I admit that I've never really understood the appeal of Slayers. The plot is nothing special, the feel is cheap and generic, and most of the humor is predictable. While the first volume of Slayers Next has some bright moments, it's pretty much just more of the same.

In the first volume, mega-genki princess Amelia is on the way to find the book of Zona, the legendary book of sourcery (and fix some other stuff). Little does she know that Lina Inverse is on her way to find the same thing. When unable to aquire it through diplomacy (and after being threatened by Zelgadis, who is now working for them in the hopes that the contents of the book they have can turn him back into a human from a Chimera), she's captured, and Lina comes to her rescue -- and finds that the book is worthless to Zelgadis. Then she blows up some stuff.

After that little side-trek, the crew goes off in search of the Claire Bible, which is the most valuable book of sorcery in the world. Xellos, a mysterious priest, offers the gang the information they want from a copy of the Claire Bible if they retrieve it from a bandit gang. The gang is called the Fighting Dragon's Blood Macho Men, and when a battle ensues, Zelgadis gets the manuscript first, and him and Xellos start fighting. The manuscript, which he says didn't have any useful information, gets burned up, and everything is back to the way it was.

The Atlas City Sorcerer's Guild seems to be having a problem with opposing parties of an election, and when the gang get separated in the city, they're approached to be bodyguards by the opposing parties. When they finish off each other's people, the four are finally pitted together until low-grade magic beasts start coming from each of the candidate's castles. But who's responsible?

While there were some inspired moments, Slayers continues to be the same old generic, boring brain candy. If you liked previous episodes you'll probably like Slayers Next as well, but there is just so much better stuff out there...