REVIEW: ‘Plus-Sized Elf’ Episode 3 — “The Sweaty Ogre And The Turquoise Scales”

Plus-Sized Elf Episode 3, “The Sweaty Ogre and the Turquoise Scales,” achieves the same things the previous episode does as it introduces all-new characters and shows viewers new albeit uninteresting ways for monster girls to trim down.

The episode starts with Naoe at his place of work having a conversation with his now-regular customer, Elfuda. He tells her that besides exercising and dieting, she should visit a sauna as it will improve her metabolism and put her in a state that makes it easier for her to lose weight. She agrees, and he gives her a free ticket to a local sauna.

The next scene sees Elfuda running into Kuroeda, who likely went there on Naoe’s recommendation. As rivals, the two quickly start bickering but stop after realizing a fearsome ogre is sitting in the sauna they plan to use. Not wanting to seem cowardly to each other, they head inside and meet an ogre woman named Oga. She quickly teases the two elves for their low heat tolerance. She also tells them that Ogres don’t usually hang out in Saunas and much prefer drinking alcohol in their free time. Unfortunately, as Oga is very fond of human alcohol, she’s become bloated and is using the sauna to lose weight, much like the elves.

Oga then suggests a battle of endurance, and the winner gets to spend the loser’s money on drinks. The ogre unsurprisingly wins, and Elfuda, being a sore loser, complains the whole time. Naoe then joins the group and comforts Elfuda by buying her some fries.

These scenes prove that while the characters acknowledge their weight issues and try to address them, their efforts will always be in vain. Whatever effort they put in is quickly thrown away by their poor diet and lack of discipline, and it doesn’t help that Naoe sometimes enables them. This is disappointing as, so far, it doesn’t seem like the characters will exhibit any form of growth or development any time soon.

Despite this, the next scene shows Naoe taking Elfuda to a fish market to convince her to start eating fish. Turns out that despite elves being vegetarians, they can still eat fish but choose not to. Naoe convinces Elfuda to try incorporating it into her diet as they are rich in protein and omega-3 fatty acids, which, according to him, helps with losing weight.

But before they can end their conversation, someone interrupts them and introduces herself as Mero, a mermaid. She recently arrived in the human world and is now working as a fish merchant. Elfuda, being insensitive as ever, points out her flabby body, and Mero responds by claiming she hasn’t had the chance to exercise or go swimming but has been stuffing herself with fish.

She also reveals that she has maintained her human appearance with Maca extract, which allows her to have human legs for about five hours. More interestingly, Mero claims that she can’t exercise by swimming around with her fish lower half as it would cause a public panic. Naoe teaches Mero how to reduce the flab in her arms by doing wall push-ups, using dumbbells, and doing lymphatic massages on her limbs.

As thanks, Mero gives Naoe some cod roe, which he convinces Elfuda to also try. While she is already skeptical of the food, Mero comments that it is her eggs that make Elfuda sick, leading to an amusing end to the episode.

Plus, Sized Elf Episode 3 doesn’t stand out narratively. It continues the previous episode’s trajectory by introducing more characters and their quirky traits, but not much else. The only interesting part of the episode was Mero’s comments on her limits in the human world.

Her statement implies that while fantasy creatures roaming around the human world are common, they tend to disguise themselves. This goes against prior knowledge that some races are brazen and don’t disguise themselves, making the state of the world more confusing to understand.

Overall, Plus-Sized Elf Episode 3 is as unremarkable as the previous episode. While it introduces more interesting characters, it does so in very unimpressive ways. Each character lacks enough depth to be endearing, and the world isn’t given enough attention it deserves, making for an underwhelming viewing experience.

Plus-Sized Elf Episode 3  is streaming now on HiDive.