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.
