Naga the Serpent (Japanese: 白蛇のナーガ), read as Sāpento no Nāga (サーペントのナーガ) is a fictional character in the light novel, anime, manga, radio drama and game versions of Hajime Kanzaka's media franchise Slayers, who was introduced in Dragon Magazine in 1990. She is also often known as Naga the White Serpent, which is a more literal translation from Japanese (白蛇; usually read as shirohebi, lit. 'white snake'), and an early English version by ADV had her name transliterated as "Nahga". The name she is best known by is in reality an alias of Princess Gracia Ul Naga Saillune (グレイシア＝ウル＝ナーガ＝セイルーン, Gureishia Uru Nāga Seirūn). The character has great magical powers and an unstable but resilient personality. She is particularly obsessed with a fellow wandering sorceress and the central character of Slayers, Lina Inverse. While occasionally referred to as Lina's sidekick and traveling partner, Naga's arrogance and self-imagined rivalry made her just as likely to antagonize Lina during the course of any story. Naga is a few years older than Lina and takes great pride in her much more voluptuous appearance, but like her she has numerous character flaws, often played for comedic purposes. She was well received by anime critics and general audience alike. Naga's Japanese voice actor is Maria Kawamura, and her English voice actresses are Kelly Manison in the OVAs and movies. In the anime series Slayers Evolution-R, Naga appears as a cameo character named Nama (ナーマ), voiced by Kawamura in Japanese and by Eva Kaminsky in English.
Character
Background Naga's real full name is Gracia Ul Naga Saillune, making her the first daughter of the Holy Kingdom of Saillune's crown prince Philionel El Di Saillune and the older sister of Amelia Wil Tesla Saillune. She has one living uncle, Christopher Wil Brogg Saillune, one deceased uncle, Randy Saillune, and a deceased cousin, Alfred Saillune. Her grandfather, Eldoran Saillune, is the king of Saillune, although Philionel acts as regent. Naga's mother was murdered several years earlier by the infamous assassin Booley. The teenage (16 or 17 years old at the time) Naga immediately took revenge and killed him with the crown princess' original spell, Chaos String. After the funeral, the traumatized Naga found the outfit she currently wears inside her mother's closet, and shortly after this, she left home to learn the ways of the world and gain more magic powers. Naga still keeps in touch with her homeland and occasionally she is sent living expenses money through a messenger. All this was disclosed only in interviews with the Slayers creator Hajime Kanzaka, but was hinted in Naga's "White Serpent" nickname (a white serpent being the coat of arms of Saillune). In Slayers Next, Zelgadis states that Saillune has a "runaway princess", also implied to be Naga. Naga had originally planned to simply challenge to a duel and defeat the famed teenage sorceress Lina Inverse to inherit her supposed title of the "Invincible Dark Lord" (which Naga apparently invented herself). However, as the story progressed, her obsession with Lina has quickly become more complicated and in some ways even more irrational. Naga becomes associate with Lina, is traveling with her supposed archrival and aiding her in battle, yet also often turning against her whenever someone offers Naga enough gain from it. From her side, the cynical and neurotic Lina is often abusive towards Naga and in total disregard of her safety even when they work together (such as repeatedly blowing her away with explosive spells or using her as bait for the enemy), but Naga almost never gets seriously hurt and usually just laughs it off, rarely seen as a serious enemy even when they are fighting. On the other hand, both Naga and Lina also directly saved each other's lives on a number of occasions.
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