Anime: Elf o Karu Mono-tachi II 343c1z

While better than the first installment, Those Who Hunt Elves II is still lacking in many respects and once again had no resolution. I guess I just watched both of these series for no reason, as it doesn't seem there is another sequel and we don't find out what happens. Also, there is virtually no continuation from the first series; if you are expecting more insight into the "merging of the worlds" then don't look at this series: it almost completely glosses over this.

This sequel is much funnier than the first one; I enjoyed the "wolf" episode, which was probably the only episode I watched the whole way through without getting bored.

The only real difference between the sequel and the original in of story is that Celcia is trapped as a different type of animal. Other than that, the entire story is pretty much the same. However, in the sequel there is a bit more originality in each of the episodes (doesn't follow the cookie-cutter plotline of "strong woman elf in city that must be beaten to force clothes off" every episode). Thats not to say that any of the episodes have much depth or complexity; each episode is a stand-alone adventure and not much except Celcia's appearence will change from episode to episode.

Don't expect any of the background information you didn't get in the first series about the setting, story, or the characters either. The only background you get is concerning the character's belief in Santa Claus when they were kids. Hardly a life-changing event that leads to much insight into their characters.

The characters are a bit more interesting in this series than the first one(which isn't saying too much); Airi uses a lot more manipulation in this series, and is featured in a more prominent role than Junpei, who was the star of the original version. Ritsuko continues to be a semi-side character compared to the other two, though she does have a token episode to herself (that isn't very good). However, if you are looking for character depth or development, don't look at this series; you won't find any here.

Both the animation and soundtrack were once again fairly sub-par; the soundtrack was forgettable and the animation was very uninspired. The only spot of light was the voice actors, who did a decent job.

While I enjoyed this series more than the original, I still would not reccomend this to anyone but fans of the original. Truly a forgettable series and not worth watching due to the lack of a conclusion or resolution.

And here we are, to review the second season of this show, really one of the funniest I ever saw, but with some wrong points.

Basically, as the first season, our bunch of heroes wanders the world in search for the spell fragments, again stripping elves, because those fragments were imprinted on their skins for a backfire of the spell that was supposed to return them to Japan. Of course stripped elves are only female ones, but don't worry, pratically there isn't any fanservice (T_T)

First of all the animation....
Well, as for the first one... IT IS OLD!!! It is slighty better than first season, but there isn't a real improvement. Sometimes characters have strange faces, there are a lot of screen recap, and fighting scenes are quite repetitive. Neverless, usually the drawning style is nice, and you'll see some episodes were it is well done (nothing amazing, but it will not bore you, let's say).

Now perhaps there is the only thing where this second season has improved, the sound.
Opening and ending theme are really enjoynable. Background music isn't something to be amazed (I didn't even realize there was one -_-; ). Voice actors are good, as in the first season: we can find Mitsuishi Kotono (Katsuragi Misato in Neon Genesis Evangelion and Mireille Bouquet in Noir), the best in voice acting in this anime, and Seki Tomokazu (Hiromu Shimbo in Chobits, Van Fanel in Escaflowne and so many important parts that it is impossible to enumerate here ^_-
http://www.animenfo.com/animeseiyuu,14,xechex,seki_tomokazu.html ) and he is really incredible here.
As I said for the first season, the other twos voice actors didn't impress me much, even if the one giving Ritsuko her voice dubbed Asuka in Evangelion.

And now the sad point: the story.
In the first season they managed to keep the attention high because they didn't give away the whole (simple!) plot in the first episodes, but they gave hints of what happened little by little. Sadly in the second season the story is already known, and so all that remains is only the comedy part, that is good as in the first one, but it tastes as already seen. Even more, the crappy ending really doesn't make me feel like wanting a third season. It was already hard to see till the end this one.

Characters' development? Nothing!
As for the first one, don't expect to see someone grow in this one, all the show revolves around this:
1- Oh, the bad "Those who hunt elves"!!! RUN!!!!
2- Ehi they are really helpfull!!!!
3- AAaaaaahhhh!!!!!! They stripped meeeeeeeeeee!!!!
And so on and on..... And again, I think that the main characters are only Junpei and Celcia, but surely the others get some more scenes for themselves. But almost all of them are really fun.

Low rewatching value, I think that who saw the first season will prefer to rewatch that one instead, this adds nothing and subtracts a bit too much.

Enjoyed it, but not so much, as I said it was hard to finish it, I always found something better to see (perhaps because I'm watching Kenshin right now? *-_-*). If you have seen the first season, you can think about get this one too, but it didn't give me the same pleasure.