Final_Eschelon
14-02-02, 01:13 AM
I just got done watching the first 8 Episodes in the El Hazard: The Magnificent World OAV DVD box set. It is nice, to say the very least. "Incredibly cool" is a much better way to describe the series. The animation is very much akin to that of the Tenchi Muyo! OAV series, and the audio is nice as well. Also, being a Pioneer title and a comedy as well, there is fan-service out the wazoo. Somehow it never goes too far overboard, which is nice because nobody I know likes to see anime titles degenerate into pointless obscenities simply for titilation or shock value (unless it's a hentai title, but that's a separate issue).
I immediately took a liking to all the characters in the series. Makoto, the hapless Tenchi-like hero/protagonist of the story isn't a total wuss (I can't stand the really goody-goody peacenik types. Relena Peacecraft of Gundam Wing comes to mind...), and he doesn't act quite as awkward around women as poor Tenchi does, which is a relief as that plot device tends to get overused in a lot of anime titles. Jinnai, Makoto's school rival (who has managed to concoct the false idea that everybody, including Makoto, is conspiring against him) is a kind of lovable wannabe fascist wierdo whose maniacal laugh is one of the most psychotic and undescribable things ever to grace any anime. I can't give an accurate portrayal of how it sounds; you need to hear it for yourself (I swear that laugh is one of the funniest damn things I've ever heard!). The three priestesses of Mt. Muldoon are some of the funniest characters in the series. I would have to say that my favorite out of all of them would be Shayla-Shayla, the fire priestess. Her power-up sequence is just plain fun to watch, and she gets this really wierd look on her face that is a mixture of psychotic glee, an insane power trip, and the knowledge that someone's about to get their ass fried. Then there are the two strangest characters in the entire series. One is Ura, a cat; the other is Alielle, princess Fatora's lover. These two sound fairly normal, but wait til you get a load of what they actually do. Ura, like I said earlier, is a cat, but cats on El-Hazard are quite different from Earth cats. They are, and this is the strangely hilarious part, wearable. The cats act as living armor. It is funny as anything to see one of these things in action, because one doesn't normally expect a chest plate to say "nyao" or sport a neat set of retractable claws. The other character, who is one of the cutest but strangest, is Alielle. She's about all of 4 feet tall, but from what I could determine she isn't a kid. This character easily wins the prize for being the absolute biggest, most outwardly flaming lesbian in ANY anime series in existance! She literally glomps or fondles the chests of virtually all of the main and supporting female characters at some point or another in the storyline. About 90% of her screentime is spent ogling over other girls or nuzzling their chests, which certainly isn't a bad thing (it just means more fanservice for the rest of us.) Woohoo! :D Hell, even the ending credits show a chibi-Alielle rampantly attempting to glomp the three priestesses.
The only qualm I have about this series is the subtitling job that was done for it. The subs are pretty rife with errors. There are more grammatical problems than I could count and in one instance the subtitles for one line of dialogue pop up for only about 1 frame (maybe 2) and are only readable if you hit pause at that instant (using the "Slow" feature on some DVD players to decrease the frame advancement rate is helpful in doing this). Come on, this is a Pioneer title! That company has more funding than virtually all other anime production houses (with the only real exception being Bandai), you'd think they could hire some good subbers. Oh well. that aside, the series is very well presented.
I edited this post on 2/15/02, and have finished watching all of the El Hazard OAV series. My final judgment? This series kicks ass! It has loads of comedy, action, and an actual plot to go with it. I personally liked OAV series 1 over OAV series 2, but that's my unique preferrence, and others will probably have different views. But opinions aside, El Hazard: The Magnificent world is most definitely a series to watch. It's just plain fun. I give it an 8 out of 10 on the kickass-o-meter.
Check it out!
I immediately took a liking to all the characters in the series. Makoto, the hapless Tenchi-like hero/protagonist of the story isn't a total wuss (I can't stand the really goody-goody peacenik types. Relena Peacecraft of Gundam Wing comes to mind...), and he doesn't act quite as awkward around women as poor Tenchi does, which is a relief as that plot device tends to get overused in a lot of anime titles. Jinnai, Makoto's school rival (who has managed to concoct the false idea that everybody, including Makoto, is conspiring against him) is a kind of lovable wannabe fascist wierdo whose maniacal laugh is one of the most psychotic and undescribable things ever to grace any anime. I can't give an accurate portrayal of how it sounds; you need to hear it for yourself (I swear that laugh is one of the funniest damn things I've ever heard!). The three priestesses of Mt. Muldoon are some of the funniest characters in the series. I would have to say that my favorite out of all of them would be Shayla-Shayla, the fire priestess. Her power-up sequence is just plain fun to watch, and she gets this really wierd look on her face that is a mixture of psychotic glee, an insane power trip, and the knowledge that someone's about to get their ass fried. Then there are the two strangest characters in the entire series. One is Ura, a cat; the other is Alielle, princess Fatora's lover. These two sound fairly normal, but wait til you get a load of what they actually do. Ura, like I said earlier, is a cat, but cats on El-Hazard are quite different from Earth cats. They are, and this is the strangely hilarious part, wearable. The cats act as living armor. It is funny as anything to see one of these things in action, because one doesn't normally expect a chest plate to say "nyao" or sport a neat set of retractable claws. The other character, who is one of the cutest but strangest, is Alielle. She's about all of 4 feet tall, but from what I could determine she isn't a kid. This character easily wins the prize for being the absolute biggest, most outwardly flaming lesbian in ANY anime series in existance! She literally glomps or fondles the chests of virtually all of the main and supporting female characters at some point or another in the storyline. About 90% of her screentime is spent ogling over other girls or nuzzling their chests, which certainly isn't a bad thing (it just means more fanservice for the rest of us.) Woohoo! :D Hell, even the ending credits show a chibi-Alielle rampantly attempting to glomp the three priestesses.
The only qualm I have about this series is the subtitling job that was done for it. The subs are pretty rife with errors. There are more grammatical problems than I could count and in one instance the subtitles for one line of dialogue pop up for only about 1 frame (maybe 2) and are only readable if you hit pause at that instant (using the "Slow" feature on some DVD players to decrease the frame advancement rate is helpful in doing this). Come on, this is a Pioneer title! That company has more funding than virtually all other anime production houses (with the only real exception being Bandai), you'd think they could hire some good subbers. Oh well. that aside, the series is very well presented.
I edited this post on 2/15/02, and have finished watching all of the El Hazard OAV series. My final judgment? This series kicks ass! It has loads of comedy, action, and an actual plot to go with it. I personally liked OAV series 1 over OAV series 2, but that's my unique preferrence, and others will probably have different views. But opinions aside, El Hazard: The Magnificent world is most definitely a series to watch. It's just plain fun. I give it an 8 out of 10 on the kickass-o-meter.
Check it out!