Naga the Serpent

Naga the Serpent (Japanese: のナーガ Romaji: sāpento no nāga; also Nahga the White Serpent), birth name Gracia Ul Naga Saillune (Japanese: グレイシア＝ウル＝ナーガ＝セイルーン Romaji: gureishia uru nāga seirūn), is the self-proclaimed rival and companion of Lina Inverse in the Slayers Special series. Her Japanese voice actress is 川村万梨阿 'Maria Kawamura, and her English voice actress is Kelly Manison in the movies and OVAs, and Eva Kaminsky in Slayers Evolution-R.

Naga's exact age is not known, but it is assumed that she was around 19 or 20 during the time Slayers Special took place, making her several years older than Lina.

Biography
Naga's real full name is Gracia Ul Naga Saillune, making her the first daughter of Crown Prince Philionel El Di Saillune and the older sister of Amelia Wil Tesla Saillune. She has one living uncle, Christopher Wil Brogg Saillune, one deceased uncle, Randy Saillune, and a deceased cousin, Alfred Saillune. Her grandfather, Eldoran Saillune, is the king of Saillune, although Philionel acts as a proxy ruler.

Gracia's mother was murdered before her own eyes several years before the start of the series by the famous assassin Booley. Gracia in turn slew the killer with a spell she learned from her mother, Chaos String. After the funeral, Naga found the outrageous outfit she currently wears inside her mother's closet. Shortly afterward, she left home in order to learn the ways of the world, and changed her name to Naga the Serpent.

Contrary to popular belief, Naga still keeps in touch with her hometown, and occasionally she will be sent money through a messenger. The people of Saillune know that she has not gone missing; they accept the fact that she has left on her own journey.

Being a princess, Naga knows when to be graceful, and when to be confident. Although she keeps her true identity secret, she acts in a self-confident and sometimes arrogant manner. When she stands before other members of royalty, she speaks to them as equals, while Lina will often bow her head and speak only when spoken to. Many of her confident poses and speeches are strikingly similar to those of Amelia or Martina Zoana Mel Navratilova, another princess (now queen).

Naga may be an alcoholic. She is often shown drinking to excess, especially in the Slayers movies, to the point that her cheeks are flushed, and can often be seen sleeping beside an empty mug or bottle, implying that she may drink herself to sleep.

To her dismay, Naga is often referred to as Lina's sidekick or "that other girl." Lina thinks Naga following her around is akin to goldfish poop.

Abilities
When Naga first introduced herself to Lina, she proclaimed herself Lina’s rival. While Lina initially dismissed these claims as nothing more than a bad joke, over the course of their travels Naga has proven herself every bit Lina’s equal in terms of sorcery.

Naga is very skilled in white magic; no doubt because of where she grew up. Lina is often surprised when Naga uses these spells, because Naga does not seem like the kind of person to want to heal people. However, despite Lina's shock and surprise, Naga's white magic has often been a help to them. Naga also specializes in shamanistic magic, especially spells of the earth and water variety, and is slightly versed in black magic. She enjoys creating her own golems (even if they usually don't turn out very well), and one of her favorite spells to use is Freeze Arrow.

According to Kanzaka, Naga and Lina are among the mightiest human magic users in the world of Slayers; Naga actually has the larger potential magical capacity of the two, while Lina knows the ultimate black magic spells (notably the devastating Dragon Slave).

Naga is also able to terrorize people with her obnoxious laughter. She's extremely proud of her highly developed, self-confident laugh and the effect that it has on unsuspecting people. She also likes to use her body to tease or distract men who are trying to go against her.

Naga carries a large sword, but she is never seen using it, possibly because she is afraid of blood. This phobia was most likely caused by witnessing her mother's brutal murder. The mere sight of blood, even from a small cut, is enough to cause her to faint.

Relationships
Lina Inverse: The only Slayers character Naga really interacts with is Lina. Naga proclaims herself to be Lina's strongest and foremost rival, and this annoys Lina to no end. Nevertheless, the pair will often work together despite their differences, and when they do, they are a great team.

Amelia Wil Tesla Saillune: Although Naga is the sister of Amelia, the pair have never met in the novels or anime when both were aware of the other's identity. In the first season of Slayers, episode 17 ("Question? He's proposing to THAT girl?"), a woman with Naga's distinctive build and outfit walks in front of the disguised Amelia, Gourry, and Lina, and Amelia appears to do a double-take. In Slayers Premium, Amelia was blasted off shortly before Naga's appearance. Finally, assuming that the living armor called "Nama" is in fact Naga, the two also interacted in Slayers Evolution-R, however "Nama" neither looked like Naga (being a suit of armor) nor had the memories to confirm to anyone, not even herself, what her exact identity was. (For more examples in other media, see the trivia section below.)

Doubles
There are an unusual number of copies of Naga running around the world. Ten of them are 'ordinary' copies, created by the sorcerer Diol. They are almost exactly the same as the original, minus the fact that they don't possess any of Naga's memories or magic skills.

The other copy was created by the Shadow Reflector, a magic mirror invented by Shazard Lugandy that creates clones of people with the exact opposite personality. In this case, the copy (sometimes called "Shadow Naga") is a whiny, extremely modest girl.

Nama
In Slayers EVOLUTION-R, a suit of living armor calling herself Nama appears, who bears many similarities to Naga. Although there is no explicit confirmation, it is strongly hinted in the series that Nama is in fact Naga's soul trapped in a suit of living armor, albeit without the majority of her memories. Both Nama and Naga are voiced by Maria Kawamura (although Nama's manner of speaking is noticeably different from Naga's, as Lina points out), have the same laugh, and have similar mannerisms, as well as a preference for ice based magic. Lina's attitude towards Nama is strikingly similar to her treatment of Naga. Furthermore, Nama states that she was a treasure hunter who got her soul trapped in the armor as the result of touching an enchanted pot. A flashback depicting this shows Nama as a silhouette, which strongly resembles Naga. Later in the series, when Nama introduces herself to Xelloss, he makes a comment that the name Nama is very close to the woman's actual name, implying that Xelloss knows her true identity. Nama also told Amelia that her mother died when she was young and was lonely as a result; additionally, Nama became enraged and started attacking Zuuma uncontrollably when she heard that he was an assassin. Both Nama and Amelia share very similar characteristics, and in one episode, Nama mentions how Amelia is like a sister to her. In that same episode, Nama gets easily distracted by seeing a gold coin dropping out of a bandit's bag. Finally, Nama can cast Naga's original summoning spell, as well as perform the Pacifist Crush attack, which is a signature move of the Saillune royal family.

Appearances

 * Slayers Special novels
 * Slayers Delicious novels
 * Slayers VS Orphen novel
 * Slayers: The Motion Picture movie
 * Slayers Special OVA series
 * Slayers Excellent OVA series
 * Slayers Return movie
 * Slayers Great movie
 * Slayers Gorgeous movie
 * Slayers Premium movie
 * Slayers Return manga
 * Slayers Special manga
 * Slayers Premium manga
 * Slayers Premium CD drama
 * Slayers VS Orphen CD drama
 * Slayers Royal game
 * Slayers Royal 2 game
 * Slayers Wonderful game
 * Slayers SFC game
 * Slayers PC98 game
 * Slayers (first season), episode 17 (possible cameo)
 * Slayers EVOLUTION-R, as Nama: EP01-EP06, EP13 (eyecatch), as Naga the Serpent: EP01 (flashback scene), EP13 (eyecatch)

Musical appearances

 * A Skilled Rival Always Conceals Her Claws
 * Pink Typhoon
 * Seriously!!

Trivia

 * In some of the Slayers video games, Naga meets the rest of the TV cast, but not Amelia. In others, they can meet but they do not interact. In "Slayers Wonderful" for the Sony Playstation, they are both in the game but never in the party at the same time. In "The Slayers" dungeon crawling rogue-like RPG for NEC's PC-98 computer platform, one can take both Naga and Amelia into the party together, though they don't acknowledge each other in any of the plot scenes. In the "Slayers" turn-based RPG for Super Famicom/SNES, Naga and Amelia both enter Lina's party at a specific point in the story and they can both be used in battles at the same time, but neither of them acknowledges the other openly during scenario dialogues. The only exception is the "Slayers Royal" and "Slayers Royal" 2 duology of turn-based tactical RPGs for Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation, where Naga and Amelia not only meet each other, but have actual dialogue and scenes in which they interact in front of other members of the party.
 * In radio dramas, Naga and her sister meet, but the former hides her identity from the latter. In Slayers VS Orphen. Naga was wearing a mask that hid her face, and when Amelia began to ask Naga a question, she interrupted and told Amelia she was a friend of Lina's. In the epilogue of the Slayers Premium CD drama, Naga made another appearance inside a big golem, but Lina blasted her off with the Giga Slave as a gag before Amelia could interact with her.