The second film in the Slayers franchise finds Lina and Naga being approached by a young girl with a job proposition. Her village has been enslaved by a bad guy hoping to unleash an elvish creature that will lead him to world domination. Naga and Lina, hoping to make some money, wind up doing battle against this creature in a pretty underwhelming and otherwise unnecessary sixty minute film. There’s really no point reiterating my thoughts on Naga and Lina, or the animation and music. There’s nothing that makes these films distinct in any way; neither from their predecessors nor from anime movies in general. This onehas a weak plot, boring side characters, uninteresting action, and can be summed up as: eh. It has an occasionally decent chuckle here or there but I don’t understand the appeal of these. First of all, they have nothing to do with the vastly superior television series. The TV series is well-balanced, with a cast of characters that work off of each other and a plot that allows for enough action and comedy to keep the viewer engaged. The movies and OVA’s, so far, have showcased a very different Slayers, one that isn’t so much a parody of fantasy as much as a stagnant fantasy/comedy of its own.

A friend of mine put it best: the Slayers movies are filler. The problem is, filler is annoying in the context of an ongoing series (such as the Excalibur filler of Soul Eater) but even more annoying when it comprises an entire product (such as this, or the whole seasons of filler in Bleach).

Return isn’t a bad movie; it’s just another average, unmemorable money grab.