天下制覇

A head, you perverts.

Impressions:

Well, certainly not as awesome as last week, but still a very fun episode. Minimal Poco, unfortunately minimal Na(m/g)a too, but a lot of monsters acting very silly and some surprisingly overanimated action sequences. Very short to be sure, but it’s always amusing to see the number of keyframes randomly quintuple when it comes time for explosions and general wreckage. That subversion of the usual tropes of fantasy adventures is really where a lot of the fun of Slayers comes from and it’s nice to see them getting back into that after really doing very little of it in Revolution. Sure, they had the ‘mermaid,’ but that was just a recycled joke from the previous seasons. I just hope we don’t have more ball rolling or magical tennis.

Like I said, the action was very overanimated this episode, which felt a little weird since it… well… just felt like a different animation dynamic than usual. Enjoyable, but there was definitely at least a minor clash of styles as it shifted in and out of it. I do wish everything had been a little bit brighter. It’s hard to tell what’s going on at night with black smoke pouring out of a black chariot dragged by black horses. I especially enjoyed Lina spiking Poco as he was about to elemekia lance the big weird monster thingy. The ending pot joke was pretty predictable from the moment they brought giant octopi into the equation, but otherwise, a thoroughly enjoyable fillerish episode.

In a calm village, the residents cower in fear in a barn. The door rattles and explodes open. A dullahan yells out looking for his head and demanding that they return it as the undead approach.

The party arrives in the village during the day. Nama’s a little bit lost. Amelia snoops around, but the doors are locked. Nama calmly destroys a door looking for people, but is thrown out and falls to pieces as the villagers stream out ready to fight.

They accuse them of being in league with the devils and get get ready to fight, but Lina Dragon Slaves the landscape as a demonstration of power and tells them to calm down and talk.

They tell the party about a Dullahan terrorizing the village looking for his head. It’s just like Nama, so she’s the enemy too. Nama thinks that there might be others like her affected by the pot thingy, so the party’s got a stake in tracking it down now too.

Night falls, and they all lurk in wait for the dullahan, using Nama’s head as bait. 

After awhile, the dullahan shows up in a cloud of spirits with his undead forces, yelling for his head. He approaches Nama’s head and inspects it, but it’s not the right one and it gets tossed away.

Lina and crew attack and freeze it in place, followed by Lina, Gourry, and Poco tackling it, with Poco bending back its finger as the finishing blow. Amelia readies her white magic to threaten away the other undead as they get down to interrogating it, but it throws a temper tantrum about being bullied just because it was doing its dullahan duties. The zombies had nothing to do either really. They never actually hurt anybody either, just scared them. What were they supposed to be doing!? He also introduces himself as Hanz at some point.

They ask about his head next, but he doesn’t really have any idea about it (and speaks a mile a minute). He got drunk, passed out, and it was taken. Gourry tries to use Pocota as a head, but that doesn’t work. Then we have a montage of various other possible heads before they bring up the pot.

He doesn’t really know much, but he suggests searching the castle since, he’s absolutely 100% certain that there are special pots there.

The party makes their way to the castle, through a graveyard. A bell starts to ring as they go and the wind kicks up. A black cloud emerges and an army of undead rides forth to confront them. They greet Hanz and he tells them about the party. Lina’s not worried since they’re Hanz’s allies and would naturally help him out.

 Even Gourry gets it, though pretends to be a monster because he’s a moron. The undead ask Hanz what he’s doing with these monsters, pissing off Zel… but then he blushes and runs off.

Lina explains that they’re here to help Hanz find his head, and starts twisting their heads to check if they’re fake. Lina berates them for not really being helpful to Hanz.

They do bring up a ‘new’ Dullahan who is the idol of the group named Dune. Hanz blushes when he talks about him. Lina’s suspicious.

Right on cue, another Dullahan shows up in a blast of black smoke. Dune’s massive and has a giant cloak over his head. He demands to know what the hell is going on. Lina’s suspicious of the hood immediately. Hanz grovels in front of Dune, but Lina hops forward and grabs at Dune’s hood. Dune resists, making all of them suspicious.

Lina distracts him, letting Poco grab the cloak and revealing that his helmet is the one with the octopus crest, ergo, Hanz’s. No wonder they couldn’t find it. Hanz wants an answer. Dune explains that he’s the one that took Hanz’s head out of jealousy after he got drunk.

The explaination is a little lacking. Lina moves forward to take it back, but Dune summons his chariot and flies off. Lina and Amelia give chase and manage to knock him out. Gourry slashes at him with the fake Sword of Light, but misses. On the ground, Dune tangles them up and tries to run, but Lina Burst Flare’s the general area and they corner him on a cliff. 

Dune pulls out his sword and gets serious. Its shadow turns into a massive phantom beast. The dullahans think it’s really cool. Lina’s not really impressed. Poco tries to Elemekia Lance it, but Lina grabs him and forces it at the ground/shadow and the beast stumbles off in pain and leaps into the ocean. Lina Dug Halts him, but he escapes in his chariot to the castle.

Lina and Amelia chase him there. This white magic is up to Amelia again, and she makes her little bluffing light of exorcism and steps forward. 

As Amelia goes for the finishing blow, Hanz stops them and offers his head to Dune. Dune is so touched that it’s his loss and its head falls off. Hanz picks up the head and offers it, but Dune refuses. They go back and forth as the party gets more irritated. Hanz stomps the ground in another tantrum, making the entire castle collapse.

In the wreckage, the party finds all sorts of pots. Ocotopi begin spewing out of them and assaulting the party. Hanz and Dune keep arguing over who should get the head. Nama arrives on a swan boat. Lina demands an answer. Zel keeps emo fishing by himself, only to get clocked by Nama’s thrown head.

Preview:

Sisterly bonding.