Ask John: What is Slayers Premium?

Question:
What is Slayers Premium about? Are there any plans of bringing it to North America any time soon?

Answer:
Slayers Premium is the fifth Slayers theatrical movie released in Japan last December. It was released to Japanese theaters as part of a special screening that included the 30 minute long Slayers Premium, the 20 minute long Di-Gi-Charat movie, the 5 minute long Azumanga Daioh movie, and the 85 minute long Sakura Taisen movie, all for the price of one movie ticket.

Slayers Premium is the first Slayers anime outside of animation created for the Slayers Royal 2 RPG video game that connects the Slayers movie and OAV continuity with the TV series continuity. In practical terms, though, Slayers Premium is the first “TV series” movie and involves Lina, Gourrey, Amelia and Zelgadis getting into typical trouble when they visit a resort town famous for its octopus specialty restaurants. The gang is cursed with the ability to speak only in octopus language while the local octopus community, tired of constantly being served up as human food, raise their ultimate protector to strike vengeance upon the humans.

Slayers Premium was released on Japanese DVD on July 3, 2002 in a limited edition version that included a bonus drama CD, and a standard movie only edition with a different cover illustration. Although we do expect to see this movie make it to America eventually, no one here at AnimeNation has yet heard of an American distribution license for this film.