The first OVA is pretty good, but kind of falls apart at the end (The "protag" goes from being just there to kind of being a gary stu). Not in a way that leaves a bad taste in your mouth, but it could have been better. Fucking amazing animation and moments throughout. Questionable writing at times is its biggest flaw, but a lot makes up for it. The ending is also satisfying enough that you can just stop here and not really miss much.
It is by the same studio that did the Tenchi OVAs(A few writers too), so if you like that you will like El Hazard as well. Its almost too good considering the gag its based around...
What comes after it is... interesting. The second OVA downgrades the animation, music, and especially the writing (particularly flanderizes some characters). I'd recommend watching it only because of how uniquely bad it is. I don't think I have seen an anime where it was clear everyone involved had no idea what the wanted to do with the setting. I like the villain's design, but her motivation practically non-existent. Apparently she was based on a character from a game-tie in that used geomancy (You see this in the intro) as well as other important factors, but that was all clearly scrapped early in production. There had to be some sort of development hell for the second OVA, but that sorry is likely behind a language barrier if it exists.
The third OVA solves the problem of not knowing what to do with the setting by simply taking everyone to a completely different one. The art style changed, but it isn't has bad as the second OVA got at times. Think tv animation quality. Its mid at best, and got its episode count cut in half midway through production. I have no idea what was originally planned considering how little was actually there. It has a really thin plot and drags on till the second half. It has been a while but I found the second half fun (May have been Stockholm at that point). It would have worked better maybe as a 6 episode max series. Some characters get flanderized even harder, and there is a lot of missed opportunity.
Wanderers is one of the worst animes I have seen in my life. Not in a fun bad way, but in an extremely by the books bland bad. They turn the protagonists into an extremely annoying gary stu. It feels like at times he is written to be almost aware the universe will just bend over backwards for him at times. Not in a self aware way, in a "oh he is totally cool you gotta love him right audience!?!?" kind of way. All the fun and mystery of the setting is completely non-existent, and the writing is insanely weak in comparison. Every episode feels like a filler episode. It would almost be completely unnoteworthy if not what the writers tried near the end of the series. Perhaps someone on the writing team actually noticed the protagonist was a gary stu. I say they because they just start pretending he had character development. Not actually retconning anything, but just have dialog/visual moments suggesting that he was a more cowardly character that grew into hero. I could go on in more detail. There is ONE good episode about two side characters (practically the protags in the original) that is fun though. If you just really like bland 90s cheap tv anime, Wanderers is that in its most distilled form.
TL;DR El Hazard's first OVA is fun and much better than it should be. The second is interesting bad. The Third is boring. Wanderers is just.. bad.
