Elf Princess Rane

60 minutes
English/Japanese
English Subtitles
07/10/2001

Akitaro Daichi is a tough man to know, much less understand. I would postulate that the man spends his time in a He-Man-esque castle at the top of a hill, directing his anime series via video feed and telefax. Why he needs to be in a giant castle with a skull for a door to do that, I don't know. The fact remains, reader, that he confuses me more often than I'd care to admit in a public manner. Responsible for both the amazing stuff like Now and Then, Here and There and the kind of thing that whips fans into a frenzy, Kodomo no Omocha, he'll startle you one moment and then turn around and kick you in the ass with something like Jubei-chan: The Ninja Girl the next. Which is not to say that Jubei-chan, or by association this (if you got where I was going) is bad, per se... but sometimes I just don't get it.
Elf Princess Rane is a series I remember being explosively popular on the fansub circuit. I also remember that, due to the painful desire of the Japanese language to "leave it up to the reader" and the general anal retentive nature of fandom, this series was referred to by at least two other names. Those being "Elf Princess Rin" and "Elf Princess Reine". It's been awhile, but those are the two I remember the best. I do believe the Japanese language is the only one in the entire world that has so much ambiguity when it comes to SPELLING A PROPER NAME.

Rane is yet another story so weird that I have trouble describing it. Unfortunately, it falls into the pitfall of being weird for the sake of being weird. Now, if I'm correct then this was Mister Daichi's intention from the very start of it all. I hope to god I'm correct, because otherwise I've lost a lot of faith in the man. You know what I'm saying?

The story's all very similar and, unfortunately, not really all there. Go the explorer is constantly on the search for treasure, only to be stymied in his efforts by an old priest and one of his many, many redheaded sisters. When I say many, I mean there's like a dozen. It's a lot, but I'm of the particular opinion that you real never can have too many redheads, so that suits me just fine animated or not. However, some of these sisters, possibly the most rockingest of all the sisters, are given the briefest screentimes in the whole show while Go pals around with his naked faerie in the attempts to unearth the ancient relics of... well... somewhere. When I don't write a proper name down it quickly becomes unlikely that I'll remember it.

As one might be able to guess, there's the requisite amount of goofy flailing and sight gags that a plotline like this would allow. Daichi indulges audiences by having Go fall down cliffs in the manner of Wile E. Coyote about three times, possibly four! With this manner of staunch repetition you're either a satire or a maid show. I don't see any chicks in maid's costumes, which is a good sign for sure... but there is the troublesome manner of nudity at every turn, including that of the rival elf girl Leen, whose clothes dissolve when hit by water. Is this some convoluted Wizard of Oz reference? I suppose it's possible. Possible, but not probable. More likely, I think Akitaro Daichi just has a 'thing' for naked chicks who are only six inches tall.

Through eventual circumstances, we're told a whole manner of things involving the standard fare of this comedic type. Go has a love interest that's totally unknown to him due to his megalomaniaical obsession with the unearthing of buried treasure. This causes this love interest to get jealous and get her own naked faerie to hang around with. In the shadows though, is the ruler of a super secret organization who has a crush on the girl that has a crush on Go. He also speaks in complete nonsense talk, so I guess at least THAT aspect is pretty original.

It also started to burn my brain out from the inside when I realized that this character's speech (when subtitled) was printed entirely backwards. This meant that I spent more time trying to read his stuff instead of paying attention to the show. Fair is fair, I guess, but what starts out as tricky and coy started to soon wear on my poor nerves. As friends might attest, my nerves and such aren't as completely wired as they could be anyway. I don't have time to be fretting over goo-goo dialogue and backwards subtitles.

If Akitaro Daichi made this as a flamboyant satire of all that's come before it, then I'm totally feeling what he's going after. But the man is crazy and I think I understand his motives and intentions about as often as I do those of one Patrick "Jerry" Garcia. Much like our constant Filipino companion, Daichi's methods are steeped in the foamy broth of mystery, not to be unlocked by a man like yours. If this is a serious attempt, then really, I expect a lot better. But if it's meant as a funny sort of joke on the anime community as a whole, well then... that's something entirely different, isn't it?