Slayers Special (OVA)

Slayers Special (Japanese: スレイヤーズすぺしゃる Titled Slayers: The Book of Spells in the US) is a collection of three self contained Slayers episodes (OVAs), released direct-to-video in 1996. The three episodes are based on stories from the Slayers Special novels, with Lina Inverse and Naga the Serpent as the main characters. As a result, it takes place before the Slayers TV series.

The Scary Chimera Plan
It opens on a dark and stormy night, where atop a cliff is a mansion in which lives an old man surrounded by his own grotesque experiments holds a meeting with Lina about a prospective partnership. He is Diol the Chimera expert, and in line with the mad scientist motif that he's pulling, he wants to turn Lina into a chimera to wreak havok on the world. Unfortunately, his design also sucks and Lina goes mental on him for it.

Naga then bursts in and berates Lina for sneaking off in the middle of the night to get treasure and powers all on her own. Diol shows Naga the plans and Naga thinks that it looks cool and starts planning with Diol and trying to convince Lina to agree. Lina gets fed up with them and casts Mono Bolt on them both, and then follows it up with loads more spells until her temper is finally satisfied.

Skip forward a month to Lina and Naga walking through the woods. Naga is refusing to let the case drop because Lina fried her along side the old man. However, they are interrupted by three bandits who encroach on Lina. Just as they're about to attack, Naga jumps in to back Lina up, only to get blasted along with them when Lina takes advantage of the opening to cast Dil Brando.

One of the bandits jump away and is horrified that Lina would let her companion get caught up in the explosion as well. Lina says it's nothing to worry about, that Naga will get better eventually, and the bandit flees in fear of such a cruel person. Several hours later, he collapses, believing he's finally escaped her, only for her to levitate in and terrify the poor man. But before Lina could blast him, Diol shows up and proves that he had hired the three bandits to capture Lina for him.

Confronting him, Lina asks if he hasn't learned his lesson yet, and he replies by calling forth ten cloaked figures to deal with Lina. He reveals they are homunculi, that he perfected the technique to make them so all it would require was a hair or nail from the target to make a copy of them. As such, he's chosen to make ten copies, though not of Lina as she assumes, but rather of Naga instead.

Lina is weakened by a mixture of her own shock, the Naga-copies laughter, and the annoyingly bouncing breasts that she can't fight back and passes out. Elsewhere, the real Naga wakes up and notices one of the bandits are missing. She automatically assumes Lina captured him and forced him to buy her dinner and thus laughs at her partner's folly attempts to get away from her.

In the town called Midas, the people quiver at the sound of Naga's laugh, an old woman praying with everything she's worth for it to end.

In a hideout, Diol and Lord Vista converse while watching Lina's unconscious form. Vista insists Lina doesn't look like much, but Diol reminds him that Lina took out the hired bandits without any trouble at all by herself and thus shouldn't be underestimated. Vista is sent out after the rest of the materials to make a chimera while Diol will watch Lina with the Copy-Nagas.

Meanwhile, Naga is wandering around looking for Lina, but no one has seen her and Naga is growing convinced that Lina managed to be extra tricky this time in giving Naga the slip. However, she insists that Lina will not succeed and begins laughing, causing everyone around to flee and the little old woman to return to her shrine and resume praying.

Vista bursts in to Diol's lab and tells him that Naga's going around looking for Lina, and so the next day Diol confronts Naga and tells her that he can't return Lina to him yet. He insists that the super chimera is almost ready to be made, but Naga just laughs and tells him Lina can't trick her out of a free meal that easily. The towns people look on in confusion, questioning what's happening and the sanity of the persons involved.

Diol insists that if Naga wants Lina back, she'll have to kill him and calls forth the ten copies who rise out of the fountain and start laughing, causing everyone else to run away. Naga, on the other hand, proves that she's imune to her own laughter and even goes so far as to correct the copies on their laugh. She thus manages to impress the copies and they make her their new leader while Diol runs away in fear.

Diol hurries back and informs Vista of the turn of events, before they hear the horrid laughter and rush outside to see all eleven charging in formation. They decide to jump ship shortly before the laughing Nagas reach them, and the girls proceed to charge around the castle heedless of any obstacle, plowing blindly through in their search for Lina. Be it door, solid stone wall, or ceiling, they neither cease running or laughing and just plow their way through everything.

And when they finally find the unconscious Lina, Naga gloats over her on how it was useless for Lina to hire those men to stop her from getting a free meal. When she realizes Lina's out, she uses a spell to clear the sleeping drug out of Lina's system so Lina can't keep ignoring her. But when Lina opens her eyes to eleven Nagas, she passes out again.

Naga takes this to mean that the combined beauty is too much for Lina's brain to handle and tells the copies to hide their faces with heir cloaks and wakes Lina up again. Lina thinks the whole thing is a dream at first, then sees the ten copies standing in the corner with their cloaks over their heads and realizes it wasn't some nightmare after all. Realizing Naga's utter denseness, Lina tells her that they were both tricked that that Diol is going to eat lots of good food without them if they don't hurry and catch him.

This manages to spur Naga into the right action, if not for the right reason, and they find Diol and Vista by the water's edge with Diol insisting they have to flee quickly before Lina wakes up and comes after them. After blasting them into submission, they take the two into the federal office in Midas. After collecting their reward for catching the trouble makers, Lina and the eleven Nagas have dinner together while Lina wonders what they're going to do with them all. Naga insists that it's nothing and Lina shouldn't be so worried about the cost of them all, and then starts laughing which prompts the other ten to follow suit and everyone flees from the sound. Roll end credits.

Jeffrey's Knighthood
It opens with Lina and Naga talking to Jeffrey's mother, who approached the girls with the claim that she wanted them to "Make Jeffrey a man." Lina mistakes her for meaning she wants them to do it sexually, and points out that even with the way Naga dresses, that's not what they're in the business of doing. The woman gets mad at them for the misunderstanding, insisting that she would never ask such girls to do such a thing. She then goes into a long rant about her wonderful son, and how he's heir to the noble Mailstar family.

It basically boils down to Jeffrey being from a long line of knights, and so she wants him to join the Royal Guard, but to do so he needs to make something of a name for himself, so Mrs. Josephine Mailstar has decided to hire Lina and Naga to take him out and pretend to do knightly deeds with him.

Unfortunately, Jeffrey is about as far as one could get from the "knightly image", being scrawny and sickly looking mama's boy. Literally. He talks about his "mama" quite often, and she follows him around wearing a bag over her head so she can make sure he's always safe, and beats up anyone who speaks poorly about him. This all, of course, he doesn't see anything unusual with, and doesn't even realize it's his mother following him around. For further evidence on him being a mama's boy, his reason for insisting that he'll defeat every opponent as fast as they show up is "obviously" that his mama said "You'll be fine!".

Lina doesn't want to get settled with ensuring someone like Jeffrey gets into the Royal Knights, but Naga insists that they have to because they already accepted their payment in advance. And so deciding to just get on with it, they head out to begin their job.

Lina asks Jeffrey what his idea of a plan of attack is, and he basically rattles off about a frontal assault that Naga claims is worthy of a third-rate minstrel. This earns her another knocking on the head with Josephine's huge hammer, and Jeffrey mutters about how he wasn't aware tourists wandered these parts of the bandit-infested woods.

Later, after Naga has recovered, the three are on their way once more. They are confronted by bandits, who Lina and Naga believe to be the actors they had been told about. Jeffrey goes running out to battle them, and everyone watches as he flails around pathetically until he disarms himself, twists his own ankle, and falls over, knocking himself out on a rock.

The bandits, regardless of Lina and Naga's warning not to, then call the unconscious Jeffrey an idiot and a klutz, causing Josephine to rise out of the near-by stream and bash them both over the head for their insult to her lovely son. Jeffrey then comes to, and takes credit for the defeat of the bandits and pushes onward to find the hide-out.

They reach the lair, only to find that the real bandits had returned and gotten rid of the actors that Josephine had hired. The bandit leader then tells them that he can't let them go as they beat up two of his men, and Jeffrey challenges him to a fight. He then proceeds to tire himself out while the bandit leader just stands there watching the display. He expresses how much Jeffrey stinks, and again the girls try and warn people against the terror that is Josephine.

Speaking of which, she bursts out of the ground at their feet and begins her "my beautiful Jeffrey" rant again, only for the bandits to try and use weighted chains to catch her and stop her. For a moment, it looks like it worked, but then she jumps up and challenges them the very confused bandits. One of the bandits picks up a very large rock and drops it on her head, effectively knocking her out.

Horrified, Jeffrey swipes his sword at the head bandit, cutting his cheek and drawing blood, which causes Naga to have a relapse freak-out and faint, followed almost immediately by Jeffrey. The bandits think that because Lina is the only one left, she's therefore at their mercy, but this just manages to piss her off and she takes them all out with a Dil Brando.

Apparently hearing the spell was enough to get Naga back on her feet, and she casts a bunch of freeze arrows. The bandit leader then takes Jeffrey hostage. Lina sends Naga to go flank them, and Lina starts talking like she's going to fight them, before suddenly switching tactics to "Naga's going to strip" which completely distracts the bandits and lets Lina take them out.

Lina and Naga then take advantage of the fact Josephine is unconscious to explain to Jeffrey the situation at hand while they raid the bandit's stash. However, Jeffrey insists on remaining delusional, claiming the only reason they say these things to him is because they are jealous of his talent. He insists that he will become "Knight of Knights" with his talent that even scares himself.

Later, back in town, Jeffrey tells Lina and Naga about a "Dark Knight" and his legion of orcs that shows up from time to time. Apparently this is the next task that Josephine has chosen for Jeffrey and the girls to complete. However, threatened with Josephine, the girls have no choice but to assist in this latest hairbrained plan.

Jeffrey's personal "royal knight"--who looks in an even worse condition than Jeffrey--then shows up and announces the Dark Knight has appeared. They go out to face the Dark Knight and his minions, bringing along Jeffrey's personal army of scrawny "royal knights" to battle. Jeffrey goes about a long-winded introduction in which he makes a fool of himself with bad poses and outlandish lines.

Jeffrey orders a charge, but his sickly knights run away cowardly at the restless orcs. The Dark Knight goes to leave, but Lina stops him and her and Naga begin their attack on the orcs. Lina casts a Fireball, and Naga a Bomb di Wind, taking out large chunks of the flanking orcs. Lina casts a spell that knocks the Dark Knight off his horse, but all it does is get the Dark Knight laughing and excited to be in a real battle finally. Naga shoots him with a freeze crystal, but he breaks himself out of it with his enchanted armor.

Lina figures out that to keep the Enchantment of Valmashied on his armor he must have a wealthy sponsor supporting him and demands to know the name of the person responsible. He says he'll only tell them if they can win against him. Jeffrey then tries to get a shot in on him, only to be back fisted in the face. The Dark Knight asks who "this idiot is", and Josephine shows up and bashes him for it.

Lina and Naga learn very real fear of Josephine as they can't even keep track of her during her fight versus the Dark Knight. After getting the shit kicked out of him, the Dark Knight introduces himself as Galda and begs for apprenticeship. Josephine then tells him that he is to work under Jeffrey and leaves.

As promised, Galda takes Lina and Naga to his benefactor, Lord Goldias. Naga asks what they're going to do with the still unconscious Jeffrey, and Lina knows he'll only get in the way if they bring him, but knows that if she says it then Josephine will show up and beat them all up for it. So she comes up with the idea of announcing that "the hero always shows up last" so that they can ditch him and deal with the situation.

They go in to face Goldias, who summons forth an army of living mail to assist him in his fight. Galda and Goldias begin the fight, but Galda's sword breaks and he becomes surrounded by the living mail. Lina then joins in, casting flare arrow but Goldias dodges it. Lina then decides that she needs to draw the living mail's attention away and so she kicks Naga into the middle of them all to be her distraction.

Naga freaks out and cast's Flow Break to get out of being mobbed by the living mail, which Lina didn't realize Naga knew in the first place. Just as they're about to get to the real fight, however, Jeffrey charges in, tripping over the pieces of armor strewn about, and lands right at Goldias's feet. Goldias then starts freaking out about Jeffrey's being here--and Josephine by extension--and Jeffrey recognizes the voice as being none other than his papa's.

Josephine shows up demanding explanation, and Goldias stumbles to provide her with one that she will accept. Josephine doesn't take kindly to it, and everyone else wanders away shaking their heads in disbelief at the strange turn of events. The last we see of them is the married couple bickering within Goldias's evil lair. Roll credits.

Mirror, Mirror
It opens with Lina reading by lamplight about a sorcerer named Shazal Rugandy who lived 400 years prior and developed magical items, including the Shadow Reflector which this episode is about. Invented as a weapon to combat evil, this mirror created a shadow of whoever was reflected within it, who's powers were the same as the one who looked into it, but who's nature was a complete opposite of the viewer. The mirror was sealed away, due to this, without ever being introduced to the world and now all that remains is the rumor.

Recently, however, the vice president of the Magic User's Association, Lagan, stole a document revealing the location of the mirror and so Naga and Lina have been hired by the Magic User's Association to deal with Lagan before it's too late. Naga's a little concerned by this, but Lina insists that it's fine, because they were told to act separately from the Association, and therefore they can gain the reward all for themselves.

A bandit shows up, claiming he was drawn by the sound of women's laughter, and insists to be given their valuables. Lina's response to that is Dil Brando. Lina then loots the bandit, and shows no remorse at all that Naga got caught in the blast once more as well. Before long, they are off to get the 200 gold reward for Lagan's capture.

There is then a montage of scenes in which Lina and Naga are traveling, giving the impression of a long journey while a song plays over any noise that one may have otherwise heard. Some of the scenes include rainy nights of taking shelter in caves, snowy tree-covered landscapes, bright sun along rocky ocean beaches, and mountainous expanses.

Somewhere down the line, while Lina is eating and Naga is sleeping, she is approached by a man that warns them not to pursue Lagan as he is guarded by werewolves and shape-shifters. Lina is unimpressed, and goes back to eating, while the man tries to express the severity of this fact to her.

When Lina explains that even dozens of werewolves wouldn't be a match for her and Naga, he requests escort from them to the village at the foot of the mountain. Lina says no, on account of him obviously not having any money for them to do the job. The man then reveals that he was going to pretend to be injured and kill them in their sleep, but obviously she realized that he was a follower of Lagan.

Lina expresses minor surprise at this, claiming that she thought he just wanted to trick them so he could get the gold first. Naga then comes running up, referring to Lina once more as "this other one" much to her annoyance. The man then transforms into a werewolf and Lina beats him by crushing him with a giant rock. Lina then states how his guy coming to them proves they are the first team on the scene. They then go rushing off to make sure the money is theirs.

Scene change through a bunch of different fights, in which Lina casts a fireball, Gaav Flare, and Naga casts several freeze arrows. Lina accidentally starts fire to the forest, and we have a return of the praying old lady, only this time she has an identical twin.

Some unknown time later, the girls reach their destination and begin their infiltration. They travel deep underground, where they must deal with many obstacles, including a thin ledge that Naga can't walk along cause of her large breasts pushing her out from the wall. Eventually, they reach a door behind which is Lagan and his mirror weapon. It turns out he hasn't tested it yet, wanting to wait for a subject he can use it on first, and so is eager to see if it's the real mirror or not.

It is, but the result is not what anyone expected, as the two girls who step out of the mirror are meek, feminine, pacifistic, and in Copy-Naga's case very modest. The sight of themselves acting like this causes Lina and Naga to spaz and run away. No one can quite figure out how to deal with the situation and so Lagan and his minions just run away.

Lina goes to give pursuit but is stopped by her humanitarian counterpart insisting that violence isn't the answer to the problem. Lina's only way to get away is by playing the humanitarian in response, explaining about the stolen document and how he has to be brought to justice for his own good. So, with two sets of Lina and Naga, they head off to take Lagan down.

Copy-Lina is the first to confront Lagan, begging him to rethink his strategy and confess to the guilt. Lagan questions if the shadow is like this, then what sort of personality must Lina herself have, to which she gets pissed off. Lagan orders the last of his minions to attack while he flees. The shadows run and hide while Naga begins with a freeze arrow and Lina charges past and attacks Lagan with a Bram Blaizer. The Shadow Reflector then lands on a rock outcrop and shatters, but unfortunately the shadows didn't disappear.

Because they caught Lagan, they got the 200 gold coins, and the shadows go their own way separate from Lina and Naga. They don't know what happened to the shadows, only that they are gone, and Lina begs of the audience that anyone who sees them pretend that they didn't because it's just way too embarrassing. Roll credits.