"The Priestess of Water" contains the first four episodes in a 13-chapter (on 4 separate discs) broadcast series that continues the story from the two popular OAVs. Many of the artists also worked on the Tenchi series, and they've created another comic sci-fi adventure centering on a pleasant, somewhat dense hero pursued by colorful, powerful women. The arrival of Qawoor, the new priestess of water, in the Kingdom of Roshtaria, sets the story in motion: the power-mad Mr. Jinnai uses the insectlike Bugrom in a new bid for power; a curious device Makoto found emits blasts of energy. At Qawoor's coronation, the mysterious Arjah, who calls himself the ruler of the universe, sends the cast from the idyllic El Hazard to a gritty industrial world.
The characters land in different regions and the plot complications multiply. Honeymooners Miz and Fujisawa discover they're climbing a mountain on a floating island; the flamboyant emperor Dall Narciss falls in love with Qawoor. He wants Makoto to repair the dimensional reactor that supplies their power, but his lieutenant, Gilda, suspects Matoko of espionage. Fire priestess Shayla-Shayla dukes it out with Jinnai and finds herself a prisoner of the Bugrom.
The tone is too silly for any of these problems to seem like much of a threat to the eccentric characters. --Charles Solomon
