Name: Lina InverseName: Lina InverseThe main heroine in Slayers, Lina is a feisty redhead with an
unquenchable appetite for good food and
money. It is
due to this that she often gets herself into trouble. As a young girl
in Zephillia (But not too young! Perhaps about five years or so.) her
family, consisting of Lina, her older sister Luna, her mother and
father, was tight on money. In order to help, Luna became a waitress,
while Lina worked up a scheme to make people pay to view an image of
Luna bathing nude (From what I hear) in the spring. Unfortunately for
Lina, Luna found out and went after her. Now for anyone who has an
older sibling, they are not a force to be reckoned with! Lina fled
her hometown and struck out on her own. Along the way she met up with
Naga (Whom shall be discussed later.) Their exploits can be seen in
any of the Slayers movies and OVA's.After parting ways with Naga,
Lina again struck out on her own. It is during the three series
Slayers, NEXT, and TRY that we are allowed to follow Lina's further
exploits with (In order of appearance) Gourry, Zelgadis, Amelia,
Sylphiel, Xellos, and Filia.
Even though Lina is one of the most powerful sorceresses of her time, she has one major weakness (Well, actually two if you count that slug incident...): her under-developed chest. All anyone has to do to distract Lina from whatever she may be doing, be it casting a spell or belittling someone, is mention the fact that she's smaller than average. Naga uses this tactic to her benefit many times! Some people may wonder as to why she cares so much. I'd say it is mostly due to the fact that her sister Luna has been "Heavenly Endowed", which just adds to the things that Luna has that Lina never will. (Luna is ultra powerful and a knight of Ceipheed, the most powerful god in the Slayers universe. Note that Luna is able to mount a dragon!)
During her travels with Gourry, a special bond forms between them. This is not made known until the end of NEXT when Lina sacrifices herself to save Gourry, and then Gourry chases after the Lord of Nightmares, who has inhabited Lina's body. A sweet scene between the two ensues. I recently added Slayers: Medieval Mayhem to my growing collection of Slayers stuff. It contains the further adventures of Lina and Gourry after the series' have ended. Throughout the manga the reader is better able to see this relationship, for one thing Lina actually acts more feminine (Barely, but still!) and has a habit of blushing when people ask about their relationship. Here are a few examples: 1, 2, 3, 4.
-Nothing too new here, just something I noticed! In the first part of the first series Lina acts somewhat childish (like Amelia does later in the same series) and is even quite clumsy at times: she falls while sliding down a hill following Zelgadis (she even gives herself, "Zero points for style!"), and trips over a chimney while escaping from an assassin Mazoku! Then there's that whole Zel/Lina coupledom thing...people often use scenes between the two from the first part of the series to prove that they were meant for each other. From what I've seen, Zelgadis is quite rough with Lina. He tends to push and shove her around (which is better than her getting hurt by enemy fire...) and even uses her as a weapon to distract Rezo! This is definitely NOT the case when Zelgadis and Amelia meet. He treats her much more gently than he ever treated Lina (and I know some people are going to want to bring about my utter destruction for saying that, but it had to be said!)-
Enough of this, take me to Gourry!
Megumi Hayashibara (Japanese 195 K)
Lisa Ortiz (English anime)
Cynthia Martinez (English movies/OAV's)
