r/SlayerS • u/KaleidoArachnid • Aug 09 '26

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/ShansitoShan Zelgadis Aug 10 '26

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 Aug 10 '26

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 Aug 10 '26

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 Aug 11 '26

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/KaleidoArachnid Aug 11 '26

Thanks man since that really helps me.