The following article provides information on major and minor characters in the fictional universe of the various El-Hazard anime and manga series. If a character's existence differs significantly in the alternate timeline Wanderers TV series, these differences will also be noted. The names are listed in western order, with surnames following given names.
Voiced by: Tetsuya Iwanaga (Japanese); Eddie Frierson (English)
Seventeen-year-old Makoto Mizuhara (水原 誠 Mizuhara Makoto) is the protagonist of the story. At the beginning of the first OVA, Makoto is to testify against Student Body President Katsuhiko Jinnai in an impeachment hearing. After school, Jinnai attacks him in an effort to prevent his testimony when time comes to a standstill. Making his way down to some ancient ruins underneath the school, Makoto discovers a mysterious, beautiful woman who sends him and the others still on the school campus to the world of El-Hazard.
Once in El-Hazard, Makoto meets up with his history teacher, Masamichi Fujisawa, and after a brief encounter with some Bugrom soldiers, the two rescue Princess Rune Venus of Roshtaria, who had been traveling to learn news of her missing sister, Fatora. As it turns out, Makoto bears an uncanny resemblance to the missing princess, and he's reluctantly recruited into impersonating Fatora. He goes along with the plan, hoping that doing so will allow him access to the Eye of God, which might have the power to return him to Earth. Over the course of the series, he becomes enthralled with Ifurita, and is oblivious to the advances that Nanami and Shayla-Shayla both make on him.
After Ifurita is catapulted far away into time and space, Makoto vows to uncover the secrets of the Eye of God in order to come rescue her. It apparently takes him several years to do so; when Makoto appears before Ifurita at the end of the first OVA, he seems to be in his late teens or early twenties.
Makoto's journey from Earth to El-Hazard endowed him with a special ability to activate and link with ancient devices of a lost El-Hazard civilization, including the Eye of God and the Demon God, Ifurita.
Makoto is notable as one of the few "harem anime" protagonists who actually becomes romantically involved with one of his admirers. Additionally, in the first OVA he showcases a certain strength of character, also notable among weak-willed, sturdy-as-wet-cardboard harem leaders. (Later series stripped him of these traits, returning him to "standard issue".)
Makoto in The Wanderers