Back to the Vaults: Those Who Hunt Elves 2

Once I had watched the Those Who Hunt Elves DVDs from ADV way back when, I went ahead and proceeded with the DVD for Those Who Hunt Elves 2. After all, I was curious to see the episode from whence my avatar originated. Boy, was I not disappointed.

***There be SPOILERS here!!!***

The Story, in Brief

The plot of Those Who Hunt Elves 2 picks up where the first series left off. Because of Celcia’s second failed attempt to send the three humans summoned from Japan back home, the trio plus Celcia have to again look for spell fragments. Only this time, there are tons of fragments to find rather than only six. However, having been given a license to hunt elves in the previous series, this group of Elf Hunters can now strip (female) elves without fear of legal repercussions.

The Anime vs. Source Manga

The anime adaptation of Those Who Hunt Elves 2 is mostly taken from the manga of the same title. While there are still anime original episodes, Those Who Hunt Elves 2 opts to adapt more manga chapters, though with additional padding and other restructuring elements. What’s weird is that the anime production company Group TAC opted to skip a two-volume story arc from the manga in favor for episodic chapters. They’d been keen to have some sort of arc for the first series.

That aside, the manga chapters that got adapted are chapter 11 (episode 2), chapter 22 (episode 1), chapter 24 (episode 8), chapter 25 (episode 3), chapter 26 (episode 9), chapter 28 (episode 4), chapter 29 (episode 7), and chapter 31 (episode 5). Chapter 35 was actually used in the first series.

Even if the source manga chapter didn’t have the Elf Hunters actually stripping an elf, Those Who Hunt Elves 2 would inject that element into their adaptation of the story. To be honest, I didn’t have any real issues with this or the other padding the anime writers had to add to make a chapter fill an entire episode. Indeed, there were moments were the extra padding actually made for funnier moments in a couple of episodes.

However, the manga’s story as a whole is a bit better. So many of the skipped manga chapters weren’t comedic in nature (or less so), and thus were quite interesting. That is sorely missed in the anime adaptation.

The Series, in General

As with the first series. for the most part, Those Who Hunt Elves 2 is OK for what it is. Outside of two episodes, which I will discuss in a bit, the series is filled with mostly forgettable stories. Again, it is the characters and their interactions that seem to stick in my mind.

The plot for Those Who Hunt Elves 2 is even thinner than it was for the first series. Now that there are a ton of fragments to find, it is clear that the anime was set up to keep going and going if so desired. It is an odd choice, considering that through the 12 volumes of the manga I read, there were never more than the original six fragments.

That aside, Those Who Hunt Elves 2 connects itself with the anime-original plot from the first series by bringing back the character Judge, who gives the Elf Hunters a seemingly impossible task. Beyond that, the only other sense of cause and effect continuity comes from episodes 10 and 12, which are linked.

Still, there are two standout episodes in this series.

Those Who Hunt Wolves

The episode entitled Those Who Hunt Wolves is the second funniest episode in the Those Who Hunt Elves 2 series, and easily one of the top 5 funniest anime episodes I’ve ever watched. The premise of the episode is that the Big Bad Wolf of fairy tale legends killed the three little pigs as well as some kids from a certain village. So the village hires Elf Hunters to take care of this wolf problem.

The Big Bad Wolf decides to become Little Red Ridding Hood to attack granny, then kill Little Red Riding Hood. However, when he comes to granny’s house, Junpei is there and gives him the literal boot. 😂 From there, the Big Bad Wolf goes full on Wile E. Coyote against the Elf Hunters, only to be foiled every time.

All of this is funny enough, but what really had me laughing was how our merry band of Elf Hunters were actually using the Big Bad Wolf as bait for a quartet of female, wolf-hunting elves also known as Elf Hunters. It was a delightful twist to the whole Bad Wolf trope.

Those Who Wipe

While Those Who Hunt Wolves is quite funny, the episode entitled Those Who Wipe (episode number 2, ironically enough) is the funniest anime episode I have ever watched. As you might guess, this episode is primarily about the need for toilet paper. And naturally, Junpei-kun has to go #2 in the worst way possible, but naturally, there’s no toilet paper to be found. (As an aside, the manga actually has a gag about what they normally use for wiping in this world.)

I realize this is just childish humor, but the little boy in me just absolutely loves this. The first time I watched the episode, I laughed so hard as the over-the-top Junpei painfully tries to hold it in while he desperately looks for a suitable substitute for toilet paper. I think this is one of those universal jokes that is at a minimum amusing because one can relate to the problem. 😂

I won’t spoil the ultimate resolution to the toilet paper crisis, but that too is outrageously funny. (As an aside, it was WAY funnier in the Japanese than in the English dub.)

Sentai Release

As they did with Those Who Hunt Elves, Sentai simply takes ADV’s English dub and subtitles for their release of Those Who Hunt Elves 2. The subtitles sometimes make use of the “-chan” honorific, but otherwise no honorifics are used. And it is irritating how inconsistent ADV/Sentai were with things.

Another big problem I had is with what is now known as “localization.” Indeed, when I originally watched this years ago, it made me realize just how much things get changed from the original Japanese ’cause “reasons.”

In the episode Those Who Wipe, there is a Japanese pun regarding the name of the mountain. The mountain’s name is Mount Kami. Since “kami” means” god” in Japanese, and since the mountain has massive protection and rumors, the Elf Hunters decide to investigate. But when they learn that this mountain is full of toilet paper they realize that “kami” didn’t mean “god,” but meant “paper.”

ADV/Sentai opted to attempt to keep a pun in, and so adopted what I consider to be a rather dumb pun. They called the mountain TeePee, since this turd-looking mountain had a somewhat teepee shape to it. Then T.P. after the secret was revealed. 🙄 Yeah, ’cause mountains are called by abbreviations. This is a case where I think leaving the original Mount Kami name in would have been a better choice (with a translator note, of course) as it actually makes more sense.

The Sentai DVDs

For those who didn’t read my review of the first series, I will simply repeat what I wrote there about the extras and DVD case problem.

There are no extras to speak of, other than clean OP and ED animation scenes. I think there were a couple of other minor extras in the DVD set. But they weren’t anything I would bother with.

The DVD case is a bigger one, but poorly designed inside (at least the 2009 one with the yellow artwork is bad–can’t say what the 2016 case is like). The left side had packing material (and a Crunchyroll print ad), while the right side had all four DVDs stacked together. I would have preferred both sides be used for a staggered layout of the four DVDs rather than increase the risk of them getting scratched by being stacked together.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

While Those Who Hunt Elves 2 has a mostly forgettable story, it does have very memorable characters and two outrageously funny episodes. This is why the series became DVD worthy to me.