Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

El-Hazard: The Wanderers Blu-ray Movie Review

El Hazard: The Wanderers continues to expand on the storytelling universe of the El Hazard anime franchise. The series comes from creators Hiroki Hayashi and Ryoe Tsukimura. Produced by Kazuaki Morijiri (Tenchi in Tokyo, Armitage III) and Kyoko Kobayashi (Martian Successor Nadesico, The Slayers Next), El Hazard: The Wanderers aired on TV Tokyo is Japan. The series features original animation by production studios Hanabusataido and K-Production. Time for enormous adventure!

As if the previous experiences in other worlds were not enough for Makoto (Tetsuya Iwanaga) and his friends, the group find themselves in more unexpected situations. Makoto might be good at outdoing Jinnai but their rivalry is something that sometimes leads to more conflict than necessary. Jinnai decides to thwart Makoto and damage his new invention to come out on top.

Yet the plan to set Jinnai back with their rivalry backfires big-time and a massive dimensional tear causes Makoto, Jinnai, and many others to become tossed in to another brand new and strange world. The land is filled with breathtaking sights, otherworldly creatures, and new threats. The stakes might be higher than ever as Makoto and the rest must do whatever they can to return home alive.

Makoto is a compelling character – and the series certainly finds a sense of charm through its cast of characters. The characters are energetic and continue to be a huge part of the winning formula to franchise series El Hazard. The character designs by Kazuto Nakazawa (House of Five Leaves, Samurai Champloo) help to highlight the aesthetics of the cast of characters and the results are decidedly fun.

The score composed by Seikou Nagaoka (Tenchi Universe, Chaika - The Coffin Princess) is one of my favorite aspects of the series. Nagaoka is a reliable composer with some great credits (especially in regards to the Tenchi franchise). The work of Nagaoka is charming and delightful and there is a lot of that trademark style in the score here.

Featuring art direction by Shigemi Ikeda (My Hero Academia, One Punch Man), El Hazard: The Wanderers is a nice-looking production with a good animation style. Ikeda understands the franchise and how to explore it with the animation. Working with a talented team of animators, Ikeda helped the production find a solid voice with the art style. The results are effective and make the production more engaging because of the beautiful art.

The cinematography by Shigeo Kamiyama (The Slayers, Lost Universe) is another exceptional production element. Kamiyama may be one of my favorite anime cinematographers (with the work on The Slayers production top-notch). Kamiyama certainly provides a nice visual aesthetic and El Hazard: The Wanderers benefits from their involvement.

As written by Ryoe Tsukimura (Revolutionary Girl Utena, Tenchi Universe), alongside other series staff, the production of El Hazard: The Wanderers has a nice sense of comedic style. The production has a good amount of comedy and these aspects are certainly all the better because of the scripting of Tsukimura.

Katsuhito Akiyama (Magical Project S, Pumpkin Scissors) serves as the chief director of El Hazard: The Wanderers. As the central filmmaker behind the scenes, El Hazard: The Wanderers is a worthwhile showcase for their talent as a director. Akiyama provides the energy and excitement with a dose of comedy. Fans of the El Hazard franchise will appreciate the series direction by Akiyama and the role it plays in the success of El Hazard: The Wanderers.

El-Hazard: The Wanderers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from Nozomi Entertainment, El Hazard: The Wanderers is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high definition in the original television broadcast aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame. The presentation is not as exceptional as the one for the OVA episodes – unfortunately, the quality seems upscaled and does not appear to be native. The video quality is still decent and appreciable but it is certainly not in same exceptional league of the OVA. Nonetheless, the print is clear and free from egregious issues.

El-Hazard: The Wanderers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release includes a selection of lossless audio options: English uncompressed PCM 2.0 and Japanese uncompressed PCM 2.0 (with English subtitles). The audio on the release is worthwhile. Dialogue reproduction is excellent and there is a good degree of clarity for the presentation. This is not a completely flawless presentation but it sounds good (even if the dynamic range sounds a little limited). The audio can sound a little less impressive than one might hope to find – the audio isn't flawless and is a bit closer to the quality of the video than enthusiasts might hope to find. This is undoubtedly source related given the material available to the Nozomi Entertainment. While this drawback is certainly something that might deter some sales, nonetheless, the audio sounds nice overall and isn't as bad sounding as it could be. It is still an improvement over the mediocre quality available on streaming services in a ridiculous compressed MP3 quality stream.

El-Hazard: The Wanderers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

If there is a shortcoming to the collection, it is the average supplemental package assembled for the release. The release does not provide any in depth supplemental features. Instead of offering audiences any assortment of behind-the-scenes material or audio commentaries the release only provides a small selection of standard supplements. The extras are as follows:

Disc 1:

Clean Opening 1 (HD, 1:41)

Clean Ending (HD, 1:31)

Nozomi Trailers (HD, 3:18)

Disc 4:

Clean Opening 2 (HD, 1:54)

Art Gallery (HD, 1:39)

Animated Comic (HD, 1:53)

Nozomi Trailers (HD, 4:37)

El-Hazard: The Wanderers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

El Hazard: The Wanderers continues the wild adventure and the comedy extravaganza of the El Hazard franchise. Fans of the original OVA production will be pleased to see the continuing adventures of Makoto and the other characters. The series benefits from a score composed by Seikou Nagaoka (Tenchi Universe) and worthwhile screenwriting by Ryoe Tsukimura (Revolutionary Girl Utena, Tenchi Universe). With a solid production team, El Hazard: The Wanderers excels. The adventure continues. While it is true that the sequel isn't on par with the original production and it certainly isn't quite in the same league (and this is something that might deter some potential viewers from even checking the production out), the series still has its charms. Even though it could be better in some respects, the results are still impressive and there is more to appreciate here than to be negative about. The series has some great things going for it including the wonderful character designs (which were handled by Kazuto Nakazawa (Samurai Champloo). Not every anime sequel series can be a masterpiece, of course, and fans of the original will still find that there are enough merits to make the new adventure one worth exploring.

The Blu-ray presentation is decent enough even if the video quality isn't quite on par when compared to the original OVA. The release includes a small selection of extras. The lack of any meaningful bonus features is certainly one of the weakest elements of the release. This is an area that could have been imrpvoed on significantly. The set would have benefited from behind-the-scenes material or some nice making-of featurettes. Instead, the release is relatively barebones and doesn't inspire much interest with the basic assortment of clean closing and ending themes.  Even despite some shortcomings, the set is a nice collection for fans. Fans who want to own the series release in a physical form with the complete collection on Blu-ray will be pleased to have it all in this collection. In the age of streaming media, which cuts corners in order to showcase series with mediocre bit-rates, poor video compression, and lackluster audio, it is of course wonderful to own as much product on home media as possible. The set from Nozomi is certainly something that will please series enthusiasts with the entire series run of episodes. The set even has a nice cove-art and this is something that adds some extra value to the release. Though the Blu-ray collection might not be perfect in every regard one can weight the pros and cons of the set and decide if it is worth picking up. Recommended.