IMHO. 'Slayers' ~ celebrating 15 years from the first broadcast in my country

Here's an interesting fact: 'Slayers' have a rating of 8.6 on a Russian database and community website, while it only has 7.7 on Myanimelist.

It's just another proof that, just like one commentator said on MAL, high rates are given to 'Slayers' out of nostalgia - because most Russian fans watched 'Slayers' when it was one of the first anime ever available in Russia.

So I have to be honest with myself: I'm not the same 13 years old schoolgirl greedy to watch whatever there's on TV. I'm a working adult. I'm an experienced anime fan. I can wisely choose.

What do I feel now, choosing to rewatch 'Slayers' 15 years after I saw it for the first time, and having watched so many other titles after that?

It's slower. It's simpler. It's full of flat, slapstick humour. It has a lot of fillers. It involves a lot of meaningless talk like informing others what one intends to do during a battle. It has a lot of awkward moments when evil characters just stand there and wait for the protagonists to finish talking. It's hardly believable at all.

But it's colourful. It's outside genre frames and free of limitations. It doesn't have that 'game mechanics' - the cause of my irritation with modern anime. I feel greatly relieved to see other people have noticed this phenomenon too.

'Slayers' have all the possible clichés just to make fun of them.

It breaks the 4th wall. It's crazy.

And it doesn't let us forget even for a moment that it is one of a kind.

'I take back what I said about 'Slayers', that it's a classic fantasy anime' - I said to my friend on the second day of rewatching.

'When I watched it, I thought this is how fantasy anime is supposed to be' - answered my friend.

And I realised I thought that too.

I just didn't know there could be something different, 15 years ago, I didn't know that later anime would present me again and again with the same set of flat characters acting like puppets as if to illustrate socially acceptable traits. I thought it's okay to be egocentric, wilful, arrogant, independent, powerful and skillful, to know what you want and know your worth. I thought every character was supposed to have their own goals and special traits. I thought theme songs must be so great that I'd spend a month listening to them every day and not getting enough. I thought background music must be noticeable. I thought voice acting must be unforgettable. I thought landscapes should be such that make you believe that such a world exists, and they are more effective in this than portraits on the wall or fancy candelabra.

I thought I'd say 'call me when you make another masterpiece like this', but seeing the compromises made for the new Revolution and Evolution-R series, I know it will never happen. 

Maybe high scores are given to 'Slayers' out of nostalgia. But it's not a nostalgia like 'I watched it when I was young, even though it was bad'. It's a nostalgia like 'I watched it when I was young and nothing compares'.

I wonder if any of these new titles, which are required to have at least 10 words in them, will cause such nostalgia in 15 years.

'Soul Eater' anime ~ so cool so scandalous

There are cases when the story is interesting, but the ending spoils it all. Or when the music is better than all the other aspects. Or when a famous anime director you were having high hopes for does not prove to be as good.

All of it does not have anything to do with 'Soul Eater'. This is a story of coolness.

story

What is the usual result of making an anime based on an ongoing manga which is not going to end any time soon? A poor ending of the anime. The directors either try to follow the manga as long as possible and then suddenly turn everything upside down, or create their own version of 'how it was' and fail to present anything edible credible.

Imagine my surprise when all plot twists in the anime turned out to be interconnected and by the final episode they all came to one single ending with no plot holes or mistakes in the narration. Moreover, even though the story was far shorter 'twas interesting enough.

And now let's forget all the difficult words and phrases I used.

...

This is a true 'shounen' piece, showing examples of brave warriors fighting with evil who know no fear. Oops! They do. In fact, this is the main attraction of the story. You don't have to fight with no fear. You have to have the courage to fight your fear.

In the middle of the series I told +Арагорн Араторнович - tell me my dear friend, why anime is considered to be bad for young people when such pieces like 'Soul Eater' promote friendship, trust and loyalty.

It's the kind of anime series where moments like this remind you that this is 100 times more important than any series created exclusively for entertainment.

Still, SE tries to be something out of the box and overcome the walls created by the 'shounen' genre.

It's not without fanservice, though. Both for guys and for girls.

The characters are abundant, and everyone could find one to relate to, one to respect or admire. Or more than one. Or relate and admire at the same time. Because it's like the first time I felt understood the character's feeling SO deeply.

And despite tons of blood spilled, it is an extremely kind shounen. Because everyone is doing his best to protect his friends, and to protect the whole world. Because even though they explain that they simply want to be cool, or to be greater than god, or to maintain the order, in the end they all fight for peace.

...

......

And still, the biggest merit of this series is...

The humour. The wonderful Japanese humour that rather than simply making you laugh, makes you stare at the screen and say WHA????

Like, have you ever seen a God of Death who is like

Or a singing Legendary Sword whose favourite phrase is

The level of madness in the series reminded me of King of Bandit Jing. I've never ever seen such crazy ideas, be it the story or the design.

music
Welcome my new record-breaker. The playlist I created out of Soul Eater OST, character songs, opening and ending themes lasted for 6.5 weeks. If there were cases when I listened to an anime OST for so long, it's not hard to count them with one hand.
Taku Iwasaki is a genius in OST-composing. Different bands who lent their hand to creating the album gave the OST an original hip-hop feeling. The tracks just didn't fade away with time. 6 weeks in a row they were inspiring me, or better to say - weren't letting me go.

voicing
I've heard Omigawa in a different anime. Her voice made me want to switch it off. I heard Uchiyama in a different anime. His voice impressed me so much I decided to keep my eye on him.
And it doesn't matter here at all. The seiyuus did such a great job I must confess the manga would not be that interesting at all if I didn't read the characters' lines with their respective seiyuus voices.
Welcome the other heroes - Kobayashi Yumiko, Nazuka Kaori, Miyano Mamoru, Takahira Narumi, Watanabe Akeno, Koyama Rikiya, Sakamoto Maaya, Ookawa Tooru, Kuwashima Houko and Neya Michiko, Uchida Yuya, and of course - mr. Koyasu. And many many others. It's not that they simply did their job. They made the black-and-white world of the manga colourful to the fullest.

graphics
I must confess, even the original manga did not look as attractive as the anime in some moments. Maybe that was because the anime was created when the manga was already moving towards its middle, and the anime designers took a bold step to creating a fuller, 'spaced' variation on what they saw in the earlier chapters comparing them to the later chapters.

conclusion
If I had to explain what SE is in one sentence, I think I could use this stop-frame.