Trivia / El-Hazard: The Magnificent World

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• Acting for Two: In the English release, Bridget Hoffman voiced both Rune Venus and her sister Fatora who shared some scenes together. The late Kevin Seymour also voiced all the Bugrom troops including Jinnai's personal squadron (Katsuo/Groucho, Namihei/Chico, etc.).
• Adored by the Network: Since its 1995 premiere, AIC and NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan have considered El-Hazard one of its flagship shows along with the pre-1999 Tenchi Muyo! titles.
• Approval of God: Hiroki Hayashi and other members of the production team were impressed with the series' English voice cast.
• Bonus Episode: The 13th episode of The Alternative World never aired on TV Tokyo, but it was included in the third VHS and Laserdisc volumes, which were released in Japan on May 22, 1998. This is carried over to the worldwide releases.
• Development Hell: The Dual World was first announced in August 2018 and a crowdfunding campaign for a pilot episode was held on Campfire until April 2019, and only managed to raise 16% of the intended goal. No further updates have been announced since then.
• Directed by Cast Member:
  • In the English dubs, the late Kevin Seymour was the ADR director and provided the vocal effects for the Bugrom, though he was credited under different pseudonyms.
  • The Italian dub of the OVAs was directed by Fabrizio Mazzotta, who also voiced Ura.
• Follow the Leader: El-Hazard came about after the runaway success of Tenchi Muyo!, another series produced by Pioneer LDC (now known as NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan).
• Franchise Killer: The poor reception of The Alternative World halved the show from 26 to 13 episodes and buried the El-Hazard series for good. Another attempt to revive the franchise in a new series called The Dual World started up in 2018 but was ultimately unsuccessful, having only raised 16% of the intended goal.
• Franchise Ownership Acquisition: In 2003, Dentsu wound up with the rights to El-Hazard after purchasing Pioneer LDC and renaming it Geneon Entertainment. When NBCUniversal purchased Geneon from Dentsu in 2008, they acquired the rights to these series as well.
• Inspiration for the Work: According to screenwriter Ryoe Tsukimura, the El-Hazard name came from the fabled City of Gold El Dorado and H. P. Lovecraft's short story The Lamp of Alhazred.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • The laserdisc releases for The Magnificent World OVAs, The Wanderers and The Alternative World are completely out of print. The second Magnificent World OVA was going to have a laserdisc release in North America, but it was canceled.
  • Because of the Sega Saturn's discontinuation, Tamtam's video game adaptation is only legally available through used copies.
• No Dub for You: The Wanderers and The Alternative World weren't dubbed into German or Italian.
• No Export for You:
  • The Sega Saturn Visual Novel was never released outside Japan.
  • In Brazil, only the TV series The Wanderers and the manga was released in the country, being marketed only by the main title. The OVAs and the series The Alternative World remain unreleased, but it didn't stop the series to be popular there.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Afura was originally voiced by Heidi Lenhart for the first two OVA and The Wanderers, but Lenhart eventually dropped out of dubbing anime to focus on live-action work, so Patricia Ja Lee became the wind priestess' voice in The Alternative World.
  • Queen Diva was voiced by Elisa Gabrielli in the first series before Mary Elizabeth McGlynn replaced her for the second series onward.
  • The first and second Ifurita from the original OVA series is voiced by separate actresses in most languages, Yuri Amano and Marlene Sharp (under the pseudonym Tiffany James) for the first and Maria Kawamura and Debra Jean Rogers for the second, for example, because they are two separate beings.
  • In The Alternative World, Qawool was first voiced by Christina Carlisi for the first three episodes. For whatever reason in episode six and onward, Emily Brown replaced Carlisi in the role.
• The Other Marty: The original release of the Magnificent World OVAs, as well as The Wanderers and The Alternative World TV series, featured Tetsuya Iwanaga as the voice of Makoto Mizuhara. In the surround sound remaster for the first Magnificent World OVA, as featured in the 1998 laserdisc boxset and all subsequent DVD and Blu-ray releases, Makoto was re-cast with Masamichi Ota while everyone else reprised their roles.
• Production Posse: There are several AIC regulars in this series:
  • Series co-creator Hiroki Hayashi directed the first Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OVA.
  • Character designer Kazuto Nakazawa did similar duties for Tenchi in Tokyo and Samurai Champloo.
  • Co-creator and scriptwriter Ryoe Tsukimura worked on the Tenchi Universe TV series as well as UFO Princess Valkyrie.
  • Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki also featured Etsuko Kozakura (Alielle) as Ryo-Ohki.
  • Yasunori Honda was the sound director for several AIC works, including the Tenchi Muyo! franchise.
  • Yuri Amano (Ifurita) and Mizue Otsuka (Kiriya) respectively appeared as Kiyone Makibi and Nagi in Tenchi Universe.
  • Seikou Nagaoka wrote the music for the first two Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OVAs and Tenchi Universe, as well as the World Witches franchise and the first three Pretty Series shows.
• Real-Life Relative: In the Italian dub of the OVAs:
  • Alielle was voiced by Federica De Bortoli and Shayla-Shayla was voiced by her older sister Barbara De Bortoli.
  • Nanni Baldini and his older sister Antonella Baldini respectively voiced Katsuhiko Jinnai and Fatora.
  • Francesca Guadagno voices both Ifuritas and her niece Perla Liberatori voices Kalia.
• Release Date Change: The first Magnificent World OVA was set for release on Blu-Ray on December 25, 2013, before NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan moved it to July 30, 2014. It was ultimately released on September 26, 2014.
• Role Reprise: All of the OVA's voice actors reprise their roles for the Sega Saturn video game adaptation.
• Sequel in Another Medium: The Alternative World takes place after the end of the second OVA.
• She Also Did: Diane Michelle, who sang the English versions of the first OVA's ending themes, was also the voice of Daisy Duck from 1998 to 1999.
• Two Voices, One Character: The TV Ifurita is voiced by two separate actresses for her dormant and awakened states with Miwa Matsumoto as the former and Yuri Amano reprising her role as the latter. This was repeated in English with Julie Ann Taylor as dormant Ifurita and Mari Devon as awakened Ifurita.
• What Could Have Been: In August 2018, AIC had originally planned to continue the franchise with a new project called El-Hazard: The Dual World, which would have centered around high school students Naoto and Farasha Jinnai. It would have been directed by Yūsuke Maruyama. Unfortunately, plans ultimately fell through after AIC's crowdfunding campaign for The Dual World ended in April 2019.
• You Sound Familiar: Masamichi Ota voiced minor roles in The Alternative World and would later go on to replace Tetsuya Iwanaga as Makoto Mizuhara for the 5.1 surround sound remaster.

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