Custom Slayers Try Opening

[Master Rudy]

First and formost if this is in the wrong area of TPM then I'm sorry about that. I originally thought about putting this in fanart but considering the subject matter I felt that this forum would be a better fit. If the mods feel that this fits better elsewhere then by all means move it.

In any case while I don't know how many Slayers fans are on this board I do know one thing: the fact that they made a TV sized version of the song Exit Running has always struck me as odd. Why would you make a TV version of a song and then never use it? This seemed like the perfect time for me to test out Fraps and Windows 7 Movie Maker. The challenge? Replace Breeze with Exit Running on the Slayers Try opening.

It was a bit of a pain in the ass because the new version of WMM has a downright horrible interface. However after some trial and error I managed to get things working. To start I popped in my Slayers Try DVD and then used Fraps to do a capture of the clean opening (no text/credits). This part wasn't too hard but I did have to make several passes on Fraps since I'm using the free version with the 30 second record limit. I then went ahead and trimed down the first few seconds of the video to better fit the song. I even went so far as to edit in a translation/subtitles. Aside from one or two odd split second jumps that you may catch and the Fraps watermarks I honestly think that this thing could have passed for an actual opening you'd expect on a major DVD release.



In fact if you watch very carefully you may notice that some of the transisions that the animators did on the Breeze opening fit just as well with the music in the Exit Running opening. Hmm......makes you wonder if ER was originally intended to be the Try theme song before they settled on Breeze

Anyway enjoy guys. Let me know what you think. Also feel free to drop a comment on You Tube ^_~

[MeLoVeGhOsTs]

I don't know anything about movie-makers or the likes, but this is not half bad. Gets me interested.

What's Slayers? Is it an advisable animé?

[Master Rudy]

Very advisable MLG. It's easily considered a classic at this point. The best way I can describe the series is the way one of my best friends describes it:

"It's all of your crazy D&D sessions rolled into an anime"

The series itself started off as a light novel before becoming an anime/manga during the mid 90's. The fan base for it has always seemed pretty wide to me and personally of the people I know who have seen it they've all liked it. A typical Slayers season will have the first few episodes based more in comedy before getting into the serious threat of the season. However that's not to say that the comedic situations drop off the radar completely. The closest comparison I can make in terms of the balance between comedy and action is the original Dragon Ball (not Z). Also regardless of if your preference is dubbed or subbed the main voice cast in both audio tracks is very good. In the Japanese version you have Lina voiced by Megumi Hayashibara (and if you don't know that name then you haven't been watching enough anime over the years ). In the English version you've got plenty of big names in the cast. Most notably Crispin Freeman as Zelgadis starting around episode 13 of season one and Pokémon alums Eric Stuart (as Gourry with the same voice that he would eventually go on to use for Brock) and Veronica Taylor (as Amelia.....and thankfully WITHOUT Ash's voice )

The orginal English dub was done by Central Park Media in the mid to late 90's. Following the third season the series was gone and off the air for about 12 years. It did however continue in manga form. Finally in 2008 the extremely long awaited fourth season started. Seasons of Slayers are as follows:

Slayers (1995)
Slayers Next (1996)
Slayers Try (1997)
Slayers Revolution (2008, US release 3/16/10)
Slayers Evolution-R (Current season 2009, US release slated for late 2010/early 2011)

Funimation got the rights to Slayers a few years back. If your looking to get into the series they did release a box set with the first three seasons and the original CPM dub. At $60 it's a damn good deal: 12 discs, 78 episodes. Also if you find yourself liking the English dub the good news is that Funi managed to retain the original VA's for most of the main English cast (Lina, Gourry, Zel and Amelia). The exception in the main cast is Xellos who first appears in the second season. Starting in the English version of Revolution he will have a new VA.

I could go on and on about how much I like this series but I'd be here forever XD
My best suggestion is that if your interested then perhaps look it up on Wiki. If you just want to dive right in then you should be able to easily find episode guides online. From there just head on over to Funi's channel on You Tube. Awhile back they did have the first two or three episodes of Revolution subbed on there.

Once again it's a highly recomended series. Go on and give it a look ^_~

[MeLoVeGhOsTs]

Thanks for the info. I'll check it out. Is it best to watch the first Slayers first (1995)? Or is it like FMA, where Brotherhood was most worthwhile.

[Master Rudy]

While I guess you could simply start with Revolution I think it would be best to go straight from the beginning as there is plenty of character development over the course of the series. Plus you'd also have several jokes, references and one or two plot points fall flat later on. If you do however want to simply jump in then go ahead and follow this link. That's Lina's profile on a Slayers Wiki. It'll give background info on her and also links back to the rest of the main cast as well as other important characters in the series.

[Lady Vulpix]

Sorry I've only just seen this. I've been very busy. Nice work!

As for the Slayers anime, I'd definitely recommend it, with a little warning: every season has some good episodes and some really dumb ones. The last season, sadly, has a lot more of the latter than the former. I understand the manga version of that season was better, but I've seen very little of it so I can't judge. It does wrap a few things up, though, so I'd say Evolution-R is worth watching only for that reason.

Don't watch the OVAs, though. Once you've seen one you've seen them all, and you realize you've wasted valuable time watching rubbish.

Slayers the Motion Picture is good (the first movie they made). The other movies aren't.

[Master Rudy]

Slayers the Motion Picture is good (the first movie they made). The other movies aren't.

Something to add on that end. The movies and OVA's were done be ADV Films who as we all know is now defunct. As a result the dub voice casting is different in the ADV dub than it is in the CPM/Funi dub. Granted this won't be much of an issue if you watch subbed but it is something to keep in mind, especially when you consider that the CPM/Funi dub is typically liked by more people.

As of now there is no official word on if Funi is going to redub the movies. Here's hoping they follow the example they set with the early seasons/movies of DBZ when they later went back to redub those.