An Observation Involving an Idiotic Swordsman and Cross-Dressing Moments

By the time of writing this, I have just watched the 1990s classic anime series The Slayers. For those unfamiliar of this classic of cel animation (its well-animated by Madhouse), its basically Fairy Tail made over a decade early.

Here's something I noticed. When you watch the first episode with you eyes closed you will encounter a scene where you will say to yourself "Is that Brock chatting up a pretty girl after rescuing her from danger .... again?"

And you should, because the scene in question is when the main protagonist Lina Inverse "one of the most powerful and feared sorceresses in all the land" is about to battle against a bunch of bandits when "expert" swordsman Gourry Gabriev the picture and slays the whole lot of them. He did so because he thought Lina (due to her short size) was a child. Cue Edward Elric-style reaction.

The reason for the mental picture of Brock in this scene? Simple. It's because, in the series English dub by Central Park Media, the voice actor who portrayed Gourry was Eric Stuart. And, if you look at his Filmography you will find that, apart from voicing Kaiba from Yu-Gi-Oh! and been the narrator in One Piece, he is also most noted for playing (until 2006, I'll explain in a future post) Brock in Pokémon (as well as James from Team Rocket, but that's not important).

As I watched this series my ear pieced up another familiar voice. A quick Wikipedia search later showed my ear was correct - the later regular character Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun was voiced by one Veronica Taylor. And what is interesting is that, apart from voicing Nico Robin in One Piece and April O'Neil in post-2000 adaptions of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, she is most noted for been the original English voice of one Ash Ketchum.

Now, noting two poke-actors voicing characters in The Slayers is not enough to be subject to an act of cultural vandalism. What finally made me write this post is what happened in episode 17. In it the gang (Lina, Gourry, and Amelia) have to catch a ship without been ambushed by bounty hunters (someone placed a bounty on them for reasons that will spoil the series finale). To do so they have to disguise themselves. They disguises they choose - three female siblings. Yes, Gourry (the idiotic muscle-bound swordsman) was forced to dress as a girl. I have to admit, his long blonde hair helped in this endeavour. He really did become a Sailor Moon knock-off. Of course, Gourry didn't like the ordeal.

(I later found out that this cross-dressing is a regular joke in every series. Yeeaaae!)

And here comes the reason for this post. Remember when Ash Ketchum was forced to cross-dress? He was forced to do so in four episodes (as of 2017). If you factor in that Ash was voiced by the same person who voiced Amelia and that Brock is voiced by the former voice of Gourry I have come to a conclusion -

Brock is a reincarnation of Gourry.

And having Ash cross-dress is Gourry's revenge for been forced to wear woman's clothing back then.