Your disappointment is unfounded. This may be a shocker to you, a so-called fan of Slayers, but the entire Zanaffar arc of Revolution is Canon material from the original Novels. Another shocker: the ending arc from the first series is only ~1/3 canon. Amelia is not even introduced until after the Copy Rezo bit in the Novels, which was..anticlimactic. So, that is not in fact the reason why R_Evolution_R is bad. It's bad because it is a terrible mixture of canon novel elements that they skipped in Slayers/Next, that they had to heavily retcon to make work. The Zanafar and Zumma bits are definitely canon. I can't read beyond the eighth novel, so I don't know if the Bits with [strike]Zenagata[/strike]Wizer, or Rezo have any cannoness because Tokyopop stopped releasing the novels at 8. Pakota is not Canon.
The Reason R_Evolution_R is bad is threefold:
1. Pakota.
2. Bad retconning.
3. Bad English dubbed portrayals of Xelloss and Lina. Xelloss needs to sound Scheming and devious and MS doesn't deliver. Lina needs to sound sharp and almost shrill, but MS made her sound happy-cutesy instead. Cutesy Lina does not work in English. (Evolution was better voiced than Revolution, except those episode where Eric Stuart was clearly sick).
There is no reason to think that R_Evolution_R has better animation than previous series. Digital Animation and progressive scan widescreen are nice and all, but the actual animation was lackluster. NEXT and TRY both have better animation. There is nothing particularly wrong with the animation of Slayers other than needing some high quality de-interlacing and remastering (certain characters do need redubbing in the first 13 episodes.) Slayers would do fine on Toonami. Slayers Revolution would not.
Ahhh, attacking my fandom, how cute. I usually only have to deal with that from sub-elitists, not other Slayers fans, but oh well. Now this may be a shocker to
you, but I also have the 8 volumes that were released and just got through re-reading the two that dealt with Copy Rezo and Zanaffar, because, as I said before, I try not to say things that are incorrect, and I'm always more than willing to admit I'm wrong when I'm proven wrong. As for your ascertain that the entire Zanaffar arc of Revolution is canon, I'm afraid that's not even close to being true. Sure, there were some aspects of it that were canon, such as Duclis(though he was only a secondary character in the novel), and the Zanaffar armor, and that's it. There were no magic tanks, no inspector, no Pakota, no royal lady(I don't remember her name) who stole money that was supposed to go to a kingdom that, surprise, surprise, wasn't in the novel, no assassin guy, and though there was mention of attacking Saillune, it never actually happened so there was no Phil or Sylphiel, nor any Zanaffar going around destroying towns on it's way to Saillune. The Demon Beast was pretty much dealt with shortly after it appeared.
As for the second half of the first season with Copy Rezo, way more of that was canon than the Zanaffar arc of Revolution. Sure, Copy Rezo didn't use Zanaffar, but the story was basically the same as what was in the novel with an additional character or two showing up. There was no Amelia or Zangulas(sp?), but there was Vrumugun, Eris had a little different introduction, but otherwise she was the same, there was Rahanawhatshisname(the fishman), the bounty that forced them to Sairaag, Sylphiel, Zelgadiss, and Copy Rezo acting like Copy Rezo, as well as Flagohn and the Blessed Blade. When looking at which was more in line with the novels, there's no comparison.
And to finish up, my disappointment is not unfounded, (R)evolution was bad in comparison to the earlier seasons and it made it a point to ignore the Copy Rezo arc when it used Zanaffar, even if it used it in the way the novel did(sort of). As far as a TV show goes, I can't remember any show ever doing such a thing before. They could have just done something completely new and I wouldn't have had such a problem with it. Even stranger, after attacking my fandom, you
agreed with me that (R)evolution was bad, which made your first couple sentence seem to have no reason behind them other than to be offensive, which I don't understand at all.