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Those who hunt Elves

       
                 
                 
 

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Title Info

  • seen: 1-12 of 12
  • type: TV
  • grade: watchable
  • source: ADV
  • form: sub
  • made: unknown
  • Review created: Tue Jul 3 15:37:40 EST 2001
  • mod: none

I'd avoided this title for quite a while, because the capsule description sounded silly and offensive. Well, it definitely is silly, and it's no classic, but it does have some quite entertaining moments as well.

Synopsis

It all begins when innocent people from our modern period are brought into a typical fantasy world. A world full of magic, monsters and magical creatures such as elves. The expected traveller would be a young girl or boy who must learn the ways of this dangerous land. Well, not in this case, in this example it is the people from our world who scare the occupants of the fantasy world. After all, one is a brilliant actress who can read people like a book and manipulate them just as easily. Another is a martial arts freak who loves a good fight, while the final is a young girl who likes toys...although I'm not sure if assault rifles, explosives and a T-34 main battle tank are that typical.

Still, the one who brought them to the world is all set on returning them as soon as possible. However a distraction during a complex incantation causes the spell to fragment and seek a home on the body of elves just like the caster. And since she happens to be an elven female it means that somewhere in the the world there are 5 elven females with spell fragments hidden somewhere on their bodies. And thus the most embarrassing quest in fantasy is born as these three, plus a tank and an elven mage polymorphed into a dog for disguise (to very limited success) must search to world, find elves, and strip them.

Review

It sounds pretty hentai, and cheap at that, but it's actually not as bad as it sounds. The stripping is not explicit or visual and serves mostly as a reason for why this strange group are wandering the world. It also serves, quite cleverly, to draw them into various stories. In some cases this is because the elf has power to resist, but in many others it is because the elf is in trouble, or involved in some story of her own, and the group just can't help but get involved. After all, they're not evil, although they're not very popular.

And, to be embarrassingly honest, it's not too bad. As I mentioned nobody will be defending this as a deep or important anime, but it really is a bit of fun. The main characters are enjoyable in the way they think, act and the approach they take to everything. There's actually some very nice interaction within the group. Add to this the fact that the stories are varied and bring lots of other characters, both elven and not, into it and there's some nice scenes and dialog. Complete it off with a bit of action, or perhaps some magic, and you have a surprisingly enjoyable show.

The main problem, if you care to look for it, is that the show covers many styles but doesn't go very far in any of them. As a fantasy it's highly unimaginative and draws from all the old staples of such shows without adding much that is new. It's often amusing, but has some long and relatively serious stories and few truly hilarious moments. It has action, but it's not that great and surprisingly rare. And many of the stories have as many lazy and silly components as the do original and good ones. If you want to be positive you call it a nice mix of elements, if you don't like it then you can just call it confused.

It also has one final problem, and that is that it fades quite badly towards the end. While the first couple of episodes are quite good it becomes less imaginative and much more poorly animated towards the end. Even the dialogue seems to have less novelty and sparkle than it did initially. The conclusion itself is sort of silly and a bit disappointing. It's a shame that such an entertaining start couldn't be maintained. Mind you, highly placed authorities have determined that I don't have much of a sense of humor, and at worst the show is still watchable, so you shouldn't lose by checking it out yourself...even though I wouldn't buy it.

The animation is quite reasonable until about episode 8, and some of the early stuff is quite good. The character art is good fun, bright and full of personality, and not unattractive. There's also some nice detail on the tank and other gear, which makes sense because the tank is virtually a character. While it also has some nice magical effects the physical action quickly becomes quite abstract. The old still frame of a punch and foes flying into the sky rather than actually animating the full event. While the reduction in quality is obvious enough to be noticed it is still sufficient to support the story even at its worst. The voices are actually quite good although the music is a bit `stock' even though it is pleasant enough.

Other Reviews

  • THEM review It's a relatively short review, but THEM don't seem to consider it a problem for that they identify as a lightweight show based on a dodgy premise. They quite like the humor, consider the production acceptable but find little to get excited about (3/5).
  • Lord Carnage review A short review from Lord Carnage that identifies the show as being silly and quite amusing. It's actually hard to tell how much he enjoyed it, but the rating is reasonably positive (3.5/5).

       
                 
                 
       

Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:26 WST 2009