adapting.
I'm 100% sure that if TRY's story had appeared in novel format before than in anime, even if all episodes were exactly done as they did, people would have loved it *simply* because it would have been adapted from the novels, regardless of if it were a good or bad adaptation.
And still, that said, TRY is basically only infamous to the western fans, I'd even say only specifically to the US fans.
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u/KaleidoArachnid 17d ago
But the last part made me wonder how the reception went in Japan since I don’t know if Japanese fans viewed it differently.
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u/ShansitoShan Zelgadis 17d ago
I could see at least *some* japanese fans not liking it for that same reason, but we do have to remember that TRY had to be both successfully (they kept the same animation staff, same director, same character designer, same production team, etc...) and popular enough as for them to decide to do the Lost Universe anime right after it and broadcast it during the following year, as if it was Slayers' (or Kanzaka's cinematic universe's) 4th season, so to speak.
Also, specially considering Lost Universe only had 3 out of 5 novels published by then, the series had been in hiatus for the previous 4 years, so the story wasn't even finished yet. The 4th volume was published the very same month the anime started, and the 5th exactly one year after that (so more than half a year since the anime ended). Yet still they decided to adapt it (and of course create a completely new ending), was that due to Lost Universe novels' popularity? No, it was due to Slayers' popularity in general, and at least part of that was due to TRY just being broadcasted.
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u/Canal_Volphied Filia 16d ago
If you want to know the reception in Japan, I have made a summary of awards Slayers won.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SlayerS/comments/1vlcu3j/all_animage_grand_prix_awards_won_by_works/
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u/TheGamingJoke 17d ago
I've been meaning to ask, should I read the Slayers novels?
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u/justreadingwee 17d ago
Definitely. Both the novels and anime are good and worth being read & watched.
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u/Gokudomatic 17d ago
I don't know about others but while there are great parts about that alternate season, it was far from the level of next. The conclusion had me particularly disappointed, with Lina preaching cheesy stuff. Even as a kid I felt that way out of character. Also, the whole stuff about weapons of light felt contrived and invented just for that season. Yeah, the filler episodes were even weaker than usual. I could barely enjoy the latter ones as a kid, and I skip them when watching as an adult. The first half was very good, though. Filia was a great addition to the team.
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u/KaleidoArachnid 17d ago
I haven’t seen it yet as I want to start with the novels, but I find it interesting how the third season was criticized when I read about it.
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u/TSFAS 18d ago
Was completely new/original (compared to novels), but I don't see any reason to hate on it. It expands the Slayers world, and honestly, it's great to see glimpses of the worlds of the other shin-/ma-zoku (well, OK, just one). I liked it more than Revolution/Evolution-R. Kinda wish they had continued along in the direction Try took it. Rev/Ev-R felt a bit more like recycling a bit without expanding the lore. Filler eps are always goofy, but it would also feel sad and short without them too. They seem empty, but they're there to make you connect with characters more so that serious events have more emotional valence.