El-Hazard: The Alternative World (異次元の世界エルハザード, Ijigen no Sekai El Hazard) is a 1998 original television anime series directed by Yasuhito Kikuchi and produced by studio AIC. Staff credits also include writer Mitsuhiro Yamada, and music composed by Seikou Nagaoka. The series first aired in Japan on January 1998.
Background:
“A new Priestess of Water has arrived! Her name is Qawool Towles, and though she’s only 17, everyone (except for Shayla-Shayla) welcomes her with open arms. But during her initiation ceremony, a mysterious entity named Arjah appears and transports them all to an alternate world!
Now, Makoto and the others are stranded all over again in a strange new kingdom called Creteria. It’s a bleak, industrial realm ruled by a despot named Dall. If they ever want to make it back to El-Hazard, they’ll have to figure out the secret behind an ancient artifact called the Spring of Life. And they’d better do it fast, because the spring seems to be dying…”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, August 2022.
The Isekai adventure from the past resurfaces with the El-Hazard franchise getting re-released in recent years. With El-Hazard: The Magnificent World released in the UK earlier in the year, the next one is El-Hazard: The Alternative World which is a TV series rather than an OVA series that its predecessor was.
To recap, the El-Hazard franchise spawned from director Hiroki Hayashi, who at the time had also directed Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki for the same studio. The El-Hazard franchise was released in the 90s across different OVA and TV shows, though the director was not involved with the latter.
While Pioneer released El-Hazard: The Magnificent World, Geneon released El-Hazard: The Alternative World for North America and the UK didn’t receive any of the shows other than the original OVA series. Nozomi rescued the series for a Blu-ray release and Anime Limited eventually brought it over for the UK & Ireland for the first time.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
Anime Limited were able to keep consistency with the collector’s edition treatment for El-Hazard: The Alternative World, as we received one for El-Hazard: The Magnificent World not long ago.
The package is presented as a rigid box with an Amaray Blu-ray case to house the discs and alongside the case is a 12-page booklet and 4 art cards. The booklet features character information and a brief essay on the series.
The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition Blu-ray set is limited to 1000 units for SRP £59.99.
The series was made available for pre-order during Anime Limited’s June Early Bird pre-order line-up for £34.99, but with the Anime (Un)Limited discount lowered the price to £31.50.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with Amaray packaging and clean artwork
- Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
- 12-page booklet
- 4 art cards
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 8th August 2022
The collector’s edition release for El-Hazard: The Alternative World contains all 12 episodes, plus the 13th episode which was released as an OVA, across two Blu-ray discs. The encode & authoring were produced by Nozomi Entertainment & Rightstuf. The audio options available include Japanese with English subtitles and the Magnitude 8 Post English dub commissioned by Geneon.
The yellow subtitles are unlockable during playback, and the regions are locked to Blu-ray players set to B.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Upscale format 1.33:1 aspect ratio |
| Region | B |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 2 BD-50s |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 1:
- Textless Opening “13 Gatsu no Shukumei”
- Textless Ending “Kami-sama ga Kureta Hi”
Disc 2:
- Special OVA Episode 13
- Episode 13 Textless Ending “Love Mania!”
- Art Gallery
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
El-Hazard: The Alternative World is available to order across multiple retailers in the United Kingdom. The collector’s edition Blu-ray can be acquired through Amazon UK, Anime Limited’s store, MVM’s Anime-on-Line, and United Publications.
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)
The Normanic Vault 
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