Marie sure is nude a lot.
Nihon e Youkoso Elf-san. (Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf!) features a 25-year-old Japanese salaryman named Kazuhiro (alternatively, “Kazuhiho” because of a typo he can’t fix) who travels to a fantasy world when he dreams, returning to Japan either by going to sleep again there or by dying. I’m fairly sure death is normally permanent for anyone else who dies in the fantasy world, but he seems entirely unbothered by the death of his adventuring companion Mariabelle when a dragon suddenly kills them both. Fortunately, they had been grasping each other in terror, so she wakes up in Japan with him instead of being a crispy corpse in the other world.
You did pick a good time to arrive.
Kazuhiro is surprised and curious how he managed to return with Mariabelle, but expresses no relief that his friend is not, y’know, capital-D DEAD. (For her part, Mariabelle also seems unbothered by her own demise, choosing instead to marvel at her new surroundings.) After a day introducing Mariabelle to Japan, they correctly predict they can also traverse the two worlds together if they go to sleep while embracing. And that’s the show. The story is a chaste romance that alternates between adventures in the fantasy world and the couple going on G-rated dates in Japan.
If there’s a second season, maybe they’ll start spooning.
It’s not clear to me how old Marie (or Mary, depending on who’s transmogrifying her name) is supposed to appear when she’s disguised as a human (i.e., wearing a hat), but she presumably also looks to be in her mid-20s, the same as her putative romantic partner. I say “putative” romantic partner because it requires the entire cours for the two of them to acknowledge their feelings and mutual attraction despite clearly being into each other and facing no opposition or obstacles (not even invented ones) the entire time. They’ve been literally sleeping in the same bed every night embracing each other all season long. Anyway, I mention their ages because Marie is more than 100, but that did not prevent her from falling for a man 80 years younger.
Such is the power of S A K A N A.
Notably, Marie being over a hundred years old did not factor into the plot in any way. I saw no reason why Marie could not also have been 25, except I suppose all elves have to be at least 100 years old by default. Moreover, not only did Marie never behave like (what I expect of) a hundred-year-old woman, she came across as being younger than Kazuhiro most of the time. Maybe it’s more of an indictment against me and my own perspectives on adulthood, but I generally associate her constant childlike wonder and boundless enthusiasm with much younger characters.
Maybe there was a rough draft titled Nihon e Youkoso Elf-chan.
Considering Kazuhiro’s physical appearance as fantasy-world Kazuhiho puts him somewhere around 15, there was an obvious option that I can only assume Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf! was too cautious to adopt. If it’s going to make Marie act like a teenager in an anime where ages don’t matter, then don’t claim she’s 100+ years old—just make her a teenager outright, the same age as fantasy-world Kazuhiho. If anything, that provides a more compelling reason why the two of them might hesitate for 12 episodes before permitting the Problematic Maru ‘ship to sail. C’mon now, you cowards.
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