FIF#254-Those Who Hunt Elves

Junpei, Airi and Ritsuko are Japanese citizens from different walks of life, mysteriously transported to a Fantasy world.  In an attempt to send them home, High Elven Priestess Celcia fumbles the spell and sends five spell fragments across the land.  The only way to complete the spell is to track down the fragments…which are now tattooed on the skin of beautiful Elven maidens.  It doesn’t matter if it’s wrong or not.  To get back home, Those Who Hunt Elves will strip as many Elves as it takes. 

*Note: This isnt the official start of Season 11 of First Impression Friday.  This is just a special treat for the Katsucon weekend.  So you’re getting two episodes today.  The new season of FIF officially kicks off either in April or May depending on when I get off my butt to work on it.  Anyway, enjoy the new FIF’s and have fun if you’re at Katsu this weekend.* 

Those Who Hunt Elves is another Anime title from way back when I first started getting into the genre that I only knew through word of mouth.  Though I never got a chance to see it then, I always heard the same major detail: this was not a kid friendly Anime.  Heck the way the show was talked about, this was about as raunchy a mainstream Anime as you could get at the time, far from the more age appropriate Pokemon or Dragon Ball Z.  Well since I’ve seen many a naughty Anime (that aren’t Hentai), I’d say that Those Who Hunt Elves has some lofty claims to live up to.  So does the Premiere of this little legend live up to the “not for kids” hype?  Or is its legend way overblown.
 
I did not expect Those Who Hunt Elves to be an Isekai when I sat down to watch it but it helps the pitch: taking three Japanese citizens with a tank and plopping them into a fantasy world where they have to strip Elves to find magical markers to get them home.  I can see why this show would get such a claim to fame as a naughty Anime based on that sentence.  And there’s plenty of moments in the first three episodes of Those Who Hunt Elves that leave the show just at the doorstep of becoming full on Hentai.  That said, I almost wish things did go down that forbidden route because beyond the initial pitch…Those Who Hunt Elves’ first few episodes feel like Slayers without the humor or characters that made it a longer lasting fantasy epic. 
 
Plus there’s the whole “how did this get started in the first place” elephant in the room.  Twice we get extended sequences of how Celcia messed up the spell that’s started TWHE (I’m short handing that name cause I’m not typing it everytime I need to talk about the group as a whole…and yes that is their team name, not just the name of the series) on their Dragon Ball style quest.  But we have zero explanation as to how Junpei, Ritsuko and Airi arrived in this Fantasy World, much less with a freaking tank that can still run without regular maintenance and seems to have enough ammunition to fight a couple small wars without replenishment.  While its certainly a crazy situation, not having all the facts is bothersome.
 
As for the main draw of this series: the possibly lovely Elven nudity…it’s there but it’s pretty tame compared to how far other shows I’ve seen have gone.  I mean this isnt Outlaw Star or Panty and Stocking with how lude and downright vulgar it can go.  Even the bold declaration of “Take off your clothes” from Junpei gets kind of old after the second time he does it.  Like I said, it almost makes me wish this did turn into a Hentai cause at least that would be somewhat amusing.  Probably the most daring the show gets in the first three episodes is Episode 3 when Airi tricks an Elven Guard into drinking a potion that turns her into a Giant.  Dihal’s reactions are pretty funny, as are the towns reactions to seeing their beloved savior in her super sized birthday suit.  Otherwise, kind of like with Doomed Megalopolis, the promise of something more extreme is way overblown.
 
Much like with Macross 7, I’m trying to figure out why Those Who Hunt Elves still has a following after the first couple of episodes.  There’s very little good chemistry between the four leads.  The wash/rinse/repeat cycle of stories barely changes things up.  And the jokes at the expense of naked Elves isn’t as prevalent as it should be, nor does it push any boundaries I haven’t seen pushed far further in present day Anime.  If we were going by the “three episode rule”, I probably should just put this one in the rear view and move onto other titles.  Who knows though, this could get a full series review down the line but I cant promise and decent review, not when the joke is kind of dead after the end of the first episode.