Those Who Hunt Eleves 2

The first series of TWHE was good enough for me that I decided to go back and get the second when it was released. I figured it would either be as good, worse, or much better than the first season. Well, here’s my review and opinion as to which it is now that I’ve seen the next and probably final twelve episodes of this series.

Fresh from their last failed attempt to get home to Japan, humans Reitsuko, Junpei, and Airi are going around the Elf world with their elven companion Celcia Marie-Claire and their cat-possessed Tank Mi-Ke. Still stripping elves to find their missing spell, they get themselves in trouble, break elven law, embarrass the poor elves and for the most part retain their charming personalities and quirks that made them so much fun in the first series.

Again, like the first series this show has in fact little actual elf-stripping. In fact it has considerably less of the actual stripping and baring of the poor elf chicks than in the first show, and save for episodes 1 and 8 and perhaps brief scenes in another they actually show no naked elves full on. That part of the story takes a secondary importance to just playing with the characters and having fun with them, which while it works sometimes makes you wonder what the point is. Aren’t they trying to get home? Don’t they need to bare elven bods?

Actually the nice thing about this installment in the series is that the spell fragments are mainly not in places that require stripping. Several elves end up having to do no more than show us their thighs or arms to get a spell tattoo, and in other cases the stripping is done off camera or only hinted at. The only setback is that while there are considerably less strippings, only one or two in particular show more than the last series, showing elf women’s butts in plain view. These are so rare that it I was surprised, especially since a masses stripping scene opened the show’s first scene. The only other nudity I could name is in episode two where Junpei has a massive case of the craps, and he needs toilet paper desperately so we do see his buttocks as he vainly searches for the silky white stuff.

That episode, incidentally, was the most manic and hilarious of the whole show which disappointed me. I had thought that they could keep them all as crazy and psycho as most of them had been in Series 1, but strangely they went more serious on the whole. There are plenty of hilarious situations and moments, but unfortunately they’re not very frequent. Also they play up the fantasy element more, including such fables as the Big Bad Wolf, Jack and the Beanstalk and even Santa Clause as story elements!

Another disappointment is that like the first show Celcia gets herself trapped in an animal form, but unlike the hilarious dog of the last series this time she gets the Genma Saotome treatment and becomes an annoying little panda. Sometimes this allows for some laughs, and she does grow on you in that form the longer the show goes, but it’s nowhere near as funny as the dog was, and it just comes off as the writers trying to stick to what they hoped would work. There’s a new main character introduced into the fivesome in the form of a tiny white teddybear creature named Pichi, who mews like a cat and poops toilet paper. I kid you not. It’s actually a super sweet character, and I’m glad they added him.

Overall the show is not as good as its predecessor, and since it ends on another cliffhanger in the hopes of one more series it disappoints twice. For die-hards like me this isn’t such a huge deal because we like our heroes and just want to see them in silly adventures, but the whole series felt like a slightly wasted opportunity. It could have been so much funnier, and that’s really what I wanted out of it.

Perhaps one day they’ll make an Elves 3, and if so I’ll get it, but I do hope it to be a step up from this show which while amusing and not a waste of money was not what it could have been. Elf lovers beware though. Legolas or Dobby wouldn’t like it much in this show! Actually I amend that statement. Legolas and Dobby would be just fine. It’s only women elves that are stripped, as made evident in episode 1 where a crowd of both sexes are together and only the women are stripped! Do we see a possible agenda here? No? You’re stupid then!

Story: They actually tried harder to have more interesting individual stories that for the most part were unrelated and unattached to the broader storyline of elf stripping. While some of them were fun, it was a little frustrating to be getting of the path of returning our heroes home.

Voice Acting: The English version is good, but the Japanese is better. As opposed to the English version of the first show, this one actually sticks to the original Japanese dialogue and doesn’t add a whole slew of cussing.

Animation: Nice and clean like the first, if not the most fluid or active animation.

Language: The Japanese version has a little more language than the last time through, especially in episode 7 where a wolf appears and cusses the humans out at every opportunity.

Sexual content: 1/2 Again, nothing to make hentai lovers drool, and very little real cheesecake to speak of, which just seems surprising coming from a show that has a story plot all about taking off clothing from elves.

Heart enlightenment factor: The main characters are still so much fun, and Pichi is too cute. Junpei and Celcia don’t bicker as much as they used to, but they’re still fun to watch.

Soundtrack: Mostly recycled from the first series, which keeps the musical feel, but the opening and end songs are different. They’re catchy tunes, but not as good as the first season’s fun songs.

Those Who Hunt Elves 2