Introduction

The Conception

In early 1993, Hiroki Hayashi had just finished his directing job on "Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki". His joint collaberation with Masaki Kajishima had been an unexpected success. Fans of the Original Animation Video series cried out for a sequel, and Kajishima was game. Hayashi, however, was not.

Hayashi's reasons for not directing the second Tenchi OAV were varied. He wanted to try something new, for a start. Hayashi was never one to get tied down to a single idea, as his previous directing jobs had proved, and was always striving to try out new and different things. Another problem was a conflict of ideas with the co-producer of the first Tenchi OAV. Hayashi, instead of putting up a fight, decided to leave the directing job without a struggle, venturing back out into AIC to try new and bolder ideas.

Not long after this, Hayashi began constructed ideas from experiences that he had as a child. He had used this technique with Kajishima on the Tenchi OAV project, and fed these new memories as possible ideas for a new OAV. More prominently however, Hayashi took influence from a book he had a read at a young age called "Princess From Mars". Hayashi loved the sci-fi genre and picked up elements from "Princess From Mars" and fed them into his new project.

This new project was to be known as "El-Hazard". And the rest is history.