This puzzlingly popular anime series walks a fine line between shallowness and absolute meaninglessness as it struggles to tell a compelling story and is outwitted at every step by its own overwhelming conceit. The premise - a trio of terrans and an elf on a quest for spell fragments that have been etched onto the naked bodies of other elves - yields jokes endemic of a campy sex farce such as this. Female elves cling tenaciously to their modesty while the elf hunters scheme to unsheathe them from their fleeces. Now, at the ass-end of the series, this trope wears thin, leaving an ambitious collision-of-worlds trope to deliver the show from schlock.

While the B story of the series involves the insipid hunt to declothe elves so Junpei, Airi and Ritsuko can go home, the A story plays into much higher stakes. The spell that brought the three into Middle Earth to begin with also caused a fissure in the fabric that separates Middle Earth from our own Earth. As a result, pieces of modern Earth find their way into the rustic setting of Middle Earth - clues that Airi believes points to the merging of the two worlds, which will end in its destruction unless they can get back home (how she comes to this conclusion based on no substantial knowledge of the magic, mysticism or physics involved boggles the imagination). The stakes are high, but never play out. Instead the climax of the series ends up in a courtroom, which would have been an interesting departure from the numbing action of the series had the arguments been more compelling than, "we have to strip elves to get home," "you humiliated us," "but we needed to get home," "but you humiliated us, "but you have to understand we need to get home," "and you humiliated us." Riveting.

In fact, this punctuates the problem with the whole series. No matter how clever it gets, the show simply never plays any of its ideas out. Everything is sacrificed to the mighty altar of Punchline, the elven god of nauseating eye-rolls. Sometimes this impish prankster will even dismantle touching moments for the laugh, resulting not so much in humor but a feeling of what can only be described as 'ich.' A prime example is how the tenderness of the atypical episode nine falls victim to the boorish joke that lies in wait in the final scene.

Out of its full twelve episodes, five (the five that contain the A story) are worth watching (if you're down to your last bag of Doritos and sex isn't an option), and seven are unbearable (worth watching if the libraries have burned down and sex is never and option). Episodes 1, 6, 9, 11 and 12 follow the conspiracy to wrestle power away from Celcia and other elders. It's intriguing, but, again, not played out, eventually being relegated to the backdrop of the piece as yet another tool for the undeservedly jocular Punchline.

If the story itself doesn't insult intelligence enough, ADV's dub script actually dumbs it down further. In the subtitles for the last episode, the Judge - an insidious character whose villainy is virtually castrated in the holy name of Punchline - challenges a court ruling by alluding to his alliance with the elders of outlying villages. ADV turns that same speech into a vapid lament that the Judge won't be able to capitalize on the infusion of modern Earth objects by selling them to elves. The subtitles suggest that the Judge is part of a wider-scale conspiracy in the struggle for power in the elven community. The dub script turns the Judge into a junk dealer.

The mighty Punchline, then, scores again, as he did with anime such as Amazing Nurse Nanako, Tenamonya Voyagers and many other titles. Though, admittedly, Elves has its moments, you have to ask yourself, "Is it worth sitting through 12 episodes?" or, rather, "Is it worthy buying two DVDs just to watch five episodes?" If you and Punchline get along, indulge, my friend, indulge.