A superscientific and/or magical artifact beneath Shinonome High School in Japan sends three students and a teacher to a Persianesque alternate dimension. Makoto Mizuhara, 17, is a cross between a nerd and an idealistic knight. Katsuhiko Jinnai is the stereotypical rotter from a British school novel; a cheat and a schemer, though not a coward. His sister, Nanami, is a bit bossy and materialistic but basically good-hearted. Mr. Fujisawa doubles as chaperone and comedy relief; he is an amiable but weak-willed drunkard and chain smoker. The world of El-Hazard is at war, with the good nations (allied under leadership of Roshtaria) defending themselves from the evil Bugrom Empire whose femme-fatale Queen Diva leads an army of giant insect warriors. The Eye of God, an orbiting satellite doomsday weapon left over from an earlier technological civilization, can only be controlled by the two princesses of Roshtaria, but one of them, Princess Fatora, has just disappeared. If news gets out it could destroy the morale of the allies. Makoto happens to be an exact lookalike of Fatora, so he is drafted to impersonate her until she can be found: the Zenda setup, except that it requires a very embarrassed boy to dress in drag, with appropriate risque setups like trying to sneak into the men's room when he has to go. Jinnai offers his services to Bugrom as a would-be conquering Napoleon (he names the giant bugs of his command staff after his favorite Japanese movie actors), so Makoto idealistically has to help the Roshtarians. There are three priestess/magicians of Fire, Air and Water. A love rivalry develops between Nanami and Shayla-Shayla the hot-tempered Fire Priestess over Makoto, who wants no part of it. Mr. Fujisawa wants to get back to Earth before his cigarettes run out, unaware that husband-hunting Water Priestess Miz Mishtal has her eye on him. And so forth. A detailed cast and synopsis of all the subplots would fill several pages. There are assassins, evil "Phantom tribesmen" (fantasy Dark Elves under another name), and lots of other major characters (not to mention the minor ones), all of whom have distinct personalities that usually clash amusingly, alternating smoothly between humorous and dramatic scenes. The pseudo-Middle Eastern fantasy costumes and landscapes by Nobuhito Sue are truly beautiful, and the music score by Seiko Nagaoka is of theatrical feature quality.

The original El-Hazard was released as seven OAVs (the first is 45 minutes, numbers 2 through 6 are 30 minutes each, and the climax is 40 minutes) between May 1995 and January 1996. The first episode was so popular that plans were quickly made to milk El-Hazard to death. A 25-episode TV remake, El Hazard: The Wanderers, started on the air before episode 5 of the OAV came out (October 6, 1995 through March 24, 1996). It retells the same basic story, but with more emphasis on the subplots (lots of aimless wandering about the world) and eliminating most of the risque humor (the cross-dressing situations; the nude bathing scenes). The costumes and landscapes are still lovely but it is painfully obvious that the animation quality has been cut by almost 50%.

An actual sequel, El Hazard 2: The Magnificent World, was only four OAV half-hour episodes, released between March and October 1997. (It is the final DVD of the beautifully-packaged 3-DVD boxed set.) The poor-quality animation is still evident. In this rendition, Mr. Fujisawa gets cold feet on his wedding day and runs off to explore El-Hazard. The others set off on a quest to find him, joined by the real Princess Fatora who only appeared in the last moments of the first series. She is a spoiled bitch lesbian, and a running gag is that she constantly uses her resemblance to Makoto to try to seduce the girls who are in love with him. They all cross paths with Jinnai, still trying to become the generalissimo of a Bugrom Empire; he has discovered a new doomsday device from that earlier civilization and is about to try it out ... El-Hazard 2 definitely suffers by comparison with the original series, but it is a pleasant sequel for fans who want to spend a couple more hours with the charismatic characters.

El Hazard: The Alternative World, Volumes 1 - 4. © 1998 AIC, Pioneer LDC, Inc., TV Tokyo.

El-Hazard: The Alternative World. V.1, The Priestess of Water. V.2, The Spring of Life. V.3, Ruler of the Universe. V.4, Dreams of Tomorrow.
TV series (13 episodes), 1998. Director: Yasuhito Kikuchi. V.1, 4 episodes/100 minutes; V.2 - 4, 3 episodes/75 minutes each. Price & format: DVD bilingual $29.98 each. Distributor: Pioneer Entertainment.

The final entry in the franchise is a second TV series, El-Hazard: The Alternative World; 12 episodes broadcast from January 7, 1998 to March 26, 1998 with a 13th epilogue episode added to the later video release. This is a sequel to both OAV series. Miz Mishtal has stepped down as Water Priestess to marry Mr. Fujisawa, and a new Water Priestess, Qawoor, is being coronated when the whole cast is swept off to an alternate world. There they find the same-old same-old. Arjah, an evil self-styled "ruler of the universe," is trying to conquer the Kingdom of Creteria. He needs a mystic weapon, the Spring of Life; the attempt to activate it has drawn Qawoor and those around her to this world. Makoto & Co. nobly have to save Creteria as they did Roshtaria; Jinnai finds this world also has giant bug warriors who will take his orders; etc. The main difference lies in a major subplot involving Gilda, the young commander of Creteria's royal guard. Gilda is well-intentioned, but her pride in her own abilities and her lack of confidence in Creteria's apparently-weak ruler leads her to plot a military coup "for the good of the nation;" an internal weakness in Creteria's defense which both Jinnai and Arjah are quick to exploit. A.I.C.'s animation is again clearly limited in comparison to the original story, and Makoto has to figure out how to save the day while fighting off the distracting romantic attentions of Nanami, Shayla-Shayla and Qawoor. There are certainly many worse anime titles than El-Hazard: The Alternative World; but as with El-Hazard 2, this is a sequel which suffers in comparison with the original work.