Characters/Fujisawa Masamichi

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OVA Timeline

Masamichi Fujisawa is a history teacher at Shinonome High. Not known for his hygiene or concern for fashion, Fujisawa is a lanky man with a mop of scraggly dark hair atop his head and his face is peppered with the occasional stubble. Clothing wise, he tends to opt for comfort over style and thus is more likely to be seen wearing a warm-up suit over an Armani and sandals instead of Bruno Magli.

However, while his dedication to his appearance may come into question, his devotion to his students and teaching cannot. He is definitely filled with school spirit and his dedication to his students can only be rivaled by his love for three things: 1. Smoking 2. Drinking 3. Mountain Climbing.

On Earth, Fujisawa was just a normal guy. All he wanted was to make an impact on the youth he encountered and enjoy his free time indulging in his hobby of mountain climbing and to also indulge in his vices like any other man. Not such a terrible thing. However, it is those vices that probably lowered many people's opinion of him in the school (both students and administration) as his drinking appears to be a known fact amongst the school population.

In a weird twist of events, this ordinary man is given an extraordinary gift. Upon his accidental arrival in El-Hazard, he is granted strength, agility, and energy comparable to that of a superhero's. With that power, however, also comes a caveat. He is only granted that power as long as he forgoes his beloved vices and stays clean lunged and sober, with the added bonus that is he completely abstains from ALL his vices he gains UNGODLY power.

Now, this man can truly have an impact. He can be, dare he say it, a hero. But can he maintain the self-control needed to not lose his gift by falling off the wagon?

Fujisawa is a man who sees the world in black and white, good and evil. He knows what is right and wrong, or at least what he THINKS is right and wrong. He believes in helping those in danger or trouble, whether he understands the circumstances and consequences or not. He believes that young people should keep their minds pure of indecent thoughts of the opposite sex.

When things happen that do not compute with his way of thinking, he tends to become a preachy and overbearing teacher, opting to use volume to make his point about why he is right is his beliefs.

However, at other times, he is the calmest presence in a situation, opting to let things happen as they come and to simply go with the flow. One has to wonder how much alcohol has influenced him in these times. Is he simply putting up a brave façade to keep others calm using alcohol as a crutch to help his maintain calm.

Thus we have Fujisawa-sensei, a man torn between his desire to do the right thing (as he sees it to be) and his desire to let things happen as they may and to simply cope with the consequences by drowning them in a pool of sake.

These days, it seems that Fujisawa has improved himself for the better. This can most likely be contributed to his lengthy engagement and eventual marriage to Miz Mishtal, the former Muldoon Priestess of Water. His love for her in combination with her "gentle" prodding has helped him clean up his act (abet, he does have his moments of weakness, but no man is a saint.) One can only assume with the addition of his first child, he'll only continue to make himself into the type of role model he wants his child to look up to.

Other than Miz, the other important relationships in Fujisawa's life are the ones he has with his students. Indeed, he sees himself as a type of surrogate father to Makoto, Nanami, and even Jinnai (The black sheep of his flock, as it were.) He feels a need to protect them, even though they all appear competent enough to survive on their own (in fact, each of them has done just that.) As they grow into adults, he gains a type of satisfaction in seeing them become self-sufficient adults, abet, occasionally annoyed at how mature they may be in terms of their attitudes about relationships.

Fujisawa, for the most part, has overcome his major vices and carved out a fine life for himself in his new home. He enjoys the new challenges his life has to offer him and has earned the respect of those around him as a war hero, teacher, and husband. He deserves a toast in his honor...

... but only if the world is not in danger. If that happens, the bar is closed.

Wanderers Timeline

For the most part, Masamichi Fujisawa of the Wanderers is identical to his OAV counterpart. His interests, strengths, weaknesses, and personality are all the same. Nevertheless, there were a few tweaks made to his character. Probably the biggest change is that he lost one of his vices: this Fujisawa does not smoke. By a similar token, he doesn't get an extra burst of super strength for quitting, either.

While it can hardly be said that the OAV Fujisawa is not a devoted teacher, the Wanderers Fujisawa actually takes things a step further, and attempts to continue his students' education by teaching class while they're in El-Hazard. He even attempts to teach a resistant Alielle, who turns the tables on him by teaching him about El-Hazard in return.

That's pretty much all there is to say, here. The folks at AIC recognized a well-designed character in the case of Mr. Fujisawa, and ported him over part-and-parcel to their new project. No need to improve on perfection, after all!

Manga and Videogame Timeline