El Hazard: The Wanderers

Title:El Hazard: The Wanderers
El Hazard TV
El Hazard: The Magnificent World - The Wanderers
Wanderers
神秘の世界エルハザード (TV)
Overall:Rent
Keywords: , , , , , , ,
Notables: AMANO Yuri
Animation - AIC Spirits
Animation - SoftX
INOUE Kikuko
IWANAGA Tetsuya
NATSUKI Rio
OOKI Tamio
R1 License - Pioneer (Defunct)
SHIMAZU Saeko
One quiet autumn day, the Shinonome high school students are busy preparing for their school festival. Fujisawa-sensei, a Rock Climbing fanatic, is inspecting the school grounds; the business savvy Nanami is selling box lunches; Jinnai the president of the student council is caught up in an unscrupulous scandal; and finally Makoto is completely immersed in inventing a device about which even he hasn't got a clue. This incident occurs when this peaceful day is almost over. Jennai, who's insulted Makoto, has caused his invention to operate recklessly. The machine roars, and throws Makoto and the others into another world. What will Makoto, Jenni, Fujisawa-sensei (the rock climbing history teacher) and Nanami destinies be in this magnificent new world?


26 Episodes 23 Mins.

R1 By Pioneer / Geneon
[edit] The ↗El Hazard franchise:

Original timeline: Retelling of the first OVA:
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Rent 7 6 7 7 7 6 Ggultra2764 [series:194#1552]
Considering this take on El Hazard was a spinoff and it came via Netflix, I decided to rent the series to get a peek at what the show was like. By the look of things though, it seemed like the series put focus on delivering comedy at the cost of focusing on a number of characters and exploring aspects to the world of El Hazard. And in the case of the comedy, it was hit or miss for me. Seeing some of Nanami's tactics in getting money when on her own in El Hazard and Miz's attempts at wooing Fujisawa were a hoot for me while scenes with Fujisawa's drinking habits and Jinnai's evil cartoon-style antics and behavior had me slapping my forehead at what I was seeing. The series did build up enough on the development of Makoto and Rune's relationship where I could believe the two were falling for one another despite signs of a harem being apparent at points with Nanami and Shayla, especially with how Jinnai's actions push along the relationship. Nanami's case was believable considering the close friendship she has with Makoto that the show did well enough in exploring yet Shayla's attraction was poorly handled. The series also doesn't really bother exploring elements to the world of El Hazard such as what led to the conflict between humans and the Bugrom, the manipulation of the elements from the three priestesses and the origins of Ifurita.

Overall, El Hazard: The Wanderers did offer up enough to keep me caring enough to press on with the series with some moments of comedy and decent plot developments yet it lacks enough depth in exploring the fantastical world of its series with some other nagging elements of comedy that push my buttons.

Last updated Friday, June 03 2011. Created Friday, June 03 2011.
Rent Forbin [series:194#1573]
Anime Type
DramaMedA more plausible story than the original
ComedyMedMostly Jinnai
ActionLowThere is some fighting but it usually happens in the filler
SciFiMedThe 3 Priestesses
EcchiLowA bath scene is about it

This should've been titled El Hazard - Alternative instead of the OVA 2. This is a redo of the entire El Hazard OVA 1.

Take out Rune's bitchy sister. Take out Makoto's powers over Technology. Make Alielle straight. Take out ALL nudity. Make Ifurita a comedy vehicle. Make Ifurita a brunette.

Give Nanami a bigger part. Add in a romance between Makoto and Rune. Make it a harem. Make the whole darn thing G rated. Add a bunch of filler episodes.

I felt like I was watching El Hazard crossed with Excel Saga. It was good but it wasn't the original El Hazard. Still it's a G-Rated form of El Hazard (They hinted a little bit between Jinnia and the Bugrom Queen but that was it, a hint). So it's safe for all ages. It's cute.

Last updated Monday, December 05 2005. Created Monday, December 05 2005.
Watch 5 6 6 5 7 Tom [series:194#1086]
It's a rearranged rehased version of The magnificent world. The only things about this I liked were a few of the character designs (Diva was cute in this, so was the new Ifurita, Rune Venus was hot too). I pretty much memorized El-Hazard line for line, and this actually insulted me that they would stoop to this. If it wasn't in the El-Hazard "family tree" I wouldn't be so harsh.
And if I must say so, Mokoto gets wimpier in every incarnation he goes through. I wanted Jinai to through him off the roof during that ridiculous dual of theirs.

Last updated Monday, December 01 2003. Created Monday, December 01 2003.
Rent 7 7 6 7 6 6 AstroNerdBoy [series:194#436]

I had not seen the original El Hazard OAV's nor the Alternate World TV sequel when I saw this title. Taking into consideration that this was a remake of that original, I decided to see this series first and then the original OAV's/TV series.

Storywise, Mokoto is doing an experiment that even he no longer knows really why he's doing it. That is a great analogy for the series as a whole it is a story being done without knowing why (beyond making a quick yen). Nanami, a major character, is all but forgotten...for several episodes! What? But this is only the start of the problems. The series suffers from characters who have almost no depth and a story with almost no depth. Things just happen with no explaination as to why. Characters go through the motions without any real feeling. This is due to the writers wanting to make their own mark on the series while paying tribute to the original OAV. So Jinnai has to end up with the Bugrom because thats who he ended up with in the OAV. The hows and whys of this were deemed unimportant.

Humor wise, most episodes have one good laugh and that's it. The main problem though is with the highly juvenile nature of the show. This is primarily revealed in the character of Jinnai. He's gone insane as he leads the Bugrom and is done as a bufoon cartoon badguy as is the queen and the insects. The stories are written for a younger audience which is fine, but a serious letdown for those whove seen the original OAV series.

Despite all of these problems, I found myself looking forward to the next episode, so when I'd finished the first 2 DVD's (with the next 2 on the way), I was bummed not to have any more episodes to see. The series did get better as it went along so something worked though I'm not sure what. Maybe it was my desire to see Rune-hime and Makoto get together. Their romance was sweet, especially since Rune is voiced by Inoue Kikuko. Rune was made several years younger in order to romance Makoto and to add to the harem element I suppose. It worked though. What also worked was no lesbian princess -- no Fatora! This also meant that Alielle was not a lolita lesbian play-toy which was also a relief.

Bottom line: light "fluff" (to borrow another reviewers term) with zero depth, yet something I mostly enjoyed killing time with

.

Last updated Wednesday, September 17 2003. Created Sunday, April 27 2003.
Watch 2 4 8 5 3 Jack Walrath [series:194#375]
Some remakes of popular anime aren't too bad. Sadly this is not one of them. The animation is pretty poor considering it came from AIC. It attempts to expand on the characters, but all the filler episodes are pretty dull and the overall storyline is pretty weak. I don't mind the new Ifurita, but I wish they had done more with her. I liked the relationship between Makoto and Rune, but that is not enought to save the series. Most of all I hated Afura's new attitude. Pretty much this is El Hazard with the seriousness pretty much gone leaving a dull series that consists of loosely connected comical episodes.

Last updated Wednesday, September 04 2002. Created Wednesday, September 04 2002.
Watch 6 6 7 5 5 Kaitou Juliet [series:194#137]

If I hadn't seen the OAV's first, I might have liked this series better. The broad outline of the plot is the same, but some of the characters have been changed. A lot of people are upset with the "new" version of Ifurita, but I was bothered more by the changes in the character of Princess Rune. About the only thing I liked was having more of the three priestesses; they are fun characters.

I had to think for a bit about just what bothers me about this series. It isn't simply that it's different from the OAV's, and it isn't the fact that the comedy is broader. I think what bothers me is that in the transition from OAV to TV, the series lost its heart. It became cutesy. Princess Rune was once the serious, dedicated ruler of a threatened country; now she's a powder-puff girl who has to have a romance with the hero. Makoto's love interest in the OAV's seemed much deeper and more interesting. But most importantly, the elements of real pain and seriousness have been stripped away, leaving Wanderers as sentimental fluff without much heart.



Last updated Monday, April 09 2001. Created Friday, March 16 2001.
Rent 7 7 7 7 CatWoman [series:194#65]
This one is pritty good! It is not the best anime in the world but it is a very good one! It is clean and has a sweet story line. It has some lovable charicters but none that are rememberable! I would go out and rent it, but as for buying it...

Last updated Friday, November 17 2000. Created Friday, November 17 2000.
Rent 6 6 7 6 6 The Coyote [series:194#64]
This was a entertaining series, mind you it dosn't hold a candle to Tenchi or slayers but if you need a laugh go out and rent this one.
Personally being a rock climber and a mountian climber my favorite character was Mr. Fujisawa. (altough I don't like to drink as much as he dose fortunatly I don't know any one who is that bad.)
This is a relaxing comedy meaning there is nothing that really grips you but it's still entertaining fairly clean no problem for kids in my opinion.

Last updated Saturday, September 02 2000. Created Saturday, August 26 2000.

Other Sites
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Andrew's El Hazard Page http://hcs.harvard.edu/~alhuang/elhazard/
A fan site.

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