[Anime Review] Otaku Elf - Nothing More Than Another Umaru-chan Clone
Welcome y'all. I recently finished Otaku Elf. It was such a bad decision to start watching it and then proceeding to willingly finish it. Now, y'all get to read about my frustrations. Let's jam!!!
So, where do I begin with this? I know, I'll start with the worst part: there's no big fights between burly manly men. What the Anime does instead makes me sick to my core: Elda, the elf on the promotional art, teaches Japanese history and culture to her Miku, Koito Koganei, in a way that panders to foreign audiences and opens discussions about the 400 years of change she's seen since being summoned to Japan. I don't live there, so why I should care. It doesn't affect me at all!!!
Also, keeping your visuals consistently pleasant and of the same quality instead of blowing your entire budget on first episode set dressing and action scenes is just bad business, C2C (the Anime studio). You need to sell merchandise and get your viewers invested in your projects from the moment they start, like you did with Reincarnated as a Sword (and from what I've heard Shangri-la Frontier, but haven't seen yet). You don't need to open as a slice of life comedy with a budding sisterhood / parent-child relationship between the two leads and an immediate undertone of how lonely being immortal really would be without it being tonally inconsistent.
You also don't need an opening that vibes as hard as this and tells the audience everything they need to know about all relationships and what the story is about. The ending also performs two sins that I can never forgive: 1) real world product placement 2) combining 2D and 3D together on the same screen . Who does that? I sure don't!!!
I don't see the appeal of the little sister archetype. Why the holy hell in a hand basket do they do it three different ways? Why make them different in the first place? If you're going to include a trope, always go for the expected low hanging fruit!!! Don't put any effort or thought into it!!!
There's not much else to say about this wonderful, cozy 12 episode series that not many fans are talking about. I can see three aspects being a possible issue for some audiences:
Slight Spoilers (Skip to Closing Thoughts Below)
- because it uses real historical paintings for some of its story telling, there's a scene with brief male nudity on display in one of the earlier episodes
- the majority of the cast don't get as much screentime as the two leads and do follow specific tropes and archetypes without doing much to make them feel unique enough for people
- remember how I brought up an undertone earlier related to Elda being immortal: why she became a shut in is played as a joke but pops its head out every so often in various scenes; if the setting is only a slightly altered version of our own real world due to certain products existing (which gives a rough estimate of it taking place in 2017+ - the Nintendo Switch was directly shown and referenced after all), then that rabbit hole is pretty deep for those that want to read further about it (and might be explored in the Manga) .
My Closing Thoughts
I had a great time with it and hope you do too. You can find it on HiDIVE (if you're in the states) or you can watch it through Amazon Prime using their channels subscriptions feature (if you're elsewhere according to some sources and recent HiDIVE licensing changes related to global region support). Thank you all for reading; discussion and interaction will always be more important for me than votes, but voting, reblogging and commenting help others find my content
This was one of the anime that I used to watch but stopped midway given how everything just became dull and torture. Granted it's a slice of life reverse isekai, I had some hopes that there's going to be a little more. I wanted to come back and just finish the show like some closure is long overdue but instead I ended up forgetting this existed until you made a review about it.
!discovery 30
Those are fair thoughts. I finished because it was engaging for me but sounds like it might not have worked for you. 😅
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I didn't watch it, but it was clear to me that it wasn't to your liking haha I don't like Isekais and maybe I won't watch it, but if it has nice animation, it has it 😂
Oh, it was so my liking. I will rewatch in a few weeks and would love it if you did too. It’s pretty great if you like these types of shows. I had no major complaints but my tone may not have translated well 🥲
It’s barely an Isekai and actually a closet edutainment (educational show), if that’s anything 😎
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STOPIt is true that this anime was one of the most underrated and forgotten of last year. However, despite that, I watched it, which is saying a lot, on my part. And I say this because at a time when I was looking for interesting anime, with incredible animation, impressive battles, absurd power levels or even a story or plot that impacted me, I started watching this anime out of nowhere, calm while it aired. Personally, this anime is a total "relaxer", something to watch and relax alone, hang out, laugh a little and learn some of the history of Japan. But little else, as you say, it's not like I have much to talk about, more than a mere self-contained interpretation of what the "story value" or something like that.
Your review is very good.
Oh, I loved it so much. I didn’t need anything more than the vibe it gave. I wish more people were watching it because it’s more than what it appeared to be and was a surprise for me. What else did you watch when this was airing?
Well... I have a whole list somewhere written down since back then I watched a lot of anime on air at the same time. 🥴
It's a shame that the visual quality has not been consistent throughout the series. As you say, it's important to keep viewers hooked from the beginning. Those details can make or break a production. That hurts me a lot too. 😅
Oh, it was very consistent and looked great to me. There’s almost no issues at all with its production at all for me. 😎