El-Hazard: The Magnificent World
| blog | A Formal Introduction: One Fan's Journey | Hailinel |
| review | Endlessly looping fun! (4 out of 5) | Makoto_Mizuhara_Sakamoto |
| blog | Getting started | Makoto_Mizuhara_Sakamoto |
An OVA series about a trio of high school students and their alcoholic history teacher that get transported to the world of El-Hazard, where they take sides in a bitter war between the world's human residents and their enemies, the insectoid Bugrom.
Whisked off to a faraway world, schoolboy Makoto has to impersonate a princess and fight the forces of evil. Spunky love interest Nanami and schoolteacher Mr. Fujisawa, a booze-swilling chain-smoker who inexplicably develops superhuman powers, are also dragged along. They must save the world from attacking insect armies led by Nanami's brother, school bully Jinnai, who has taught the locals how to lie, cheat, and steal.
Two Tenchi Muyo! staffers, Marx Brothers fan Hayashi and John Carter of Mars--fan Tsukimura, decided to combine their interests to create a screwball pulp adventure series, rooting their comedy in the culture clash of 20th-century people and fantasy characters. With a teacher trying to maintain school discipline in an Arabesque paradise, a cross-dressing hero, an evil general who names all his soldiers after his favorite film stars, and Mr. Fujisawa's eternal quest for more cigarettes, El Hazard is a masterly comedy. With fish-out-of-water characters in a world inspired by the Arabian Nights, it remains more popular outside Japan than some of Pioneer's more ethnocentric productions such as Hakkenden and Kishin Corps. Arguably one of the most seamless anime translations ever, the English-language dub by Jenny Haniver and John Pierce is a perfect translation of the original Japanese version, even down to the background improvisations by talented voice actors.
The video series was remade for TV Tokyo in a version known abroad as El Hazard: The Wanderers (1996), which stretched the material of the original video series thinly over a longer time frame. A video sequel to the original video series, El Hazard 2 (1997), was similarly disappointing as it merely replayed some of the old gags, though, typically for the series' sense of humor, even the production team inserted "here-we-go-again" jokes. A final incarnation of the series El Hazard: The Alternative World (1997), directed by Yasunori Kikuchi, reunited the video characters in a new adventure, shipping them off to the Kingdom of Creteria to fight Ajrah, the self-proclaimed ruler of the universe. The newly crowned priestess of water, Qawool, falls for Makoto with leaden predictability, and the old setups are rehashed once more with a few new characters and slight tweaks-in other words, a slow decline into hackery that mirrors the disappointing performance of the same studio's Tenchi Muyo! The thirteenth version and final episode of the Alternate series was never broadcast but was included as a "bonus" with the video release.
Two Tenchi Muyo! staffers, Marx Brothers fan Hayashi and John Carter of Mars--fan Tsukimura, decided to combine their interests to create a screwball pulp adventure series, rooting their comedy in the culture clash of 20th-century people and fantasy characters. With a teacher trying to maintain school discipline in an Arabesque paradise, a cross-dressing hero, an evil general who names all his soldiers after his favorite film stars, and Mr. Fujisawa's eternal quest for more cigarettes, El Hazard is a masterly comedy. With fish-out-of-water characters in a world inspired by the Arabian Nights, it remains more popular outside Japan than some of Pioneer's more ethnocentric productions such as Hakkenden and Kishin Corps. Arguably one of the most seamless anime translations ever, the English-language dub by Jenny Haniver and John Pierce is a perfect translation of the original Japanese version, even down to the background improvisations by talented voice actors.
The video series was remade for TV Tokyo in a version known abroad as El Hazard: The Wanderers (1996), which stretched the material of the original video series thinly over a longer time frame. A video sequel to the original video series, El Hazard 2 (1997), was similarly disappointing as it merely replayed some of the old gags, though, typically for the series' sense of humor, even the production team inserted "here-we-go-again" jokes. A final incarnation of the series El Hazard: The Alternative World (1997), directed by Yasunori Kikuchi, reunited the video characters in a new adventure, shipping them off to the Kingdom of Creteria to fight Ajrah, the self-proclaimed ruler of the universe. The newly crowned priestess of water, Qawool, falls for Makoto with leaden predictability, and the old setups are rehashed once more with a few new characters and slight tweaks-in other words, a slow decline into hackery that mirrors the disappointing performance of the same studio's Tenchi Muyo! The thirteenth version and final episode of the Alternate series was never broadcast but was included as a "bonus" with the video release.
Episodes
| Season/Ep# | Name | Airdate | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1 - 7
|
Seventh Night: The World of Endless Adventures |
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|
1 - 6
|
Sixth Night: The World of Gleaming Light |
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|
1 - 5
|
Fifth Night: The World of Thunder |
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|
1 - 4
|
Fourth Night: The World of the Demon God |
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|
1 - 3
|
Third Night: The World of Hot Springs |
||
|
1 - 2
|
Second Night: The World of Beautiful Girls |
||
|
1 - 1
|
First Night: Battlefield of Confusion |
||
Series Credits
| Person Name | Episode Count | |
|---|---|---|
| Hiroki Hayashi | 1 |
|
| Akihiko Nishiyama | 1 |
|
 |
Kazuto Nakazawa | 1 |
| Nobuhito Sue | 1 |
|
| Yasunori Honda | 1 |
|
| Yasuo Hasegawa | 1 |
|
| Hiroyuki Hataike | 1 |
|
| Takeshi Okazaki | 1 |
|
| Koji Watanabe | 1 |
To edit the cast, go to an episode page.
Original US Poster Art
General Information
Edit
 Name |
El-Hazard: The Magnificent World |
 Name: |
|
| Romaji: |
Shinpi no Sekai El Hazard |
| Publisher | Geneon Entertainment, Inc. |
| Start Year | 1995 |
| Genres | |
| Themes |
Add a new theme
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| Aliases | The Magnificent World of El Hazard El Hazard |
Recurring Appearances
| Alielle Relrye first in First Night: Battlefield of Confusion |
7
|
| Makoto Mizuhara first in First Night: Battlefield of Confusion |
7
|
| Masamichi Fujisawa first in First Night: Battlefield of Confusion |
7
|
| Nanami Jinnai first in First Night: Battlefield of Confusion |
7
|
| Katsuhiko Jinnai first in First Night: Battlefield of Confusion |
7
|
| Shayla Shayla first in Second Night: The World of Beautiful Girls |
6
|
| Rune Venus first in Second Night: The World of Beautiful Girls |
6
|
| Diva first in First Night: Battlefield of Confusion |
6
|
| Afura Mann first in Second Night: The World of Beautiful Girls |
6
|
| Ifurita first in First Night: Battlefield of Confusion |
5
|
