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EP. REVIEW: Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf!




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TheReticent



Joined: 24 May 2024
Posts: 19
PostPosted: Sat Jan 18, 2025 4:03 pm Reply with quote
This show was a pleasant surprise, and I too am curious where things will go from here. I was expecting this to be more of a thinly veiled tourism ad type show, but there's actually a potential good story to tell.

Also, I'm glad to have a show with a hot dragon girl for once. Why do shows always default to catgirls?
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 24398
PostPosted: Sat Jan 18, 2025 4:07 pm Reply with quote
I enjoyed Otaku Elf so much that I will forever at least sample any show that has the premise of an elf girl coming to Japan. I'm not as gaga about Welcome to Japan as I was for Otaku Elf, but I still find it enjoyable on its own merits.
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Thesarum
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Joined: 25 Mar 2022
Posts: 564
PostPosted: Sat Jan 18, 2025 4:42 pm Reply with quote
TheReticent wrote:
Also, I'm glad to have a show with a hot dragon girl for once. Why do shows always default to catgirls?


Because cats are cute, and hit a sweetspot of vulnerable-yet-spunky with a side of unpredictable is very marketable.

This show has a bigger brain than that though. Like I too, expected mostly "Japan tourist board sponsored content plus elf girl cute bits with mild fanservice" and was honestly impressed with the world building here. It's light touch, but opens a lot of questions and gives the impression that there's a world and ideas to explore here. (See, lesser Isekai peers, it is possible to do with without an entire episode dedicated to lecture from an adventurers guild receptionist) I guess we'll see how well it follows up on that.
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18547
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Sat Jan 18, 2025 5:05 pm Reply with quote
review wrote:
Speaking of shameless, I have to commend Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf! for understanding the industry's dire lack of sexy dragon-mommies with a penchant for good beer and katsudon bentos.

This is an oddly specific fetish. . .

Anyway, in addition to what others have said, I also liked that this series doesn't completely ignore little details, like the potential language issue. Kazuhiro seems to have an auto-translate feature for the other world (unless he wasn't lying about spending three years learning draconic?), but Marie doesn't. Marie bringing up the point about how specific what Kazuhiro is and isn't allowed to transport between worlds suggests an intelligence at work also shows that the series is letting both its leads be clever, not just Kazuhiro.

I was already committing to watching this after just episode 1, and episode 2 firms up that I'll not only stick with it but may even elevate it to a priority view.
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MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
Posts: 14464
PostPosted: Sat Jan 18, 2025 5:25 pm Reply with quote
This show has so manny winning elements...Yuusuke Kobayashi and his love of elf waifu's, and an utterly adorable, attractive, female lead voiced by Kaede Hondo (who makes Marie's enthusiasm so infectious), a fun take on the Isekai concept that also accentuates the romance between the leads, and also Yuusuke Kobayashi's IRL wife as a dragon waifu.

Though it's got to be surreal for Yumi Uchiyama that she keeps being the "third wheel" to her mans' romances with other girls in an anime.
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Errinundra
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Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 6602
Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Sat Jan 18, 2025 5:46 pm Reply with quote
Like others here I was impressed with the second episode. In another thread I said I chose to watch this series as it was like a soufflé: light, fluffy and sweet. It seems the flavour is more complex and interesting than I anticipated .
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Thulebox



Joined: 15 Mar 2024
Posts: 40
PostPosted: Sat Jan 18, 2025 7:40 pm Reply with quote
Same as everyone else here I've been pleasantly surprised. My only nagging worry is I hope the production doesn't fall apart anywhere since Zero-G are juggling two shows(one's a co-produce sure but still) this season.
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JustMonika



Joined: 17 Jan 2022
Posts: 1186
PostPosted: Sun Jan 19, 2025 12:12 am Reply with quote
Last minute addition to my watch list and I enjoyed the heck out of it.
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