In recent times, the growing notoriety that elves have had within many of the stories we enjoy and this fact has caused much interest in the anime community that often wonders the reason why the presence of this type of characters has become so frequent and has gained so much importance in many of the most popular stories today.
On this occasion, the debate was generated as a result of a graph published on the Internet that shows that since the 2000s, these beings have become so popular that it is something that generates a great impression, since these are figures that had not been seen before. If you want to know all the details about this topic, we invite you to continue reading this article.
Why have elves in anime become so important?
The user @datenaoto2012 on Twitter/X shared a graph showing the number of times elves have been part of an anime over the years, from the 90s to the present. In this graph we can see an increase that begins in the late 90s, but that has an amazing spike in the 2000s, especially in the most recent dates.
Among some of the anime titles mentioned in this information are “Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki (How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom)”, “Sousou no Frieren” (Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End)”, “Dungeon Meshi” (Delicious in Dungeon) and Sword Art Online Previously, the question had already been raised as to whether this phenomenon was really due to the fame of isekai stories and not, as such, to the existence of elves in anime. Many people comment that previously the elves were much more interesting characters and that nowadays they were really characters without much joke and that simplicity is what attracted people.
On the contrary, other people claim that elves used to be awkward characters that did not have a major importance within these stories, instead, today they have become powerful and so loved by the audience that enjoys anime. In 2018 we can observe the highest peak of this occurrence, although we are not specified if there was a particular reason for this result.
Users on social networks expressed themselves by sharing their opinions on the matter and among these comments that sought to give a possible explanation for this event we found some such as, “Around the year 2000, it was the heyday of electronic girl games and I had the impression that they were all set in modern Japan.”
Other comments on this said, “Around the year 2000, so-called school stories set in the near future or modern times were popular. Since it was modern Japan, there was no room for elves to be included. Aliens and robots were also popular.” “In the flux of different worlds, there seems to be a tendency for people to notice the convenient location of elves.” This last remark alludes to what was commented above, about what was becoming very common were isekai anime and due to the nature of these stories, it was logical and convenient to encounter elves, as they were excellent characters adapted to these worlds.
Previously, we had already approached this topic from different angles, so if you are interested in reading more about the current elf boom, we recommend you to read this article. What do you think about the growing presence and importance of elves today?