Meet sorceress Lina Inverse -- she's short, flat-chested, brash, loud, eats like a barbarian, ridiculously powerful, and has a temper as hot as her fireballs.

She's also the lovable anti-heroine of "Slayers - The Complete First Season," a thoroughly hilarious and warped little classic anime. The first season blends fantasy spoofs and a solid little story about good vs. evil (or justice vs. evil, depending on who you ask), when our heroes aren't dressing in drag or mugging bandit gangs.

Recently Lina robbed the bandit gang known as the Dragon Fangs of several valuable items, and when the gang's few surviving members attack her, she's rescued by a handsome but dumb swordsman, Gourry Gabriev. But the bandits aren't the only ones after her loot -- the mysterious Chimera Zelgadis and his weird minions want one of the items Lina stole, while the revered priest Rezo wants to stop Zelgadis.

But after being abducted and then freed by Zelgadis (and nearly molested by a giant fish), Lina discovers that she may have her allies and enemies switched around. And as Lina, Gourry and Zelgadis are pursued by Rezo's monstrous allies, they learn the real reason that Rezo wants the statuette -- yes, it's to unleash ultimate evil upon the world, and all that.

After all that, Lina and Gourry find themselves traveling with a justice-happy princess named Amelia, just in time for a bounty to be put on their heads. To find out who their new enemy is, they have to travel to the city of Sairagg -- dodging a crazy mercenary, a manipulative wedding-happy sorceress, a seemingly unkillable wizard, a gay sea dragon, and countless mercenaries and heroes.

But Sairagg only provides more questions, as Lina and her friends -- including Zelgadis and the timid shrine maiden Sylphiel -- confront the sorceress that has a grudge against him. But they're shocked to learn that the mastermind is an old foe that they had previously killed -- and he has a whole new evil plot to destroy the world. And all that.

Spoofs of the fantasy genre are a dime a dozen. The real challenge is creating a spoof that also has a story and mythology all its own -- and "Slayers" succeeds brilliantly at doing that. Not only is the complete first season gutsplittingly funny, but it also has a really solid storyline and thoroughly enjoyable characters -- although admittedly Amelia takes some getting used to.

There are two interconnected arcs of epic battles with Dark Lords and maniacal wizard-priests, with sword duels, hidden libraries, mystical ruins, frequent explosions, devastated cities and multi-coloured trolls ransacking quaint medieval villages. It's a solid enough fantasy series, and it takes the usual fantasy tropes -- big dumb guy with magic sword, sorceress, Dark Lord, plucky princess -- and promptly turns them on their heads.

And there's a lot of humour too, raging from a horde of Lina and Gourry clones ("It's... TINY!") to a series of running gags. At least half the episodes contain and/or end with some kind of massive explosion and possible rioting. And a couple stories wedged between the two arcs are entirely devoted to comedy -- including Lina being bribed to "marry" a rich boy, and the very macho Gourry having to dress as a girl ("Somebody please take my life!").

Lina is a brilliant fantasy anti-heroine -- she's flat-chested, assertive, hypersensitive and wonderfully bombastic, and Lisa Ortiz does an excellent job. Eric Stuart is a little more awkward as Gourry, a swordsman with a childlike attitude and a tiny brain, he improves as the season goes on. Hyperactive princess Amelia is kind of annoying at first, with all her jumping and yells about justice, but fortunately she becomes more likable when they get to Sairagg ("I hate fighting this thing!").

Zelgadis is the best-rounded character of the bunch, since he starts as a semi-villain but soon reveals that his only real goal is to become a human being again. Unfortunately Daniel Cronin voices Zelgadis for the first half of the series, and makes this complex character sound like a depressed stoner. Thankfully Crispin Freeman brings more humour, anger and power to the character after that.

The complete first season of "Slayers" is a solid fantasy series that also happens to be a hysterically funny spoof. Definitely a must-see.

The Slayers is about a very powerful sorcerist named lina inverse she uses her powers to steal from bandits and she takes it all for herself shes kind of the anti hero....kind of. She is flat chested and is short. She gets "rescued" by a swordsman named Gourry who wields this legendary sword of light. Gourry is not very bright and when he saves her he thinks she is a kid. In the begining they are trying to stop a demon king from being reborned and on the way some funny stuff happens. really funny and lots of action. buy it you won't regret it but you should know that it is incomplete there are more parts to it like The Slayers next and The Slayers Try and more.

I love the new Slayers. Naga The Serpent, genuine demons, all sorts of great DVD movies out there. But honestly, this isn't the best of Slayers by any means. I watched them all of once over the past three years. Tenchi I've watched a dozen times, Cowboy Bebop a good 20 times and the rest of my anime are always in my DVD player. This one? Not so much. I advise against it.

It's not funny and it's a chore to watch, but at least the animation is of the same quality.

When it comes down to amazon reviews concerning anime, I've learned to take a real deep breath while I'm making a purchase. Certain reviewers make wild claims on the so called "greatest animes of all time" and I left wondering, what the hell did I just watch?! This is the reason why I dont take most reviewers serious anymore. This right here is the kind of anime I love, not that bulls*** I gave 1 and 2 stars to and love to hate. Slayers I purchased this on the blind tip. I have to say this is one of the only anime that trys to be funny and actually succeeds. At the same time the stories can maintain a level of seriousness. And all of the characters are well developed and very likeable. I enjoyed all of the stories. From the slapstick humor to the evil demon threatening to end all humanity.

Slayers takes place during the times of swords sorcery, demons and monsters. The main character Lina Inverse is a powerful young female sorceress with an attitude. Her purpose is to rob thieves and give to herself. She meets other characters just as skilled as she is and a clumsy swordsman that suffers from severe A.D.D. Some of the stories are stand alone episodes which consist of someone wanting a rampaging dragon killed or an evil sorceress trying to marry off her daughter to a prince and grab his loot. Then some of the series has something to do with stopping a mad sorcerer from resurrecting a demon. The battles are very good and when the stories start to get serious it can truly grip you. I watched the entire 26 episodes in oneday.

Now I noticed some of the reviewers mentioned defects in the product. I cant speak on this one. I purchased the 3 disk import version. Which has all 26 episodes, with extras and the option to switch languages for under 30 bucks on another site. In fact I purchased the entire collection for way under 100 bucks. I haven't seen any defects of any kind yet. It has clear picture and the sound is perfect. As far as the japanese language is concerned. I never watched it and I never will. I could careless about that. I'm happy with what I have. I would give info where to purchase this but all the price gougers would buy the s*** up and sell it for 50 to 100 bucks. Anyways, this is a great anime. Quickly becoming one of my favorites.

I was able to watch Eps. 1 and 2 and part of Ep. 3 before disc A stopped working. It seems to be corrupted from that point on until the end of the first disc. I don't know if anyone else has had this problem with their discs. It was this way when I recieved it new from Amazon.com. I need to know where I can find a copy of Disc A again, or if someone's willing to loan me a copy of that disc, that works.

Otherwise, it's a great series. It would get five stars from me if the disc wasn't messed up when I bought it from here.