Research dossier · Arts & Letters

Slayers

Japanese light novel series and its franchise

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera — Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas

Record originEnglish Wikipedia

Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0

Source revisionSep 21, 2026

Entity authoritySource title only

Source-derived summary

Slayers is a Japanese light novel series written by Hajime Kanzaka and illustrated by Rui Araizumi. The novels have been serialized in Dragon Magazine since 1989, before being published into individual volumes. They follow the adventures of teenage sorceress Lina Inverse and her companions as they journey through their world. Using powerful magic and swordsmanship they battle overreaching wizards, demons seeking to destroy the world, and an occasional hapless gang of bandits.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Slayers” as japanese light novel series and its franchise. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1989—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Slayers, Japanese and light can be independently traced.

Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as japanese light novel series and its franchise. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1989.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for

Identifying works and editions
Tracing reception history
Finding collection records

Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

Establish the record: confirm the title “Slayers”, its source revision and the description used here.
Expand the search: follow Slayers primary sources, Slayers archive and Slayers research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Slayers”?
Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?

Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Slayers history →Slayers primary sources →Slayers archive →Slayers research →Japanese research →light research →novel research →

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Slayers” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.