ELLE, also known as , is a Japanese

adult An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of major ...

visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

developed by

ELF Corporation , stylized as élf, was a Japanese eroge studio. One of its most popular games is '' Dōkyūsei'', a pioneering dating sim, which has had a sequel and been turned into adult OVA series. The character design of the main villains from the ''-sa ...

which was originally released on June 13, 1991. A remake produced by ELF Corporation retitled ''Él'' was released on September 29, 2000.

Green Bunny Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combina ...

produced an

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

titled ''Él'' which was released in two volumes in 2001. The series depicts the survivors of a

nuclear war Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear w ...

that are gathered in a single, tightly monitored city.

Plot

In December 1999, a nuclear war devastates the Earth and renders most of the world inhospitable. To ensure the survival of humanity the "Megaroasu plan" is carried out, but a terrorist organization called the Black Widow attacks and tries to disrupt the plan. The story takes place in 2008. The player takes the role of an unnamed Hero with an unknown past who is an expert marksman. The heroine is El Miles, and includes an ensemble of minor characters to advance the plot. The game is a simple click adventure with only one ending as with many games of the genre. For the 2000 remake, the story was the same with the exception of the setting being refocused to 2030. The graphics were updated and included three-dimensional computer graphics. The script was dubbed by a cast of professional voice actors, but the cast credits were private and not released.

OVA plot

After a nuclear war triggered by environmental pollution, a group of survivors start the Megaro Earth Project, a city built under a dome to protect the last fragments of humanity. El Miles is a "sniper" – a policewoman defending the city against the terrorist organization Black Widow. El has been placed in charge of protecting Parsley, a pop singer nearly raped by Black Widow operatives. The singer then finds herself falling in love with El, and attempts to seduces her. El discovers that some of her fellow snipers are becoming Black Widow operatives, and she is constantly tormented not only by their leader Gimmick, but also by unusual blackouts and of unexplained visions of another reality. At the end of the second episode, the whole world El Miles lived in was actually just a 'created dream' and only El and a man named Joe are the last of humanity which was disrupted by Parsley.

Releases

The first release, titled ''Elle'' was originally released on June 13, 1991. A remake produced by ELF Corporation retitled ''Él'' was released on September 29, 2000. The original release was on

PC-9801 The , commonly shortened to PC-98 or , is a lineup of Japanese 16-bit and 32-bit personal computers manufactured by NEC from 1982 to 2000. The platform established NEC's dominance in the Japanese personal computer market, and, by 1999, more th ...

, the software was on four 5" 2HD floppy disks. The remake was released for Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, and XP on CD.

produced an

titled ''Él'' which was released in two volumes in 2001.

Nutech Digital NuTech Digital, Inc. was a company that licensed and distributed karaoke products, general entertainment films (action-adventure, horror, and comedy), and children's animated films. In 2005, Nutech became focused on producing and distributing ...

acquired the rights to the ''Él'' OVA in 2001. The English release of the volumes 1 and 2, and the box set would follow in January 2002, featuring an English dub which included the voice talents of adult actresses Shelbee Myne and Lola. OVA credits include: * Kazuma Kanezawa: Director, Screenwriter * Masaki Kawai: Original Character Design *

Takeo Takahashi is a Japanese animator, animation director, and storyboard artist. Filmography Director Television series OVAs Films Other Television series OVAs/ONAs Films Adult Anime Notes References External links *Takeo Takahashi animeat ...

: Art Director, Storyboard, Character Designer, Supervision * Yukio Segami: Character Designer, Animation Director * ARMS and Green Bunny: Production.''The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917'', Jonathan Clements, Helen McCarthy, pp. 174–175

Reception

Chris Beveridge reviewed both English localizations of the series. The

release was originally reviewed in 2002 and was positive, noting the strong visuals with only a few seconds of cross coloration on the second episode. The

Kitty Media Media Blasters, sometimes abbreviated as MB, is an American entertainment corporation that was founded by John Sirabella in 1997 and is based in New York City. It is in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American ...

release was also reviewed favorably, among its differences from the Nutech Digital release was redubbing the work for release. The strong points of the OVA were its writing and execution of the surprise ending, but the large cast of characters resulted in poor development of secondary characters. The visuals from the original release do not hold up when compared to newer works in the 2007 review because of the increasing industry standards.

References

External links

El's official page on Elf Corporation's website
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:El 1991 video games 2000 video games 2001 anime OVAs ELF Corporation games Eroge Hentai anime and manga Japan-exclusive video games Post-apocalyptic anime and manga Post-apocalyptic video games FM Towns games MSX2 games NEC PC-9801 games X68000 games Video games developed in Japan Windows games Video games set in 2008 Video game remakes Video games set in the 2030s DMM Games games