Fantasy Bishoujo Juniku Ojisan to – 03

「ファ美肉おじさんと怒りのエルフ」 (Fabiniku Ojisan to Ikari no Erufu)
“A Guy Who Reincarnated as a Fantasy Knockout and an Angry Elf”

Episode 03 of Fantasy Bishoujo Juniku Ojisan to helps to paint a chaotic picture of the mad world that Tachibana and Jinguuji are trapped in. But while the two have only started getting used to the perks they have in this new world, they’ll also have to deal with some of the wackier residents of their new temporary abode.

OURSELVES THE ELVES

Premier Tilolilo was a pretty funny new character as an elf chief who highly resents Jinguuji and Tachibana for separate reasons. For Jinguuji, it’s because he murdered the Forest Guardian she prayed to. But her ire for Tachibana is where Tilolilo is at her most jealous as she goes out of her way to try to prove herself as being more beautiful than her.

Tilolilo’s ambitious personality makes this ten times worse for her as she overestimates her abilities and popularity. It was hilarious to see how hard she tried to get the villagers on her side, chalking up their unenthused reaction to her as brainwashing on Jinguuji’s behalf. It was also morbidly funny when Tilolilo unknowingly decided to eat the parts of the Forest Guardian that Jinguuji left behind. Although they could potentially make her a target for some cheap laughs, there were some very funny moments at her expense in this episode, and hopefully, they won’t lean too hard on some of their gag characters.

NOT YOUR ORDINARY VACATION

It was also an interesting episode for Tachibana considering that he has to live a far different experience than he would’ve expected. Tachibana is initially distraught because he couldn’t be excited about bathing in a girl’s body when his body looks too much like a little sister’s. In spite of this, he is far more eager to use his feminine beauty to feed into his ego as Jinguuji and other villagers fawn over him. It lends itself to the idea that Tachibana sees his trip in another world like it’s a vacation, much to Jinguuji’s chagrin.

His low tolerance for alcohol might’ve carried over to the new world, but Tachibana seems to have a love-hate relationship over whether he can take advantage of having a girl’s appearance or be dismayed at being given cruddy stats. This comes out to its fullest after Tachibana is saved from a ravenous plant monster.

Jinguuji has everything Tachibana would’ve wanted from an isekai setting with super strength and the capacity to attract other women. But while Jinguuji squanders these abilities by openly expressing his disinterest in women and misunderestimating his own strength, Tachibana is left vulnerable and dissatisfied with only having the capacity to have a town full of guys swoon over him.

ROLE PLAYING

As he lets his insecurities out about having a feminine name, he lets it slip that this resentment is the main reason why he gave Jinguuji’s name to a heroine in an old RPG named Divine Trust that they played as kids. I’m curious about whether Divine Trust has any link to the world they’re in, but for now, it’s neat to see the duality between his interest in getting under Jinguuji’s skin for pushing girls away from him and his lament that he was given the wrong wish-fulfillment fantasy in his eyes.

What I find to be very bold for the show to tinker around with is that Tachibana has to confront the idea that gender performativity is role-playing in itself. For such a goofy gag comedy, I was shocked to hear Tachibana ask, “Between the body and the spirit… Where do you think gender lies?” It approaches gender performance and the transition Tachibana makes with a surprising level of maturity to it, especially when Jinguuji reassures Tachibana that the answer he personally comes to would ultimately be the right answer.

It’s hard to come up with the answer right away to such a heavy question, especially when Tachibana is undergoing an inverse example of gender dysmorphia where he feels out-of-place in a woman’s body. And yet, there are things about being a woman he’s quick to embrace such as reveling in his ability to make anyone crumble in his hands and bask in his beauty.

Because Tachibana currently has a female body and a male spirit, it would make more sense for Tachibana to prefer male labels as he did in the regular world. But because Tachibana’s embraced facets of his new body that allow him a new state of being, it’s interesting to see him grapple with whether he could see himself adopting a female identity or not.

While Tachibana’s biological sex and gender identity aren’t currently intertwined in this new world, it’s neat to see him try to examine whether his sex change in the new world has any direct effect on his gender performativity as a man inhabiting a female body and roleplaying as a woman.