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Page 1 of 2
 Okay, this one took a while - welcome to the longest single
article I've posted to this site so far, and please don't forget the
read the whole thing...! El-Hazard is an anime of legend, almost,
but as it's never had an el cheapo DVD release, I've passed it over
several times in favour of newer shows. Madman finally got around
to releasing it last month, and for a reasonable price too, so now's my
chance to find out what all the fuss was about...
OVA1.1 - Battlefield of Confusion
Katsuhiko Jinnai has problems -
he's just been rumbled for rigging the elections for school President,
and his main rival, Makoto Mizuhara, is the one responsible for
uncovering his plot. To make things worse, his own sister Nanami is
helping Makoto out. The discovery of an ancient ruin beneath their
scool gives Jinnai a chance to at least grab some free publicity for
himself - but the ruin has a strange power of its own. When it's
activated, everyone around it is frozen in a state of suspended
animation, except for Makoto. When he goes to the ruin to try and find
out what has happened, he finds a woman there, who knows who he is from
when they last met - 10,000 years ago. Her last act is to send Makoto,
Jinnai, Nanami and their teacher Fujisawa-sensei through time to the
world of El-Hazard. While Makoto and Fujisawa end up in the 'care' of
the kingdom of Roshtaria, Jinnai ends up in the Bugrom Empire - and
promptly sets about planning to take over the world...
OVA1.2 - The World of Beautiful Girls
Makoto's
doing rather too well at impersonating Princess Fatora - to the point
where even Fatora's apparent lover, Alielle, can't tell the difference.
Until she gets a grope of his tackle, anyway. His latest task is to
visit the three priestesses on Mount Muldoon, to perform a ritual that
Roshtaria's allies have demanded be carried out to prove their
committment to their alliance. Meanwhile, Jinnai is doing almost too
well as the Bugrom Empire's new military commander, and one by one the
human nations are beginning to fall to the Bugrom. When he hears about
"Fatora's" mission to unseal the Eye of God, he decides she must be
destroyed - and he's even more determined once he realises Makoto's
involved...
OVA1.3 - The World of Hot Springs
Having failed
at the first attempt to persuade the priestesses of Mount Muldoon to
unseal the Eye of God, Makoto & co decide to follow Afura and
Shayla-Shayla to their purification ritual and try again. Can you say
"onsen episode", anyone? The ritual is due to take place at a desert
oasis, and the trip through the dunes to get there proves
extremely difficult. Definitely worth it when they get there, though -
until Makoto's cover is blown when Nanami shows up. Jinnai, meanwhile,
is looking for some sort of advantage over Makoto - Diva, Queen of the
Bugrom, seems to know of a possibility - Ifurita, being of legend and
immense power - and the woman Makoto met in the school's shrine...
OVA1.4 - The World of the Demon God
Jinnai
and his Bugrom sidekicks head for the island where Ifurita is rumoured
to lie dormant, while Makoto and the gang try to get there first.
They're not the only ones on the case, either - the Phantom Tribe have
their own people on their way, with instructions to help the Bugrom if
need be. Jinnai and Makoto reach the Forbidden Island at around the
same time, and so the race is on to see who can reach Ifurita's resting
place first. Once there, there's the small matter of how to
control her. Makoto's also not prepared to discover that he's met
Ifurita before...
OVA1.5 - The World of Thunder
Ifurita's been unleashed on El-Hazard,
and she's not in any way reluctant to use her awesome destructive power
- which makes the Bugrom, Diva and Jinnai very happy indeed. Her
meeting with Makoto is preying on her thoughts, though. Back in
Roshtaria, the allied nations - urged on by Galus - are pushing even
harder for the Eye of God to be deployed in their defence. With
Ifurita on the loose, no-one's in any position to argue. Away from the
action, Makoto's on the wrong end of a love triangle, as Shayla-Shayla
and Nanami vie for his attentions, while Fujisawa's bride-to-be Miz
resorts to drastic measures to keep him from drinking. Shame no-one
asked him first - either about the drinking, or the wedding.
Meanwhile, the Phantom Tribe continure to experiment on the real
Fatora, looking for a way to seize control of the Eye of God, while
Ifurita travels to Roshtaria, looking for some answers from Makoto...
OVA1.6 - The World of Gleaming Light
With
Ifurita seemingly set on killing Makoto, the Priestesses rush to his
defence - but Ifurita's able to mimic their powers and easily defeats
then using their own abilities. When she gets her opportunity to
deliver the killing blow, though, she's unable to do it - Makoto's able
to read her memories & share his memories with her, and what she
learns from the experience leaves her unable to follow through on her
plans. After Ifurita retreats, Shayla-Shayla decides to look into just
what's going on between Makoto & Ifurita, while Miz contines with
her plan to rope Fujisawa into marrying her. Meanwhile, the Phantom
Tribe have learnt enough from their experiments to have a way to
activate the Eye of God, giving Galus a chance to initiate his plan to
defeat both the Alliance and the Bugrom, while the Bugrom, under
Jinnai's command, continue their conquest of the Alliance nations...
OVA1.7 - The World of Endless Adventures
Galus
activates the Eye of God, but before he can unleash its power, Ifurita
intervenes to stop him and he's forced to retreat. With Roshtaria
unable to control the Eye without Fatora, though, Jinnai seizes his
chance and launches the final phase of his invasion of the Allied
nations. In a last-ditch attempt to shift the balance of power, Makoto
leaves to try and recapture Fatora, with help from the Priestesses and
Fujisawa. Saving Fatora means another confrontation with Ifurita - and
with Jinnai, but when Makoto is able to destroy Ifurita's obedience
curcuit, Jinnai's plans for domination begin to fall apart. With
Fatora returned to Roshtaria, the Eye of God is back in the game, but
the Phantom Race have sabotaged the Eye & Rune Venus and Fatora are
unable to deactivate it. With the Eye running out-of-control, there's
only a little time left before the world of El-Hazard is detroyed...
This series completely live up to the hype, which is very unusual these days. El-Hazard is from AIC's earlier days, before they realised that is was easier to make a quick buck by stretching a show out for as long as possible (Tenchi Muyo!,
anyone?), so these seven episodes make up a complete story, with a
proper ending and with the male lead having made a choice from among
the girls on offer. Of course, they went an undid all that good
work when they made the various sequel and spin-off series, but that's
not for worrying about here.
The pacing of the story's very good, as well - there's a lot going on,
but there's breaks in the story for comic relief in amongst all the
mayhem and destruction. It's also one of those rare shows where
there isn't really a character that's impossible to like.
Add it all together, and you get the easiest "Recommended" review I've
ever had to do. But there's more - the OVA Collection also
includes El-Hazard 2, but for that you'll have to read on...
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