Summary: >

In a mysterious world of magic, three travelers try to find their way back to Japan. Junpei: the martial arts expert, Airi: the beautiful professional actress who can deceive just about anyone, and Ritsuko: the school girl who is extremely adept in operating military equipment. The three of them have decided they'll do whatever it takes to get back go Japan, even if it means stripping the clothes off of every elf in the land... which oddly enough is what they might have to do. The three eventually receive help from the high elf Celcia, not because she likes them, but to get them out of her world as quickly as possible. Normally you'd think the elves weren't so happy to cooperate, but when you travel a land of fantasy with a T-78 tank; people become cooperative rather quick.

Thoughts: >

Those Who Hunt Elves seems like a good example of a 'formula anime'. Based off of a manga to be sure, but probably left to survive off of its collection of gimmicks as much as anything. Yet somehow the series managed to be interesting enough, funny enough, and not take itself seriously enough to not be completely mediocre. I have to admit that some series I seem to favor simply because of when I happened to see them, and ending up with a feeling of nostalgia. Yet I saw this series some time after I had gotten far into anime, so that doesn't explain it. So that's why I can't really explain what I like about this series, but it manages to fill a nice light hearted anime niche that is easy to watch from time to time.

The characters aren't very deep per say, but they're not supposed to be. Junpei is the martial arts expert. While he isn't billed as being particularly smart, he is rather fun in that he is pure action. There are moments when you almost think he's going to use his brain, only to simply let his testosterone solve his problems. Ritsuko is a school girl / weapons expert who makes a good "anime character", but of course honestly doesn't make sense. I mean this is an a-typical girl who loves ice cream and kittens yet also seems to take way too much enjoyment out of blasting everything that moves with machine guns. For that matter how does a high school in Japan even know how to work half of that stuff? Airi seems to come across as the only sane person in the group, and is somewhat interestingly mischievous at times. Celcia, the high elf who is trying to get them the hell out of her universe; is actually not that interesting on her own but, quite funny when she interacts with Junpei.

One really odd thing about Those Who Hunt Elves is the difference between the dubbed and the subtitled versions. At first I noticed that the ending was different while watching the dub and turning on the subtitles by accident. It actually extends much farther than that. ADV didn't just tweak a few phrases, they actually re-wrote a LOT of the dialog. And the biggest surprise? Their writing team is actually pretty funny! By contrast much of the Japanese dialog is rather drab. This is one of the few titles (perhaps the only one) where I will recommend the dub over the sub.

I liked Those Who Hunt Elves. Good brainless fun all around - but that should be pretty obvious by the entire stripping elves naked while driving around fantasy-land in a tank.. Animation wise it's run of the mill 90's stuff. Well drawn, and animated but obviously on a TV budget. The story evolves in the typical anime formula. Various random self contained episodes in the beginning, then a buildup to a bigger theme at the end.

Recommended as a light hearted watch. It will not split your sides with laughter but you'll still get plenty of laughs out if it.