From Fan History Wiki

[edit] Introduction

The Slayers.

Slayers was originally a series of 15 light novels written by Hajime Kanzaka. It was later adapted into 3 anime series (a 4th is currently planned), manga, spin off novels, 2 OVAs, 5 movies, 5 radio dramas, many music CDs, and 5 games. The story centers around a powerful, teenaged sorceress named Lina Inverse and her tendency to eat, blow things up, kill bandits, try to get rich, and defeat all the mazoku and Dark Lords out for her life. Common running gags are her small chest, infamously bad and twisted reputation, and large appetite. Common characters who travel with her the most include: Gourry Gabriev, Naga the White Serpent, Zelgadis Greywords, Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun, and Xellos. It is a comedy/fantasy series which parodies Dungeons and Dragons-style stories and other fantasy clichés.

While the novel series first began in Japan in 1990, most American fans are more familiar with the TV series which first came out on VHS in 1996 by Software Sculptors Ltd. TokyoPop has only very recently decided to translate the original source material, novels 1-8, but as of now has no further plans to translate the rest of them due to poor sales. A similar problem occurred with the Slayers: Super-Explosive Demon Story manga which Central Park Media halted before they translated the 8th final volume.

[edit] Terminology

Trad - Short for traditional. Used by Slayers fans to refer to canon ships, namely Lina/Goury, Amelia/Zelgadis, and Martina/Zangulus.
Alt - Short for alternative. Used to refer to all other ships besides the trad ones.

[edit] Shipping

The most popular ships tend to be Lina/Gourry, Lina/Zelgadis, Amelia/Zelgadis, Xellos/Filia, Xellos/Lina, and Xellos/Zelgadis. Unlike some fandoms, most Slayers fans do not bother to pairing-smoosh names together but there are some exceptions (ex. MelZel=Amelia/Zelgadis, Xelfi=Xellos/Filia, Xellina=Xelloss/Lina). Particularly on fanfiction.net, most of the time fans will simply take the first letter of a name and "pair" it with the other, so Lina/Gourry would become LG, L/G, LxG, etc.

[edit] Timeline

Below is a partial timeline of events that took place in this community.

[edit] 1990

On January, 1990, the first novel, Slayers Vol. 1: Slayers!, is released in Japan. [1]

[edit] 1995

On April 7, 1995, the first episode of Slayers airs on TV Tokyo in Japan. [2]
In 1995, Ann Oyama opens Lina Inverse's Slayers Page, noted by many[3][4] to be one of the first Slayers sites on the net. [5]

[edit] 1996

In 1996, Software Sculptors Ltd. releases The Slayers on VHS in America. [6]
On April 5, 1996, Slayers Next airs on TV Tokyo in Japan. [7]
On December 31, 1996, the Slayers Ring was created. [8]
In 1996, Xelloss(fan) opens Slayers Universe, one of the most well-known and informative Slayers fansites on the net. [9]

[edit] 1997

On April 4, 1997, Slayers Try airs on TV Tokyo in Japan. [10]
On December 17, 1997, Ryu Cheese opens Anime Inverse's Slayers page. [11]

[edit] 1998

On July 13, 1998, Ryu Cheese writes the first (?) English Slayers fanfic, "Slayers Idiotic." [12]
In 1998, the Metallium Shrine opens. It is now known as The Greater Beast fanlisting. [13]

[edit] 1999

In 1999, rumors of a 4th Slayers series titled Slayers Again began to spread due to Takashi Watanabe posting a message on his website saying that there MIGHT be a new season of Slayers or Lost Universe. Neither happened. Where the origins of the name Slayers Again specifically originated from is unknown. [14] [15][16][17]
In 1999, Project: Support Ameria is created in an attempt to stop Amelia bashing. [18]
In 1999, Eugene Chung creates The Sea of Chaos fansite. [19]
On September 27, 1999, the Xelloss shrine Mysterious Ways is created. [20]
On October 3, 1999, "Rezo's (True) Legacy" by Dot Warner became the first Slayers story published on fanfiction.net. [21]
On December 28, 1999, the parody Mr. T vs. the Slayers is created. [22]

[edit] 2000

On June 30, 2000, a fansite called Slayers Victory! is created. [23]
On July 23, 2000, a Japanese-to-English fansite called Tokitama shan chi is created. [24]
On October 18, 2000, the webcomic Hamlet the Manga! is created. [25]

[edit] 2001

On June 16, 2001, "Confesiones de Lina..." by Ethereal Juliet became the first Spanish Slayers story published on fanfiction.net. [26]
On August 7, 2001, the LiveJournal community mazokulovers was created. [27]
On August 25, 2001, "Hero's Prologue" became the first Slayers-related fanfic published on MediaMiner.org. [28]
On December 21, 2001, the LiveJournal community absoluteslayers was created. [29]
On December 22, 2001, Slayers Premium is released to Japanese theaters. [30]

[edit] 2002

On February 21, 2002, the LiveJournal community theslayers was created. Currently it is the most active Slayers LJ community. [31]
On February 25, 2002, an English language article about Slayers was created on Wikipedia. [32]
On March 28, 2002, "Ein Lächeln im Glanz der Sterne" by Sheba-chan became the first German Slayers story published on fanfiction.net. [33]
On April 20, 2002, "Slayers Ruby-eyes" by Darketernal became the first French Slayers story published on fanfiction.net. [34]
On May 10, 2002, "The Slayers Ng" by Xel aka Joji became the first Italian Slayers story published on fanfiction.net. [35]
On December 1, 2002, the LiveJournal community cultofxellos was created. [36]

[edit] 2003

In 2003, SlayersFan.com was created. It is a semi-active fansite and forum maintained by hysteria82(Slayers fan) and thejake420. [37]
On July 11, 2003, the Sylphiel shrine, Shrine Maiden, was created. [38]
On August 16, 2003, the LiveJournal community linagourrylove was created. [39]
On September 1, 2003, the LiveJournal community valfilia was created. [40]
On September 1, 2003, the LiveJournal community xellosfilia was created. [41]
On November 23, 2003, Giga Slave, The Slayers fanlisting, was created. [42]
On December 13, 2003, the LiveJournal community slayerstrad was created. [43]

[edit] 2004

On February 2, 2004, Octopus Ink, the Slayers Premium fanlisting, was created. [44]
On February 13, 2004, "Vale a pena viver?" by Rina Inverse became the first Portuguese Slayers story published on fanfiction.net. [45]
On March 24, 2004, the LiveJournal community _zelgadis_ was created. [46]
On April 4, 2004, the LiveJournal community slayers_badfic was created. [47]
On May 27, 2004, the LiveJournal community lina_zelgadis was created. [48]
On June 14, 2004, the LiveJournal community kanzaka_awards was created. [49]
On August 14, 2004, the LiveJournal community ameliazellove was created. [50]
On August 31, 2004, the LiveJournal community slayersicons was created. [51]
On September 7, 2004, TokyoPop releases Slayers Vol. 1: The Ruby Eye in America. [52]
On September 7, 2004, the LiveJournal community sylphiel_love was created. [53]
On September 25, 2004, the LiveJournal community slayerslemons was created. [54]
On October 12, 2004, the LiveJournal community slayers_d20 was created. [55]
On October 31, 2004, the LiveJournal community xellos_lina was created. [56]
On December 3, 2004, the LiveJournal community slayers_100 was created. [57]

[edit] 2005

On January 11, 2005, the LiveJournal community clair_bistro was created. [58]
On January 20, 2005, "The Face of a Dragon" by Lessa-sama became the first Polish Slayers story published on fanfiction.net. [59]
On January 25, 2005, the MySpace group Slayers Try Lovers was created. [60]
On February 12, 2005, the LiveJournal community slayers_etc was created. [61]
On March 30, 2005, the LiveJournal community slayers_rating was created. [62]
On June 7, 2005, the LiveJournal community slayerscontest was created. [63]
On June 9, 2005, the LiveJournal community slayersrants was created. [64]
On June 30, 2005, the The Totally Promiscuous Slayers Pairing Machine tool was created. [65]
On July 19, 2005, the LiveJournal community jellyfish_love was created. [66]
On October 3, 2005, Tales of power, friendship, love & revenge, the Slayers Next fanlisting, was created. [67]
On October 2, 2005, the KanzakaDex wiki is created as a successor to Slayers Universe. [68][69]
On December 15, 2005, the LiveJournal community slayers_fanfics was created. [70]

[edit] 2006

On February 25, 2006, the LiveJournal community slayers_caps was created. [71]
On November 2, 2006, the LiveJournal community slayers_request was created. [72]
On November 23, 2006, the deviantART community TheSlayersClub was created. [73]

[edit] 2007

On July 15, 2007, the LiveJournal community slayerstransl8d was created. [74]
On July 31, 2007, "Mindennek megvan az ára" by Yatemu became the first Hungarian Slayers story published on fanfiction.net. [75]

[edit] 2008

On January 2, 2008, TokyoPop releases Slayers Vol. 7: Gaav's Challenge and Slayers Vol. 8: King of the City of Ghosts in America. [76] [77]

On July 3, 2008, the first episode of Slayers Revolution airs on TV Tokyo in Japan. [78]

[edit] Kerfluffles

Common kerfluffles are unsurprisingly ship-related. The Slayers fandom, which has been trucking since the 90's, also has a reputation for its intense shipper wars in the past. The segments that seem to have the most bad blood with each other are the Lina/Gourry and Amelia/Zelgadis shippers with the Lina/Zelgadis shippers. The Xellos/Filia shippers also seem to hate the Valgaav/Filia and Xellos/Lina shippers to a lesser extent (and vice versa). The subject of which ships constitute as canon has led to many angry internet debates. Amelia has also been the most common character to get bashed with the reason that "she's annoying" which many blame on her first English dub voice. Discussions about the quality of the dub or sub can also get fairly heated.

[edit] Documented Kerfluffles

In July 2001, two Xellos/Filia fans, Li-chan and Elf from the The Demon and Dragon ML receive strange, critical reviews for their fanfics from a person name GUTB. The two rant about it on their yahoogroup. Eventually GUTB makes his own fanfic entitled "InCharacter Xelloss and Filia" which involves Xelloss calmly ordering the murder of Filia who is killed quickly. The shippers consider MSTing and inviting GUTB to the group for fun, but this is rendered unnecessary when GUTB announces that he is already trolling their group. Li-chan demands the mods to ban him, but member Youlie disagrees. He is eventually temp-banned and Youlie proceeds to yell at the other members and leave the group which causes another member, Irony-chan, to leave as well. See full wank report provided by Fandom_Wank here.

In April 2005, a deviantART user named animecartist takes a Amelia/Zelgadis picture drawn by Hao-K and manipulates it into a Lina/Zelgadis one and posts it as their own. She is reported for plagiarism by other fans. This causes animecartist to delete her entire gallery and make a goodbye entry in her journal. Her fans come out to support her and shun the reporters. A day later, animecartist returns and apologizes. The copied party accepts their apology and moves on. That is until Soul-sama, animecartist's "brother," vehemently yells at a Hao-K supporter, meliachu, and insults Hao-K while trying to claim animecartist has to copy art because of a brain deformity. After this is reported to Fandom_Wank, meliachu directs Soul-sama there and more wank ensues. See the full report here.

In June 2005, Slayers Ship Wars '05 began on livejournal. In a nutshell, it was a very long rant fest between alt and trad fans about the treatment of certain ships. The main journal the "war" started on, Tarahime, has since been locked.

[edit] External Links

Slayers