The history of Slayers
A magazine short story that became the defining fantasy-comedy of its generation, ended once, and refused to stay ended.
Slayers began in 1989 in Fujimi Shobo’s Dragon Magazine, written by Hajime Kanzaka and illustrated by Rui Araizumi. The first novel volume followed on January 17, 1990, under the Fujimi Fantasia Bunko imprint, and the series built itself the way its sibling shelf Record of Lodoss War had, from print outward: novels first, then manga, anime, films, and games.
The main story closed with volume 15 in May 2000. Then, eighteen years later, Kanzaka returned for Dragon Magazine and Fujimi Fantasia Bunko’s 30th anniversary: volume 16 arrived in October 2018 to immediate reprints, and a third story arc opened with volume 17 in October 2019. By January 2025 the novels, spin-offs included, had passed 22 million copies including digital sales.
THE ARC OF IT
1989 to 20251989 · The debut
Slayers first appears in Dragon Magazine. The very first published Slayers story is a short later collected in Slayers Special, “The Prince of Saillune,” printed in the magazine’s October 1989 issue, months before the first novel.
1990–2000 · The novels
Fifteen main volumes in a decade, flanked by the 30-volume Slayers Special prequel line. The first arc (volumes 1–8) becomes the anime; the darker second arc (9–15) stays on the page.
1995–1998 · The screen years
Three TV seasons, five films, and two OVA series in four years, all while the novels were still running. The anime reaches the largest audience and is now considered one of the most popular series of the 1990s.
2018 · The return
Volume 16, A Chance Encounter in Atessa, ends the eighteen-year silence. Kanzaka called it “kind of a reunion.” Volume 17 opened a third arc the next year; a new short-story collection, Slayers Spirit, followed in 2025, the first in thirteen years.
THE SHELF IT SITS ON
Company keptNovels first, like Lodoss
Slayers is a print-native franchise: a light novel that generated an anime empire, not an anime with books attached. Its comedy is the mirror image of Lodoss War’s solemn high fantasy, and critics have paired the two for thirty years.
Still in print, still growing
J-Novel Club’s English revival (2020 onward) retranslated all seventeen volumes, and the Japanese line keeps moving: the franchise marked its 35th anniversary in 2025.