| Artbooks & Guidebooks |
| Rui Araizumi is the number one illustrator of Slayers, contributing so much that he is often given equal credit with Hajime Kanzaka, the writer of the storyline of Slayers. His work has been collected in two artbooks, both black-and-white and full color works. Although it hasn't gone through the translation to English process, there's almost no need to, since the entirety of these two books are drawings, requiring no explanation. Here they are: |
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| Name: Slayers Dra-Mata Release Date: August 6th, 1998 Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: 112 pages, 80 in color Description: More recent work is included in this volume, including from the anime, CDs, and CD-ROMs (which, by the way, are out of print). There is also some work from Slayers DX included. Even on the cover, you can already note the difference in drawing style. |
| If you want background material for the Slayers that covers all, or even goes beyond, what's in the anime, mangas, and novels, guidebooks are a must-buy. They range from specific to one of the series to covering the series in general with background information. Here's the guidebooks for the movies first: |
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| Name: Slayers Perfect (The Motion Picture) Guidebook Release Date: June 1st, 1996 Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: 96 pages, 48 in color Description: First half is the color section, first showing character pictures from the movie, and then going to a detailed summary, accompanied by pictures, of the movie. Afterwards, the black-and-white section are more character sketches, interviews, and images of promotional merchandise for Slayers Perfect. A just-for-fun comic with the characters is also included. |
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| Name: Slayers Return Guidebook Release Date: May 10th, 1997 Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: 102 pages, 52 in color Description: A bit more detail than the previous guidebook for this movie, including frame-by-frame for some scenes. A nice bonus is a list of all of the spells used, as well as more interviews. There are character sketches in the back like the previous. |
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| Name: Slayers Great Guidebook Release Date: November 10th, 1997 Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: 102 pages, 52 in color Description: Many more images in this guidebook make up for the less-detailed-than-usual summary. Besides for the story summary, there are also some pages that go over briefly Slayers Special, the first OVA series, Slayers Royal, a video game, and Slayers Hyper, the CD-ROM collection, presumably for promotion. Character sketches are included as usual. |
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| Name: Slayers Gorgeous Fanbook and Program (top to bottom) Release Date: July 1st, 1998 (both) Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: 16 pages, all color! (both) Description: There isn't a real guidebook for Slayers Gorgeous. Instead, there's the fanbook that was sold with advance tickets, and the official program, which was being sold at the theater. The fan book, since it was around long before the movie came out, gave away no important plot details, though it did introduce characters. It was mostly used to promote other Slayers merchandise. On the contrary, the program sold at the theater had a short summary of the movie and some short interviews. In other words, Slayers Gorgeous doesn't have a guidebook out. |
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| Name: Slayers Premium Pamphlet Release Date: ? Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: ? Description: Not a real guidebook either (though who would need one for a 30-minute movie?). However, it does go over everything that has to do with the movie. Has pictures from the movie, a summary, lyrics for "Feel Well" (the single), interviews and pictures of the cast, and character information. |
| The first series guidebooks, just like much merchandise having to do with the first series, are harder to find. The three books are called Hisshou! Slayers, though I have no idea what it means. ^_^ Each one has 9 episodes (except for the last one, having 7). They contain many developmental sketches, though they aren't as detailed as the Next and Try guidebooks turn out to be: |
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| Name: Hisshou! Slayers Guidebook 1 Release Date: August 30th, 1995 Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: 80 pages, 32 in color Description: As you can tell, the length is pretty short compared to other guidebooks. It includes episode summaries and character sketches of episodes 1 through 9. |
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| Name: Hisshou! Slayers Guidebook 2 Release Date: December 10th, 1995 Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: 80 pages, 32 in color Description: Includes episode summaries and character sketches of episodes 10 through 18. |
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| Name: Hisshou! Slayers Guidebook 3 Release Date: April 10th, 1996 Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: 80 pages, 32 in color Description: Includes episode summaries and character sketches of episodes 19 through 26. Also has interviews with the creators of Slayers. |
| The second series guidebooks may be about the same length as the first series', but there's 7 of them instead of 3! A lot more detail is put into these guidebooks. These are simply referred to as "Slayers Next Filmbooks". In each book, there's a character file, a "special feature", episode summaries, series plot examinations in general, and character designs: |
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| Name: Slayers NEXT Filmbook 1 Release Date: July 10th, 1996 Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: 80 pages, 64 in color Description: Includes Lina character file, frame-by-frame of intro and ending images, and eyecatch gallery. Episode summaries for episodes 1-3. |
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| Name: Slayers NEXT Filmbook 2 Release Date: August 10th, 1996 Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: 80 pages, 64 in color Description: Includes Gourry character file and special food section. Episode summaries for episodes 4-7. |
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| Name: Slayers NEXT Filmbook 3 Release Date: September 10th, 1996 Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: 80 pages, 64 in color Description: Includes Zelgadis character file and special Martina's moods section. Episode summaries for episodes 8-11. |
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| Name: Slayers NEXT Filmbook 4 Release Date: October 10th, 1996 Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: 80 pages, 64 in color Description: Includes Amelia character file and special Otome no Inori section. Episode summaries for episodes 12-15. |
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| Name: Slayers NEXT Filmbook 5 Release Date: November 10th, 1996 Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: 80 pages, 64 in color Description: Includes Xellos character file and special voice/sound recording section. Episode summaries for episodes 16-19. |
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| Name: Slayers NEXT Filmbook 6 Release Date: December 10th, 1996 Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: 80 pages, 64 in color Description: Includes Martina and Sylphiel character files and special common spells section. Episode summaries for episodes 20-23. |
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| Name: Slayers NEXT Filmbook 7 Release Date: January 30th, 1996 Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: 80 pages, 64 in color Description: Includes detailed interviews with creators and voice actors and special gallery of eye catches. Episode summaries for episodes 24-26. |
| The third series guidebooks. There's only three of them, just like the first series, but these are a lot more detailed and colorful. Each one summarizes at least 8 episodes. They start with a poster and some pictures in the front, then go into a several-page summary for each episode, complete with lots of pics. There are also picture galleries in each volume, and production notes in black and white in the back. These guidebooks are called the Slayers TRY Collection: |
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| Name: Slayers TRY Collection 1 Release Date: August 10th, 1997 Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: 80 pages, 64 in color Description: Includes summary of first two series, frame-by-frame of opening, and major character sketches. Episode summaries for episodes 1-8. |
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| Name: Slayers TRY Collection 2 Release Date: December 10th, 1997 Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: 96 pages, 64 in color Description: Includes eyecatch collection, galleries of Filia & Xellos, spell list, character sketches, and info of the Try world. Episode summaries for episodes 9-18. |
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| Name: Slayers TRY Collection 3 Release Date: February 25th, 1998 Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: 96 pages, 64 in color Description: Includes eyecatch collection, frame-by-frame of ending, interviews with the creators, color tests for characters, and list of Slayers Try merchandise. Episode summaries for episodes 19-26. |
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| Name: Slayers (isn't that informative...) Release Date: July 30th, 1996 Publisher: Fujishimbo Length: 136 pages, 88 in color Description: Most of Araizumi's work at this point was from the novels, so a lot of the work included corresponds to the novels, both the color (for the covers), and the black-and-white pictures (inside the actual novels). This is a collection from the earlier years of Slayers, so like with most series, Lina went through several looks that are captured in this volume. Other than the novels, most other works inside this first artbook were corresponding to art on magazines. |
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