Written by Rei Caldombra 9/19/2025 Video: TBD

Hello everyone, Rei Caldombra here FINALLY getting to the Welcome to Japan Ms. Elf / Nihon e Youkoso Elf-san review I said I was doing back in my Winter 2025 Roundup. Basic premise for the show: Kazuhiro Kitase is capable of entering another world when he sleeps, and has been doing this since he was a child. In this world (which I am referring as the Dream World) he befriends an elf mage named Mariabelle. During one of their adventures, they both nearly die and get sent back to the “real world” (which I will refer to as Japan for simplicity) together for the first time. There will be heavy spoilers in this review. I will be shortening the title to Ms. Elf within the rest of the review.

Welcome to Japan Ms. Elf is an anime that succeeds when it tries to be a sweet and comfy show but falters heavily when it tries to do more than that. It falls into a mix of wanting to be more and showing the capacity to be more but not quite delivering on some of those ambitions. Which is why I am going to be more nitpicky here than I would be with some other series that are primarily trying to be wholesome. This show succeeds very well at being wholesome and positive. I love the traveling, food and romance that come together for very wholesome moments between the characters. But when it comes to the worldbuilding and mechanics this show really drops the ball. Some parts of the overall narrative are engaging while some of them really annoyed me. I enjoyed a fair amount of this show, but I have a TON of nitpick which brought down the experience a lot. I knew that I would eventually end up talking about my isekai pet peeves eventually. I guess this ended up being the place. Please remember that this is just my opinion. If you have differing opinions on the show or the sorts of isekai and fantasy tropes I will go into, I encourage you to share them in the comments.

My experience watching it initially was a bit of a roller coaster. I loved the first two episodes, with it presenting the main premise and getting into the main characters. Then I really didn’t enjoy the 3rd for what it introduced. But I was interested enough to commit to finishing it, so I wanted to see if it rounded out better by the end and give my thoughts as a full review. As the series went on it never got as low as episode 3 again but still fluctuated a lot between fun and interesting to boring and frustrating. I wouldn’t call this a consistent show, which is part of why messy is in the title. I’ll get into more reasons about why messy is an appropriate descriptor as we go on.

Kazuhiro and Mirabelle looking scared of all the nitpicking that is awaiting them.

We are going to be talking a lot about isekai for a bit. TLDR on me and isekai- I have watched and read a lot of isekai series, but I don’t go out of my way to look for them. While I can enjoy many, I also hate a lot of the tropes and think a large amount of them are mediocre. This one does not fit into the “isekai slop” category despite my many gripes. The big thing that separates this show from a lot of isekai is that it genuinely has a very strong story hook. The idea that Kazuhiro is some guy who can travel between two very real worlds when he sleeps is really interesting to me. Especially so because the nature of the power and the worlds is a mystery. It’s not a one-way isekai. We have two worlds and two characters, each from one of them and who can go to both of them. If you like jumping into a story that has some stuff that happened before, you may like this. This is not an isekai where the main character is thrown into the fantasy world at the start of the story. He’s been there for years and known the other lead character for years as well. The general premise of this show is quite engaging and intriguing. I genuinely want to learn more about how his power and this world works. All isekai have to deal with the “how” in some way, but many barely do anything interesting with it. The premise is the biggest reason why I was able to get myself to stick around for the whole season. Every time we learned something new related to it, such as when we learned that Mirabelle could use magic in Japan, I got pulled back in. This premise also avoids the inherent tragedy of being isekai’d, being suddenly ripped from your home and family likely to not return, that many isekai pretty much ignore to a frustrating degree. I hate when isekai act like the past didn’t matter, so a common trend of isekai I like is that they address this issue in a good way or circumvent it. So that’s another good isekai point I give to Ms. Elf.

Here’s my biggest isekai pet peeve that this show sadly falls into. I HATE when isekai have video game style mechanics that do not fit in with the setting. Fantasy does not require video game mechanics just because it’s a popular thing to do. The overabundance of video game based isekai is part of why Delicious in Dungeon and Frieren Beyond Journey’s End exploded so much. It’s a lazy way of going about power systems, is extremely overdone and can completely break my immersion in the world when it has any level of realism to them. It can be fine in the case of isekais where video games are intertwined properly in the setting, or in series like Konosuba that are largely parodies. And even when Konosuba is not just making jokes, at least it uses it’s point based skill system in a compelling way with Megumin’s character. Ms. Elf does not fall into either of these categories in my opinion. It does not play into anything logically and so far, has added absolutely nothing of value in terms of how things play out. I rarely get genuinely annoyed or angry at a show disappointing me but here I did.

Kazuhiro and Mirabelle talking with electronic screens coming out of their arms.

I cannot describe to you how hard I cringed seeing these two pull up computer screens and talk about numerical levels and skill trees. I could go on forever ranting about this, sorry in advance. What it comes down to is that video game mechanics do not mesh with realistic standards, which is what I expect when a series has a more grounded world. What the heck does it mean that you have a 100 speed or strength stat? How does this work with muscles in your body and your personal ability (not like a video game ability)? Do you automatically get toned muscles if you your strength stat increases, and automatically have good running posture because you have a high-speed stat? If the stat stays constant most of the time how does that interact with how people are in different states of health on a daily basis? When it comes to skills, am I supposed to believe that when you learn things you have permanent memories as long as that skill is attributed to your person? That’s enough for now. There are a ton of questions that I have if you expect me to believe that very complex things like how strong someone is can be condensed to a mere number and be applied to people with actual bodies and minds. With video games, yeah you can just do that and we don’t question anything. This works for many of the RPGs that these systems are based on like Pokémon as an example. But there’s a reason why the Pokémon anime barely brings up mechanics from the games, such as the stats of Pokémon. Because when you treat the Pokémon like actual breathing animals fighting each other rather than programs taking turns, applying stats to them becomes silly, convoluted and distracting. This is exactly what is happening with this show specifically because it expresses interest in getting deeper into how this world works while also trying to be down to earth. The show goes out of its way to have the characters discuss things like the finer mechanics of how he goes back and forth. If they are going to bring up and think about the mechanics of this world, how can you expect me not to? You can’t just make the excuse of “it’s just a simple fluffy series, stop thinking so much about it” when the characters in the show are actively thinking about it themselves. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. The way this series goes about things like stats and skills is uninteresting at best and annoying at worst. I know it's a standard of isekai, but it should have some conceptual reason for being that way. People having levels and static stats and stuff like that doesn’t work for me in a world that is trying to be grounded. People having skill trees with skills that work like in a video game doesn’t fit here, at least based on what I’ve seen so far. Doing it just for the sake of it. I usually don’t use very strong language, but I can say that I HATE this element of the world. I wish it had not been brought up at all.

To be clear, this series wanting to be more detailed is not fundamentally a problem. If this show wants to go into finer details of its world and systems, I’m all about it. Like for example I love the scenes where they tested Kazuhiro’s power to get a better idea of how it works, rather than it purely feeling like a vehicle for the story to function. I like that this revelation of multiple worlds seemingly existing for real makes them question the state of the universe. But I will judge it for how it goes about it and what those details are. I wish they had not given me that scene about levels and skills with their stupid projector wristbands. If they had just kept it to “I can do these things because magic” I would’ve been happier. If this series can be fluffy and wholesome while also having a complex world and interesting fantasy systems, awesome. But if you are going to expand beyond the reaches of the usual fluffy slice of life sort of show then you need to do that well. Because when you do it bad, it just makes it messier and detracts from time you could spend doing what you excel at. Could there be some worldbuilding justification for why this world that truly exists (is real enough that our resident elf can go to Japan and be exactly the same and use her magic) could be game-y? Maybe. But I don’t think there’s much evidence for that line of thinking based on what we’ve seen so far. You can only go so far with saying “it could be explained later” as a sweeping defense from criticism. This is a review of season 1, so I will talk about this show as season 1. You can’t just ignore problems under the assumption that they will be fixed later and never make criticism. I heavily dislike these video game style mechanics and think they do not fit in this world at all.

Another aspect of the overambition is that I don’t think this series has any business trying to do action. I want to mention that this point in particular may come down more as the fault of the anime adaptation as the problem rather than the light novel source material. This show’s presentation overall is not very good. The art and animation leave a lot to be desired. The last episode has some short cut in moments where it changed styles which was nice, I just wish it happened throughout the whole show. It also doesn’t help that in my opinion; the worst looking episode is episode 3. This episode screamed “rushed production”. And that is the very first time we got a fight scene. I was not expecting action from this series, but they did it and left a terrible first impression. I didn’t really want action from this series, and what I got did not leave me optimistic for what’s to come. A trend it would be good to know about me if you continue to read my work is that I am not a fan of action for action’s sake. The subsequent action scenes were better, but I never felt like they needed to be there. And I don’t think they benefitted viewers different from me as well. If you are an action buff, then these scenes are probably just going to be mediocre in your eyes. The fight scenes accomplished little than taking away time from what I was truly interested in and just shoved more tropes in my face. Action just doesn’t play to the strengths of this story for me. You can have conflict without combat.

Let’s get into the three main characters. We have our main couple that I’ve already mentioned, and the best character who I have not mentioned yet.

From left to right: Wridra, Mariabelle and Kazuhiro posing with an upbeat background.

The game system is just part of the problem of how much of a meh character Kazuhiro is to me. He has symptoms of the Gary Stu / overpowered protagonist native to isekai without going all the way and being a straight up bad character. He has rare skills, a rare class, he is very high level despite not caring about it, and he has learned several languages in this universe despite having another life and only starting his time in this world as a child. I find it hard to believe that he managed to be the highest-level person an elf who studies at a magic school ever met despite not trying and not even being in this world from birth. I hope there is an explanation for this other than “he’s the protagonist so he is strong”. Unless it's that she has not SEEN anyone’s level be higher because people don’t often show it? But regardless I do not vibe with this. I wouldn’t call him truly overpowered by the isekai standard of one shotting everything, but he doesn’t really have any justifiable reason to be as strong as he is. This plays into the final fight. I don’t like him being able to defeat a character like Sven who is seen as one of the strongest guys around. It functioned, but it did not feel deserved or compelling. I could not get invested in this fight at all. His extensive knowledge and experience also throw off the balance he has with Mariabelle. Kazuhiro is from Japan while Mariabelle is from the Dream World. But Kazuhiro is the one doing more of the expositing in both settings. This makes the leads not feel well balanced, she is mostly the one following and getting lectured about how these worlds work. She’s a fish out of water in Japan, but he isn’t anywhere. Him not being a total newbie to the isekai world does lend some novelty, but I don’t think this is executed well.

I also think Kazuhiro could have had more aspects of his backstory and personality drip fed throughout. I’m not going to go as far as to put him in the “cardboard” tier of main characters, but he really does not have a lot going for him personality wise. He spends a lot of his time being a generally good dude who likes traveling and food. I wish it didn’t take until the last few episodes for me to get some pathos from the show about our main character. It took about 11 episodes for us to finally start getting into what makes him who he is. You do learn that Kazuhiro had a rough childhood and spent more time in the fantasy world than the real one as a coping mechanism. And that his relationship with Mariabelle, which burgeoned once they both went to Japan, brought him much more positivity and appreciation for life. But we did not SEE this in his character at all up until now. I wish we had gotten some buildup or hints about this throughout the season. I think this would have worked better if at the beginning of the show, he actually seemed like a more depressed person when he was in Japan. The show can say that he has become much happier over the course of the show, but I didn’t really feel like that came across. I get that he enjoyed his time in the other world since he was a kid, which helped him. But according to his Grandpa when he left as an adult (long after he started going to the Dream World), he was still a person who didn’t smile. Why couldn’t we have started this series with him as someone who doesn’t smile? Like maybe his home could be a mess because why should he bother to clean if he just wants to spend all of his time in the other world. Or we could have seen him be truly miserable at work then only perk up once he gets to head home. Or when he gives his explanation of how the world works to Miriabelle, he could say “You wouldn’t want to spend time in my world, it’s lame compared to here.” Something to make me feel like he is in some way poorly adjusted when in Japan. If I’m supposed to think this is him at his lowest in the show, then it should’ve felt low in some way. Rather than being introduced to this guy who seems like a pretty healthy dude who has a hobby he enjoys. This isn’t the only missed opportunity. When it comes to his power, I really like the idea that his worldview and perspectives would be different because of literally living for more than a decade in 2 fundamentally different worlds at the same time. But I don’t get this impression at all. So much of him just feels very neutral or boringly pleasant. I feel he could have been a much stronger and more interesting character, but to me he is very bland and feels like a waste of potential. Maybe I’m being very harsh, but I’ve seen simpler shows with better characters than this that also don’t have some interesting fantastical element attached to them ripe for characterization. This show could have done so much better to show rather than tell, but telling is what it feels like it spends the majority of its time doing with its characters. And Kazuhiro really suffers for this. Summarization of my feelings on Kazuhiro is that he is just ok. He is functional and not an unpleasant character, but he could have been so much more.

Continuing on with the characters, Mirabelle is a relatively cute and a fun character to watch, bringing good energy to her scenes. Seeing her be excited over tons of things is nice. She has more presence than Kazuhiro but also is not that interesting or complex though. This show definitely appeals to people with a thing for elves, so if that is for you, she may get carried a bit as a character. I am neutral on elves personally. It certainly gives you that self-insert situation of living a comfy domestic life with an elf. This show definitely appeals to fetishes and wish-fulfillment, but it is not too bad with this in my opinion. While Kazuhiro is sort of bland which makes him more of a blank canvas, he also has an established backstory with her already so that also can neuter the self-insert aspect of it a bit. I don’t have problems fundamentally with self-insert and fetishy content, and here I think it is balanced decently between appealing to these things while not going so far it is off-putting to those who aren’t into it. The first episode does have a legitimate and very stereotypical nude fanservicey scene that wasn’t substantive or necessary in my opinion, but it is just the one as far as I can think of. To those who hate fanservice, there isn’t much of that afterwards. Basically, I think that while she does appeal to fanservicey sort of ideas, I don’t think it is to an offensive degree (like her just feeling like an fetish object). To get into her personality, she is likeable but suffers a bit from being one-note. A lot of the time they spend together in Japan is about Mariabelle being amazed and appreciating Japanese things. I think that it leans a little too much into showing her first time reactions into things. I get why they’re here. Since Kazuhiro is very knowledgeable about the Dream World, he can’t provide this isekai trope. So she has to do the heavy lifting on this front since, as I said previously, they are not balanced well. A lot of it is genuinely fine or good, but she could’ve been given more to do than gush about Japanese and modern things. It got a bit repetitive and stale. I wish we had gotten a bit more from her towards Japanese society other than just praising it. It could make her character and the dynamic more interesting if she had things she loved but also things she criticized from the perspective of someone who has always lived in her world. But I can also see the purpose in her being this way for one of the big themes of the show. Before getting to that, I want to briefly talk about Wridra. This will be brief because there isn’t much to say. She is our crybaby foodie granny dragon. And I love her. She does a good job at bringing more banter and energy to the dialogue, providing some magic related exposition so these two don’t seem like they know literally everything, and help their relationship move faster. She really helped the character interactions not get stale. She is great and I am glad she did not stay tucked away in her cave.

I’ve been very negative, so let’s get into those positives I mentioned. One of the greatest strengths of this series is how it revels in our real, normal world. When there is so much media portraying real life in a negative light (especially isekai), it is really nice to see some celebration of what joy and beauty can be found in our world. We can be so thoroughly brought down by terrible news. Pollution, war, corruption, poverty etc. Isekai is THE genre of escapism. It is rooted in the desire of people to leave everything in their crappy world behind and go to one where they can make a better life for themselves and live out their fantasies. But this isekai I would argue is ANTI escapism. This series really shines with this and truly takes it into uplifting and heartwarming territory. I loved seeing Mariabelle fall in love with Japan and be told Kazuhiro started seeing it in a more positive light once she joined him in Japan. This show reminds us of how we can still appreciate the good things left in this world. We can derive joy from the simplest of things like watching anime and eating sweets with someone you care about. This is absolutely one of those shows that is encouraging you to get in a relationship. Which I think is a good sentiment and the show goes about it well. “If I ate this with her, would this bland food taste good?” This is one of my favorite lines of the show. This is a great point about how having loved ones can make the world so much brighter.

Kazuhiro and Mariabelle sitting together in the dark eating cake and watching anime.

I love these simple, tender moments of this show where they simply enjoy each other’s company and the world around them. It’s so warm and comfy. This is the kind of sickeningly sweet slice of life content I love. When it was not doing its more fantastical or plot related elements well, I was wishing we would go back to this. The traveling that they do in Japan is also genuinely nice. There is also a notable focus on food, so it also has that for the foodies. These moments remind me of series like Yuru Camp and Mono. I like traveling and am especially open to learning more about areas of Japan. If you are a fan of these types of shows like me, this will work great for you. This show really makes you want to travel with a spouse too. When Ms. Elf focuses on being wholesome and spreading positivity, it executes on that really well. If you are the type that wants uplifting content, I can certainly recommend Ms. Elf based on that alone.

It also promotes positive ideas around culture. It gets at the idea that people outside of a culture can have more appreciation for a culture different from theirs. We get used to what’s around us and have a tendency to not appreciate them to its fullest. Our perspective can be widening by hearing the perspective of an outsider. It can give someone who grew up in that culture a stronger appreciation for it from getting an outsider’s unique perspective. This is one of the positive outcomes of cross-cultural interaction. As Kazuhiro says “This familiar landscape looks different now” because he is seeing it in a more positive light thanks to her. This stuff is great! But like I said before when talking about Kazuhiro, this sentiment could have been so much stronger. If he initially acted disillusioned with the world, his newfound appreciation for the world would have worked better. This is one of those cases where it had the potential to be genuinely great but is just good instead. But back to the positives. It’s also showing why you should learn other languages. Through her we see a person desire to learn more about a culture and realizing how much more she can enjoy by fully understanding the language. It’s laying out the advantages of learning more about a culture you are interested in. Again, absolutely appealing to weabs. Not that it is a bad thing in this case. This is the show playing at its strengths.

What I think could’ve worked way better is if we had these sorts of scenes in the Dream World too. This again comes back to the point of this anime having messy balancing. I really wish we had learned more about the world itself that Kazuhiro apparently loves so much more than Earth. We could’ve had a comfy sightseeing trip in the Dream World to contrast the ones in Japan. Why couldn’t Mirabelle take Kazuhiro to one of her favorite spots in the Dream World or something like that? I also wish there were more times where Kazuhiro told her about how something works in Japan then Mariabelle said “Oh that’s similar to ()” or “that’s so different from how we do ().” We get one moment like this, where Mariabelle sees guns and thinks about how this could impact her world, but this is the only time I can think of. It felt like there were lots of missed opportunities to expand upon the fantasy world and make it an interesting setting. And to bring up compelling ideas about how these two worlds are different. But as of this season, I can barely tell you anything about that world. The fantasy premise is what is great here, not the world itself. Outside of the traveling between worlds element, everything else fantasy about this series is pretty generic. If you are someone who loves worldbuilding, this anime as of the first season at least may not do enough for you and make you wish they spent less time in Japan.

As a romance, I think this series also falls into good but not great territory. They work well enough as a couple, having some chemistry and plenty of nice scenes together. I won’t say that they have excellent chemistry (again their balance and personalities could have been done much better), but I can’t deny that it filled my heart to see their romance built up as they became domestic partners and have that romance actually come to fruition within a season. The chemistry is not quite there enough that I embrace it the way I did some other couples in similar shows like 365 Days to the Wedding and I Have a Crush at Work (both of which I’ve talked about if you’d like to check those out). I actually think the pacing for the romance was done pretty well, I think it fits the characters. This season does also end on an admittable very touching scene of them becoming official.

Kazuhiro and Mariabelle kissing under cherry blossoms. Very aesthetic.

This is a romance focused on two adult characters who have known each other for years and basically started a domestic life together in episode 1. So it is nice to have their relationship not be one that is dragged out as a will-they-won’t-they romance until the end of the story. I want more romances with adult characters with a focus on a proper relationship. Ms. Elf scratched that itch, which I really appreciate. I liked the way these two adults who had known each other for years grew from friends to lovers once the plot kicked in. I can’t say its anything to write home about due to how many ways I could see it being better, but I still genuinely like it. It’s good. Not great but certainly not bad.

I understand that I am being very harsh and nitpicky. But that is because I feel it has the pieces to match its ambitions. It just needs to execute on them better and balance its many elements better. I am being so nitpicky because I enjoy a lot of what this series brings to the table and feel it has the potential to be a well-rounded and deeper series than a dedicated comfy, light romance or isekai series. When I watch a show that clearly just wants to be light and wholesome, I’m not expecting a really strong story, worldbuilding, stuff like that. Yuru Camp clearly just wants to be a simple fluffy show, and I don’t think there’s anything “missing” by not having a deep story or drama. I’m not expecting it to do much more than be cute and comfy. But when I see that something either wants to be more or shows that it has the capacity to be more complex, I want to see that come to fruition. Spy X Family is a show that, to me, just wants to be funny and light in tone. But I think Spy x Family has the potential to have great drama as well due to its premise. So when it chose not to do anything compelling with that premise (in my opinion), I enjoyed it far less and continued to criticize it for feeling repetitive and losing its luster. That’s in the ballpark for how I feel about this show. I love the premise and what it goes for, but it does so many things I am not a fan of at the same time. This is not a “turn your brain off and enjoy” type of series for me. If you are not like me and have an easier time ignoring the details you may love this show. I have series like that too, but this wasn’t one of them. I am conflicted on if I will continue this series someday. I still like the main premise a lot and love the wholesome moments between these characters. I think it could improve on many of these issues with time. But I have to consider the time I have and if I want to bank on the things I don’t like going away. Thanks for reading!

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