One of three OAVs released as part of the VHS and subsequently DVD collection Slayers: EXCELLENT. Labyrinth is chronologically the earliest OAV adaptation of Slayers, depicting the first meetings between Lina Inverse and her self-proclaimed rival Naga the Serpent, as well as their first official adventure together.
The OAV opens at a tavern where Lina Inverse is enjoying food, only for a sudden explosion to set the building on fire. Despite not having finished her meal, Lina is forced to flee when the roof gives way and drops burning debris on her table. Outside, the sound of maniacal laughter draws the eyes of Lina and everyone else in the village to a half-naked and ridiculously buxom woman standing atop the tallest part of the burning tavern's roof. She introduces herself as Naga the Serpent and lays down a challenge to Lina, who recalls that this is not the first time they have met.
She flashes back to that first meeting, where she returned to an inn where she was staying one evening to find it ablaze, with all her possessions inside. Naga was posed on the rooftop and issuing a challenge to Lina, which Lina noted at the time was not unfamiliar: Naga was just yet another wannabe sorceress who thought to make a name for herself by taking on Lina, who had already developed a reputation for her skills. That first encounter ended badly for Naga, who had forgotten to figure out how to get down from the burning roof, so Lina promptly "helped her"... by blowing open the roof under Naga's feet and dropping her into the inferno beneath. Amazingly, Naga lived and tracked Lina down in the forest soon after, where they fought a brief duel before Naga accidentally pinned herself under a tree she'd knocked over with one of her spells, whereupon Lina blasted her away with an Explosion Array spell.
Back in the present, the tavern has burned down and Naga is back on the ground again. She and Lina bicker briefly over the trail of destruction Naga has left in her wake as part of her ongoing efforts to draw Lina into duels, before they are confronted by the angry villagers, who want Naga to pay for the tavern and Lina to pay for her food. Before things can get too heated, the village headmaster offers the broke sorceresses an alternative; several of the villagers recently went to explore a reputedly haunted ruin nearby, and haven't returned. If the duo will rescue the villagers, then all debts will be forgiven.
So our..."heroes"... set off on their quest. Venturing into the labyrinthine depths of the ruin, they encounter first a band of hostile zombies, and then another band of hostile ghosts, before being summoned to do battle with the labyrinth's master; a vampire named Steindorf. Lina realizes that they have been tricked; this is an old setup where a powerful monster will start demanding tribute from a nearby community, who respond by tricking, luring, manipulating and forcing travelers into the monster's lair rather than sacrifice their own people. However, the presence of a vampire suggests treasure, and so Lina and Naga attempt to duel the undead creature. He proves surprisingly tough at first, but is ultimately defeated by Lina.
Gathering what little loot Steindorf has left, now comes the matter of getting out. Fortunately, Lina was prepared and created chalk markings on the walls to indicate the passages she took, so all they have to do is find them and follow them backwards... which is when Naga reveals that she didn't realize those markings were important, she just thought they were graffiti, so she erased them all. She suggests they just blow a hole through the roof back to the surface and fly out, and before Lina can stop her, she does just that. But this triggers a partial collapse of the roof that nearly buries both girls alive, and does leave Naga pinned under rubble.
She pleads with Lina to free her, whilst the angry teen sorceress screams that she should just leave Naga buried there.
This OAV includes examples of:
- Awesome, but Impractical: Naga's shoulder spikes are shown to look cool (for a given value of "cool"), but they're so pointy that she painfully sticks herself in the cheeks whenever she raises her arms above her head, which becomes a Running Gag over the OAV continuity.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Steindorf is presented as an arrogant bastard, but to his credit he actually is a competent combatant and spellcaster, managing to hold off both Lina and Naga in a Wizard Duel. Lina even manages to get a direct hit with an Explosion Array whilst he's distracted by Naga, and all she achieves is a small gash on the vampire's arm. It's only after he turns into his true form that Lina takes him down.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: Steindorf's true form is this and also a parody of One-Winged Angel at the same time. He initially seems to be going One-Winged Angel, growing into a giant version of himself and causing the earth to shake and split around himself... before suddenly turning into a cutesy little golden bat. Which Lina promptly knocks unconscious by beating it over the head with a slipper.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Lina's favorite spell, Explosion Array, is stated in worldbuilding materials to be an Earth Shamanism spell that causes the targeted ground to violently surge upwards, like a kind of dirt geyser with the power to blast foes high into the air.
- Defeating the Undefeatable: Lina's reputation is already formidable enough that arrogant up-and-coming wizards and witches have been known to seek her out in hopes of improving their own reputations by besting her in a Wizard Duel. Lina actually lampshades that this is one of the drawbacks of making a name for yourself in the adventuring spellcaster's world.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: There's a very distinct tonal difference between this OAV and the future Slayers animated media, with much more of a reliance on talking about (and usually riffing on) the Standard Fantasy Setting tropes that appear in the movie.
- Also, Lina lacks her iconic Dragon Slave spell, instead preferring Dill Brand as her most powerful spell.
- Several spells use names very different to the ones that would appear in the subsequent anime series, such as Dill Brand being called "Explosion Array", Lighting being called "Illumination" and Blam Blazer being called "Blue Magic Wave".
- Foreshadowing: Pay close attention after Lina marks her first chalk arrow on the wall. In the next scene, as Naga rounds the corner, she's fiddling with one of her gloved hands; this sets up for The Reveal at the OAV's end that Naga has been erasing all of the markers as Lina drew them.
- Goldfish Poop Gang: The OAV that establishes Naga as Lina's Unknown Rival who chases her all around the countryside, looking initially to duel her, and then later to simply adventure with her.
- Lampshade Hanging: Lina constantly calls out various fantasy tropes that show up in the OAV, usually in a mocking fashion, from insulting Naga's outfit as being centuries out of style to calling out the pretentiousness of vampires and observing the old gimmick of "the villagers are secretly tricking travelers into being sacrifices".
- Male Gaze: Our first introduction to Naga is, of course, a dramatic pan over her thighs, butt and finally her boobs.
- Noodle Incident: Lina mentions that Naga has actually destroyed a string of inns and taverns as part of her ongoing efforts to defeat Lina in a Wizard Duel, but we don't get any context for them outside of the very first one and this final one.
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Out of Order: Whilst Labyrinth is clearly the earliest possible point in the Slayers OAV timeline, as it covers the very first meeting of Lina & Naga as well as their beginning to adventure together, the Slayers: EXCELLENT OAV collection was the second to be released, and it's unclear how precisely the other five OA Vs and the movies are supposed to be placed, timeline-wise. - The Perils of Being the Best: Played for laughs. Naga hunts Lina down repeatedly because she wants to improve her own reputation by beating Lina Inverse in a Wizard Duel, and Lina's comments imply that she's not the first arrogant witch to think this way.
- Too Dumb to Live: Naga is an absolute moron. She strands herself atop a burning building with no way to get down twice, and rubs out the chalk markings that Lina set up to guide them back out of the labyrinth because she didn't realize what they were for, which Lina lampshades should have been obvious to anyone who isn't a total idiot... to which Naga can only complain that it wasn't obvious to her.
- Wizard Duel: Naga is introduced wanting to engage Lina in one of these, and fights a brief one in flashback. At the OAV's climax, Lina and Naga fight a magical duel against the vampire Steindorf.
