Kanagawa Elves Anime Adds Four Cast, Premieres December 4

The official website for the television light anime based on Yoroida’s manga The Elves Living in Kanagawa, often called Kanagawa Elves, shared an update on Thursday. It revealed a new key visual, four more cast members, and a December 4 premiere.

The anime will air as part of TV Kanagawa’s local midday news and variety program, Neko no Hitai Hodo Wide, with a noon JST start. In a nice touch, all of the newly announced voice actors come from Kanagawa Prefecture.

The fresh additions are Kōtarō Nishiyama as the Fairy and narrator, Yūsuke Nagano as the Elf from Yokosuka, Yūki Inoue as the Elf from Sagamihara, and Gō Fujii as the Orc from Machida. They join Chiaki Kobayashi as the lead Elf from Yokohama and Yuu Hayashi as the Human from Kawasaki, both also local to the prefecture.

The story is a gentle fantasy comedy about elves whose forest home was burned down, leaving them to settle into ordinary daily life in Kanagawa. Yoroida began the manga on Comic Elmo in August 2020, and Micro Magazine has published it in print, reaching a fifth volume on March 10.

This is not the only adaptation either. The manga also inspired a live action version that debuted on September 30 within the same Neko no Hitai Hodo Wide program.

My take: Casting actors from the very prefecture the story celebrates is such a warm, local touch. A cozy comedy about elves adjusting to everyday life sounds like a lovely watch.