Manga Focus

By Dov Sherman


El-Hazard, The Magnificent World

Like a dream from a time faraway, a sweet memory lingers from the distant past. Like a kingdom that you reach after many years of dreaming. El-Hazard is eternal homeland and the land of never-ending adventures. As long as there is a challenging spirit and a readiness to fly into infinity, the gate to El-Hazard shall be opened for you across millions of nights!


The Princess Fatora - Or Is It?

Makoto is Transported to the Magnificent World of El-Hazard

In the style of the sci-fi pulp fiction of Edgar Rice Burroughs comes El-Hazard, the Magnificent World, a seven-part made-for-video series, directed by Hiroki Hayashi with screenplay by Ryoei Tsukimura. It's a story of magic and enchantment, a quest to save a kingdom from war. A story that we've seen before, but this time, with a twist that no transgendered person with a taste for fantastic adventure would want to miss!

It begins at a high school in modern day Tokyo. Makoto Mizuhara is an average schoolboy, perhaps a bit androgynous in appearance, but friendly, honest, talented, and athletic. Over the years, Makoto has become the unwilling rival of student body president Katsuhiko Jinnai. Makoto has never meant to do anything to Jinnai but has inadvertently bested him year after year. Now, Makoto is turns out to be the key witness who can prove that Jinnai's presidency was bought through illicit means and Jinnai has no intention of allowing Makoto to testify.

On the night of the same day when Jinnai has claimed responsibility for the discovery of the ruins of an ancient and mysterious temple hidden beneath the school, he lures Makoto the campus with a phoney love letter from his sister in a scheme to kidnap Makoto, hiding him away until after the hearing. But, while Jinnai chases Makoto around the school, a strange light appears over the campus and everything and everyone except for Makoto freezes in place. Makoto follows an unknown female voice into the ruins where he finds a mysterious woman who claims to know and love him, and to have been waiting to see him for ten thousand years. She casts a spell and sends him to another world, El-Hazard.

In El-Hazard, Makoto finds Fujisawa-sensei, his perpetually drunken homeroom teacher. When huge bug-like creatures appear on the horizon, chasing a beautiful woman, Fujisawa discovers that being transported to El-Hazard has granted him superhuman strength. Defeating the bugs, they discover that the woman is the Crown Princess Rune Venus who, at first, seems to recognize Makoto but then realizes that he isn't the person she thought.

Princess Rune's entourage soon arrive and take them all to the palace aboard a magnificent flying ship. At the palace, the Princess explains that her kingdom, Roshtaria, is under attack by the Bughrom, an evil race of bug-like creatures led by Queen Diva. Her sister, the Princess Fatora, has been missing, presumed kidnapped, and while the people do not yet know of her disappearance, once the knowledge leaks out, there will be panic. But, there is hope, for, when she shows them a painting of Princess Fatora, the similarity to Makoto is uncanny.

Perhaps you're familiar with the classic novel The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope, in which the main character is forced to impersonate the king to foil a plot against the throne, which screenwriter Ryoei Tsukimura claims as a source of inspiration for El-Hazard. If not, you may have seen this same plot device used in the modern film Dave, in which Kevin Kline is forced to impersonate the United States President to hide the fact that the President is in a coma, following an exhausting evening with a prostitute. It's an old story, not all that different from Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper. But, this time, with a twist of gender.

Now, in El-Hazard, Makoto is pressed into service, impersonating Princess Fatora, and soon, along with Fujisawa-sensei and Fatora's cute lesbian lover Alielle, Makoto sets out to find the High Priestesses of Mount Muldoon, the ask them to allow Roshtaria use the most powerful weapon, the Eye of God.

Meanwhile, Jinnai finds himself in the heart of Bughrom territory where Queen Diva identifies him as the savior prophecied in their ancient texts who would arrive to lead the Bughrom to victory over their enemies. Now a simple high school rivalry escalates with Jinnai as the Bughrom Supreme Military Commander and Makoto as an ersatz Royal Princess. Upon hearing that Makoto has gone to obtain the Eye of God, Jinnai plots to sieze control of the ultimate weapon, the demon god Ifurita.

Soon, Makoto, Fujisawa, Alielle, and the High Priestesses race to the forbidden island where a fierce battle to gain control of Ifurita ensues. Falling through a chasm, Makoto finds Ifurita, who turns out to be the mysterious woman who he had found in the ruins below the high school. But when Jinnai awakes the sleeping demon, she does not recognize Makoto and, controlled by Jinnai, begins a reign of destruction and terror across the Roshtarian Kingdom.

In some ways, Makoto's role as Princess-impersonator falls short of my own transgendered expectations. His royal attire, tends toward the ceremonial, as opposed to the flouncy lace and tulle one might expect in a European fantasy. His duties lead him into heroic adventure rather than court romance. But the comedic quality is no lessened and more than made up for by the adorable antics of Alielle, the lesbian comic relief who falls first for Makoto, then Jinnai's sister, Nanami, and finally for the High Priestess Shayla-Shayla. When Makoto and company rescue the real Princess Fatora, we discover that Makoto's attempts at Princessly conduct have been much more feminine and dainty than the real thing, as Fatora turns out to be a domineering, abrasive, and arrogant butch. Political Correctness aside, a very amusing twist.

While Makoto's situation may not lead him into any gender-bending romance, he still finds himself the center of a romantic triangle between Nanami and Shayla-Shayla, yet still drawn toward the mysterious Ifurita. His transport to El-Hazard has given him the power to control ancient artifacts and this power has shown him what is hidden deep within Ifurita's heart. Makoto discovers that Ifurita is not evil by choice but simply the unwilling slave to whoever wields the power key staff. If he can find a way to free Ifurita from her enslavement, Makoto can save Roshtaria, defeat Jinnai, and win Ifurita's eternal thanks and admiration.

Hiroki Hayashi's El-Hazard series has proven very popular with the audiences both in Japan and in the west, where it has been released in English translation by Pioneer Entertainment. A television series has sprouted since the release of the videos. However, it tells a slightly altered version of the story which leaves out the Princess Fatora entirely, leaving no reason to get Makoto into a dress.

While the transgender content may be played down as compared to series such as Ranma 1/2 or Futaba-kun Change!, El-Hazard is stil an extremely entertaining series, capturing the spirit of high adventure, a swashbuckler-romance, with as a great an emphasis on the feelings of the heroes rather as their escapades, with a spectacular ending which will leave you with a sentimental lump in your throat and your heart soaring on the wings of adventure.



Jinnai Plots His Revenge


Alielle Loves Girls


The Demon God Ifurita Lays Waste to Roshtaria


The True Princess Fatora, Prisoner of the Bughrom


A Romantic Triangle
Makoto and the Women of El-Hazard
Top Row: High Priestess Miz Mishtal, Princess Rune Venus, Nanami Jinnai
Bottom Row: High Priestess Afura Mann, High Priestess Shayla-Shayla, Makoto Mizuhara, Alielle

Alielle
Computer Paper Doll!
Otaku World
Visit the Big KiSS Page, home of the KiSS computer paper doll system, and pick up ALIELLE2.LZH, the KiSS doll of that funny little lesbian Alielle. For additional information on El-Hazard, visit Otaku World, your guide to the best anime and manga on the web, and home of the Anime and Manga Theme Guide, a searchable database of several hundred anime and manga titles, with detailed cross-referencing and entertaining links.

Shinpi no Sekai El Hazard is copyright 1995 AIC and Pioneer Entertainment