With a story written by Yu Yagami and directed by Kazuyoshi Katayama, the first season ran from October 3rd to December 19th of 1996, while the second season ran from October 1st to December 24th of 1997. ADV Films (R.I.P.) originally dubbed both seasons sometime during the early part of last decade (2003 to 2004, I think), while Sentai Filmworks re-released both seasons together in one collection in 2009. The show is centered around Junpei Ryuzouji, Ritsuko Inoue, and Airi Komiyama, as well as the elf sorcerer Celcia and a sentient Type 74 tank. Unfortunately for the first three characters, they're trapped in a high fantasy setting after a spell that was cast by Celcia went wrong, and teleported them to Celcia's world. In order to get back to Japan, the group must strip the clothes of every female elf to find the spell fragments (which are tattooed on their bodies) needed for their return. In short, Those Who Hunt Elves is a slapstick comedy, coupled with some suspenseful & serious moments, and plenty of naked elf women to tickle your fancy.
To start things off, Those Who Hunt Elves's first positive are the main characters. Each of the them fit the standard anime archetypes: Junpei is the strongman of the group that's not always bright, Ritsuko is the tomboy that hasn't completely abandoned her womanly nature, Airi is the master manipulator that never looses her cool, Celcia is their guide in the world, and their Type 74 tank (named Mikae) is their transportation and companion in their travels. I won't get into details about Mikae, as that would be a bit of a major spoiler. Regardless, each of the main characters feed off of each other. They enhance each others strengths, while at the same time bringing some of their weaknesses to the forefront. It's not often that you can find such a well connected group of characters in a modern anime, but in a 90s anime such as this, they somehow always managed to show up.
The second positive of Those Who Hunt Elves is the humor. Despite the serious and suspenseful moments, this is first and foremost a comedy show with hints of fanservice. Not surprisingly, the main comedic moments are when the female elves get stripped of their clothing, as well as their reaction afterwards. Even when elf women get their clothes torn off, there's plenty of funny moments between the main characters, especially when Junpei breaks the fourth wall...which happens a lot. Ironically, the moments when the elf women get fully naked have more of a hilarious vibe than a risque or sexy vibe, although given the nature of the show, this isn't surprising.
The voice work is Those Who Hunt Elves's third positive. Although the voices of the secondary characters waver in terms of quality, the work done on the primary characters is pretty good. Given that this show was dubbed back in 2003 or 2004, they still sound great. Each of the voice actors fit their assigned characters perfectly. However, given the fact that I bought the complete collection released by Sentai Filmworks, I'm assuming that they worked on the audio to sound a bit more modern and smooth.
The fourth positive of Those Who Hunt Elves is the amount of episodes, as well as the length of each episode. 24 episodes compose the show, with an even split between each season. Twelve episodes for each season makes for a good size, and each episode lasting 22 to 24 minutes. Because of how many episodes there were, I watched this show over the course of a week, and finished it within 5 days. Some people may watch this show in a shorter amount of time, while other may watch over a longer period of time.
Those Who Hunt Elves's final positive is it's availability and pricing. Despite the fact that ADV Films (R.I.P.) no longer exists, there still exists many of the individual volumes and complete collections that they published over on Amazon. Prices, whether new or used, range from all over the place, but new copies of the complete collection never rise above 25 dollars. The original tape releases miraculously exist on Amazon, but I wouldn't recommend buying them. There's not that many of them (new or used), and trying to buy all of them on tape would actually cost more than buying a complete collection of the show. My suggestion is to buy the complete collection released by Sentai Filmworks, with new copies starting at $23.12, and the few used copies start at $19.99.
However, there are two blights on Those Who Hunt Elves that must be addressed. First off, while the voice acting for the primary characters is well done, things aren't the same for the secondary characters. The level of work quality ranges from okay, to I'm not even trying. Even if the audio in the Sentai Filmworks release was fixed and improved, just the vibes coming off of some of the secondary characters feels like they weren't giving it their all, but that's just me.
The second negative negative is a crucial story element to this show, and that's how the spell that Celcia cast brought the other characters to her world. Maybe I missed something, but the show never explained how the spell got disrupted, and brought everybody to the elven world. I can sorta understand how Junpei, Ritsuko, and Airi came to be, as they might have been together in one place before the spell was cast, but how the hell did the tank get there!? If the tank was with them, then sure, but if it wasn't, then how the hell did it show up with them!? It's never quite explained, and that irks me.
Those Who Hunt Elves gets a 8.5 out of 10. The main characters work great together, the humor is fantastic, the voice acting is equally well done, there's a ton of episodes with a nice time length, and it easily found with a nice price tag, but the voice acting wavers among the secondary characters, and things are never really explained as far as the disrupted spell is concerned.
See you all next week, when I conclude my "Seeds of Geekdom" articles. Until then, stay Otaku!
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