Anime / El-Hazard: The Magnificent World

It is a place that dwells in the memory of those who still dream of its ancient glory. A world revered for its beauty, mystery and danger, on a planet of endless adventure. Such a land is known as El-Hazard. If your spirit has wings to travel, even across the breadth of a thousand million nights, imagination will guide the way and the gates of El-Hazard will always be open to you.

—Opening Narration

When he awakens a beautiful woman entombed in a mysterious chamber discovered under Shinonome High School, Makoto Mizuhara finds himself (along with several other people) catapulted across dimensions to the world of El-Hazard. Once the site of an unimaginably advanced civilization that destroyed itself in an apocalyptic war, it is now home to a culture in the "Arabian Nights" Days, sprinkled here and there with the remnants of ancient ultratechnology.

Once there, Makoto and his teacher, Masamichi Fujisawa, find themselves on the front lines of a Bug War between the human lands and the Bugrom, a civilization of immense insects. Makoto's life is complicated by his uncanny resemblance to a missing princess, whom he is drafted to impersonate. Meanwhile, Makoto's friend Nanami Jinnai is dropped in the middle of a desert; his arch-enemy, Nanami's brother Katsuhiko, finds himself among the Bugrom.

As Makoto, Mr. Fujisawa and Nanami struggle to help their new home of Roshtaria defend itself, Jinnai falls into the role of a military messiah to the Bugrom and begins leading them to victory after victory. Only the threat of the Eye of God, an unimaginably powerful weapon controlled by the royal family of Roshtaria, prevents the Bugrom from overrunning the human lands, but when Jinnai finds a disturbingly familiar superweapon of his own, matters begin to come to a head.

Meanwhile, the visitors from Earth learn that the transit to El-Hazard has changed them in unexpected ways, even as they discover that there is a secret, third side to the war. Add to that the revelation that there is more to Jinnai's superweapon than just a means of massive destruction. Plots revolve within plots, and victory may become defeat. Throw in a time loop, lovers separated, family reunited, a trio of elemental priestesses, an indiscriminately amorous teenaged lesbian and some broad comedy leavening the drama, and you have the makings for one of the better anime "miniseries".

El-Hazard was created by Ryoe Tsukimura (Tenchi Universe) and Hiroki Hayashi (Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki, Battle Athletes), who respectively wrote and directed the first OVA. The series is noteworthy for being one of the first anime whose English dub is considered superior to the original Japanese voice work. In fact, Hayashi and other members of the AIC production team consider the English cast to be the definitive voices of the characters, far superior to their Japanese counterparts. The animation is first-rate, and it has a lush orchestral soundtrack that perfectly evokes the "Arabian Nights" feel of the world, courtesy of Seikou Nagaoka.

El-Hazard was remade/expanded into a TV series called El-Hazard: Wanderers. This series generally followed the same plot outline, but there were significant changes to some of the characters, including a severe tuning-down of the lesbianism (though the hints are there if you look) and the exclusion of the Phantom Tribe. The OVA version itself had two sequels: El-Hazard: The Magnificent World 2 (short and not bad, though not the equal of the original), and El-Hazard: The Alternative World (which was Cut Short, running to only 13 of its planned 26 episodes).

There is also a manga, which is mostly the storyline of the first OVA with some of the characterization from the first TV show.

In 2018, AIC announced a crowdfunding campaign for an El-Hazard sequel pilot titled El-Hazard: The Dual World, which would be directed by Yūsuke Maruyama and take place after The Alternative World and reboot the entire franchise. Unfortunately, the campaign ended in failure, having only raised 16% of its intended goal.

Character page is a WIP.

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El-Hazard provides examples of:

• Abandoned Area: At the end of the first Magnificent World OVA, Ifurita is sent 10,000 years into the future so she can close the time loop. No one has inhabited Shinonome High School for centuries in this reality.
• Adaptation Personality Change: OVA Ifurita and TV Series Ifurita are very different characters, in both personality and appearance. Though, in a shout-out, TV Ifurita's personality shifts to one more like her OVA counterpart while she's under the control of the Eye of God (she gets better, though.)
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: Makoto in the OVA is largely unaware of Jinnai's intense hatred of him and sees Jinnai as a friend. However, in The Wanderers, Makoto is more aware of Jinnai's hostile intentions and views him more accordingly as an enemy.
• Adaptational Romance Downgrade: In The Wanderers Ifurita does not become a love interest to Makoto like she was in the OVA while Rune is the one who's Promoted to Love Interest. Instead, most of TV Ifurita's interactions occur with Jinnai, though they take on a more father/daughter dynamic.
• Adapted Out: Fatora, Kalia and The Phantom Tribe don't exist in The Wanderers. Taking Alielle's nymphomania (well, the most overt aspects anyway) and Nanami's original Anti-Magic with them.
• Addiction-Powered: Inverted with Fujusawa-sensei. He does gain super strength, but only when he stops drinking. When he stops chain-smoking, he gets even stronger. He's not happy about it.
• The Alcoholic: Fujisawa. He keeps a bottle of booze tucked into an inside pocket. He goes into obvious withdrawal when he sobers up...
• Alternate Continuity: The Wanderers and the manga adaptation both exist in seperate continuities from the original one.
• Amazon Chaser:
  • Alielle is initially drawn to Shayla's red hair and goes googley eyed when she starts to kick Bugrom ass.
  • Fatora thinks Gilda is beautiful... at least until the latter decides to beat some information out of her.
• Anti-Climax: The battle between Kalia and Ifurita-2. After all the build up and dramatic tension, Kalia easly dominates the fight in three simple moves and casually tosses Ifurita aside.
• Anti-Magic: Of the very specific kind. In the OAV Nanami's ability is to see through the illusions of the Phantom Tribe.
• Anti-Villain: Ifurita, despite her moniker of Demon God and her highly-destructive powers, isn't actually truly evil, only compelled to obey those who summoned her.
• Apocalypse Maiden:
  • Kalia, whose reason for being is to wipe out all existence as retribution for those races and tribes who were victimised by the Eye of God.
  • Being an Apocalypse Maiden is also Ifurita's true purpose in The Wanderers TV show.
• Artificial Human: Ifurita is some kind of cyborg (looks like a normal woman, except for a hole in her back used to insert the key meant to charge her up), and the same probably goes for Kalia.
• Arc Villain: El-Hazard has its own set of main antagonists, although Jinnai is the main villain of El-Hazard overall. Galus and his Phantom Tribe in the first OVA. Kalia in the second OVA. And Arjah in The Alternative World.
• Ascended Extra: Rune in The Wanderers, Fatora in the sequels of the OVA.
• Ax-Crazy: Kalia. While Ifurita is an Emotionless Girl and only obeys her orders, Kalia is elated when she destroys everything around her.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: Ifurita's powers allow her to do this easily, as she does with Shayla-Shayla.
• Beergasm: Fujisawa, any time he gets his hands on some alcohol.
• Belated Happy Ending: The ending shows that Makoto returns to bring Ifurita home to El-Hazard with him, but the anime doesn't show how Makoto manages to do it. By his older appearance, he'd been trying for a few years. Because of the OVA series' Idosyncratic Episode Naming where the episodes are titled "The First Night", "The Second Night", etc., Makoto is implied to have lived on El-Hazard for 1,001 nights before finding a way to return to Earth.
• Berserk Button: Don't touch Kalia. The first time she lets her murderous nature slip is when Fatora tries to grope her.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Queen Diva and Jinnai are co-rulers of the Bugrom. Though ultimately it's shown at the end of the series that Jinnai's power is really just a loan from Diva and that she can take it back anytime she pleases and force Jinnai to do things he really doesn't want to do.
• Big Bad Ensemble: In the first OVA, there's Jinnai and the Bugrom Empire competing with Galus and the Shadow Tribe.
• Big Good: Princess Rune Venus of Roshtaria is the commander of the Alliance in the first OVA. Afterwards, this is downplayed as her leadership role becomes less important to the plot.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: An In-Universe example occurs in the first episode when Makoto and Fujisawa are first stranded in El-Hazard and a... mumbling dolphin-headed mowhawked bear-thing... comes wandering out of the bushes, runs past them and dives back into the bushes, leaving the two gobsmacked humans staring and verbally wondering what the hell just happened. Subverted in that it does serve a purpose to the audience: to let them know that this isn't Earth anymore.
• Bitch Alert: Fatora's first onscreen appearance has her insulting Makoto, who served as her body double while she was captive, and tearing into Ura so abusively that the armor cat immediately defected to Makoto.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
  • Don't let Kalia's cute and clueless act fool you.
  • There was also Galus posing as a well meaning prince in the first OVA.
• Black Comedy Rape: At the end of The Alternative World, Queen Diva decides she wants to replenish the Bugrom race and won't take "no" for an answer. Then Jinnai is dragged towards her kicking and screaming. And it's all played for laughs.
• Blatant Lies: Alielle says that "I haven't been able to think of anyone else since [Fatora] was gone!" Of course, while Fatora was imprisoned, she had been busy trying to get into Shayla Shayla and Nanami's pants.
• Blessed with Suck: Fujisawa's opinion of the condition required for his power to work: sobriety.
• Book Ends: The first OVA begins and ends at Shinonome High School. At the beginning, Makoto discovers Ifurita, who transports him to El-Hazard. At the end, Ifurita completes the cycle at the high school, where she encounters an older Makoto, having returned from El-Hazard.
• Brick Joke: In the first episode of "The Alternative World", Jinnai tells Diva that they need more Bugroms, and she solemnly tells him that she needs his help and silently point at a nearby tent, freaking Jinnai out. In the final episode, before Jinnai can prepare his latest plot against Makoto, Diva reminds him of the repopulation project, but this time when Jinnai tries to weasel his way out she orders her Bugrom to restrain him and proceeds to mate with him offscreen.
• Broken Heel: When Ifurita attacks the palace in episode 4, one of the palace maids trips and falls while fleeing from her.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: No matter how petty or crazy he is, one has to give props to OAV Jinnai for being able to quickly marshal a force capable of conquering the world; stoppable only by MacGuffin.
• Calling Your Attacks: Played for laughs in The Wanderers with Fujisawa calling out the attacks he unleashes on the Bugroms. Alielle tries to copy him with her Alielle Kick... which is promptly no sell'd.
• Canon Immigrant: The silly version of Ifurita from The Wanderers became as popular as the serious original one, so a radio drama taking place in the OVA's continuity imported her in under the name of "Ifurina".
• The Chessmaster: Jinnai, especially in the OVA, is a rather capable politician and leader despite coming across as a complete buffoon. While his plans appear amateurish and simple-minded to the viewer, they usually work quite well. To add to that, he apparently launches a number of military campaigns that result in quick and easy conquests with an army that had utterly failed to be effective for centuries before his arrival. While the viewers don't get to learn much about what exactly he's doing, he apparently makes an excellent tactician, and this is why he comes so close to conquering El-Hazard.
• Chivalrous Pervert: When on her own, Alielle is actually rather sweet, and manages to get away with some rather outrageous flirting with Nanami and Shayla-Shayla, who find her advances amusing and flattering. However, this is not the case when Fatora's around; Fatora is an unrepentant Jerkass and Alielle loses any of her own morals when the Princess is giving orders.
• Cleavage Window: In the TV Series, every single attire worn by Rune Venus has a blatant opening on the chest, revealing her cleavage.
• Clingy Jealous Girl:
  • Nanami and Shayla-Shayla in the OVA continuity, both toward Makoto.
  • Miz towards Mr. Fujisawa.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: TV!Ifurita is somewhere between this and The Ditz.
• Consulting Mr Puppet: TV!Rune Venus in an early episode is seen talking to a small dragon-like creature while taking a bath... but when Makoto accidentally barges in we see that it was actually a puppet she was holding and talking to.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Jinnai with a feather duster on TV!Ifurita in one episode.
• Cool Old Guy: Dr. Schtalubaugh is a venerable-looking old man who's also one of the first people to open up to Makoto and Fujisawa, is quite cordial and reasonable and in The Wanderers he's even ready to go out in the wilderness to witness the Legendary Snow phoenomenon for himself.
• Cool Teacher: Mr Fujisawa is quite amiable and formal, greatly cares for his students and their safety. At one point in "The Wanderers" he even sets up a history classrom for Alielle to make sure his "students" won't lag behind.
• Continuity Reboot: AIC's crowdfunding campaign revealed that The Dual World would serve as a reboot for the franchise.
• Creepy Child: Nahato, Galus accomplices and member of the Shadow tribe with creepy illusory powers. The fact that he seems to be Galus' lover doesn't help.
• Cue the Sun: In the final scene of the first Magnificent World OVA, the sun rises as an older Makoto returns from El-Hazard and reunites with Ifurita at Shinonome High School.
• Cute and Psycho: Kalia. Unlike Ifurita, she looks younger, cuter and less developed. Also, unlike Ifurita, she loves destruction.
• Cute Monster Girl: The Bugrom are basically humanoid beetles that stand, on average, twice the size of a human being. Queen Diva, on the other hand, is a beautiful woman with pink hair, diaphanous wings, cute antennae and small black spots on her forehead that are presumably extra eyes. At the end of The Alternative World, she actually takes Jinnai as her mate and by the fourth installment of the series, they have a daughter named Farasha.
• Cut Short: The Alternative World was chopped at 13 of 26 episodes; the last two episodes were horribly rushed messes of trying to resolve a half-dozen subplots at once. And some of them don't even get mentioned, let alone resolved (like the Literal Cliff Hanger that Amazing Vanishing Love Interest Guy was left in before he, well, vanished).
• Demonic Possession: In "Alternative World", Arjah, taking the form of a shadow, possesses Gilda in his attempt to activate the Eye of God.
• Depending on the Artist: Alielle and OVA Ifurita's hair are blue or purple.
• Didn't Think This Through: Jinnai suggests that the Bugrom population has become too small, and that Queen Diva needs to make more little Bugrom. The Queen agrees, but needs Jinnai to help. Jinnai is horrified by the implications. They soon have a daughter, Farasha.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The "Demon Dolls", Ifurita and Kalia, can only be awakened by inserting their respective "Key Staves" into their activation modules (which is located directly above the cleft of their buttocks), then turning them. Ifurita moans whenever hers is activated, and must be recharged at regular intervals. Kalia makes no sound at all and is self-sustaining once activated, so she has no further need of her Key Staff afterwards.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune:
  • Etsuko Kozakura (Alielle) sang the Japanese versions of "Boys Be Free!" (the first ending theme to The Magnificent World OVA) as well as "Clever", the ending theme for The Wanderers.
  • Yuri Amano (Ifurita) sang the Japanese version of "Little Flower", the ending theme to the first OVA's final episode.
  • For the second OVA, Maria Kawamura (Ifurita) sang the opening theme in Norwegian. Along with Kozakura, Kawamura also sang the ending theme with Tomoko Ishimura (Fatora) and Rio Natsuki (Nanami).
• Double Standard: Rape, Female on Female: Alielle and Fatora sexually harassing many women, particularly Shayla-Shayla, and this is Played for Laughs.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: In the final episode of The Alternative World, Queen Diva rapes Jinnai to have new Bugrom.
• Dragged into Drag: Londs and Princess Rune meet Makoto and Fujisawa during the time of Fatora's abduction and decide to use Makoto's likeness to her to their advantage, in order to assure their allies that the Eye of God could be used at any time should the need arise. When Makoto refuses to go along with it, they imprison him and Fujisawa in the tower until he reluctantly agrees to do it.
• Dressed Like a Dominatrix: In the final episode of "The Alternative World", Fatora and Alielle dons skimpy leather dom suits before they put in motion their plan to seduce Qawool.
• Dungeon Bypass: Jinnai gets tired after following Kalia through some hallways in the second OVA, so she tells him about the shorter route through a wall. Which, of course, she opens up.
• Ecchi: Extremely so, with many naked girls in every episode. The Wanderers adaptation removes the ecchi elements, however.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: TV Ifurita and Jinnai have both dark hair and are unnaturally pale-skinned, possibly to convey the fact that they spend too much time indoors.
• Elemental Hair Colors: The three great priestesses of Mt. Muldoon: Shayla is easily identifed as the priestess of fire, thanks to her flaming red hair. Miz Mishtal, who presides over water, has lavender hair. And while Afura Mann's a brunette, her blue/sea green attire shows she controls wind.
• Elemental Powers: The Priestesses of Muldoon. Shayla Shayla (fire), Afura Mann (wind), Miz Mishtal and her successor, Qawool Towles (water).
• Emergency Impersonation: In the OVA, Makoto is shanghaied into pretending to be Princess Fatora almost as soon as he arrives in El-Hazard. She's disappeared, and two princesses absolutely have to be seen together to reassure the Alliance that activating the Eye of God is an option.
• The End of the World as We Know It: In the OVA, the misuse of the Eye of God can lead to a devastating apocalypse both on El-Hazard and in Cretalia. Unfortunately, having a Demon God such as Ifurita or Kalia on the loose is just as bad.
• Enemy Mine: During the climax of the OVA, Jinnai sides with the good guys against the Shadow Tribe, as he wants to conquer El-Hazard, not destroy it.
• Enfant Terrible: Nahato looks like a child, but he's still a dangerous member of the Shadow Tribe.
• Eviler than Thou: The Phantom Tribe to Jinnai and the Bugrom.
• Evil Is Hammy: Jinnai. Also, Galus goes from calm and understated to loud and commanding after revealing his true evil form.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Jinnai woke up Kalia without making sure that she was controllable.
• Evil Old Folks: Arjah, the self-proclaimed "Master of the Entire Universe" and High Priest of Dimensions, is the main antagonist of "The Alternative World" and a creepy ancient fossil.
  • Princess Fatora gets in some cackling of her own, and while she's on Roshtaria's side, she's also a massive bitch.
• Evil Sounds Deep: In the Japanese dub, both Galus and Jinnai have rather deep voices compared to the other characters, though the latter does have an incredibly high-pitched Evil Laugh.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: Jinnai and the Bugrom may be evil, but their conquest of the land is preferable to the utter destruction brought by the Shadow Tribe.
• Eyes Always Shut: Fujisawa, possibly to underline his affable nature.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Afura Mann's only got one pantleg.
• First Gray Hair: Miz Mishtal goes into hysterics after finding a single gray hair.
• Flat Character: Londs is the chief servant of the royal house of Roshtaria and this is pretty much all you can say about him.
• Foregone Conclusion: Based on how Makoto and Ifurita were shown to get back together in the original OVA series, it's clear that Qawool Towles from the later produced The Alternative World series won't be entering into any kind of relationship with Makoto, as the series she's a part of is only an Interquel.
• Foreshadowing: In the first episode of "The Wanderers", Jinnai goes on a rant against the student council, comparing them to bugs. A few scenes later, in a flashback, he's shown wearing a typical Japanese kid's bug catching outfit, with short sleeves, a straw hat, and net. He later goes on to lead the Bugrom army.
• Forged Message: In the first episode, Makoto walks blindly into a trap, after receiving a love letter from his childhood crush, Nanami, asking him to meet her alone, after school. In truth, the letter was from her brother, Jinnai, who reveals it was one of several, from her ample collection of 'practice notes'. At which point, Makoto correctly guesses she had written them as part of a "creative writting" assignment.
• Forgotten Superweapon: Ifurita is one, from a long-dead civilization.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: Part of what killed The Alternative World was that the party split in four directions, so it took four episodes to advance the plot of all of them.
• Gilligan Cut: When Makoto and Mr. Fujisawa break out of the prison where they're being held, they're soon accosted by some guards. Cut to Makoto being Dragged into Drag.
• The Glomp: Alielle has a tendency to latch onto any attractive female she can when Fatora's not around.
• Godzilla Threshold: The Eye of God's unsealing was due to Ifurita's unsealing and the increased threat that the Bugrom, who now control her, pose. It gets recursive when you realise the reason Jinnai went to search for Ifurita in the first place was because he'd heard Roshtaria was under the protection of the Eye of God.
• Gonk: In "Alternative World" Jinnai after fattening up, as well as Arjah, an old man with a broad flat face and round eyes which make him look like a goblin.
• Gratuitous English: "El-Hazard", being a Spanish prefix appended to an English word, does not make any sense in context to describe an Arabian Nights world. It's often assumed the land's name, and by extent the title, is supposed to be "Al Hazred".
• Half-Human Hybrid: Farasha is the daughter of Katsuhiko Jinnai and Diva, making her a Human-Bugrom hybrid.
• Handsome Lech:
  • Princess Fatora is legitimately attractive as well as rich, but those are all she's got going for her. She acts like she has a right to every girl around, doesn't really care about their sexual orientation or any prior commitments, backstabs Makoto because she sees him as being in the way, and nearly gets the world destroyed because Kalia's hot. Alielle's the only girl who can stand her.
  • Alielle's pretty, and usually pretty charming. When she's with Fatora, though, she becomes an appendage of her lechery, engaging in and supporting her sexual harassment games.
  • Dahl Narciss of Cretaria is a handsome dude who immediately lusts after Nanami and Qawool and shows nothing but contempt for Makoto.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: The underage Shayla Shayla is no stranger to sneaking a couple of bottles, and can match Mr. Fujisawa's capacity.
• Heel–Face Turn: Ifurita in the original OVA.
  • Averted in the TV series, since it's Ifurita is so un-evil that leaving her on the side of the villains really does no harm.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Yuba gives his life to rewind Ifurita in the second OVA.
• High School AU: Makoto gives Ifurita a set of memories like this, showing a set of flashbacks of his own memories in school, but with her inserted as an Ordinary High-School Student instead of a Person of Mass Destruction.
• Hot Consort: 15-year old Alielle for Fatora. Her parents are actually okay with this, as it means a steady job and an education.
• Hot Springs Episode: One in the first OVA and one in The Alternative World.
• Identical Stranger: Makoto and Fatora. And they don't have the same gender.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: In the OVA, the episodes are named "The World of _____."
• Idiot Ball: Afura Mann grabs it in the OVA when Ifurita attacks Roshtaria's palace. Ifurita takes out Miz and Shayla by using their own attacks against them. She then explains to Afura (the only one left standing at this point besides Makoto) that her power allows her to absorb and learn any attack thrown at her. Afura then immediately attacks Ifurita with her Badger's Slash attack which not only fails to hurt her, but then allows Ifurita to learn it herself, which she then uses to defeat Afura. She might have seen that coming.
• If It's You, It's Okay: When Alielle realizes that Makoto is a guy, she still seems to be rather attracted to him...at least when he's dressed as Fatora.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Qawool Towles, Miz's successor as Mt. Muldoon's water priestess in The Alternative World, has her name spelled as either Qawoor, Qawoorl or Kaoru.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: The Bugrom and The Wanderers versions of Jinnai and Ifurita.
• Insect Queen:
  • Queen Diva is the ruler of the Bugrom Empire. As such, part of her duty is to ensure there are a sufficient number of troops for their army and to sustain the Bugrom Citadel, which requires that she mate with someone. So, when Jinnai notes the shortage of troops and suggests she lays more eggs, she takes him up on the offer.
  • "The Alternative World" has a clan of white bug creatures (which, according to Katsuo, resemble Bugrom but actually aren't Bugroms) lead by a queen who, at first, seems like an amorous counterpart of Diva and hugs Jinnai... only to try to bite him and is later revealed that her real form is that of a giant white insect.
• Insistent Terminology: At least in the Japanese dub of the TV series, the staff used by Ifurita (both as a weapon and as a way to revive her) resembles a hybrid of a scepter and a winding key... and is called "hoko" (Halberd, a type of ancient Japanese polearm).
• Interspecies Romance:
  • In the TV series, a Bugrom has a crush on Nanami.
  • Makoto and Ifurita's relationship is this, given she's an Artificial Human of vague origin and he's a human being.
  • In the Alternative World continuity, Queen Diva (Cute Monster Girl bug) ends up mating with Jinnai (human), though, considering Jinnai was not at all willing and had to be forced into that one, it's more like Interspecies Rape than any sort of romance. With that said though, in some continuities, Queen Diva does show signs of romantic interest in Jinnai. It's never reciprocated though. El-Hazard: The Dual World reveals they end up having a daughter name Farasha Jinnai.
• Intimate Marks: Both Ifurita and Kalia's activation modules are located directly above the cleft of their buttocks. Each must be inserted with a keystaff to turn them on, and is every bit as suggestive as it sounds.
• I Thought Everyone Could Do That: Nanami and Phantom Tribe illusions; she often doesn't realize that she isn't seeing what everyone else is. For example, we discover her powers during a scene when a female Phantom Tribe assassin approaches the group disguised as a scantily-clad blonde bombshell; since her true form is a blue-skinned Kiyone Makibi expy, Nanami doesn't notice anything odd about the men's dropped jaws right away. Later on, in Roshtaria:
  Nanami: (ecstatic) How cute! A wedding between the Royal House and the Phantom Tribe!
  crowd murmurs in confusion
  Londs: (chuckling) Lady Nanami, surely you jest? This is Galus, her Royal Highness' fiance.
  Nanami: I surely doth not. His skin be blue.
• It Makes Sense in Context: The plot proper of the first OAV begins when a beautiful woman comes out of that mysterious capsule and lovingly embraces Makoto by name and neither he or the audience has any idea of why how she knows that or why she is acting that way. At the very end, you see that same event from her point of view and it makes perfect sense by then.
• Jerkass: Jinnai and Fatora, though the latter has some rare Jerk with a Heart of Gold moments, and in The Wanderers, even Jinnai had a big Pet the Dog moment at the end.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Dahl from The Alternative World is a horrible pervert and Harem Seeker who takes all the women in Cretaria for his harem, while callously brushing aside the woman who does love him, and using his army to tax and terrorize the colonies. However, he did actually care about Gilda; he pushed her away because she was a member of the Royal Family of El-Hazard and he didn't want to bring her into the mess surrounding the Eye of God. A brief flash after the final battle implies they might have finally gotten together to have a child
• Joker Immunity: El-Hazard without Jinnai and the Bugrom would be boring, so they escape all the time.
• Karma Houdini: Nahato seemingly survives his brief fight against the Priestesses and manages to flee with the K.Oed Galus, never to be seen again.
• Lack of Empathy: The Phantom Tribe are willing to completely destroy El-Hazard and have no feeling for its inhabitants.
• Language Barrier: In the TV series it's downright implied to be the only reason why Bugroms and humans are at war: when we see Diva talking to Rune Venus, from the latter's POV Diva talks in a distorted, buzzing voice, while Diva hears Rune's answer as a series of high-pitched chirping that only gets on her nerves. When Nanami actually comunicate with her, Diva doesn't seem so bad.
• Last-Name Basis: Jinnai (except for his sister Nanami), Mr Fujisawa and Dr.Schtalubaugh.
• Laughably Evil: The main reason why Jinnai has so many fans: while he wants to be an Evil Overlord, his antics, methods and bad luck are hilarious to watch and ultimately fails to be a legitimate threat by himself.
• Laughing Mad:
  • Miz completely loses it when Mr. Fujisawa stands her up at the altar, breaking into a mad cackle before she finally goes berserk.
  • The jury's out on Jinnai; he definitely has the cackling down, but how sane he is is up for interpretation.
• Le Parkour: Fujisawa-sensei's power includes a bit of impossible free-running.
• The Load: Aside from having authorization to command the Eye of God, Fatora is worse than useless, and her nymphomania gets the group into trouble more than once.
• Lost Technology: It's implied that the Eye of God (including the one of Cretaria), the Demon Gods and possibly more are part of an extinct civilization whose technology is currently lost on the modern-day population.
• Love Dodecahedron:
  • More or less; Makoto is rare in that he decides who he's interested in rather quickly and makes it pretty damned obvious to the other girls. The sequels tried to Tenchi Muyo! things up a bit, throwing three other love interests at him to complicate his life. Then again, the girl he's interested in isn't actually present in the sequels, which take place before the final scene of the original in which Makoto is reunited with Ifurita.
  • In The Wanderers, Makoto makes it pretty clear he's interested in Rune Venus early on, and it's not so much about Nanami and Shayla-Shayla competing for his affection, but coming to terms with his decision.
• Magic from Technology: Given the consideration regarding the Lost Technology it's implied that the Elemental Powers bestowed by the Lamps are a case of this.
• Magitek: Most of the technology of El-Hazard seems to be magical in nature or at least interacts effortlessly with magic. Ifurita and Kalia are both prime examples, as is the Eye of God, but Ura (a cat who turns into a Bulletproof Vest) also qualifies.
• Master of Illusion: The Phantom Tribe's signature power. Fortunately, Nanami's superpower allows her to see through them.
• Meadow Run: At the end of the first Magnificent World OVA, Ifurita runs towards the now-older Makoto when he returns from El-Hazard.
• Meaningful Name: Miz Mishtal, a priestess of water^note  :Miz = "mizu" = water. Ifurita also sounds similar to "Ifrit", a type of middle-eastern demon.
• A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: When Makoto reads Kalia's memories, it's a horrifying Mind Rape utterly unlike Ifurita's mind.
• Mindlink Mates: Makoto's ability to interface with ancient technology causes him to inadvertently link his mind with Ifurita's, leading to him seeing the whole of her past and suffering. He immediately falls for her. Note that they aren't linked when they aren't in physical contact, however.
• Minion with an F in Evil: TV Ifurita wants to be the walking Armageddon Jinnai wants her to be... but she's too adorable and clumsy to be taken seriously and her powers only work if she's not focusing on them.
• Misapplied Phlebotinum: In Roshtaria, the Eye of God's dimensional technology is solely used as a Weapon of Mass Destruction. In Cretaria, their Eye of God is used to power the kingdom and maintain farming colonies in the sky. Said floating landmass is later revealed to be the Eye of God itself.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal:
  • Ura is Fatora's armor-cat, and at first only serves Makoto because Makoto is Fatora's body double. Then when the real Fatora shows up and starts treating Ura like trash, Ura quickly decides that he likes Makoto better.
  • Heavily implied with the Phantom Tribe, who were victims of the ancient war the the Eye of God created, and the fact that the survivors of it did not like having that reminder present.
• The Mole: Galus poses as a nobleman and Rune Venus' fiance, but is actually the leader of the Phantom Tribe.
• Mr. Vice Guy: Alielle is a sweet girl but also a nympho who constantly sexually harasses girls. She's also an Extreme Doormat to Fatora, who is anything but a good person.
• Must Have Nicotine: Fujisawa after running out of smokes in OAV episode 7.
• Nailed to the Wagon: Other characters regularly prevent Fujisawa from drinking because his super strength only manifests when he's sober.
• New Super Power: Upon entering El-Hazard, all the earthlings receive a unique superpower each: Makoto becomes able to "read the soul" of ancient technology, Fujisawa gets Super-Strength as long as he doesn't smoke or drink booze, Nanami can No-Sell illusions and Jinnai can comunicate with Bugrom.
• Nice Guy: Makoto is alway polite and calm, never resorts to violence and doesn't hold grudges, not even to Jinnai.
• New Life in Another World Bonus: Happens to four characters. Protagonist Makoto Mizuhara gains the ability to interface and manipulate the technology of Ancient El-Hazard just by touching it, hard drinking teacher Masamichi Fujisawa gains Super-Strength... but only when he's sober (a situation he views very much being a case of Blessed with Suck), and Makoto's Unknown Rival and one of the recurring antagonists Katsuhiko Jinnai gains the ability to understand and communicate with the insect Bugrom, while his younger sister Nanami's powers vary depending on continuity. In the TV series she shares her brother's ability to communicate with the Bugrom, while in the original OAVs she has the ability to see through the illusions cast by The Phantom Tribe (who don't exist in the TV series, hence the change in powers).
• No Endor Holocaust: The fact that Jinnai ordered Ifurita to destroy an entire city in the first OVA and that she succeeded isn't important apparently.
• Nominal Hero: Fatora is theoretically an ally of the good guys, but she's a Jerkass with few redeeming features, never does anything particularly heroic, and often backstabs Makoto simply because he's making it hard for her to get girls.
• Obliviously Evil: Literally for TV!Ifurita: she's capable of apocalyptic mass destruction only when she's not focusing on it: trying to actively blowing away a city with wind only results in a pleasant breeze, but when she absent mindely waves her staff behind her she summons a giant tornado which uproots and smash a building.
• Oddball in the Series: As El-Hazard is considered the "sister series" to Tenchi Muyo, The Alternative World can be seen as the El-Hazard equivalent of Tenchi in Tokyo, an experimental series than clashes in tone with previously established installments. The animation was different (and some would say downgraded) compared to past installments. Also, rather than continue exploring the world of El-Hazard, Makoto and the cast are thrust into the world of Creteria. Additionally, some of the focus is given to new characters in another setting like Dahl, Gilda, and Chabil who have nothing to do with the lore of El-Hazard. And just like how Sakuya was made Tenchi's new love interest in Tokyo, Qawool Towles is introduced as Makoto's latest love interest but their relationship apparently doesn't really go anywhere, considering we know Ifurita will end up with Makoto later on. While The Alternative World doesn't quite get as Denser and Wackier as Tenchi In Tokyo did, it was enough of a radical departure in both tone and storytelling that it put the franchise on ice for a long period of time.
• Offhand Backhand: Ifurita delivers a magnificent example to Jinnai in episode 7 of the OAV
• Omnicidal Maniac: Kalia, and she was designed that way intentionally by her creators.
• Onee-sama: Shayla Shayla earns this title from the nymphomaniac Alielle.
• Organic Technology: The Trigger of Destruction is apparently a hybrid of crystals, metal and organic matter.
• "Pan Up to the Sky" Ending: The first Magnificent World OVA's final scene ends with a quick pan up to the sky while the sun rises.
• Personality Powers:
  • The Priestesses with their Elemental Powers fit this well. Shayla-Shayla is Hot-Blooded, Afura Mann is The Smart Guy (evidently), and Mizu Mishtal's personality tends to be rather fickle and adaptable.
  • The travelers from Earth. Fujisawa, a boisterous gym teacher, gains Super-Strength (when sober). Makoto, a shy geek, becomes a Technopath. Nanami, a High-School Hustler, gains a Third Eye. Jinnai, a Control Freak, acquires the ability to speak to, and thus basically control, the Bugrom.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Ifurita is a sexy Robot Girl who already annihilated one civilization years ago.
• Pet the Dog: While Fatora is usually a dispotic bitch, there are a few scenes in "Alternative World" where she's actually caring with both Alielle and Parnasse as they make their way to Cretaria's palace.
• Pillar of Light: The effects of the Eye of God, usually right before things go south for whatever's in the light. In the first OVA, it fires wormholes at its targets, displacing them into another dimension.
• Power Copying: Ifurita can copy any attack or ability used against her once.
• Power of the Void: What the Eye of God initially appears to be; it creates what look like miniature black holes, sucking matter into themselves, but they're actually portals between dimensions. This is how the Phantom Tribe arrived in El-Hazard, and why they want to destroy it.
• Pragmatic Villainy: When they're all stuck inside the nest of the white bugs and Shayla Shayla is in a pit filled with insect eggs about to hatch, Arjah tells Jinnai and Katsuo to rescue her, as her powers may be of use.
• Promoted to Love Interest: Rune Venus in Wanderers becomes Makoto's Love Interest, replacing Ifurita.
• The Protagonist: Makoto is clearly the main character, whose ability to understand ancient technology allows him to save the day in pretty much both the OVA and the Tv series. He's also the only character who cannot fight.
• Punch-Clock Villain:
  • Ifurita is just with Jinnai because he released her.
  • Some episodes suggest the rank-and-file Bugrom aren't evil so much as heavily influenced by their leaders. One episode of The Alternative World, the purple Bugrom helps Shayla Shayla pick up a heavy device she was looking after unprompted and only attacks her when Jinnai tells him to, and in The Wanderers, thanks to her ability to communicate with the Bugrom, Nanami manages to start a peace negotiation with them. Unfortunately, she screws it up when she crushes a small Bugrom thinking it was a large cockroach, which horrifies the entire assembled Bugrom population, particularly Queen Diva.
• Quitting to Get Married: In The Alternative World, Mizu retires from her role as Priestess of Water to marry Fujisawa, and is replaced by Qawool.
• Remaster: The first Magnificent World OVA was remastered in 1998 for a laserdisc boxset release; it was used for all subsequent home media releases beginning with the 1999 DVD release in Japan. The soundtrack was completely remixed to fit a 5.1 surround sound setup, with several sound effects being altered and the dialogue being re-recorded. However, as Tetsuya Iwanaga was unavailable, Masamichi Ota replaced him as Makoto Mizuhara.
• Reprise Medley: "Little Flower", the ending theme for the seventh and final episode of the first Magnificent World OVA, includes the first four bars of the main theme.
• Rescue Romance: Parodied with Fujisawa and Miz and played straight with both Shayla Shayla and Makoto and later Makoto and Qawoor in the Alternative World.
• The Reveal: In "Alternative World", Arjah is the Great Priest of Dimensions, who was sealed away outside of his body and needs the Eye of God to return to the material world.
• Revenge Before Reason: The Phantom Tribe in the first OVA, and whoever designed Kalia in the second one.
• Road-Sign Reversal: Played with. Jinnai sabotages a sign to get the heroes to run into a trap he's setting up. Mr. Fujisawa still takes the original path, however, because he wanted to take the path going away from the sign. He's a mountain climber and relishes the challenge. It turns out the sheer cliff of the actual path is far more dangerous than Jinnai's trap.
• Robot Girl: Ifurita and Kalia seems to be the case, possibly alongside the other Demon Gods.
• Sacred First Kiss: Fatora steals Shayla-Shayla's by pretending to be Makoto. Hilarity Ensues when she finds out.
• Sadistic Choice: During the climax of "The Alternatve World", Arjah puts Makoto into one: either releasing him and unleashing the Eye of God on Cretaria but being sent back to El-Hazard or even to Earth, or not and being stuck in Cretaria with his friends forever.
• Satellite Love Interest: Male example — the Amazing Vanishing Love Interest Guy, who disappears not long after his introduction.
• Scaling the Summit: Mr. Fujisawa is an avid mountain climber. During the final story arc, he tries to climb a mountain in the middle of a desert and falls in, finding a garden oasis inside instead.
• School Uniforms are the New Black: Protagonist Makoto and antagonist Katsuhiko wear theirs throughout the OVA.
• The Scream: A Running Gag throughout the OAV.
  Fujisawa: Oh shit! Someone else is out of alcohol!
• To Serve Man: The "white Bugroms" who find Jinnai and Katsuo feed them with lots and lots of food until he gets obese. Shayla Shayla correctly deduces that they're actually fattening him up to eat him.
• Sexy Soaked Shirt: What Makoto sees upon first meeting Rune Venus in the TV series.
• Shout-Out:
  • In the English dub, Jinnai nicknames his Quirky Mini Boss Squad of Bugrom Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, Gummo... ...and Margareth (After the Marx Brother's foil, Margareth Dumont).
  • On one occasion, Ura (a cat-like animal that can envelop Makoto's torso and act as a suit of "living armor") exclaims "It's a job...", much like the dinosaurs-as-living-appliances would in The Flintstones.
• Silence Is Golden: The ending of the first OVA, where Ifurita reunites with the older Makoto outside of Shinonome High School, is played without any dialogue.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Qawool only have eyes for Makoto Mizuhara after he saved her life in the first episode of The Alternative World.
• Sky Face: Sometime after arriving in El-Hazard and finally accepting they're no longer on Earth, Makoto has one of his unrequited crush, Nanami, while wondering where she was and if she was safe. He promptly dismisses it, believing she was probably still safe at school. Wrong.
• Spanner in the Works: The Phantom Tribe had no way of knowing that Nanami would pop up and reveal that Galus, Rune Venus' fiance, was actually one of them.
• Stable Time Loop: Across dimensions even. Ifurita's actions at the end of the OVA send her to Earth's past, where she hibernates in an underground chamber beneath what will eventually be the site of the school; the discovery of her chamber and her subsequent awakening set off the chain of events which result in her being sent to Earth's past.
• Stock Footage: The priestess' attacks when using elemental magic always use the same animations.
• Sunken City: The namless ruined city used to showcase the ancient destructive power of the demoness Ifurita.
• Super-Strength: Fujisawa's power in El-Hazard but only when he's sober. And in the OAVs running out of cigarettes gives him an additional boost.
• Super-Toughness: Ura looks like an adorable fluffy cat, but when in armor mode giant axes shatter against his body. He survives getting shot by Ifurita's Power Key Staff (albeit at a lower setting) twice. Once in the first OVA and again in the second with the second Ifurita.
• Take Over the World: Jinnai and the Queen Diva's motivation are to take over El-Hazard.
• Talking Animal: The armour cats, or at least Ura. We see Rune Venus's cat on at least one occasion but it never speaks.
• Team Pet: Ura, especially more so in the TV series where he gets an entire episode devoted to himself and how the group met and adopted him.
• Theme Naming: In the English dub, Jinnai's personal squad of Bugrom are named for the Marx Brothers and Margaret Dumont.
• Third-Option Love Interest: Qawool, who only pops up in The Alternative World, and only after Makoto has already chosen his girlfriend, nonetheless pops right into his harem. It helps that said Love Interest was Put on a Bus at the end of the first OVA.
• Time Travel: Implied at the end of the first OVA, with an older Makoto appearing before Ifurita.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: The Wanderers version of Ifurita is quite stupid, with highlights including... Well, read on.
• Tornado Move: One of the later episodes has TV Ifurita whip up a monster sized tornado, on Jinnai's orders to wreak havoc on Roshtaria's allies. But, being a ditz and a Minion with an F in Evil, it soon spirals out of her control, leaving her trapped inside it, with no idea how to stop it. In the end, the wind preistess, Afura Mann, sets aside her differences with Ifurita to help her, by listening to the wind's "voice". Then they combines their powers to calm it, dispelling the tornado.
• Town Girls: The priestesses. Shayla is the butch, Miz is the femme, and Afura is neither.
• Trapped in Another World: Our four heroes. Makoto Mizuhara, Mr. Fujisawa, Nanami, and Katsuhiko Jinnai.
• Trolling Translator: Jinnai does this deliberately during a meeting between Queen Diva and Princess Rune Venus. Having acquired the same immigrant superpower as her brother, Nanami eventually starts doing it too.
• Trope Codifier: By now, Isekai Anime shows where the main hero gets transported to, or gets reborn into, an alternate fantasy world with his own harem of girls (or guys if it's a female protagonist) are about as common as liquor stores in every town and city. But before the Isekai genre really took off, it was El-Hazard that set the story blueprint and template that later shows would normalize and make commonplace in modern times.
• True Sight: Nanami's special ability is to see through illusions.
• A Twinkle in the Sky: Happen to Alielle and Fatora in the final episode of The Alternative World.
• Two-Keyed Lock: Roshtaria's Weapon of Mass Destruction, the Eye of God, requires both ruling princesses to actually fire: Rune and Fatora Venus, in the case of the series. Fatora's abduction becomes a major point of the series, since the Alliance, whom Rune Venus chairs, reserves the right to use it against Bugrom Empire. It also what leads to Fatora's abduction in the first place by Galus' tribe-members.
  • This might inadvertently be one of Fatora's few redeeming features: she seems to have no interest whatsoever in abusing the fact she's one of the two keys to the bomb.
• Unknown Rival:
  • Makoto is largely ignorant of Jinnai's hatred for him, and actually thinks they are, or were, on friendly terms.
  • Subverted in the TV continuity where Makoto is much quicker to realize Jinnai is an enemy who has it out for him and his friends.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: Nanami and Makoto have a mutual crush on each other, which evaporates on Makoto's part as soon as he becomes Mindlink Mates with Ifurita.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal:
  • In The Magnificent World, Alielle screams her head off when she gropes "Fatora" and finds out that she's a he.
  • The priestesses honestly think Makoto is Princess Fatora for a while, and are stunned when Makoto falls into the springs during Shayla's fight with Nanami and the truth is revealed.
  • Likewise, in The Alternative World, when Fatora thinks she's hunted down Alielle, she actually gropes her brother Parnassus.
  • When Gilda catches Fatora in the shower she assumes she's Makoto until she accidentally grope her breasts while trying to restrain her.
• Unstoppable Rage: Kalia at first seems quite normal. Then, once her rage is unleashed, she simply won't stop.
• Unwanted Harem: Makoto collects the interest of nearly every girl in the series. Usually, the one constant in either universe, OVA-continuity or TV-continuity, is that both Nanami and Shayla-Shayla tend to get the short end of the stick with Makoto usually falling in love with someone that's not them (either Ifurita or Rune).
• Villain Decay: In the first OVA, Jinnai is perhaps the most competent enemy that Makoto and co. face, and is almost unstoppable when he gains control of Ifurita. In the second OVA, he's lost none of his competence, but because Ifurita is gone and his army has been annihilated, he and his forces suffer from Monster Threat Expiration and are far less effective. After this, he tends to be treated as a joke rather than a serious threat.
• Villainous Rescue: Jinnai saves Makoto and Nanami from Galus and Nahato at the climax of the original OVA, wanting to stop Galus under the pretense of "A true ruler doesn't destroy the land he wishes to conquer!"
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Shayla-Shayla and Nanami snark at each other and fight over Makoto all the time, in a best-friends sort of way.
• Wacky Wayside Tribe: In "The Alternative World", Jinnai and Shayla Shayla encounter the white Bugrom-like creatures. Their glowing red eyes are frequently shown in the dark areas beneath the castle near the reactor turbines. A later episode has a scene with Cretarian soldiers holding back a wave of them. The accompanying dialogue of it being their breeding season might have implied an impending bug attack later on.
• Water Is Womanly: Miz Mishtal is the water priestess of Mt. Muldoon and a feminine, beautiful woman who wants to keep herself looking good to get married.
• Wave-Motion Gun:
  • The way to weaponize the Eye of God results in one. Specifically, it fires wormholes at its targets, displacing them into another dimension.
  • Ifurita's Power Key Staff, which she at one point uses to obliterate an entire city in one shot.
• Weapon of Mass Destruction: The Eye of God, which can only be activated by the members of the royal family and its presence it's pretty much a deterrent against possible enemies or invaders.
• Where It All Began: The final scene of the first Magnificent World OVA takes place at Shinonome High School, where Ifurita first encountered Makoto in the present.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: A series of still drawings at the end depict the characters in various situations on Earth.
• Who Will Bell the Cat?: When Nanami and Shayla want to know what's up with Ifurita, they can't agree who will ask him.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Qawool's powers can go haywire whenever she sees anything insect-related such as the Bugroms.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Nahato, despite his child-like appearence, is much more adult in mind than he looks.
• World of Action Girls: The only action guy is Fujisawa, while on the other hand we have three (four, counting the "Alternative World") elemental priestesses and two Demon Gods in human form.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Qawool, a priestess in love with Makoto Mizuhara and addresses him formally. In the TV series, Rune fits the bill.
• Yes-Man: Alielle is normally a sweet young lady and a loyal friend, if an uncontrolled nymphomaniac. Stick her in the same room as Fatora though and she becomes this. And an uncontrolled nymphomaniac.

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