EPISODE 1

Synopsis by Umberto Salcicce (salcicce@earthlink.net) and The Anime Spoiler Page 

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     The first episode starts with the usual fade into the El Hazard map - much 
like the OVA's along with the dreamy opening-speech thingie...  I think its on 
the LD box... but who cares... it's not like the words make sense in English 
anyway... 
 

     First thing we see is a small one of those air/boat ships cruising along a 
river late at night.  In the boat alone is Kauru who is on her way to her new 
job as Water Priestess.  She seems to be talking aloud about being late for her 
new job or something (not sure here.)  Suddenly a few Bugrom jump ship.  She 
calls out to see who is creeping up on her but can't see them until they step 
into the (moon)light, after which she screams "NO!!" and loses control of the 
boat/plane which nose-dives into the water. 

     Its the AM - presumably the next day - and we find Nanami cruising into 
Makoto's private digs.  His place seems to be somewhere on the castle grounds in 
Floristica.  It is a small-ish domed building with all kinds of antennae 
sticking up from the roof (I take it TCI cable hasn't expanded its reach to 
Roshtaria). Nanami has breakfast for Makoto, for which he is grateful.  She also 
gives him a discount on the unsolicited food - for which he is not quite as 
grateful. 

     Over to Chez Fujisawa...  Afura Mann and Shayla Shayla are chatting as Miz 
stands in the background spinning, twirling, staring at her wedding ring, and 
boasting about her upcoming honeymoon.  Afura and Shayla seem to have somewhat 
crass words to each other about the wedding.  I couldn't pick it all up yet, but 
I think Shayla says something like "I'll give it (the marriage) 30 days..."  Miz 
"gushes" her way over to the two who are expectedly startled as they have to 
stop their girl-chat.  They resume by whispering, which Miz tells them to stop 
doing. 
 
     Back to Makoto's...  Nanami is fiddling with Makoto's tools (heh).  
Actually its some contraption that has a purple dome on the top it (hah!).  
Makoto chastises her for touching his dome (awww!) as he's trying to figure out 
what it is - he's not sure its safe or something.  So Nanami the clutz knocks 
another contraption onto the floor.  It is a small spherical object made of 
three hoops with a diamond suspended in the middle of it.  Definitely looks like 
a sort of 3-D compass. Then the compass doohickey activates and starts pointing 
off somewhere... Makoto's dome also starts to pulsate with white light (HAHA!). 

     Back to Fujisawa's where the honorable Mr. Fujisawa and his wife sit down 
to breakfast with Afura and Shayla who seem to be needling Sensei about where he  
plans to take Miz for the honeymoon.  Miz is fretting about the lateness of her 
replacement Kauru - she can't go on her honeymoon until Kauru shows up.  Flash 
forward a while later... Ms. (Miz) Fujisawa is now rather perturbed at Kauru's 
lateness.  Shayla suggests that mabye there was a misunderstandind between Miz 
and Kauru about her arrival time.  I think Miz speculates something like "Oh... 
mabye she meant 17:00 instead of 7:00!"  Anyway... she is temporarily relieved. 
She starts gloating about her impending honeymoon again... staring at her ring. 
A bit more chatting about stuff here and then we're off. (Fan service abounds 
in this shot) 

     Now we journey to the bombed-out shell of the Bugrom's main "hive."  Jinnai 
is ordering a few bugs to put up a pillar of fresh honeycomb (hmmm... so they 
are like bees!)  It seems there aren't very many bugs left - definitely not 
enough to complete this task.  Jinnai is nearly smashed by the falling 
honeycomb-pillar.  Queen Diva shows up to see how the repair work is going.  It 
isn't.  Jinnai seems to blame the whole thing on one of the Bugrom...  Groucho 
if I'm not mistaken  (don't know his Japanese name).   
 

     Out in the forest a few bugs are hunting around... probably for Kauru.  
They hide when Makoto steps into the picture.  He has been following that 3-D 
compass to whatever it points to.  It has a beam of light pointing from it now.  
 

 
Eventually the beam points out into the river.  When the mist clears Makoto can 
see a girl lying on some flotsam in the river. He rips off his shirt revealing a 
rather handsome sleeveless turtleneck number... He seems to be a bit buffed...  
This is interesting because its the first time I can recall seeing Makoto 
portrayed as being "manly."  Female Fan Service?  Makoto dashingly shoots out 
into the water and, doing his best David Hasselhoff imitation, saves the girl. 

     We are now at a campfire Makoto has built.  He's drying Kauru's shirt by 
the fire.  Kauru wakes up, sits up, and notices she's in the buff.  Makoto 
explains that the shirt was wet and he's drying it and all. 

     At the Fujisawaland we now find Miz pissed off as all hell because 
apparently her revised 17:00 arrival time has also passed.  I think she then 
talks Mr. F and the two priestesses into looking for Kauru. 

     Back to Kauru and Mokoto (in his Todd Oldham muscle shirt) working their 
way back to Floristica through the forest when they are approached by a couple 
Bugrom.  As they step forward Kauru basically freaks out and yells "Ugh!  Mushi!  
IIE!" ("Bugs.... NOOOOO!").   It appears she has an acute bug phobia.   The 3-D 
compass thing now lights up and KABLAM!  Makoto wakes up next to a crater and 
Kauru and the bugs are gone.  

     Now were at the Nanami Restaurant.  Fatora is chatting it up with Nanami.  
Fatora orders something and asks if Aliele's wants something.  Aliele is staring 
out of the window into the distance.  When questioned she says that she is 
waiting for her sibling Palnus. 

     Back to the Honeycomb Hideout (the Bugrom Hive) where Jinnai is lambasting 
the two bugs that were recently blown up by Makoto's magic 3-D compass. They 
look pretty funny with slings on and their skinny bug legs bandaged up.  Queen 
Diva (note: major MAJOR cleavage here) shows up and again inquires to the 
progress of the rebuilding.  Jinnai seems to explain that he has a severe 
shortage of workers.  He then asks Diva to lay some eggs.   AAACCCKK!  I guess 
that answers the "Is Queen Diva really an insect?" question.  Hmmm... I guess 
this makes sense... how else would they reproduce... kinda grosses me out 
though.   Anyway...  After being asked, Queen Diva stares at Jinnai for a while 
with a PERFECT "Of course you would ask me to do THAT... you chauvanistic MALE 
PIG!" look... I mean her look of disdain is so perfect that it would make even 
Andrea Dworkin very proud!  Anyway... she finally relents but tells Jinnai that 
she needs his "Assistance."   Queen Diva goes off to do some egg laying and beckons Jinnai 
along who asks where they're gonna do it (hah!)  She points to a totally dirty 
tent to which he exclaims "m...m... masaka?!" ("y..y..you're kidding?!") 
 

     Now we're outside the Eastern Cloud (Nanami's) where Kauru is alone, dirty, 
and very hungry.  Sher decideds to go inside.  After eating Kauru thanks Nanami 
and gets up to leave.  Nanami holds out her hand and says like "aren't you 
forgetting something?"  Kauru thinks about it for a second then shakes Nanami's 
extended hand.  We break away as Nanami goes "uh... uh..."   

     Back at 'koto's  where he is laying down after the days exhausting events.  
He wonders where Kauru has gone.  Ura comes in and notices Kauru's shirt hanging 
off the bad and is about to use it as a scratching post when Makoto picks her 
up.  Ura wiggles in his arms and says something that suprises Makoto.  Mabye Ura 
knows who's shirt it is... I'm not sure.  

     Cut back to Nanami's kitchen where she and Kauru are washing dishes.  Mr. 
Fujisawa and company come in and he beckons for a beer.  Kauru comes out to take 
their order.  Mr. Fujisawa orders a "Shinnonome A Set Menu" (a set menu being 
one of those pre-packaged "with 5 you get eggroll" things)  and, upon noticing 
Kauru, asks Nanami who the new girl is.  She answers that she's temporary help.  
Shayla, after some indecision, goes for a rare steak.  Afura orders a "Shinonome 
Udon."   Miz is too busy muttering about her ruined honeymoon to order so Mr. 
Fujisawa begins to order for her...  she gets ticked off and orders the 
"Shinonome B Set Menu."  She then look up and Kauru and her immediately 
recognize each other. 

      Dissolve to Makoto dreaming.  He is running after Iffurita, but it is one 
of those "I can't catch you cuz I'm running in slow motion" dreams.  She yells 
"Makoto, hurry" as a black cloud envelops her.  This cloud then morphs into the 
shape of a sort of pendant with a small dome in the middle of it.  Then it 
morphs into the ugly stocky figure of a guy who from the liner notes in the El- 
Hazard Alt World soundtrack CD i found out is named "Arujya."   Makoto wakes up 
and... lo and behold... the pendant he dreamed about was on Kauru's shirt. 

      Now we're in the Castle where Fatora is searching for Aliele by 
flashlight... obviously looking for a midnight "snack".... mabye some 'pie.  
Anyway... she finds her sleeping on a bed somewhere, throws off her robe, and 
climbs in beside Aliele.  She remarks that Aliele really needs to shave as she 
begins to grope the sleeping person.  Well... If you've seen the 
original El Hazard OVA you know what happens next.  Fatora completely skips the 
foreplay and "goes for the gold."  Only she doesn't find what she would expect 
on Aliele...  and the occuents of the bed screams like hell. 
 

      Thats it for the first episode.  The song over the credits is almost as 
bad as "Boys be Free" from the OVA - if you can believe that.... Actually I 
think its worse because the entire song - a wimpy piano-ballad - is sung way out 
of tune by some girl with a voice that only dogs can hear.  The arrangement of 
the song is really bizzare too...  cheezy gospel-like-choir backing vocals that 
completely clash with the screeching  main vocals.   I think that the person(s) 
involved in that "Boys be free" song got this one put on the soundtrack so they 
would stop getting teased about that song.   

      Hmm... my personal comments?  This looks really good...  The animation 
quality is at least as good as the OVA's and hasn't degenerated into constant 
"Hyper-Deformity" like some other AIC stuff lately. Its solid and interesting. I 
only have the first two episodes on LD, and saw (I think) episodes 13 and 14 
whilst in Japan in March, and they are all great.  The music is really good.  I 
picked up the soundtrack in Tokyo and it is very cool... kinda techno-meets- 
classical style... with the exception of the opening song - which is a pretty 
cool pop-rocker - and the aforementioned satanic ending song. 

-salcicce@earthlink.net 
3/31/98