Plus-Sized Elf

In which a fast food-loving elf starts a new fitness fad called "exerfries".

You know what's weird? If you walk around anywhere in real life - be it a trip to the supermarket, a ride on the bus or the subway, walking your dog at the local park, wherever - you are bound to see a few fat people. No matter where you live, they're not exactly an uncommon type of person to encounter, right?

However, if you take a moment to think about a lot of the shows you watch, and I'm especially pointing the finger at anime in particular, you'll start to notice a strange pattern. Everyone - main characters, supporting cast, basic NPCs - varies in height but tends to be about the same width, and (boobular bimbos and hulking he-men aside) are decidedly on the thin or skinny side. And once you start noticing this, it becomes incredibly hard to NOT notice it.

...so where are all the fat people?

In a world where weebs regularly refer to stick-thin waifus as "thick", actual chunky thighs and fat asses are among the rarest and most precious treasures one can encounter.

There's a prevalent belief in society worldwide that suggests being fat is an inherently negative thing. It's not universal, but it is prominent in virtually every single country these days. Fatness is considered undesirable, unhealthy, unattractive, and intentionally or not, our stories often treat fatness as some kind of moral failing. It's the reason we make greedy villains disgusting slobs, comical sidekicks inept and food-obsessed, and fat zeroes into fit heroes. The vilification of being fat is just fucking everywhere. Granted, this might make sense for stories talking explicitly about the sin of gluttony or combating eating disorders, but from what I see, this vilification is mostly applied to simply being fat. Not to mention, what people often label as "fat" varies widely and even includes people who are completely healthy but don't fit that "ideal" image of fitness or thinness.

Now, I'm just a mostly-thin genderqueer motherfucker with a bit of a potbelly who has no authority on the issue of fatphobia and the related social maladies it contributes to. But I do want to bring it up, because like many other folks who started noticing it, I find it very frustrating and off-putting that we're so anti-fat in our media, especially to the point that story-tellers and producers frequently just erase fat people from existing in their fantasy worlds whatsoever, in favor of exclusively using so-called "acceptable" body types instead.

...which I guess brings me to Plus-Sized Elf.

Whoever decided that calling someone "fat" was to be considered an insult is a weak-ass bitch with no taste whatsoever in beauty.

A common format that has risen in popularity over the past decade or so, Plus-Sized Elf is the type of show I refer to as a "gimmick anime". Typically a result of the webcomic format and its surrounding meme culture, gimmick anime are shows that build their entire world and story around a singular concept, mechanic, or joke. Episodes often feel like they repeat themselves by reinventing their one-trick pony in a variety of ways well past the joke's expiration date. The gimmick format is especially popular within the isekai genre, as evidenced by any ten-word-titled JRPG parody series.

In Plus-Sized Elf's case, the gimmick centers around various fantasy races stumbling their way into the everyday modern human realm through a magical door, experiencing a certain earthly delicacy or vice, then gaining too much weight for the door to properly teleport them back to their homeworld. In each character's case, they end up drawn into the orbit of a local massage therapist (Naoe) who teaches them how to do some basic exercises that will help them burn those extra calories and get them back into shape. Of course, this inevitably doesn't last, as the modern world is full of too many delicious and convenient ways to regain that weight, leaving Naoe stuck with an ever-growing faux-harem of clients who need his expert advice.

The inclusion of other body types in addition to the typical fat and monster-girl formats make this anime surprisingly diverse and forward-thinking. And yeah, I fully realize how ridiculous that sounds.

Unlike the majority of gimmick anime though, each Elf-sized episode only runs about 11 minutes in length, and the regular supply of incoming new characters ensures that the jokes don't get too old too quickly. Aside from Elfuda and Kuroeda, the titular elves seeking to lose a few pounds from their belly and ass respectively, we're also treated to a muscular ogre with a beer belly, a top-heavy alraune (mandrake), a lycanthrope who can't stop accepting treats from generous dog-loving humans, a flabby-armed mermaid with an incurable capacity for fish puns, and more.

And just as with any comedy, when the gimmick falls flat or goes stale, the ensemble cast is what continues to carry the show. Each of the characters have a unique and inherent cutesy charm to them, and - surprisingly, I might add - it's their various character quirks that make up a majority of the jokes, as opposed to simply poking fun at fatness. The show generally has a positive attitude about weight loss, encouraging healthy exercise habits and moderation, but without being condescending or moralistic about it.

In fairness though, everyone should be the butt of the joke every now and again.

Alright, put on your big girl pants for a moment and let's talk about fetishes.

It's no secret that Plus-Sized Elf's version of fanservice indeed caters to fat and weight gain fetishists, which is sure to make some people balk at giving the show even a minute of their time. But if being on the internet for as long as I have has taught me anything, it's that fetishes aren't actually all that weird. Nearly everyone has them in some capacity, even if you don't know what yours are. And whether or not you have a particular fetish doesn't have to stop you from watching a show that caters to it. Plenty of kids grew up watching Totally Spies or Charlie & The Chocolate Factory laughing at the weird fantastical nonsense those shows famously present without developing any kinks as a result. And to be honest, why should anyone even care if they did?

It's not a crime to find fat people sexy. It's also not a crime to engage with fetishes, even at a young age. Weight gain, feeding, and stuffing are all normal kinky behaviors that you may be shocked to learn are shared by an astounding number of adults, and no matter how much the fanart on DeviantArt weirds you out, there's nothing inherently Deviant about any of it. Sure, they CAN become a problem if taken to obsessive, non-consensual, or inappropriate extremes, same as any other fetish, but just like fatness itself shouldn't be demonized, neither should kinks be considered taboo or degenerate. Obsessive fetishization is a problem with the obsessor, not the thing being fetishized.

This throwaway joke about a skeleton wailing that she's overweight honestly contains MULTITUDES of satire and is easily the funniest bit in the entire show.

Not to mention, even by fat fetishist standards, Plus-Sized Elf is EXTREMELY tame in that regard. It's almost not fair to even label this as an 18+ anime, since the most you really get out of it is gawking at the various flabby body parts on display, no different than what you would see in any real life yoga or exercise group anyway. At most you're gonna see a boob or a butt once per episode, and the only real fat fetish thing happens in an imagined sequence that lasts about ten seconds tops. The show is really nothing more than a light-hearted cartoony comedy with a few elements that will probably appeal to imaginative kinksters.

And to that end, I actually found the inclusion of nudity and cheeky jiggle physics to be completely natural. After all, the show is literally about body image, and anyone who's ever tried to lose weight can probably relate to the comical wobbliness of the characters. The contrived wardrobe malfunctions and not-at-all-sexual situations almost serve to take the edge off of weight loss and self-esteem issues by making them funny and accessible. Doubly so when characters like Elfuda subvert that typical flustered anime girl embarrassment that normally accompanies fanservice. Rather than blushing and screaming "KYAAA!" like any cutesy moe character, her reaction veers much more realistic, like "Aw shit...hey human, get me another shirt, would ya?". As an adult, it's a design choice I appreciate greatly.

Utterly bizarre how something even this benign would prevent the show from ever airing on any standard American television network.

As for the actual comedy, it's nothing special, but made me chuckle all the same. There's a good bit of punnery present in the original Japanese version that often doesn't translate well, but the official subtitles are no slouch, and do their best to maintain an equal level of corniness, especially when it comes to name-calling. Love it or hate it, Elfuda calling Kuroeda "Buttcheeks McGee" is clearly a translation liberty taken, but strikes exactly the right balance between ridiculous and earnestly goofy to match the vibe the show is aiming for, not to mention the random fried-potato-related nonsense that appears on Elfuda's shirt in every episode.

Nothing much beyond that. This is a pretty simple and straightforward show with nothing hiding underneath. There's no particular destination to its story, no ultimate conclusion for all that hard exercise to build up to. Characters come and go between the human and fantasy world when they lose enough weight, often resulting in Elfuda getting stuck again after inevitably reloading on those irresistable french fries. At the end of the day, all it amounts to is more opportunities for ripped pants and exercise sequences, so if you enjoy a little cheeky peep show, you'll probably dig this one.

If it were me, I'd want a shirt that says "Spud Muffin".

Bottom line? No, of course I wouldn't call Plus-Sized elf a bastion of good fat representation, nor would I sing its praises as some kind of progressive masterpiece. But considering the ongoing problem with anime and its cookie-cutter character shapes, seeing a show even ATTEMPT to depict people with chubby faces and saggy arms and beer bellies and thick thighs and rippling muscles is at least a worthwhile effort. And whether it only serves as fetish bait or not, that's still a whole step ahead of what other series are doing on that front.

Part of me hopes this show will inspire a new wave of imi-taters that will open the floodgates for more fat rep in anime (sexual or otherwise), but I know better than to get my hopes up. We can do a lot better than Plus-Sized Elf, but I'm still glad it exists, and I hope to see future copycats build on the formula and push it even further!

Nothing cuter than when you start doing yoga and your dog tries to join in.

If you're in the mood for something else like this, there are plenty of titty-jiggle comedies with hints of fantasy attached you can go for, but the best show I can recommend to match the vibe of Plus-Sized Elf would probably be Keijo (followed by up to 8 exclamation marks, depending on your localization). Both shows revolve around exercise and sports, with a special focus on the parts of the body that bounce and bubble (and generally start with the letter B), and their humor relies heavily on whole-ass and ass-out slapstick, complete with occasional peek-a-boos for good measure.

Other likely candidates include goofy harem comedies like Ladies Vs Butlers and Kanokon, especially if you found the characters funnier than the jokes. If you want something a bit more saucy, Interspecies Reviewers is another good gimmick anime with a great blend of fantasy and salacious comedy that should appeal for similar but significantly fuckier reasons.

Normally I also like to include a non-anime option, but American cartoons are notoriously puritanical about showing any form of nudity - yes, even in the streaming era, outside the bounds of the traditional television network censors - so while there are a lot of American cartoons with fat characters, none of them will really hit the same (unless you know something I don't, in which case, TELL ME!). The closest match I can think of would either be an adult comedy with hints of T&A like Tuca & Bertie or the questionably-all-ages fat chef antics of Chowder, but even then they're both a completely different type of show.

Props to whoever started the tradition of referring to a fat ass as a "dumptruck". I wanna buy that person lunch.

On one final note though, if you're into elves and belly-related kinks and want something more substantial than Plus-Sized Elf, go read pretty much any comic by artist KipTeiTei over on DeviantArt. Not only do they cover a wide variety of fetishes, the characters are heartfelt and nuanced, and they regularly explore several avenues of kink, queerness and introspection, with several of the stories running for hundreds of pages at a time!