#halciform

I’m always thirsty for more Slayers information. I’d noticed a lot of references to the old Blaster interviews and wondered if there was a place to find them and I hit paydirt as they are in Japanese here. Thanks to modern technology like Google Translate and DeepL I have been able to translate them and there are some interesting nuggets that I’ve been sharing with friends and it serves as the original source for a lot of background information. I’ve been busy and it took me a long time to clean them up so this is my Christmas Break project, so enjoy!

Sadly though, I have found references to Blaster interview questions on QP’s old site and Tokitama that were not on this page, and I suspect that they had the full interview in print issues that I do not have access to (and am weighing whether or not I want to see about buying), therefore these interviews are incomplete. There’s still a lot of good material, granted, there’s also cultural references that are beyond me and may not have translated well. 

Slayers Volumes 1-3 Collector's Edition by Hajime Kanzaka My rating: 4 of 5 stars The Bandit Killer. The Queen of the Dead. The Black Witch. This 15-year-old prodigy sorcerer has one hell of a reputation preceding her. But who wouldn't conjure a sphere of dark magic to blast away an idiot mercenary or a corrupt public official? Lina Inverse is the type of girl to let others down. She's also the kind of girl who doesn't mind stepping into the thick of things, when the chips are down, after everyone else has run away, and the situation looks its bleakest. Vengeance-driven priests? Cantankerous wizards? Trolls? Homunculi? Flying fish people? Bring it on. Lina's ready. (And Gourry too, for what it's worth.) SLAYERS Omnibus #1 is a must-have for longtime enthusiasts of the pint-size lady known to channel (and challenge) the gods of darkness. Kanzaka's first three volumes charting the adventures of Lina, Gourry, and the gang carry readers through warm villages, sparsely populated farmlands, miasma-filled forests, and more. It's a grand adventure. The occasional kernel of backstory certainly doesn't hurt either (e.g., Lina comes from a family of merchants; she was born in a town in Zephilia, a land far to the north; and although young, she held a post in the regional sorcerer's council). However, these early novels are not perfect. Intersecting plotlines frequently tangle before they straighten. The author's skill with environmental design and detail waxes and wanes. And a burgeoning cast weakens the dynamics of the protagonists. These novels are terribly entertaining, but for readers who haven't already fallen in love with the title's heroes, villains, places, and conflicts of note, the books are a bit of a rough ride. Lina is a hilarious mess. She's only 15, but is an experienced traveler and expert spellcaster. She curses a lot, is constantly starting all manner of fights, and doesn't blink when faced with the threat of death from an unknown enemy. Her fateful encounter with the handsome but exquisitely dim-witted swordsman Gourry is one for the ages. Gourry, the caretaker of a legendary blade, has pride in spades and possesses extraordinary talent. Notably different from his animated counterpart, Gourry is a delightful smartass. It's no wonder he and Lina hit it off right away. Lina is a critical thinker who loves trouble; Gourry is an easygoing brute whose cheekiness belies his love of a good time. The first of the omnibus's three novels, The Slayers, initially a standalone effort, is rough around the edges but gets the job done. Kanzaka was clearly packing everything he could into a tiny little box labeled "fantasy adventure." To be blunt, the book is coarse and idiosyncratic, but holds so many solid, original twists and turns, in plotting and narration, that it's extremely difficult to put down. The author's knack for writing killer chapter introductions is particularly charming (e.g., "Well, our visitor sure looked suspicious," p. 52). In The Sorcerers of Atlas, the second novel, Lina and Gourry stumble into a regional feud between two petty but powerful sorcerers. There are more characters. More demons. A lot more spellcasting. And several, sometimes awkward plot twists. The fight scenes in the second book are excellent, contrasting Lina's gift for conjuring new and inventive ways to use her magical skill against a growing gallery of difficult and anonymous baddies. SLAYERS Omnibus #1 is an increasingly comfortable encyclopedia of mysticism, courtesy of Lina's narration. Fans of the franchise will recognize many of the girl's more common spells, like diem wing (shockwave of air), freeze arrow (subzero arrow), dynas blas (lightning crashes from every angle), mega brand (rupture of the earth), and more. The big spells, like dragon slave and giga slave are much, much rarer. Lina's personal sketch of giga slave is equally amazing and terrifying. The spell, which calls upon the Lord of Nightmares, is described as a swirling void, "darkness darker than the dead of night," and "the complete and total absence of light" (p. 127). This is where the franchise has always outperformed its genre contemporaries: spellcasting. For all of the anime programming out there about magical girls, mystical shounen adventurers, and more, none can hold a candle to the spellcasting animation exhibited in Slayers (1995). To great relief, the novels, particularly the second and third installments, yield close to this intuition. When Lina demands the giga slave heed her call and take the form of a blade? Badass. When Zelgadis provides an intricate but lay explanation of the difference between black magic, white ("shamanistic") magic, and elemental shamanistic magic? Flawless. SLAYERS Omnibus #1, true to expectations, is a corpus of mid- to high-fantasy spellcasting that grows increasingly dangerous and increasingly complex with the knowledge base of its daring practitioners. Not to say there aren't plenty of new spells or new information for readers to pick up. Freeze bullid is a spell Lina invokes to cancel out a fireball, a trick she taught herself. Vrave howl, one of Zel's spells, is absolutely treacherous: "a spell that turned a patch of ground into a boiling lava flow" (p. 376). Meanwhile, van layl is perhaps the most tactically brilliant, casting veins of ice over the wall, floor, and ceiling, spiraling about its opponent and freezing them instantly. When readers realize the amount of study and practice necessary to learn, memorize, and even invent some of these spells, it truly hits home how much of a prodigy Lina Inverse really is. The incorporation of Zelgadis, it should be mentioned, is impossibly fun and expertly handled. One tends to wonder how these extended protagonists find their way into the main narrative. Fortunately, Kanzaka found Zel's voice early in the novel series. Zelgadis, interestingly, isn't just part golem, he's part "rock golem," part "brow daemon," and part human. Insane. The man's attitude (tenacious and officious) and temperament (taciturn and privileged) are a fun contrast to Lina's goofy genius and Gourry's genius goofiness. At one point, he essentially tells the demure Sylphiel to shut the hell up ("Explanations later," p. 359), given the urgency of healing a gravely injured Lina. Readers don't know much about Zelgadis beyond his role as the "mad swordsman" of the red priest, but the character's prickly, closed-off nature is anything but off-putting. It's perfect. The third title, The Ghosts of Sairaag whittles the dynamics between Lina and Gourry by building out the cast to include a number of allies, pseudo-allies, and named villains. The pacing is a little rushed, which is less than ideal, but the heightened stakes and increasingly complex battle planning and spellcasting still make for an entertaining read. And whereas environmental description is a weakness of the earlier novels, the third book makes good on the author's need to build out a livable world, as with the following description of the Miasma Forest outside of Sairaag: "The forest was eerily quiet, smothered by a strange chill and a raw smell of greenery so strong that it was almost overpowering. The leaves of the trees were so richly colored they were almost black" (p. 317). SLAYERS Omnibus #1 has its flaws, most of which serve as nervous, grasping extensions of a fantasy franchise seeking its place. The first volume moves in fits and starts, the overlapping subplots of the second book unnecessarily complicate reader uptake, and the frenetic pacing of the third book, while not debilitating, is more noticeable here than elsewhere. Nevertheless, the characters arise almost fully formed from the start, the novel series' fantastical worldbuilding grows and builds on itself, and reader familiarity will surely only contribute to the comedy, the drama, and the resulting chance encounters with beings so eager to wipe humanity off the face of the planet.

OK, much as I appreciate J-Novel Club, the navigation on their site is horrible. And I didn’t have anything that popped out at me with Chapter 5, but there was noticeable stuff in 6 and the Epilogue. Also, I love the new afterword! Anyway, given conversations I’ve had with people who read Japanese, JNC is more accurate so unless I am told otherwise I am going to assume that the JNC translation is more accurate in the examples below.

- @lovingastory​ mentioned this earlier, but in the TokyoPop translation Lina and Gourry flew into a wall at one point and Gourry hit the wall, cushioning Lina. He asks if she used him as a cushion on purpose which she denies. In TP you get the impression that Lina was callous with Gourry’s life and that he was a bit hurt by it. In J-Novel, Lina was in control of the Ray Wing spell and she navigated it so that she was sandwiched between Gourry and the wall and took the blow for him, protecting Gourry, even though it left her hurt and injured. Gourry asks her if she intentionally cushioned him and she brushes it off, despite the way that she describes her actions makes it very clear that she did it deliberately. 

This is a huge change in how both of them are perceived. Lina looks a lot nicer and caring, and Gourry less pathetic for dealing with mistreatment. This does start the trend of Lina minimizing and denying how much she cares. Granted, there are reasons for Lina to protect Gourry that go beyond feelings she’s developing, such as that he was already injured and strategically him being in good fighting shape is critical for defeating Halciform and Seigram, but as Lina was injured in the process and she was also critically needed in the fight, there was no tactical solution that didn’t involve sacrifice, and Lina made the decision that it should be her sacrifice.

ANYWAY, it’s a good, early Lina/Gourry moment.

-Halciform’s threat is very different in J-Novel Club than in TokyoPop, so much so and in ways so revelatory of the differences between the translations that I will go in depth here. In TP he says he won’t kill Lina but will use her to create drones with more magical capacity. In JNC says he won’t vanquish her existence entirely but create a homunuculi from her to conduct experiments on someone with her large magic capacity and consume her power.

Lina’s reaction is different. In TP she cutely suggest Halciform eat her because she’ll be tasty and expand his life indefinitely in an effort to stall. In JNC she’s flipping out. And frankly, it’s bizarre how Halciform’s threat in JNC becomes a stalling technique Lina uses in TP. 

Here’s TP: “Fear not, little sorceress,” Halciform cooed creepily. “I most certainly do not intend to kill you. I have plans for you, my dear. First, I think I’ll use you to create drones with more powerful magical capacity, and then we’ll start dreaming up experiments to conduct on you.”

A chill went up my spine.

“Have you considered just consuming me?” I asked. “I mean, I’m cute, I’m sure I’m tasty, and my abilities might allow you to lie indefinitely.” I was stalling, of course.

Here’s J-Novel: “Don’t worry,” Halciform said with a bright smile, “I won’t extinguish your existence entirely. I’ll create a homunculus with your tremendous ability to experiment on. As for yourself...”

No way...A chill ran up my spine.

“I shall consume you so that your power will live on forever.”

This is typical of the translation differences.

-There’s a subtle but important difference when Rubia attacks Halciform. In TP Lina mentally tells Rubia to look out, but in JNC, Lina secretly pleads with Rubia not to do it. This is interesting because Gourry is down for the count and Lina is severely injured and not in a condition to fight and Rubia is their last hope. Halciform also made a seriously disturbing threat to Lina, but Lina does not want Rubia sacrificing herself for their survival even with the grim circumstances. 

-In the Epilogue what Lina and Gourry say in the opening paragraphs is switched. Why? The world may never know.

-Lina is a lot more assertive with the guild in the JNC epilogue. In TP she and Gourry merely keep their answers to the guild vague to protect Rubia. In JNC it is apparent that the guild subjected Rubia to a “scathing inquiry” for her role in abetting Halciform, but Lina interjected with a “threat laden defense” and pointed out that Rubia would have been killed if she’d tried to stand up to Halciform earlier. The JNC translation is interesting, what did Lina threaten to get the guild to back down? And that Lina felt comfortable giving a threaten laden defense to a body that seems to be composed of old men when she is a young girl in what is definitely a man’s world and that her defense was headed says a lot about Lina’s power, despite her age.

-I enjoyed HK’s afterwords. There’s good information about the creation of The Slayers series and how he challenged himself as an author. I really hate reading anything in interview format so I was never fond of the Afterwords that were in TP (which, to be honest, is hardly TP’s fault), so this is an unexpected bonus.