Introduction

In early 1993, Hiroki Hayashi had just finished his directing job on "Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki". His joint collaboration with Masaki Kajishima had been an unexpected success. Fans of the Original Animation Video series cried out for a sequel, and Kajishima was game. Hayashi, however, was not.

Hayashi's reasons for not directing the second Tenchi OAV were varied. He wanted to try something new, for a start. Hayashi was never one to get tied down to a single idea, as his previous directing jobs had proved, and was always striving to try out new and different things. Another problem was a conflict of ideas with the co-producer of the first Tenchi OVA. Hayashi, instead of putting up a fight, decided to leave the directing job without a struggle, venturing back out into AIC to try new and bolder ideas.

Not long after this, Hayashi began constructed ideas from experiences that he had as a child. He had used this technique with Kajishima on the Tenchi OVA project, and fed these new memories as possible ideas for a new OVA. More prominently however, Hayashi took influence from a book he had a read at a young age called "Princess From Mars". Hayashi loved the sci-fi genre and picked up elements from "Princess From Mars" and fed them into his new project.

This new project was to be known as "El-Hazard".

In 1995, Hayashi Hiroki and Tsukimura Ryoei (who also worked on Tenchi Muyou: Ryou-Ohki OVA) decided to team up for a new animation project. Taking part of the formula that made Tenshi Muyo so popular with an all-around-good-guy leading male becoming the center of attention for several female suitors, they then added the concept of a 'fish-out-of water' by taking several of the main characters and placing them on a distant world which could be described as coming straight from 1001 Arabian Nights. What you end up with is an excellent combination of sci-fi, action and adventure. However, underlying the entire story is also an excellent romantic comedy. To use an overused phrase, "There is something for everyone."

The formula proved to be successful. Quickly after the first 7-part Original Video Animation (OVA) was completed, AIC commissioned a 26 episode TV series. Another 4 part OVA followed and also another 13 episode TV series. There were also Manga versions of the various series, novelizations and radio dramas produced.

However Hayashi left the series after the first OVA, satisfied that he had told the story he had wanted to tell and moved onto other projects. Tsukimura only stayed on for the first OVA and TV series. AIC was quite eager to cash in on the popularity of the characters and story and continued the series without them. Fan reception of each progressive follow-up series was usually lukewarm or worse. It just seemed that the series was lacking without the original creative force behind it. (This is very similar, in many fans' opinions of why the Tenchi Muyou franchise got progressively worse as AIC was desperate to suck whatever cash they could while the characters were still semi-popular.)

The final El-Hazard incarnation of noteworthiness was El-Hazard: The Alternative World, which finished in 1998. Since that time, nothing new in terms of news about the series has come out and it would seem that El-Hazard ended more or less with a quiet whimper rather than the bang some fans had hoped for.

Characters

The Wanderers

The Roshtarians

The Priestesses

The Bugrom

The Phantom Tribe

The Demon Gods

The Cretarians

Locales

Earth

EL-HAZARD

Cretaria

General Info

Knowing where everything is located is only one part of surviving in El-Hazard. There are a lot of important things that one should know if they wish to make their way through the magnificent World. This section briefly covers a collection of topics that a traveler may find most useful.

• Intelligent Species of El-Hazard
• Plants and Animals of El-Hazard
• Politics of El-Hazard
• Religion in El-Hazard
• Money in El-Hazard
• Transportation in El-Hazard
• Career options in El-Hazard
• Food of El-Hazard
• Popular activities in El-Hazard
• Technology of El-Hazard