What are the Slayers Special novels?
Thirty volumes of Lina before Gourry: the prequel line that out-published the main series two to one.
Slayers Special is the second novel line: thirty volumes of short stories published by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko from July 1991 to January 2008, all by Kanzaka and Araizumi. They are prequels, following a younger Lina Inverse traveling with her self-declared rival Naga the Serpent, years before she meets Gourry.
The line is built from one-shot episodes first serialized in Dragon Magazine. The first eight volumes collect five standalone episodes each; from volume 9 the pattern shifts to three two-chapter episodes, and nearly every volume adds one story written for the book, subtitled first “Slayers Excellent” and later “Slayers Superior.”
THE FAMILY
Every novel line, countedSlayers Special · 30 volumes
1991–2008. Vol. 1, The Prince of Saillune (July 1991); vol. 2, Little Princess (March 1992); vol. 3, Naga’s Adventure (October 1992). The first published Slayers story of all, “The Prince of Saillune,” ran in Dragon Magazine in October 1989, before the first main novel.
Slayers Delicious · 4 volumes
1997–1999. Four Special episodes first issued on their own in a mini-bunko format, later folded back into the Special volumes. The line’s smallest, strangest format.
Slayers Smash. · 5 volumes
2008–2011. When Special ended at thirty, the prequel stories simply changed their name and kept going: five more volumes of Lina and Naga.
Slayers Select · 5 volumes
2008–2010. A best-of compilation of Special, five volumes chosen from the thirty, published alongside Smash.
Slayers VS Orphen · 1 volume
2005. A full crossover novel with Yoshinobu Akita’s Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, two Fujimi heroes in one book; reprinted in 2013 and adapted as a radio drama.
Anthology (2015) · Spirit (2025)
The 25th-anniversary Anthology pairs one new Kanzaka story with five by fan writers, illustrated with previously unpublished Araizumi art. Slayers Spirit, in 2025, is the first new short-story collection in thirteen years.
IN ENGLISH
The honest gapNever translated
The Special novels have never been published in English. Tokyopop and J-Novel Club both took only the main series. Thirty volumes of canon Lina and Naga stories remain Japanese-only, which is why the OVAs and films built from them reached the West long before their source did.