Slayers NEXT Episode Nine: Hidden Ambitions! The Shocking Confession?

Hidden Ambitions! The Shocking Confession?

First Aired: May 31st, 1996

Synopsis: The team return to Seyruun, where Phil is greeted warmly by the population once they find out he's alive. He declares that he'll find out who's behind the plot to kill him, and that until then the team can be his bodyguards, receiving whatever reward they want when they're done. His brother, Christopher, arrives and is hurt that Phil didn't tell him about faking his death. Lina is suspicious of Christopher, since she still thinks he's the mostly likely person behind the plot, and when Christopher introduces his court sorcerors, Kanzel and Magenta, Lina guesses that they might be monsters in disguise. While the others agree with her, they have no proof as of yet. Lina gets a letter promising to give information about the assassination plot, and requests that she goes to a certain location. She and Amelia go there, and are shocked to discover that Alfred, Christopher's son, is the person who sent the letter.

 

Alfred confirms that Christopher is trying to kill Phil, but requests that he be given the chance to try and talk his father out of it before the team go after him. A monster suddenly appears and attacks them, and the three run off. The monster anticipated that and brings the team into subspace, and attacks them with another monster, but Lina's able to summon a small dove, which breaks through the subspace barrier and lets them escape. The monster follows Lina and Amelia to a temple, where they temporarily capture it thanks to the temple boosting Amelia's power, but the monster escapes and casts a spell, placing Lina within a strange inverted star. When Lina tries to use her magic to fly, she finds that she can't, and all of her magic seems to have disappeared.

 

Miscellaneous Notes:

• When Alfred first appears, Amelia greets him as her uncle. This must be a translation error, because he refers to Christopher as his father constantly from then on, meaning that he's actually her cousin.
• Zelgadis mentions Amelia's older sister dying, and that there was also some political strife with Phil's other brother. While I don't think we've heard anything about Amelia having an older sister (something that happened in the light novels, maybe?), Phil's brother Randy appeared back in Amelia's debut episode.

Review: Unfortunately, this plot is a bit more of a serious one, so we get less gags than usual. Still, it is Slayers we're talking about here, and less gags doesn't mean none - one I liked in particular was Lina's reaction to Gourry saying that there's no way she could receive a love letter when Alfred's son arrived. The humour takes a backseat, but by no means does it disappear from the show completely.

Is it worth downplaying the humour? In this case, I say yes. We know Phil (and Amelia) well enough that it feels like there are real stakes here, even if we weren't in Seyruun in the hopes of finding the Claire Bible. While the plot is a bit simple - Lina guesses that Christopher must be behind the plot because he wants the throne, and lo and behold, he is - I appreciate that it is. We're here for a fun, comedic fantasy adventure, not serious political intrigue.

Next episode will presumably be the end of this arc, and I'm looking forwards to seeing how it goes. Presumably once Christopher, Kanzel, and Magenta are defeated the characters won't just be given the Claire Bible, but I can definitely see Phil pointing them in the right direction for it. Plus, there's still the issue of Lina having to work out what's happened to her magic, which promises to be interesting. I wouldn't call this my favourite episode of Slayers NEXT, but that doesn't mean that it's not damn enjoyable.