What is Slayers Revolution?
One story in two thirteen-episode halves, made by the original director with the original cast, a decade later.
Slayers Revolution aired July 2 to September 24, 2008, animated by J.C.Staff, and Slayers Evolution-R followed on AT-X from January 12 to April 6, 2009. Together they are a single original storyline with subplots drawn from the novels, made as two short seasons rather than one long one. Director Takashi Watanabe returned from the 1990s series, and so did the cast: Megumi Hayashibara sings both themes for both seasons, as she had a decade earlier.
The timing is the story: the revival landed the same year the novels’ 2008 revised edition re-dressed the books and the Special line relaunched as Smash. 2008 was the franchise’s coordinated second life, a decade before Kanzaka revived the novels themselves.
THE TWO HALVES
2008–2009Revolution · 13 episodes
A new party member, the inspector Wizer Freion (borrowed from the novels’ second arc), and an arrest warrant for Lina open the story; it ends mid-pursuit by design.
Evolution-R · 13 episodes
The conclusion, reaching back to the Rezo material of the very first novel. The two seasons are one serial, not a show and its sequel.
The dub reunion
Funimation licensed both seasons and had NYAV Post reunite most of the original Central Park Media cast in New York and Los Angeles. The one major change: Michael Sinterniklaas replaced David Moo as Xellos. Funimation’s box sets arrived in 2010, with Blu-rays that October.