El Hazard: The Alternative World

Katsuhiko Jinnai, the megalomaniac student body president at Shinonome High School, gained office through a scandalous secret deal with the president of the baseball club, who endorsed him in exchange for promises of a larger budget, which his younger sister in the press club now exposes, which she learned about from her beloved Makoto, who is a nice young man and the only student in school with higher exam scores than Jinnai as well as the student truly responsible for the recent discovery of buried artifacts of an ancient civilization beneath the school, a discovery for which Jinnai is now trying to take credit in order to deflect attention from his own scandalous failures, all of which drive him to seek Makoto's life. If all this sounds like an awful lot of plot to try to follow in literally the first three minutes of an episode, don't worry- it isn't relevant at all to the actual story. Late one night someone disturbs a mysterious relic beneath the high school. A beautiful woman,

Makoto, posing as the missing Princess Fatora, according to tradition must journey up Mt. Muldoon to visit the high priestesses who control The Eye of the Gods. Meanwhile Makoto's diabolical nemesis and former student council president, Katsuhiko Jinnai, and his legions of Bugroms, must stop him. In roughly four seconds "The World of Beautiful Girls" justifies its title as Makoto receives his formal introduction to Ailelle, only proper since he shares his bed with her at the time. The next morning she joins him and Fujisawa Sensei on their trip up the perilous mountain. Ah, young lesbians in puppy love- they're so cute at that age. Meanwhile on the other side of the world Jinnai, the first person to rise to the rank of supreme warlord while still wearing his school uniform, cozies up to the oh-so-evil Queen Diva who also suits the episode's title.

Having reached the summit of the mountain, Makoto learns that the priestesses have gone on retreat for a purification ritual in a distant desert. If you are as disappointed as Makoto at these developments then perhaps you will be as pleased as I am upon learning that the secret retreat is a hot springs, and the ritual of purification is, in a word, skinny dipping. Director Hayashi devotes most of ""The World of Hot Springs"" to the performance of this blessed, naked ritual. While at the hot springs, Sensei, on whom one of the priestesses forms a crush, must remain blindfolded so as not to glimpse at the nude priestesses. However, Makoto, still in convincing drag, can and does glimpse to his hearts content … until his girlfriend Nanami shows up selling lunches and exposes him. I mean that literally. This starts quite a hubbub amongst the wet, nude, superhuman, holy ladies. Fortunately everyone makes up before the assassin arrives. While Makoto suffers thusly, his rival Jinnai devises

Makoto, despite the ever-growing number of his companions who have superhuman powers, somehow fails to stop Jinnai from simply walking directly into Ifurita's castle and seizing control of the legendary demon god. Clearly Jinnai's plan of announcing his intentions to the world and then performing them is too ingenious and wily for Makoto to possibly foil. Ifurita turns out to be an ancient android who gains invincible power after Jinnai winds her up like a matchbox car. She is also, as it turns out, the same beautiful woman who appeared and transported the humans to El Hazard in episode one. Apparently she and Makoto have an unexplained bond. Before they can get to know one another better, Jinnai orders her to go and destroy the Allied troops, and she must obey.

""The World of Thunder"" begins with Ifurita razing a city, which understandably motivates Roshtaria and its allies to assemble to deal with the problem. Rune Venus' fiancée, Lord Galus, persuades her and the priestesses to unseal the Eye of God, the only weapon capable of defeating Ifurita. Lord Galus of course secretly commands the Phantom Tribe who kidnapped Princess Fatora. They now prepare to use her to seize control of the Eye of God. With the two most unstoppable pieces of technology ever to appear in the world of El Hazard- The Eye of God and Ifurita- under the control of the Phantom Tribe and Jinnai respectively, the situation seems hopeless. Oh, but wait. In the most freakishly fortunate coincidence yet, Rune Venus' wiseman promptly learns that Makoto also gained a superpower when he jumped through dimensions- the ability to ""synchronize"" with the technological artifacts of the ancient El Hazard civilization and possibly to control them. As if on cue, the demon goddess Ifurit

Ifurita easily thrashes the high priestesses and the Roshtarian army, but when confronted by Makoto, she mysteriously cannot complete her assignment to destroy Roshtaria, and so flies away. The Phantom Tribe seizes control of the Stairway to the Gods and finally fire the Eye of God. But they cannot control it and so they too fail to destroy Roshtaria. Jinnai launches an all-out Bugrom invasion and overruns the countryside, but inexplicably he also doesn't destroy Roshtaria. Meanwhile in Roshtaria, Makoto and his companions continue to flirt and fight amongst themselves. Then for a nice change of pace, after Ifurita thrashes the Phantom Tribe and kidnaps Princess Fatora- without whom they cannot use the Eye of God - Makoto, Sensei and the priestesses go to rescue her (again) and Ifurita is ordered to kill Makoto but cannot. Jinnai launches an all out Bugrom assault on Roshtaria, which fails (again). And the Phantom Tribe takes control of the Eye of God again.

Just when the Phantom Tribe seems on the verge of destroying El Hazard again, Ifurita counterattacks and kills Lord Galus. Jinnai orders her to kill Makoto (again), and finally, Makoto uses his superhuman control of El Hazard technology to disarm the Eye of God. Some people just don't learn. Before it deactivates, the Eye, a deathstar with control over dimensions, sends Ifurita through time and space to Earth where she lies buried until Makoto wakes her at the beginning of the first episode. Having come full circle, the series concludes with Makoto returning himself to Earth and running across a meadow to embrace his beloved legendary demon goddess who has been waiting for him on Earth for ten thousand years.