Forum - View topicWelcome to Japan Ms. Elf! (TV).
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Edjwald
 Posts: 1837 |
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Welcome to Japan Ms. Elf! (TV) Source: Light Novel (ongoing @ 9 volumes, written by Makishima Suzuki, illustrated by Yappen) Demographic: Shounen Animation Studio: Zero-G Genres: adventure, comedy, fantasy, slice of life Themes: cooking, demi-humans, elves, gourmet, isekai, reverse isekai, sorcery Plot Summary: Kazuhiro Kitase's only hobby is sleeping. Ever since he was young, he would enter a wondrous world within his dreams and go on thrilling adventures. One day, he goes on an adventure with an elf girl he became friends with in his dream world, but it's put to an abrupt halt when they both get scorched with a dragon's breath. As he wakes up from his dream, he notices a familiar figure sleeping next to him. Join Kazuhiro on his new adventures through Japan with Ms. Elf. Air Date & Platform: January 10, 2025 (Friday) Available on: Crunchyroll Episode Count / Runtime: Pending [EDIT: Fancy opener stuff added. -TK] |
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Edjwald
Posts: 1837 |
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This one's a winner winner Bento dinner as far as I'm concerned, an isekai and a reverse isekai and a slice of life all rolled up into one omelet. It's always nice to get an anime that surprises you in a good way, and it's not uncommon to get an anime that disappoints you in some fashion, but I'd argue that the rarest of all is to get exactly what you wanted, and this anime is exactly what I wanted so far. Light hearted. Fantasy element. Slice of life vibe. Female lead who may be wish fulfillment fodder but isn't annoying or cloying. Not a tsundere, not a love struck airhead, not a sex starved near predator.
I may be over-reacting because I've watched a lot of gloomy anime episodes in the last few days and I'm iced into my house today, but I don't have any reservations about putting this one on my to watch list. (Still not a fan of elf ears that stick out in yoda-like fashion though. Seems like it would be evolutionarily unsound...how do you keep animals from biting them off or people from grabbing them during fight? And geez, ear infections must be a bitch...) |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2918 |
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The thing that sold it for me is the charm and the attention to detail. The facial expressions, the sound effects/music fitting the moment and even down to the lightbulb familiars being cute. The same charm goes for the characters in that they actually feel like characters and mesh well together while not being annoying or extreme in some way (which is rare these days). The idea of switching between Japan tourist mode and fantasy world adventure mode is not a bad one either.
So yup, all in. Also yeah, we do have a few fairly grim shows this season, |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24457 |
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Episode 1
After watching and loving Otaku Elf when it came out, I was fated to check out every other "elf in Japan reverse isekai" show ever created and in this case, that was no hardship. A lot of fun.
WHAT??? How can you gaze upon those succulent triangular flaps of gristle and not want to nibble on them??? You, suh, are a freak. |
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Edjwald
Posts: 1837 |
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I wonder about the brunette on the cover and all over the closing music sequence. I'm thinking she was the person watching behind the temple pillar in the shadows. Based on those horns, she's probably a demon or a dragon. Dragon might make more sense given the function of the temple as a dragon birthing place, and I'm tempted to guess the dragon who killed them, but that dragon was apparently asleep when they got there and nestled protectively around some eggs...
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b-dragon
Posts: 509 |
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You apparently had it correct- she is, in fact, the arkdragon- much friendlier after being plied with booze and a handmade lunch. I'd say something pithy about that, but a full belly and good beer makes me a lot happier too. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2918 |
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Story and concept wise the show is not that special, though ''going back and forth isekai'' are relatively rare I suppose. Like I said in my previous post: the charm is what sells it. Every character actually feels like a character and the mc's have chemistry between them and act reasonable. No outbursts of anger or being over the top pervy. Miss dragon lady also seems like a fun character and beholden to her desires.
I wonder what the balance will be between fantasy world and touring Japan. |
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Edjwald
Posts: 1837 |
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@b-dragon - Now my question is, who was that spying from behind the pillar in episode 1?
@Smurky - There are five shows I like on Friday, and when I got home after a long week of work today, this show was the one I put on. .I agree that both leads being likable is a big part of it. Who doesn't enjoy showing off a place they like to a person they like? And the show's depiction of modern day Japan is friggin' gorgeous too. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24457 |
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Episode 2
Charming seems to be the word of the week. I used it to describe Bureaucrat to Villainess and it applies equally here. If Marie had asked *me* what would happen to her if she couldn't get back to her own world, my answer would have been a little different than Kazuhiro's: "Welp, in that case, you'll become my personal slave, responsible for cooking all my meals, cleaning my place and anything else I can think of." By the way, that would NOT include sexy time because although I find Marie cute as the dickens, it's not in a "rowr" way. And like smurky, I am curious as to how the split between worlds will play out. I assumed it was going to be mostly in Japan, but perhaps not. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2918 |
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As of episode 3 said split seems to be mostly towards the other world but given them talking about visiting locations in Japan it will probably differ per episode. The episode was interesting skill wise in that Kazuhiro's dream walking really is handy for going on adventures since the risk of permanently dying or losing your stuff is absent. His teleportation ability is handy too, though very limited. Marie's magic on the other hand seems strong but a limit on the amount of spells you can use and needing to plan which ones to set up makes it tricky.
Revenge on the bandits and saving that kid is probably up next though we might get some more tourism first. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11683 |
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Story time, boys and girls: So, back in the day I used to do a lot of text rpg and this season has been pinging those nostalgic buttons left and right for me, between this and Tasokari Hotel. The latter's changing rooms and external views are resonant with a character I ran who lived in a communal mansion and the door to their room was not always there, or even in the same location, and from the outside of the building, didn't appear to exist at all. Like the rooms in TH, the decor often changed, as well as the views outside the windows. So I get a kick out of that every time it's mentioned (Natsume's Book of Friends also had a deal like that, which pleased me immensely).
Likewise, I ran a different character who would occasionally step/fall through randomly appearing portals into other times and places. As in Elf, only certain things came through with her (like her clothes but not any weapons or tech incongruent with the new location), she could understand the language and be understood, she might end up younger or older than she was before going through, and she eventually came to believe this wasn't a random natural phenomenon but was controlled by some intelligent power, most likely for their amusement. Pretty much all of the details I obsess over in such stories are addressed in Elf, and I'm feeling kinda validated to see that I'm not the only one who thinks about and cares about them. Needless to say, I am loving the hell out of it.  And icing on the cake, I really like the MCs! Marie is intelligent and cute and not eye-rollingly busty, and Kazuhiro is equally charismatic. The only thing so far that I would criticize at all is the dragon's "hard-drinking office lady" shtick and the moustache-twirling villains we just got. I can live with that.
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Edjwald
Posts: 1837 |
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I can see why Tasokare Hotel in particular has that vibe. I don't have a lot of text RPG experience, but it does remind me of some of the few fantasy/mystery games I've played like Myst and Last Express.
This show seems to be settling into a groove where it's going to be dividing its time equally between Fantasy adventure and real life slice of life, and I'm very good with that. It sounds like Ms. Elf is going to be encouraging the MC to start experimenting and exploring the hows and whys of the world crossing mechanism instead of just assuming it's all a lucid dream. I do understand why he didn't want to question a great thing too much, but I'd like to see them doing some research myself. |
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11487 Location: Frisco, TX |
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So far, I think the show is doing a really good job of balancing the isekai fantasy adventure with real world slice of life material, but also trying to systematically configure/explain the isekai-ing mechanics. Usually, isekai shows are just presented as one world or the other. And even the back-and-forth like in Sasaki and Peeps is just there because P-chan happens to have the magical ability to transport them back and forth. In this show, their are some extra quirks on the side (like what happens to your stuff in the fantasy world when you leave), but at least they're talking about and trying to figure it out. Meanwhile, they're doing all the cool and/or relaxing stuff in-between. Conceptually speaking, there's a lot of diverse aspects to this, and I'm liking it a lot.
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Beltane70
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Aura Battler Dunbine was interesting in that aspect of going back and forth between our world and the isekai world as that happened several times. In the first half of the series there were two or three instances when the main character and a few others found themselves back in our world, usually with disastrous results, before returning to the other world. At around 2/3rds of the way through the series, all of the factions that are at war with each other, whether they were from our world or the other, are sent to our world for the remainder of the series. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2918 |
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It does surprise me how rare the premise of being able to travel between the normal and fantasy world at will is. Most isekai tend to have the mc(s) be permanently stuck in their new world either due to them having died or just not being able to go back. I am not sure if that is a deliberate choice in wanting to have a new life/fresh start for the mc(s) and forgetting about their old (often miserable) one or because it would be a hassle to write it.
Last edited by smurky turkey on Sun Jan 26, 2025 3:09 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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