But could those very otaku who were listening to aniraji be willing to watch anime in late-night... and, in turn, buy merchandise related to those anime, i.e. manga, telephone cards, figures, home video releases, etc.?
In the end TV Tokyo wound up being the network that was willing to give this concept a try, but it did so via brokered programming, i.e. the time slots would be purchased by the producers of the anime themselves. Quite literally, this would be an "anime infomercial" where the anime itself was the infomercial for the associated merchandise that otaku would purchase, which is what the real point of all this was: To get otaku to buy swag. In order for this idea to really work, though, the first show to be aired via this "late-night anime infomercial" format would ideally be something that could never be allowed to air on more standard time slots anime was generally associated with, i.e. weekend mornings & prime time during weekdays. Luckily, in the pages of MediaWorks' Monthly Comic Dengeki GAO! there was just the manga that would be perfect for this concept: Elf wo Karu Mono-tachi/Those Who Hunt Elves by Yu Yagami. A dropout from Osaka Sangyo University, & former assistant to Yu Kinutani, Yu Yagami debuted Those Who Hunt Elves in early 1994 & would eventually finish it after a nine-year run in 2003, with a total of 21 volumes (plus a "DX" volume), though he would eventually return to it a couple of times with Those Who Hunt Elves Returns (a single-volume revival from late 2007 to early 2008) & Those Who Hunt Elves 2 (a digital serialization via Comic Meteor from 2013-2018 that totaled 10 volumes). There was also 2009-2011's Ageha wo Ou Mono-tachi/Those Who Chase Ageha, but that's totally unrelated & Yagami likely only titled it similarly for funsies.
Why was Those Who Hunt Elves the perfect anime for this new infomercial-esque concept? Because the entire gimmick of the series was that a bunch of people from Earth get teleported to a fantasy world, and the only way to get back home is to find fragments of a magic spell... and the only way to find the fragments is by stripping female elves of their clothes, since the fragments have become tattoo-like marks on their bodies. Yep, there is literally no way in hell that concept would have ever been approved for a morning, afternoon, or prime time TV anime slot in Japan in the mid-90s, and even as late as 2015 the Chinese Ministry of Culture literally included Those Who Hunt Elves as one of 38 different anime & manga that it had banned in China, alongside the likes of Elfen Lied, Blood-C, Corpse Party, Death Note, School Days, & Highschool of the Dead; to be fair, the list also included Inferno Cop. Anyway, the Those Who Hunt Elves anime would debut on "October 3, 1996 at 25:45" & run for 12 episodes, where it wound up being a success, leading to the idea of the "late-night anime infomercial" becoming more widely accepted... and today is the primary way the vast majority of TV anime gets made, but I've already been going over that history this entire year. One year later, on "October 1, 1997 at 25:45", a second season titled Those Who Hunt Elves II/Second (which is likely why Yagami went with the Arabic numeral for his manga sequel) would air on TV Tokyo for an additional 12 episodes, and around 1999 ADV Films would start releasing the first season via both dubbed & subbed VHS tapes, before eventually re-releasing it on dual-audio DVD in late 2001 & early 2002. Those Who Hunt Elves II would then see release in 2003 via dual-audio DVD only, and afterwards both seasons would always get re-released together as a 24-episode series, whether it was by ADV or (later) Sentai Filmworks via DVD boxsets in 2005, 2009, & 2016, or SD-BD boxset in 2019. ADV would also release the original manga in 2003 & 2004, but only put out the first seven volumes, stopping just shy of where the anime adapted up through, which looks to be Volume 8. To be fair, the show has been out been out of print for the better part of the past decade, & currently isn't streaming anywhere in English right now.
Anyway, my year-long celebration(?) of the 30th Anniversary of the modern-day late-night anime infomercial continues, on the literal day of the anniversary itself, with a review of the one that started it all, Those Who Hunt Elves (I & II)!
Junpei Ryuzouji is a strong & powerful karateka, though maybe a little dense at points. Airi Komiyama is a talented actress with a real knack for being able to disguise herself as anybody. Ritsuko Inoue is a high school girl who's also an ardent military otaku & can wield a variety of weaponry like a pro. Together they are known as "Those Who Hunt Elves", or simply the "Elf Hunters"... and all they want is to get back home to Japan. One day the three of them found themselves in a world of swords & sorcery, and were on the verge of being sent back to Earth with the help of Celcia Marie Claire, the Elder of All Elves who was also the one who accidentally teleported them to her world... but Junpei started talking during Celcia's ceremony, as it required her to imprint the ancient teleportation spell onto her own body, which resulted in Celcia getting distracted & the spell getting split into five pieces & flung out somewhere in the world, where they wound up being imprinted on five random female elves. With no other choice left Junpei, Airi, & Ritsuko (plus the giant T-74 tank that got teleported with them) decide to travel this fantasy world to find the spell fragments that can get them back home, with Celcia eventually joining them... and these three will strip each & every female elf in this world naked if they have to.
Those Who Hunt Elves is an interesting anime to go back to today, 30 years after the debut of the first season, because (much like with when I reviewed St. Luminous Mission High School in August) the way it executes its concept feels wholly different when compared to how it would be handled if the manga had debuted now. If TWHE was a brand new IP that was debuting today then it'd more than likely be a fanservice-driven, bawdy-as-all-hell, & likely immensely repetitive comedy series where the primary focus would be on showcasing the female elves being stripped naked for the simple sake of pure titillation. However, Yu Yagami is a smarter man than that, & while TWHE is definitely a comedy series first & foremost it also works because it plays its concept 100% straight. Within just the first two episodes it's established fairly quickly that the Elf Hunters don't really take much glee in what they're doing by stripping female elves, but rather it's literally just what they have to do in order to find their way back home to Japan. They're also almost instantly established as being immensely competent in their actions, with Airi being a clever strategist who can use her skills at make-up & disguising to engage in subterfuge & covert recon, Junpei being a very talented martial artist who can more than hold his own in combat, & Ritsuko having access to all manner of weaponry & firearms gives them an immediate advantage when needed; after all, this fantasy world doesn't have anything like a sniper rifle or a literal tank. If TWHE was created today by almost anyone else I think it's fair to imagine that the concept would be taken way more silly, the Elf Hunters would likely be portrayed as way less competent (but way more skeevy), & it'd likely feel way less novel.
Still, this is a comedy first & foremost, and the Elf Hunters themselves are still portrayed as being (mostly) kind of dinguses, in their own rights. Junpei is a curry-loving & generally simple-minded man, especially when it comes to Airi (who he was a big fan of back on Earth & is madly in love with), resulting in him being rather easy to manipulate (especially by Airi) & quick to make hasty decisions. However when it comes to martial arts he's immensely respectful, as seen in Episode 4 of Season 1, when he allows the female elf the were after time to heal her sprained ankle so that the two can have a proper martial arts duel, even after Airi & Ritsuko already confirm that she doesn't have a magic fragment on her. Meanwhile, Ritsuko is a full on military otaku who especially adores the T-74 tank that came with them to the fantasy world, so much so that she was even willing to die with it when it was deemed useless (due to running out of gas) & set for destruction. Luckily, in Episode 5 the tank winds up getting possessed by a cat spirit, which Ritsuko names Mihke, allowing the tank to now run without the need for gasoline (which they had previously been able to source from literal "gasoline fruits") & Ritsuko to now treat a literal tank like it's a pet. Of the three, Airi is by far the most competent of them all, as aside from her acting & disguising chops being extremely & reliably good to fool people when needed (as long as Junpei doesn't mess things up, at least) she's also wildly perceptive with both her eyes & ears, allowing her to notice visual tells when someone is lying or hearing information not directed towards them that can be useful. Airi's only real weakness is that she's effectively useless in combat, but that's what allows the Elf Hunter trio to balance each other out: Junpei is strong & great at close range combat, but can also be simplistically dense; Ritsuko is their long range & trap expert, but as she's still a teenager she's the least "mature" of the group; Airi is a highly perceptive & quick thinking strategist, but needs Junpei & Ritsuko to protect her.
Then there's Celcia, the gang's resident magic user who's caught in a crossroads. As revealed halfway into Season 1 she's the one who accidentally summoned these people to her world, as she thought it'd be a powerful spell to defeat a great evil (though the gang just defeated the evil themselves instantly... since they have a tank), so she feels that it's also her duty to help get them back to Earth. However, since the Elf Hunters are, you know, literally stripping female elves to accomplish their goal Celcia also quickly gets seen as a traitor to her own kind, which is why she decides to disguise herself as a dog-like creature while journeying with the Elf Hunters... only for her to get stuck in said dog form after finding the first fragment in Episode 2, due to how the magic fragments work. This, naturally, results in repeated jokes from Junpei about how Celcia is now their "pet", and all she can really do is bear it (while still arguing back at Junpei, of course), as now she has her own personal reason for finding all of the fragments, i.e. being able to turn back into an elf. The very end of Season 1 does also showcase that Celcia actually has feelings for Junpei deep down, though considering how much they bicker it feels almost more like a gag, in & of itself. As for any recurring supporting cast, the closest thing would be Annette, one of Celcia's subordinates who initially tries to kill the Elf Hunters herself, only to wind up being on their side once she finds out the truth behind how they arrived in the fantasy world. The only other truly recurring characters, then, would be Judge & the Magistrate, the chief prosecutor & judge (yes, I imagine the gag is that Judge isn't actually a judge) of the elves who are first seen in the climax of Season 1, while in Season 2 Judge gets an episode where he tries to find a way to stop the Elf Hunters from causing more problems.
In terms of the overall structure of the anime across both seasons, then, it's admittedly a very episodic series. The Elf Hunters enter a new town/city/environ of some sort, eventually discover a female elf in said area, more often than not assist them with some sort of problem, and then (usually) it all ends with them stripping the female elf to see if she had a spell fragment somewhere on their body. However, Those Who Hunt Elves manages to stave off repetition for the most part by giving each episode something unique, while also deviating from the usual formula in small ways here & there. For example, one episode sees Airi befriend a girl who delivers flowers throughout the town who wishes to dance at an upcoming royal ball that's open to everyone, so as to impress the local prince, and once she discovers that the girl's an elf she actually doesn't reveal this to her friends, instead deciding to figure out if the girl has a fragment by buying her a dress as a surprise before the ball, i.e. the girl willingly undresses in front of Airi, not knowing what Airi's (partially) true intention is; of course, the episode still ends with Junpei stripping the girl, but that's separate from Airi's plan. Another episode sees the gang encounter an elf who's stuck wearing cursed armor that she can't take off... in other words, she WANTS them to strip her. Sometimes an elf isn't even really a focal point, or featured at all, like in the episode where Mihke is introduced or an episode where the gang chase after a ghost elf via astral projection (because, again, while they're immensely competent they're also total dinguses), only for that to be resolved halfway through so that they can focus on getting back to their bodies before they're cremated. Season 1 ends with a two-parter involving Judge & the Magistrate that's actually mostly serious & climaxes with the gang literally being put on trial for their actions, though in a clever twist the concept of them even being put on trial in a fantasy world becomes a plot point relating to how exactly their summoning to the fantasy world works, in the first place.
As for Those Who Hunt Elves II, it sees the gang have to continue stripping elves to find the (now 1,000+) spell fragments once again, due to Junpei being Junpei, only now they've been granted actual legal permission to strip female elves; doesn't make them any more well liked, of course. Celcia also gets to have a literal couple of episodes early on where she gets to be herself as an elf while dealing with scenarios, though in Episode 3 she once again finds herself stuck in an animal body, this time a mini panda; it helps mask the spell fragments that appear on her body this time around, at least. The gang also gets a new pet (alongside Mihke) in the form of Pichi, a very small & baby bear-like creature... that poops out rolls of toilet paper. However, while TWHE II is very similar in concept as the first season there is a notable change in execution. Namely, the second season feels more sitcom-esque in nature than the first season, as now the episodes feel more focused on putting the gang in purposefully silly scenarios, whereas the first season was focused on putting the gang into more straightforward situations that simply led to silly shenanigans. For example, this time around the gang help "mermaid" elves deal with a man-eating shark, they come across a town that hoards literal toilet paper (much to Junpei's dismay, as he really has to drop a load badly), they encounter a female elf named Bruno (a reference to Giordano Bruno) who's shunned by her local town for espousing heliocentrism (when everyone in this fantasy world believes in geocentrism), they deal with a (big bad) wolf who keeps trying to eat Lil' Red Riding Hood's grandmother (though in reality they're after the hunters who are coming to hunt said wolf), and other kinds of ridiculous scenarios. In fact, the gang don't really have to rely on as much outright forceful stripping in the second season, as more often than not the elves they help out are perfectly willing to bare themselves in return for the gang's assistance, if not simply the fragment winds up being readily visible without the need to strip; Junpei still strips the occasional elf here & there, but it's nowhere near as often. Hell, in one episode Junpei & Ritsuko even have to protect an elf from being stripped by an entirely different group of clothing strippers!
Where the first season of Those Who Hunt Elves ends with what feels like was likely Yu Yagami's original idea for an ending, should the manga wind up being short, Those Who Hunt Elves II ends with something more akin to a stopping point. However, it's also kind of fitting for the anime to end like it does with the second season, and after looking up the publication dates for each collected volume in Japan the two seasons made actually look to adapt almost exactly what was made of the manga up to that point, as Volume 8 wouldn't come out until January 15, 1998, about half a month after THWE II's final episode first aired; for all intents & purposes, this was seemingly as "complete" of an adaptation as could be done by that point.
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| And girl and her... cat spirit-possessed Type 74 tank. The greatest love story, am I right? |
Both seasons were handled by Group TAC & feature much of the same shared staff, though they do feature different directors, with Season 1 being led by Kazuyoshi Katayama (The Big O, Argento Soma) & Season 2 by Hiroshi Fukutomi (Flint the Time Detective, Galactic Patrol Lensman). Despite the change in directors, though, Those Who Hunt Elves II really doesn't feel that much different from the first season, visually, which is surprising considering that even the art director, color designer, & director of photography changed between seasons, too. If anything, maybe TWHE II has a bit more saturation in its usage of color, but even then it's rather minor & could probably be chalked up to simply a change in animation techniques during the year-long interim. As for the quality of the animation itself... it's literally the very first "modern day late-night anime infomercial", but it honestly isn't bad looking at all; nothing special, but it is very much consistently on model & holds up pretty well today. Part of that overall shared visual congruity would also come from character designer Keiji Goto (Gate Keepers, Sorcerer Hunters), who carried over between both seasons. The same is true of the writing staff led by Masaharu Amiya (CLAMP School Detectives, Descendants of Darkness), who alongside the duo of Masashi Kubota & Yasunori Yamada (plus Sumio Uetake, for three episodes of TWHE II) handled the scripts for both shows, and the end result is great. I'd argue that Those Who Hunt Elves has aged rather excellently in the 30 years since the first season debuted in 1996, and that's because while this is inherently a very silly show it still knows how to properly balance being ridiculous while still being able to take itself just seriously enough so that when the show actually has to be taken seriously (like in the final episode of Season 1) it actually works. TWHE II does definitely up the silliness with its more sitcom-style execution, and Junpei often turns into the butt monkey of the gang in these episodes, but the characters still know when to take a serious moment seriously, while still tossing in a snide remark or self-referential joke (usually Junpei stating how much he hates fantasy stories) for levity.
As for the music we have Hideki Tsutsumi, who's actually known primarily as a music producer, teacher, & (as of 2013) the founder of A-Head Records, though during the second half of the 90s he did dabble in composing, which included doing the scores to both seasons of Those Who Hunt Elves; this would be Tsutsumi's sole anime. Tsutsumi had a man named Tsuyoshi Yokoyama co-compose with him for TWHE II, but there's literally no information on Yokoyama to be found outside of his credit here (his exact kanji name is shared with a number of other people, including a singer, narrator, & even a kickboxer), so my only guess is that maybe Yokoyama was one of Tsutsumi's students at the time. Anyway, the general soundtrack for both seasons of TWHE is overall solid, if maybe a tad bland, with a synth-focused sound that occasionally resembles what you maybe heard in various JRPGs of the era, though that kind of fits here considering the literal fantasy world the show takes place in. Meanwhile, the OP & EDs for each season were all performed by Naoko Hamasaki, ex-vocalist for the rock band Replica (which had disbanded in early 1996), with each OP composed & arranged by Chihiro Kiryu, formerly of the rock band VELVET PΛW, while Hideki Tsutsumi himself did the same for the EDs. First OP theme "Angel Blue" is an instant classic, in my opinion, an upbeat & smooth song that really fits the casual nature of the series, while second OP "Round 11" has a bit more of a hard rock sound to it, though with a cool ephemeral feel during the verse. I instantly liked "Angel Blue", while "Round 11" took a couple of episodes for me to warm up to it, but both OPs are excellent. As for the two ED themes, "Tensai wa Saigo ni Yattekuru" & "Kiseki no Mukougawa he", they're both much lighter songs that work very well as EDs, though they both match the general kind of music their respective OPs are like, & I think both better showcase Tsutsumi's talents as a composer than the actual soundtrack does. Again, the soundtrack across both seasons is very good, but it's just not something I'd actively hunt after in isolation.
When it comes to the voice cast, it's clear to see that both seasons are (by & large) a four-person show. Probably my favorite member of the cast for the main quartet would be the venerable Tomokazu Seki as Junpei, who actually plays slightly against type by primarily going with a deeper voice than what Seki's usually known for, though when Junpei gets flustered or excited you can hear the voice that Seki is much more known for come through. After that would be Michie Tomizawa (Sailor Mars in Sailor Moon, Sumire Kanzaki in Sakura Wars) as Airi, and she does a great job here by keeping Airi very calm, cool, & collected, very in keeping with the character's "Oscar quality" acting ability. Meanwhile, there's Kotono Mitsuishi (Misato in Evangelion, Female Maze in Maze) as Celcia, who's a superb comedic foil to Seki's Junpei, and it's very easy to tell that Mitsuishi was having a blast playing a elf who's constantly on the verge of existential breakdown due to her being stuck in two different animal bodies. Finally, for the gang, there's Yuko Miyamura (Asuka in Evangelion, Casca in Berserk [1997]) as Ritsuko, who really was a perfect fit for the character's generally upbeat nature, though when pushed can sound properly miffed; she definitely channeled a little bit of Asuka once or twice, I imagine. There's also Eriko Kawasaki as Mihke, who got the easiet job ever by simply needing to do cat-like meowing sounds to match the situation at hand; Kawasaki also gets a proper role in an episode of each season as a female elf. Beyond them the only real recurring cast members of note would be Fumihiko Tachiki as Judge, Tomoko Kawakami as Annette & Pichi (plus her & Celsia's two high elf priests, played by Chafurin & Motomu Kiyokawa), & Rin Mizuhara as the Magistrate, with Tachiki being the best of the lot there. Meanwhile, the number of (what amount to) guest spots in episodic roles is rather large, including the likes of Takehito Koyasu, Hiromi Tsuru, Kae Araki, Ken Narita, Soichiro Hoshi, Yuki Masuda, Yasunori Matsumoto, and many others.
Then there's ADV's dub for both seasons... which is actually really interesting, when you look into the credits. You see, there actually isn't a consistent ADR director across both seasons, and while that can certainly make sense due to the fact that TWHE II was dubbed a few years after the first (again, TWHE I first came out on VHS in 1999, while II didn't come out until 2003), the simple fact is that there are four different people directing the dub cast throughout both seasons. Episodes 1-4 of Season 1 were directed by Tristan MacAvery... who also directed the absolutely terrible Panzer Dragoon OVA's dub by ADV, and the end result is easily the worst sounding part of the dub, with stilted performances by the actors aplenty. The rest of Season 1, then, had its dub directed by the infamous Steven "Ste7en" Foster (under the pseudonym Steven Rocket), so his episodes feature a ton of liberties when it comes to tone, script changes, & what jokes are being made. Foster also helped script MacAvery's dub episodes, so there were liberties there, but they're upped way more in the Foster-directed episodes. To be fair, Foster's generally more loosely accurate dubbing style works for Those Who Hunt Elves, and he definitely gets much better performances from the actors than MacAvery did, so the end result is a dub for Season 1 that starts off rough but gets much better over time. As for TWHE II, the first half of the dub was directed by Janice Williams (Tsuritama, Clannad After Story), and under her time as director the cast are well performed but the scripting is more or less the same as the subtitles, so it occasionally comes off sounding a little rigid; Ritsuko is even referred to as "Rit-chan" in this season's dub, unlike before. Finally, the second half of TWHE II's dub was directed by Scott McClennen (Yugo the Negotiator, Gravion), and his side of the second season dub is essentially the middle ground between Williams & Foster, i.e. it's not 100% adherent to the subs (it's more like 85%) but it's also nowhere near as loose as seen in Season 1's dub.
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| In all honesty, this about as "bad" as it gets when it comes to female elf nudity. |
As for the dub cast, however, the quality of their performances mostly depend on who was directing them, though the actors themselves that were chosen are overall solid. Easily the best of them all would be Jessica Calvello (Yuri in Dirty Pair, the de facto English voice for any Cutie Honey) as Celcia, who even during the MacAvery-directed episodes absolutely delivered a pitch-perfect English equivalent to Kotono Mitsuishi, truly showcasing just how good of a voice actor she was way back in the late 90s. However, Calvello wound up not returning for THWE II, likely due to her literally injuring her vocal chords voicing Excel in the first half of Excel Saga's dub (which was done not too long before THWE II's dub probably started recording), so for the second season's dub she's replaced with Shelley Calene-Black (Ais Wallenstein in DanMachi, Mireille Bouquet in Noir). To be fair, Calene-Black delivers a perfectly good Celcia & if she had been in the role from the start she would have been great throughout; it's just that Calvello was, in my opinion, absolutely perfect for the role. Meanwhile, Junpei is voiced by Andrew Klimko (Nachi Igarashi in Compiler, [the second] Gateau Mocha in Sorcerer Hunters) & he's probably the second-best dub actor for the series, delivering a good amount of sometimes manic karate man energy & exasperation at various fantasy-oriented situations. Following Klimko in quality would be Rozanne "Rozie" Curtis (Anzu Kadotani in Girls und Panzer, Behoimi in Pani Poni Dash!) as Ritsuko, who even by the end of THWE II still sounds a tad wooden in her performance but you can at least still tell that she's having a good time with the character & is giving it her all. Finally, the main gang in the dub is rounded out by Kelly Manison (Chloe Rollo in DanMachi, Naga in the Slayers movies & OVAs) as Airi, who's unfortunately a very mixed bag. There are moments where she actually does a good job, usually when she's playing up Airi doing some form of acting, but it really does seem like Manison was told to usually be more subdued in her performance, likely to match Michie Tomizawa's performance in the original Japanese, but Manison more often than not winds up sounding more "uninterested" than "subdued".
Meanwhile, the dub oddly has multiple people "voice" Mihke, with both Christopher Borque (who's generally an engineer & sound mixer for ADV & Sentai's dubs) & Joe Jaworski handling things in Season 1, while Tiffany Grant takes over for Season 2, as well as voicing Pichi; I mean, it's literally just someone meowing to match the moment of a scene, so three voices is odd. As for the "major" supporting cast we have some more cases of multiple people voicing them, due to the time between dubs, so both Melissa Cybele Sparks & Rene Rivera play Annette, while both Mike Kleinhenz & Jay Hickman voice Judge. Neither Cybele Sparks & Rivera had long dubbing careers, so I can understand that recasting, but Kleinhenz continued to work with ADV into the mid-00s so recasting him was a little odd. Meanwhile, other notable English voice actors who appeared in the dub across both seasons, even if only for one or two episodes, include Brett Weaver, Hilary Haag, John Gremillion, Kira Vincent-Davis, Luci Christian, Randy Sparks, Chris Patton, Greg Ayres, Kyle Jones, Monica Rial, & even ADV co-founders Matt Greenfield & David Williams, among numerous others; there was even someone simply credited as "donaldo", which admittedly feels fitting for this show. Overall, the dubs for Those Who Hunt Elves I & II are definitely a mixed bag, with the early episodes of Season 1 being hampered by the very nature of it being an early-era ADV dub, but there is still fun to be had watching the show with it.
Plus, as Rufus from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure said... "They do get better".
To be fair, calling the first season of Those Who Hunt Elves "something that could never be allowed to air on more standard time slots anime was generally associated with" is maybe overselling its content slightly, as the show never even shows anything like bare nipples; ironically, that used to be seen as fine to show in anime back in the 80s, but by the 90s standards had changed. However, while the content itself is honestly rather tame today, especially when compared to what late-night anime has shown on TV in the 30 years since, I can still see the general concept of stripping female elves on the (semi-)regular being what made TWHE the perfect candidate for what was very obviously seen as an experiment at first. Like any kind of industry, the "ideal" would be for anime to always get made on a continual basis (see: Kadokawa announcing that it wanted to produce 40 new anime per year back in 2021), and in a way the OVA boom of the 80s kind of showed that the idea could potentially be done. So whoever thought up the idea of airing anime in late-night that was marketed towards actually had a neat idea... but it's long since become an absolute albatross for the industry, one that more or less just encourages the industry to churn out one new work after another with abandon, in turn making it harder for individual shows to really hit a zeitgeist like before. It's also created a backlog of productions that, in more recent times, can often mean that follow-up seasons to shows that wound up being surprise hits might not debut until literal years after the first breakout season, i.e. whatever momentum it once had may have died out. And, in a loose way, all of that can be connected all the way back 30 years, when Those Who Hunt Elves debuted on "October 3, 1996" in late-night.
However, when it comes to the actual show itself, Those Who Hunt Elves I & II remains an absolute blast of an anime to watch, even 30 years later. As mentioned, it's straightforward & to-the-point execution actually helps it age way better than it likely would have if it was an idea either made later on or simply was conceived of by someone other than Yu Yagami, and while Those Who Hunt Elves II definitely plays up the silliness more than the first season it's still a series that consistently put a smile on my face throughout. This anime is a great example of a comedy series that manages to thread the needle just right, delivering silly comedy in spades while also making its very concept something that's obviously not meant to be seen as pure titillation, but rather the most direct solution to a bizarre situation. There's a cleverness to this series that I think would definitely be lost if it was adapted today, and I do wish that I had watched this series long, long ago, instead of after all this time.
However, is it really fair to "blame" Those Who Hunt Elves for starting the machine that now powers our modern day anime hellscape? Well, to quote the very show that the tagline for this review is referencing... I don't know.
Those Who Hunt For Elves © Yu Yagami/ASCII Media Works・Showgate・Sotsu
Those Who Hunt For Elves II © Yu Yagami/ASCII Media Works・Project E2
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