"Lost Potential", El Hazard:
The Magnificent World 2
1997 OVA, 4 episodes
Studio: AIC
Genres: Adventure, comedy, fantasy
This time around, I figure I do the
same thing I did for the Nadesico movie review. I'll tell you about
most of it. Trust me, you are not missing much. El Hazard: The
Magnificent World is quite possibly one of the best OVAs that AIC
ever put out (Tenchi Muyo and Oh My Goddess are a bit better).
However, the sequel is well, an entirely different beast altogether.
It is a disappointing and inconsistent mess. Let's get started!
Episode 1 The Bride of Roshtaria
We start with an exposition dump by
Princess Rune, you know, the character who did next to bum kiss in the
original OVA. Great way to start, I must say. Then the opening, which
is just that not good and tries so hard to be epic like the original
OVA's opening song. This is evident by the fact that strands of that
theme music do come through is some desperate attempt to say 'Oh
don't worry, this is good I swear'. There is a rather noticeable shift
in the art design where it is a bit sloppy and inconsistent. But
that's the least of this OVA's problems.
The crew from the original OVA are
dealing with the wedding of Miz and Mr. Fujisawa. Miz is naturally
excited about it, with her innate desire of being a housewife and
stable income, even having a humorous flashback to the drunken
proposal. Mr. Fujisawa, on the other hand, isn't really ready and for
really petty and vague reasons. So much so, that he doesn't even show
up to the ceremony. When confronted of it by Makoto, he says he needs
to "find the man within" or he's useless. Miz, to say the
least, takes it real well by nearly flooding the capital.
Also, there's a subplot involving
Princess Fatora and Aielle and their funny antics. Fatora, being a
rather frisky lesbian (as you do), tries to seduce Nanami by
disguising herself as Makoto. However, this is a total failure. So
far, they are the most enjoyable part so far in this OVA.
Once she is calmed down, the crew gets
ready and mobilized on a journey to find Fujisawa-sensei. They figure
that he went to Mountain Lilly-Coco, which is a place of mediation,
and bring him back to his senses. They stop off for the night at a
desert hamlet, where not much happens aside from more antics by
Fatora, this time targeting Shayla-Shayla. Again, it goes hilariously
terrible.
Then, we cut to Queen Diva and Jinnai,
he still being his crazy usual self. They, along with a small group
of Bugroms, are searching for resources for the Bugrom Army. But,
they stumble onto a cave and Jinnai find a key-staff, similar to
Ifurita's. After a few obstacles, they reach the core of the cave:
another like Ifurita ('demon doll' as Jinnai puts it).
Well, this is an interesting setup for
the story. Though, the ending song sounds like a rejected disco
track. Moving on...
Episode 2 Awakening of Kalia
This opens with a recap of the end of
Episode 1. Jinnai awakens the new weapon, named Kalia. She is a bit
of a foil to Ifurita. She's a bit brash, impulsive, out-going and
rebellious, much to Jinnai's chagrin. She also has never heard of
Ifurita, which is a bit baffling, but I will let slide for now.
Our crew is still on their way to the
Mountain Lilly-Coco. An accident by Shayla-Shayla crashes their
hovercarft and they end up land in some sort of 'micro-dimension' or
a hidden place masked by an illusory spell. It has flora and fauna
that El Hazard had in ages past, looking much like a paradise rather
then the desert wasteland that much of the land is. This is where the
OVA turns into a completely different story, and its a bit jarring.
Ifurita appears, but there's a catch:
She doesn't know Makoto or his friends. Her appearance here is
another baffling thing that just raises too many fecking questions,
so I won't bother now. To put it simply, this is 'another' Ifurita
who has lived with an old scientist, Yuba Yurius. The place is a
'living time capsule'. It turns out Yuba is another traveler from
another dimension, much like Makoto. He reveals the heart of the
shrine houses a machine now activated ('The Trigger of Destruction').
This is particularly interesting, as lost ancient technology was
explored in the original OVA (The Eye of God).
Jinnai and Kalia are heading over to
the same place They bump into Mr. Fujisawa who has gotten lost in the
desert near the hidden place, which he stumbles into by shear
accident. The gang is all back together, at long last. Jinnai hatches
a plan of deception to get in by pretending to be nice and kind. This
leads into really awkward and cliched scenes with Jinnai playing up
being nice, which you think wouldn't work, but it does. However,
Jinnai's plot does downhill in part due to Kalia, who its turns out
that she is also an evil and heartless villain.
Episode 3 Ifurita Farewell to
Destiny
The battle against
Kalia begins. Jinnai gets relegated to side character, not even a
joke villain (he's still enjoyable in the scenes he's in). The Plan:
Jinnai will activate the 'Trigger of Destruction' with Kalia's
assistance.
This ensues lots
of fighting between the three priestesses and Kalia who like Ifurita
can mirror and project back the priestesses' power. This is
interluded with various other scenes. There's a quiet Moment between
Yuba and Ifurita; a very touching but too short for worth. Fujisawa
has a "Manning Up" moment which is pretty good.
Unfortunately, there is also a few scenes so trite or cliched I won't
even happen.
Now the problems
of this story come into place: a bit too much going on all at once
which makes the episode drag more then the previous two episodes.
The story has lost all sense of coherence and focus that even the
first episode had in spades.
In addition, the
story lacks any sort of urgency and concern that came with the
original OVA; at times I kept asking myself: what's the point of all
this? So what if Kalia activates the superweapon? Unsure of what will
happen, but it has to taken care of since Kalia's evil.
An there's another
problem: Kalia is just plain evil for no good or explained reason.
The Shadow Clan and Ifurita from the 1st OVA had nuance,
maybe not a lot but enough to empathize with them. Not the case with
Kalia, as she turns on Jinnai and activates the 'Trigger of
Destruction'. Oh noes!!!
Episode 4 Promise of Reunion
The 'Trigger of
Destruction' turns out to be a giant war-ship with tremendous power.
Ah so that wheres all the budget went to, I see. It does look quite
impressive and menacing, as any doomsday weapon should be.
Meanwhile, Makoto
and friends regroup. Ifurita is non-functioning so Yuba and Makoto
set to revive her, but Yuba dies at the cost of reviving her. What a
shame. Now there's impetus to get rid of the superweapon but too
little too late. The ending is a lot like the final episode of the
1st OVA. Heck, the final confrontation between Makoto and
Kalia is both too short and too late to add nuance to Kalia. Once
again too little, too late. The warship melts away into a gooey mess.
Wow, what an anticlimax.
Fujisawa rescues
Miz, resolving their plot thread (that I
didn't care for) and a tad pointless at this final point in the
story. Yes, the plot thread that propels this OVA that then gets
thrown aside like a used towel halfway through episode 2 and not
resolve towards the end.
Finally, the Epilogue:
Jinnai and his bugs pick up some of the remnants, proclaiming he will
be back, the crazy nutter.
There's another farewell to another Ifurita, placing a plot thread
that goes nowhere. The Wedding between Miz and Fujisawa takes place,
which I don't care for so moving on. The last note of the OVA is
Fujisawa and Makoto getting chased by Nanami, Shayla-Shayla and Miz.
Yeah, brilliant /sarc.
Good Haruhi this sucked. The story has little to no focus or
coherence, the characters haven't really developed much since the
first OVA, Kalia just doesn't work as a villain, etc. That's not to
mention the art/character design which is also lacking. The only
great thing I can say is that the dub actually makes this bearable.
The entire cast from the first one return, and give it their all
despite the poor material given to them. But the worse thing about
this OVA is how potential is lost. This could have been great, like
the first OVA. Instead, it just recycles concepts and ideas from the
first one with a slight redressing. I can't in good faith recommend
this, just watch the original OVA and stick to that.
See you laterz
The Eclectic Dude
