Once upon a time... an elf, three travelers, and their trusty tank wandered across the land...

It would seem like just about any other anime show: three people get stuck in another dimension and try to find a way to get back home. Yes, we've seen this a million times, the strong one good at fighting, the smart one, and the school girl... who's a weapons expert? It's the little odds and ends injected into Those Who Hunt Elves that really gives this anime it's flavor. There's the fact that they drive around in a T-74 tank. And how are they supposed to get home? Well they have to strip elf women naked to look for strange tatoo's... Now if this show were serious, it would be rather awful, but Those Who Hunt Elves is all in good fun. Heck, two of them are women and don't even WANT to take the clothes off women, and the guy... well he's a guy so what do you expect?

For a TV series, the animation was pretty decent. The soundtrack was pretty cool, and believe it or not, the dubbed version was actually rather good. Although the quality of the first episode was rather poor, by the third this series managed to attain a pretty good standard, and maintained it until the end. As far as the dubbing goes, pretty much all of the voice actors did a good job (rare for me to say about ADV dubbing). I was also rather pleased that ADV lifted any restraints on profanity, not that it got dirty, but it did seem MUCH more natural to the show. Overall, Those Who Hunt Elves is a good lighter humorous series, that's worth a look.

Not the best series, and not the worst series... but any show where the premise is to strip women naked can't be all that bad




C h a r a c t e r s

   

Ritsuko Inou
Ritsuko is the younger girl in the group. Back in Japan she was just an ordinary school girl, but after being transported into another world she became the team's weapon expert. Such a place could be a dangerous place for a young girl, but Ritsuko always has her pistol at her hip for backup. Oddly enough, she is probably the most compassionate of the group, and adores her tank above all else. How does a young girl become a weapons expert / sharp shooter? This is anime, and school girls in uniforms can do ANYTHING.

"Women are from Venus, but Junpei is from Uranus"

Airi Komiyama
Once a goddess of the stage, and one of the most celebrated actresses in her field, Airi now spends her days riding on a tank and stripping women naked - not what you would call a step up in the world. Airi is a master strategist, and can see through nearly any guise or lie. As the mastermind of the group Airi seems to generally keep the rest of the bunch under control. Although being in another world has sort of brought her down to earth a bit, she's still a high class actress at heart.

"If this were hell, my mother would be here."

Junpei Ryuuzouji?
A master at hand to hand combat, and winner of 6 consecutive martial arts tournaments; Junpei is practically unbeatable one on one. On the other hand he is your stereo-typical male, and is never mistaken as "the smart one of the bunch" to put it nicely. He and Celcia constantly fight, he practically worships Airi, and would probably sell his soul for a bowl of curry.

"See? It's like I always said. One of these days these elf chicks would really get into me taking their clothes off."

Celcia Marieclaire
Celcia is the high priestess of all elven kind, and entrusted to use the most powerful of spells. One of which has rather horrid consequences. While once a beautiful woman, she used her power to disguise herself as a dog, but unfortunately ended up stuck that way when the first spell fragment imprinted itself on her (and each spell fragment makes her look even more ridiculous!). Even in her canine state, Celcia acts as a guide: to hopefully get them out of her wold as fast as possible.

"I'm covered in sweat. I'm covered in dirt. Hell... I'm covered in FUR!"

T - 74
And out of all the strange things to appear in a word of swords and sorcery... there comes the T-74 tank. While it would seem to be a short story with no fuel, luckily there is a local nut which can be used to produce petrol. The T-74 becomes one of the best defenses of the group, and is adored by its driver/mechanic Ritsuko. After a time, you could say that the T-74 takes on a personality of it's own....

technical info on the T-74


About the manga

   

Elf o Karumono-tachi by Yu Yagami

serialized in the monthly Dengeki Comic Gao, & published by Media Works

(spoiler warning) there are a few inconsistencies between the TWHE manga and anime (probably more actually, but this is all I feel like listing at the moment). Notably, Ritsuko often wears a sort of cape gear like that of Airi, except that she wears a school outfit underneath. The first spell fragment actually wasn't found on the dark elf on her eye... it was actually right on her boob (which was probably why it was moved to the eye for TV ^^;;). Miké also didn't just suddenly possess the T-74. (Rutsuko escaped on her own) In fact what happened, is that Junpei remembered getting clobbered by Miké as a giant bear, and decided to get even by mangling the poor little stuffed dog a bit. Unfortunately after doing so, the dog lay limp, and the T-74 was still at the bottom of the river, until Miké's spirit moved into the tank and drove out of the water.


Those Who Hunt Elves II

There's a sequel? Yes. For the most part the format is exactly the same. Yet another quest to find spell fragments. Not surprisingly the next series is called... Those Who Hunt Elves II (hey, it's better than "Those Who Hunt Elves Flash", or "Those Who Hunt Elves DX"). While the first season I have a fairly favorable opinion of, things started to feel a bit tired in the second. Even so, it had it's moments and is probably worth giving a shot assuming you liked the first series to begin with.

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