El Hazard: The Wanderers (神秘の世界エルハザード) is a 26 episode retelling of the
fantasy/comedy/adventure OAV series El
Hazard by Hayashi Hiroki (Original creator of Tenchi Muyo) and Tsukimura
Ryoe. The series originally aired in Japan in 1995 and 1996.
Mizuhara Makoto is a talented student. When his science experiment is tampered with by his rival Jinnai Katsuhiko both of them, along with Katsuhiko's sister Nanami and their teacher Fujisawa, end up transported to a different world. The world they find themselves in is known as El Hazard. Makoto and Fujisawa are taken in as guests by the royal princess Rune Venus. Nanami ends up by herself for a while. Katsuhiko convinces his captures, large bug creatures, to make him their leader. As Makoto, Fujisawa and Nanami work to find a way to return home they end up having to deal with Katsuhiko's attempts at world domination.
As with any loved story that doesn't last long enough there comes a double edged sword when your desires are fulfilled. Usually continuing a story after its original version has concluded results in less than desirable results. The Wanderers is a case example of that. The original El Hazard OAV is one of my favorite series' from the 90's. Shortly after it came out the TV rendition, The Wanderers was created. Way back then I only ended up buying the first 3 VHS copies, all in Japanese with subtitles, so I never got around to finishing it. I was used to the Pioneer English dub voices from watching the original series in English dub though. Right Stuf currently owns the licensing rights to the series in North America and is hosting it all in dub on YouTube. Why not enjoy this old favorite as my background 'music' while at my day job. I quickly discovered why I stopped buying the tapes back in the 90's.
There are some glaring differences from the original story. Many take away some of the charm and enjoyment of the original that makes it special to me. The biggest thing is how everyone gets transported to El Hazard. In the original the demon Ifurita awakens in the school, knowing who Makoto is, and sends him and the others to El Hazard to save it. Their mission to return home brings them full circle to Ifurita, who has been awakened by Katsuhiko as an ultimate weapon. Makoto recognizes her as the girl responsible for sending them all to El Hazard and works to release her from the prison she is in. The OAV ends with Ifurita throwing herself into the Eye of God to save El Hazard, promising to return to Makoto again, it segued to the beginning of the OAV, where Makoto returns from El Hazard to save Ifurita from dying leading to their new life together.
In The Wanderers, as stated earlier, Katsuhiko is responsible for sending everyone to El Hazard by messing with Makoto's science experiment. In the original OAV Makoto is convinced to stand in for Rune Venus's missing younger sister. In The Wanderers she has no sister and Makoto doesn't have to spend half of the show in drag. Without the sister, they also don't deal much with Aleah's lesbian tendencies, only hinting at it a little when they are initially seeking out the 3 priestesses. The younger princess was kidnapped by the Shadow Tribe who is trying to use the Eye of God to exact revenge on their status as a hated and shunned peoples, who had been teleported to El Hazard in ancient times. In The Wanderers the Shadow Tribe is non-existent.
The time frame in each series is different as well. The OAV's only cover a short amount of time, days or weeks. The TV series covers what is probably months perhaps even a year. This has a dramatic affect on the immediacy of the characters plight and goal. The TV show ended to set up for a continuation of mindless antics in the Magnificent World.
Everyone's personality is intact with one glaring exception, Ifurita's. In the original OAV she was the central catalyst to the entire story, in the TV show she was relegated to the aho character. Idiotic, goofy but pure hearted, although this does change in the end when she merges with the Eye of God. To a lesser extent Ura was also dumbed down a bit, to being a barely intelligible animal where she was sharp tongued in the original story.
One way to look at The Wanderers is as if the entire El Hazard story is a galge and this is one possible outcome, a completely separate scenario. The series really is disappointing though. It was incredibly formulaic and tiring. There are entire episodes that are pointless, only there to build some sort of relationship between Makoto and the Princess, but mostly there to fill out the series to a full 26 episode run. The artwork, while close to 20 years old, is pretty low quality. Watching it in English reminded me of the horrible things Pioneer did with recording new OP and ED in English.
If you really want to watch this, which I don't recommend, Right Stuf owns the licensing rights in North America. It is readily available on disc and on their YouTube channel. Stick with the original OAV series instead. I fear the follow up OAV's may be based on The Wanders instead of the original material. Time to find out...
Mizuhara Makoto is a talented student. When his science experiment is tampered with by his rival Jinnai Katsuhiko both of them, along with Katsuhiko's sister Nanami and their teacher Fujisawa, end up transported to a different world. The world they find themselves in is known as El Hazard. Makoto and Fujisawa are taken in as guests by the royal princess Rune Venus. Nanami ends up by herself for a while. Katsuhiko convinces his captures, large bug creatures, to make him their leader. As Makoto, Fujisawa and Nanami work to find a way to return home they end up having to deal with Katsuhiko's attempts at world domination.
As with any loved story that doesn't last long enough there comes a double edged sword when your desires are fulfilled. Usually continuing a story after its original version has concluded results in less than desirable results. The Wanderers is a case example of that. The original El Hazard OAV is one of my favorite series' from the 90's. Shortly after it came out the TV rendition, The Wanderers was created. Way back then I only ended up buying the first 3 VHS copies, all in Japanese with subtitles, so I never got around to finishing it. I was used to the Pioneer English dub voices from watching the original series in English dub though. Right Stuf currently owns the licensing rights to the series in North America and is hosting it all in dub on YouTube. Why not enjoy this old favorite as my background 'music' while at my day job. I quickly discovered why I stopped buying the tapes back in the 90's.
There are some glaring differences from the original story. Many take away some of the charm and enjoyment of the original that makes it special to me. The biggest thing is how everyone gets transported to El Hazard. In the original the demon Ifurita awakens in the school, knowing who Makoto is, and sends him and the others to El Hazard to save it. Their mission to return home brings them full circle to Ifurita, who has been awakened by Katsuhiko as an ultimate weapon. Makoto recognizes her as the girl responsible for sending them all to El Hazard and works to release her from the prison she is in. The OAV ends with Ifurita throwing herself into the Eye of God to save El Hazard, promising to return to Makoto again, it segued to the beginning of the OAV, where Makoto returns from El Hazard to save Ifurita from dying leading to their new life together.
In The Wanderers, as stated earlier, Katsuhiko is responsible for sending everyone to El Hazard by messing with Makoto's science experiment. In the original OAV Makoto is convinced to stand in for Rune Venus's missing younger sister. In The Wanderers she has no sister and Makoto doesn't have to spend half of the show in drag. Without the sister, they also don't deal much with Aleah's lesbian tendencies, only hinting at it a little when they are initially seeking out the 3 priestesses. The younger princess was kidnapped by the Shadow Tribe who is trying to use the Eye of God to exact revenge on their status as a hated and shunned peoples, who had been teleported to El Hazard in ancient times. In The Wanderers the Shadow Tribe is non-existent.
The time frame in each series is different as well. The OAV's only cover a short amount of time, days or weeks. The TV series covers what is probably months perhaps even a year. This has a dramatic affect on the immediacy of the characters plight and goal. The TV show ended to set up for a continuation of mindless antics in the Magnificent World.
Everyone's personality is intact with one glaring exception, Ifurita's. In the original OAV she was the central catalyst to the entire story, in the TV show she was relegated to the aho character. Idiotic, goofy but pure hearted, although this does change in the end when she merges with the Eye of God. To a lesser extent Ura was also dumbed down a bit, to being a barely intelligible animal where she was sharp tongued in the original story.
One way to look at The Wanderers is as if the entire El Hazard story is a galge and this is one possible outcome, a completely separate scenario. The series really is disappointing though. It was incredibly formulaic and tiring. There are entire episodes that are pointless, only there to build some sort of relationship between Makoto and the Princess, but mostly there to fill out the series to a full 26 episode run. The artwork, while close to 20 years old, is pretty low quality. Watching it in English reminded me of the horrible things Pioneer did with recording new OP and ED in English.
If you really want to watch this, which I don't recommend, Right Stuf owns the licensing rights in North America. It is readily available on disc and on their YouTube channel. Stick with the original OAV series instead. I fear the follow up OAV's may be based on The Wanders instead of the original material. Time to find out...
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