Bando

Yuka

Kanae

Kisaragi

Saitou

Mariko Kurama

Nana

Kakuzawa Kyouju

Lucy

Kakuzawa Choukan

Kouta

Shirakawa

Hiromi Kurama

Tomoo

Arakawa

Kurama

Mayu

3-Ban

The Diclonius, a mutated homosapien that is said to be selected by God and will eventually become the destruction of mankind, possess two horns on their heads and have a "sixth sense" which gives them telekinetic abilities. Due to this dangerous power, they have been captured and isolated in laboratories by the government. Lucy, a young and psychotic Diclonius, manages to break free of her confines and brutally murders most of the guards in the laboratory where she is being held, only to be shot in the head as she makes her escape. She survives, falling off a cliff into the ocean and manages to drift along to a beach where two teenagers, Kouta and Yuka, discover her. Having lost her memories, she was named after the only thing that she can now say, "Nyuu," and the two allow her to stay at Kouta's home. However, it appears that the psychotic side of Lucy is not dead just yet... 
(Source: ANN - Revised)

Due to what are apparently masochistic tendencies, I've subjected myself to a lot of bad anime. This got me thinking. I asked myself "what is the worst anime I've ever seen?" I thought this over for a few moments, and gave myself this answer: "Elfen Lied. Elfen Lied is the worst anime I've ever seen."

Elfen Lied is essentially about monster girls with psychic powers behaving violently in response to humans being shit. One monster girl tries escaping and actually manages to succeed, but loses her memory in the process, reducing her to a vegetable who only goes "Nyu!" She winds up in the care of a boy and his female cousin, whose names I've forgotten and can't be assed to look up.

There are a few things to like about Elfen Lied. The first is the soundtrack. By this, I mean that there's a good song (used for the OP) that is repeated through the soundtrack ad nauseum in slightly different ways. The second is the potential it had. There were a few themes that could have been fairly solid. But we'll get to those when we talk about what was bad. Which happens to be now!

Any good of Elfen Lied is far outweighed by what's bad. I could be wrong since I don't really have an eye for animation or direction, but I don't remember it being particularly impressive. In fact, I think I remember laughing at how poorly things were animated at a few points. The English voice acting is lackluster, even by dub standards, and I've heard the Japanese acting isn't all that impressive either. Maybe not bad, but certainly not any points in the show's favor. Let's talk about things I can more definitively say are bad.

I hate to throw around buzzwords, but I can't think of a way to describe Elfen Lied's shortcomings without saying that it tries way too hard to be edgy. There is plenty of gratuitous violence, gore, and nudity, as well as themes relating to the darkness of human nature. It is possible for these elements to make a show good. Elfen Lied, however, utterly fails on that account. It assumes that these things are inherently good, so it makes no further effort. There are many stories in various forms of media that have combined sex and violence in ways that make both more appealing. Elfen Lied seems to be vaguely aware of this idea and has tried to emulate it to ill effect. Instead of having these two elements emphasize each other, they are simply thrown together so that hey both exist. The result is that they cancel each other out. The nudity makes the violence ridiculous, and the gore makes the nudity unsexy.

Worse than that is the theme, which weaves through the plot. Elfen Lied is about monster girls called Diclonii who can kill people with their brains. The government experiments on these Diclonii, because humans are scumbags. This bit is important, we'll come back to it later. One Diclonius, named Lucy, attempts to escape. She succeeds, brutally murdering half the facility in the process, but a sniper shoots her in the head. Not fatally, mind you. Only enough to give her brain damage, because the plot requires that she become literally [redacted] for a while in order to work. She is found and taken in by a boy named Kohta and his female cousin Yuka.

The government is not fond of Lucy escaping and murdering, so they send a bunch of Diclonius after her. Her murderous side conveniently reemerges when she is in danger. As the series progresses, the government continues to try to bring Lucy down, while flashbacks slowly reveal Lucy's past. Spoilers follow:

~!It is revealed that, as a child, Lucy was bullied for being a Diclonius. We see a scene in an orphanage where, after Lucy makes friends with a puppy, a bunch of children beat it to death in front of her. She then uses her mind-explodey powers and reduces them to strawberry jam. Later, it turns out that Lucy and Khota ended up meeting each other, and he was about the only human who was ever nice to her. Then, one day, Khota's like "Sorry, can't hang out with you today. I've made plans with my cousin to go to a festival" and Lucy's all "Is this cousin a boy or a girl?" and for whatever reason, Khota lies and says that she's a boy. Lucy finds out about the lie and murders Khota's father and sister in revenge. Because even as a child she wanted his dick and was apparently terrified that he'd fall for a blood relative instead of her. Though in fairness, he and his cousin totally do start falling for each other over the course of the season, because incest is edgy and that's how Elfen Lied rolls.!~

Ultimately, the series hammers in how much life sucked for Lucy and how horribly everyone always treated her, and how that turned her into a murderous monster. Because humans are trash, you see. We're cruel to anything that's different from us. This on its own isn't an inherently bad idea to explore. There are plenty of ways it can be handled well. But once again, Elfen Lied fails on that front. Instead of showing realistic human cruelty, it subjects us to the most blatant, over-the-top, cartoon villain evil it can find. Men abusing women isn't funny, but when a man randomly backhands a woman in an early episode, entirely unprovoked, I can't help but laugh. It's such a hamfisted way of attempting to show that a character is evil. There were so many times that I didn't know whether I should be laughing or whether I should just be disgusted at how much Elfen Lied was insulting my intelligence. There's making a point, and then there's flat-out misanthropy. Guess which side of that line Elfen Lied is on?

Elfen Lied is an anime that not only failed to do anything correctly, it flat-out insulted my intelligence and insulted me as a person by implicating that, as a human being, I was terrible simply for existing. Maybe, in the hands of someone more talented, Elfen Lied could have become an average series. If that were the case, it would have at least had the decency to be forgettable. But no, it decided that if it couldn't achieve greatness, it would at least manage to succeed at being terrible enough to be remembered, dammit! And the worst part is, because this was one of the first "edgy" anime to gain relative success in the West, there are a lot of people who are actually under the mistaken impression that this is good. It's not. Worst anime I've seen. One star.

"Elfen Lied is the worst anime I've ever seen."

Ever since mankind perfected the art of starting fires, we’ve been at the top of the food chain. We’ve used weapons to make up for our lack of claws, and we’ve built houses to make up for our lack of immunity to the elements. We’ve invented food processing, as well as other techniques to ensure that we’re not pumping our bodies full of disease and parasites, and we’ve even invented supermarkets so we could stop hunting and sit on our asses all day while marathoning Breaking Bad. We’ve held dominion over the rest of God’s creatures for so long that we’ve never really had to worry about another species knocking us off of our seat at the throne.

While the practice of humans killing humans is about as common as the practice of making more humans to replace them, we never expected a threat to our population to evolve right from our own ranks… Until the Diclonius arose. They’re the new breed of human, characterized by a pair of bony horns on their head, a set of invisible arms growing out of their back, and no genitalia (which must have been a huge relief to the people in charge of censoring the show). While the way they breed remains a mystery, their mission in life is simple… Wipe out the human race, and then repopulate the earth. And their queen bee just escaped out into the public.

Now, that queen bee… Lucy… is on the run, ready to gruesomely murder any pitiful human who gets in her way. How will she deal with having to live with the one person she can’t kill?

Elfen Lied was produced and released by Studio Arms, an animation company that makes it’s entire living off of crap. I’m not kidding. Their library consists mainly of pornos, loathsome battle vixen shows, and obscure OVAs that nobody cares about. Their most ambitious projects aside from Elfen Lied are Genshiken, which I admit I haven’t seen, and last year’s incompetent snoozefest, Mao Yu. This is not a company you want as your alma mater, and visually, Elfen Lied is no exception.  Well, that’s not completely fair… To it’s credit, the background artwork is actually really good, beautiful stuff. It’s highly detailed, perfectly lit, and shaded with nothing short of a master’s touch. The character designs, on the other hand, aren’t nearly as easy to look at. They look fairly normal in most shots, with nothing really special or noteworthy. Then there are the facial expressions that look like they were designed by the troll face guy, and far off shots where everything looks distorted and off model.

The animation is also some of the worst I’ve seen, at least when you actually see it. You spend most of the series staring at key frames that feature barely any movement outside of the lip flaps. The very few full-shot walk cycles that you get to see are embarrassingly bad, as the characters in them barely seem to exist in the same universe as the backgrounds they’re running against. I said earlier that the backgrounds look really beautiful, but even when you clearly hear the presence of strong wind, you’ll never see a single leaf moving. That is, except that there will occasionally be a shot of cherry blossom petals falling down, and this appears a lot in the outdoor scenes… It looks fluid and graceful in motion, at least until you realize that they’re just playing the same bit of animation over and over again… Even in the freaking rain! The animation does clean up and present itself in a few select fight scenes, but they still look mediocre by any other show’s standards. For the most part, a huge chunk of the budget was clearly wasted on the goofy looking CG arms that all the Diclonius…es… have.

The characters look like garbage, which is fitting, because most of them ARE garbage. Lucy herself is a really good, complex character, but after suffering a concussion during her escape from the research facility, she develops a split personality. That other side of herself, who emerges whenever she’s hit on the head or has a bad memory, is called Nyu, and… Well, to avoid using an offensive and highly volatile term, Let’s just say she’s essentially a walking infant with boobs, which she will happily squeeze into someone’s hand at the slightest provocation. She pees all over the floor, and can only say her name(Yes, like a pokemon). If a character with her personality was included in an American TV show, she’d be banned from the network faster than you can say Derpy Hooves. In short, Nyuu’s existence does to Lucy what Jar Jar Binks did to the original Star Wars trilogy.

And the couple that takes her in? Kohta and Yuka, both of whom are first year college students? They are insufferable. They’re one of the worst couples in anime history, and I’m not just talking about the fact that they’re cousins. I could forgive that. What I can’t forgive is a will-they-won’t-they dynamic that, for me, was more like will-she-won’t-she-kill them already? Kohta experienced a traumatic event when he was a kid, which resulted in the tragic loss of his personality. Oh, and his family, I think. She hasn’t seen him since then, but has somehow stayed in love with him all this time, even turning down her top choice colleges just to go to his. He’s basically a less interesting version of Shiryou Emiya… and I so mean that… And she’s an obsessed hose beast who takes every possible opportunity to be jealous of the other girls in the house.

There are a few characters that were good… Like Bandoh, the sadistic army guy, and Nana, the well behaved Diclonius… But both of them overstayed their welcome after somehow surviving injuries that should have killed them. Yeah, they somehow survived losing entire limbs, when another character a few episodes later almost bleeds out and dies from one bullet wound. Seeing them come back to life wouldn’t bother me if their presence beyond that point contributed anything to the plot, which they don’t. But unlike little orphan Mayu, at least they DO contribute something to the plot at some point.

As much as it kills me to say this, as a die hard ADV fan, I can’t really recommend this English dub. I don’t have a problem with the dialogue, or anything… The adaptive script is actually quite good… But as far as the performances go, it’s a mixed bag. Kira Vincent Davis does an outstanding job playing all three sides of her character… She plays Lucy, Nyuu, and the child version of Lucy, even though the original Japanese had a different Saiyuu for each. She plays Lucy as a jaded loner with a serious chip on her shoulder, and you have to give her props for pulling it off without ever sounding emo about it. There’s a little more hope in her squeakier child version of the voice, and more growth as well. Her performance as Nyuu is ungodly annoying, but then again, it’s an ungodly annoying character, so I don’t hold it against her.

She probably performs her best as the child version of Lucy, which might have something to do with the fact that she’s playing off of such wonderful actors as Christine Auten, Chris Patton, and Monica Rial. As an adult/woman child, she’s hanging with a certified C squad that plays our main couple, Kohta and Yuka. They’re played by Blake Shepherd, who doesn’t seem to understand what acting even is, and Nancy Novotny, who doesn’t have any talent for it whatsoever. There are some pretty good performances by Jay Hickman, Jason Douglas, and Sasha Paysinger, but in this case, a few bad apples DO spoil the bunch.

The only time I’d recommend turning the English track on is when little Mariko sets foot… Er, wheel… Onscreen. She’s played by Her Highness Luci Christian, who I believe I’ve gushed about in the past. I hold her in an extremely high regard, as one of the best emoters in the business, and as somebody who’s able to absolutely own every single role she’s presented with. Keep that in mind when I tell you that her role as Mariko is one of her best performances period. She hasn’t jerked tears this hard since Air. I won’t spoil the reasons why, but if there’s a reason to turn on the dub, it’s her.

As for the story itself, it’s not necessarily a bad one. The plot is one of a kind, is very imaginative, and always manages to take itself seriously without ever becoming preachy or pretentious. The pacing is actually really good as well, as the story never moves slowly enough to start dragging, or too quickly for the viewer to understand what’s going on. That’s not to say you’d necessarily WANT to understand what’s going on, but good pacing doesn’t always mean good content.

Where it fails it’s hardest is in the execution of the story. There are so many plot holes that I honestly could have made an entire Inconvenient Questions list out of it, if not for the fact that several characters go out of their way to ask about said plot holes… To no avail, of course, as Elfen Lied would much rather question itself than explain itself. Much like Fate Stay Night, Elfen Lied is a story that spends way too much time on it’s main cast playing house and dumping exposition to fully explore it’s own exciting concept. In fact, if you really want me to take my gloves off, this is a 13 episode series with so much pointless material in it that it could have easily been told in the space of only six episodes.

All you’d have to do is remove the characters who don’t add anything to the plot (Mayu, Bandoh, Arakawa, both of the Kakuzawas), cut the flashbacks down to only the bare essentials, combine Nana and Mariko into one character, and erase all traces of Yuka after she’s filled her role in the first episode. In addition to cutting back on time, having Kohta take more of an active role in the story with only Nyuu/Lucy in the house would have given him a much more complete personality.  As a matter of fact, I would have loved this show a lot more if little Lucy had killed Yuka, instead of just Kohta’s father and little sister… Oops, i’m sorry, was that a spoiler? I’d apologize, but if you couldn’t figure out that little plot twist by the end of episode 1, then there’s no hope for you.

There’s a lot you can say about this show, and not all of it is very nice. What you can’t say, however, is that it fails as a horror title. As bad as the animation may be, the framing and camera angles are absolutely brilliant, working right alongside the hauntingly beautiful soundtrack and perfect instrumental motif to make the show consistently unsettling and suspenseful, even in the more goofy and ridiculous moments. Right from the start, you have no idea who will live and who will die, and aside from Kohta’s family, you’ll never be able to predict what gruesome fates will await these polished, shiny moe models. Whether you love or hate seeing them torn limb from limb, you’ll never feel bored or indifferent about it, which is the reason that it never becomes gratuitous enough to qualify as mindless torture or gore porn.

Elfen Lied was once available from ADV Films, in a very beautiful thinpack box set. Following the collapse of ADV, it was picked up and redistributed by Funimation, who’ve released a few box sets of their own… They’re not as striking visually, but they’re cheaper, and it’s pretty much the only way to get it on Blu-ray. The original manga has never been released in English, and since I’m not familiar with the practice of streaming manga, I don’t really know where you can find a translated version. What I can find, however, is a fan-made web comic called Nana’s Everyday Life, which concluded several years ago. It’s actually a very interesting read, particular in the latter stages, when they dropped the comedy and went for a more serious, tragic story.

In conclusion… What do you want me to say? Do you want me to call this show the most awesome thing ever, like so many people do? Well, I can’t, because that’s not true. Do you want me to say that it‘s one of the worst pieces of crap I’ve ever seen, like so many people do? Well, I can’t, because that’s not true either. My opinion of Elfen Lied is much more in the middle… It’s too good to be a bad show, but at the same time, it’s way too bad to be a good show. I really like it, and it will always have a spot on my DVD shelf, but from an objective stand point, I’ll never be able to see it as anything other than average, which is why I wind up giving it an average score… I give Elfen Lied a 5/10, and a strong recommendation to check it out for yourselves so you can form your own opinion on it.

There’s a lot you can say about this show, and not all of it is very nice.

<center>img700(https://i.ibb.co/NsvLXMx/image.png)
Elfen Lied (or Elvish Song in English)</center>
It's a anime of the __Seinen__ category, remembering that this anime is not recommended for people under 16 years and people with symptoms of sensitivity for contain: __Carnage__, __nudity__, __tragedy__, carnage, a little __Ecchi __and more carnage. First of all, I want to talk about one of its most intriguing characteristics (at least in my opinion): __The opening song__. 

<center>youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKG3m4uTSyw)
<a>__Follow the Lyrics:__</a>
_Os iusti
Meditabitur sapietiam
Et lingua eius
Loquetur indicium

Beatus vir qui
Suffert tentationem
Quoniam cum probatus
Fuerit accipient coronam vitae

Kyrie, fons bonitatis
Kyrie, ignis divine, eleison
Oh, quam sancta
Quam serena
Quam benigna
Quam amoena
Oh, castitatis lilium_

Translated version lyrics in the video.</center>

I confess, the first thing I thought when I heard this passage was: What freshness of hell is this? Calm down, it was not blasphemy, because I didn't pay attention to the lyrics... I only heard the woman singing in Latin. Yes, Latin! This is because the song was created to be a Gregorian chant, and was based on several biblical passages (from some prominent books like Psalms) and a Latin song in honor of Mother Mary.

The soundtrack is completely calm, with a rather dramatic but reflective lyrics.

#<hr><a>__Synopsis, Diclonius and minor considerations__</a>
The story takes place in the Japanese city called Kamakura, and begins with the escape of Lucy, a powerful Queen Diclonius. Diclonius (from Latin something like "Clones of the gods") are humanoid with horns (apparently only women are born that way) and an unusual development of the brain that allows them to control immaterial arms called by the scientists of vectors, and it is around the Diclonius Lucy that the anime turns. Continuing the synopsis, she escapes from her confinement in a laboratory and, with her vectors, separates members from everyone in front of her, other than the laboratory director (saved by the author). A .50-caliber anti-tank rifle shot knocks her unconscious, knocks her down and breaks her cool helmet (fckin shooter), and awakens her second personality, Nyuu, who is totally naive. It's found on the beach by a couple of cousins ​​who welcome her as Nyuu, and they have no idea that 50% of her is a serial killer (Ah man, only 50%... Give nothing). From there the story begins to branch out and then finds itself, in a somewhat strange way and always sentimental or bloodthirsty.

We can also compare the Diclonius with the regime of racial segregation adopted in 1948 to 1994 called __Apartheid__, a regime that divided people into racial groups, for example; ''black '', ''white'', ''Indian,'' and so on, brought with it much violence. The Diclonius also reminds me of the Nazi behavior of the last century.

<center>img500(https://i.ibb.co/Cz0wT67/image.png)</center>

Elfen Lied does not revolve around insignificant deaths. However we see the story revolve within the most important social themes of today, always convincing us that nothing is meaningless. What I want to say is that Elfen Lied showed me the reason of being different from the other works with the same genre, and I can affirm with all the letters that everything is thought. And I have to say: I just love smart series! even more when in the end it proves to me that everything was planned, nothing was forced, this without doubt is something that I care a lot when I know some manga. I hate when such a work treats me like a donkey, forcing the ''horror'' and more when nothing makes sense. I believe that manga like this does not need something raw, something scarcely told to be frightened, on the contrary, I think that the more information that is shown the more interesting the series can be.

<center>img500(https://i.ibb.co/nmPL7g8/Screenshot-1.jpg)</center>

Elfen Lied isn't the most violent series of the century, but it is one of the most striking, not by the heads being severed more because it carries in itself a dramatic charge. The plot gains strength not by the amount of blood but by the emotional appeal, and this makes it different from so many other series.
<paragraph>
#<hr><a>__Characters__</a>
<paragraph>
<center>__Lucy__ 
img500(https://i.imgur.com/0EtfGag.gif)</center>

Lucy has psychotic tendencies and is murderous, being her main personality, taking great pleasure in killing people. She hates humans, because of her past, who has been mistreated, humiliated, suffering prejudices from all around her. Trying to flee the laboratory, he kills almost every armed man without mercy or pain.
<paragraph>
<center>
__Nyu__ 
img500(https://data.whicdn.com/images/197329787/original.gif)</center>

It's the innocent personality, Nyu is equal a small child, not knowing how to speak many words and not knowing how to do things, everything for her is a novelty. She is met by Kouta and Yuka, who end up getting her home to take care of her and try to learn more about her life. Nyu is totally different from her main personality, she is kind and caring, who is also jealous of Kouta.
<paragraph>
<center>
__Kouta__ 
img500(https://i.ibb.co/L8zMCXM/image.png)</center>

He is very protective, especially with the girls (because of the death of his sister), having a sad past and some problems currently, yet he is very happy. Kouta returns to the city where she spent the summer as a child, because of the university, and finds Yuka her cousin and best childhood friend. She also encounters Nyu and ends up letting her live in her house while trying to learn more about her.

The anime also has other important characters, but I thought it best to let you guys see them.
<paragraph>

#<hr><a>__Final considerations__</a>
<paragraph>For the summary of the conversation I feel obliged to say a few more words. I must warn you that Elfen Lied deeply explores the worst human emotions, showing the consequence of bullyng and prejudjement, in a good dash of drama and violence enjoying science fiction to a good degree, that is, in the right measure. Shows the rot of people in the clearest way possible. Do not be scared by the ecchi because he is not the center and will not leave you excited (only if you are a pervert with certain problems in the head).

The anime has a song of religious opening leaving the animation with that good face we know. Do you know those canvasses of Mary's Wolves that we hear at these church services? So... fear! But it's like I said before, seeing only the anime is not enough because the manga is much more complete in various terms of the word.

Although the art is clearly questionable, it also has a drama a little that exaggerated, in no way interferes with the series as a whole. Its defects become tiny when we evaluate its qualities. Macabre and seductive I think this sums up well Elfen Lied...


What I liked the most about this anime, besides the blood and cruelty of the Diclonius, are the stories behind the stories. The information is well guarded until the right moment and is hinted at by flash backs. What I don't like is the emo romance, but this went far from burning what I consider to be quality in the anime. Speaking of quality, there are many people complaining that the end of the anime is without nexus or incomplete. If you find that, remember that it's a 13-episode anime and 1 OVA based on a 12-volume manga, counting 107 chapters in total (in other words, each volume is almost a bible), so it's much more compact and censored. There are also several changes. If that did not console you and you're too lazy to read everything, read from volume 70 you'll find a much better, well explained.

...I wanted to talk more about this beautiful work of Okamoto Lynn, but I promised: No spoiler. If you have never heard of watch, and if you just watched it I hope you check out the original ending.

<center><a>- Score -
7/10</a></center>

Dissecting the quality of Elfen Lied, goodbye prejudjement!

__Elfenlied__
This is one of the best anime i ever looked. With nice dawing and a goog Storytelling.

To mention positively is also the good graphic representation of the venues that is broadly laid out here. The animation is very successful so that a real value added to the manga is also recorded in this. i like the unobtrusive coloring, but this is my personal opinion and in contrast to today's anime makes, except here only the pink hair of the elf.

I like the was you lern many think about the different Charakter. For most people, the development of the characters is very nice to look at. It shows how well the environment influences the development of humans and human-like creatures.
It is really old, but i see ist from time to time, when ever i looked it i found new Details. As in many anime, the story is not told in a linear way, but that is exactly what makes the narrative exciting and ensures a good mix of fast storytelling and time for character understanding. so there are consequences with a lot of action and profound phrases. the anime does not slip away into pure romance and calculable soap opera but shows again and again the struggle of the characters with themselves.

The story revolves around a girl with strange powers and horns. Various experiments are carried out on her in a research laboratory. here the spectator enters. Right at the beginning, the power that this girl possesses is demonstrated. now begins for the audience a fetters away on their side, always looking back, in their childhood and he may learn why this child acts so cruelly. But he also sees their development towards an adult who learns his environment and the people are no longer just a danger. may share with her big and small joys and is often touched by emotional feelings and actions.

So if you are looking for an anime showing fantasy, relationship between people and their development, doing some social criticism, then you have found it. In spite of everything I personally find it very entertaining and the consequences are very well divided, so also something for spectators who do not watch everything in 1 or 2 weeks.
I can only recommend the anime, for me it is as good as neon evangelion.

__INTRODUCTION__

As someone who started watching anime somewhere around 2010s, Elfen Lied was a show I was always aware of, but never quite got around to watching. That changed few weeks ago when I was recommended it, and I must say that the experience was rather memorable, albeit too short. 
Before I start, I'd like to note that I haven't read the manga, so if I complain somewhere down the line that something is poorly explained, keep in mind I am specifically referring to the anime. This isn't a review of the manga, although I will probably review it as well after I read it. 

__HIGHLY IMPORTANT__
-There will be spoilers but I will mark them as such so don't worry. 

__STORY__
If you've read my previous 2 reviews, you know the drill. I dislike story summaries so we're hoping straight in. If you want to know the premise before reading this, please refer to the wiki. 
So let's start of by talking about the good in Elfen Lied's story, namely the pacing. While it does occasionally feel rushed, the pacing remains consistent and introduces new characters at a masterful pace, making it easy to keep up with the show. The world building is decent given that this is a 13 episode show, and the dynamics of power between various Diclonii remain interesting through-out. The only thing that wasn't explained power-system wise was how: ~!Mariko was so much more powerful than all other Diclonii!~
But I didn't mind it very much because it shrouded this character with a keen sense of mystery and genuine terror. I thought it was a good touch, albeit it was likely made with the brief runtime in mind. I should also note that manga likely explains the information hidden in the spoiler tag, but I wouldn't know. 

(The spoilers bellow are in reference to the ending, don't open unless you know how the anime ends)
~!The anime also ends while failing to conclude Bando's character arc... at all. Which was really dumb. It's like they forget this character exists, although I didn't mind how the rest of the ending was open-ended. Given the fact that they had to wrap up so many arcs in the final episode, I think they did the best with the time given to them, and I find that commendable.!~
The anime also has a profound issue of taking emotional cheapshots at you, the worst offender being:
~!Murder of Lucy's dog.!~
As for the themes of Elfen Lied, there are 2 of importance that I can make out. The first is how people act when alienated, and consequences thereof. And the second theme is family. In regards to the first one, and more prominent one, Elfen Lied does something I absolutely despise in fiction. It uses cartoonish villains to prove a point. This, along with villain-of-the-week format are my 2 absolutely biggest gripes in media. Difference being that villain-of-the-week format does no harm, whereas using cartoonish villains to prove a point is actively harmful to society. It teaches the viewer (especially ones more keen on extremism) that people who disagree with you are evil monstrosities with no redeemable qualities. Persona 5 does something similar, it has a point on society, obviously pinning all its evils on the villains, and then makes those very villains extremely cartoonish to make a point about how society is bad. This isn't how real life works, humans are extremely complex, and therefore including cartoonish villains anywhere outside kid's cartoons is an insult to that complexity, and fully worthy of condemnation.  
In Lucy's case, this manifests in the form of abuse suffered at the hands of almost every person she met, as you can imagine, none of them have any redeeming features and are there purely so we can feel for Lucy more. This is cheap and I don't like it at all. It would've been significantly better for the show if Kurama was its villain, as he seems to be the only person on the anti-Diclonii side that feels for them. This complexity of thought would have made Lucy's actions less justifiable, but make the show better as a whole. 
As for it's theme of family, it's executed significantly better, although this anime will use family members just as cheaply to crush your emotions. 
__
CHARACTERS__
Characters are a mixed bag, some written quite decently and some written in a way that would leave the show better off without them.
-Kota
One of the worst protagonists I've had the displeasure of watching. He is all sorts of bland. Even your worst spiky-brown-haired idiot has nothing on Kota in terms of how dull he is. He does almost nothing for the plot, and is there purely so we could have an actual protagonist. Really tells you how proud of him the writers were, given that he appears in non of the promotional material for the show. However, there was a strangely controversial thing that he does near the end:
~!Somewhere near the end, Kota learns that Lucy murdered his family when he was young. His reaction was this weird semi-forgiveness which many people in the community criticized. While I know that it's not realistic at all, that someone would forgive the murder of their family, in specific regards to Kota, I found it true to his archetype of a pure-hearted shonen-esque main character. Overall, it is far from the worst thing that happened on this show. !~
-Lucy
The titular character and show's actual protagonist. Probably best written of them all, it's just a shame that much of her development came as a result of cartoonishly evil kids and adults. She embodies both themes of the show to the core, being an alienated individual, but also someone who craves for a place to belong to; for a family. Lucy is a rather memorable character and I like the eerie feeling the show surrounds her with. 

-Kurama
By far most complex, and the person that should've been the series' villain. He had a perfect motive too:
~!With Lucy crippling Nana and all that jazz.!~
He permeates the limbo between Diclonii and humans, and is probably my favorite character on the show. I like how he remains decisive between all the tumultuous happenstance he is shrouded by. The potential his character had is immense, but poorly realized as the show will use him yet again to deliver you cheap hits in the feels: 
~!Especially given what happens to his family.!~
-Bando
A weird character. He comes of as needlessly antagonistic initially but you discover he has few peculiar qualities to him. Namely he likes to repay debts. There was also a hilarious scene where I thought he was cleaning the beach because he was a secret environmentalist, only for it to turn out he was doing it because he didn't want Lucy to have any weapons against him. I laughed out loud during this scene, but I am unsure if it was intentional. 
The show also:
~!Completely fails to finish his character arc, making him unworthy of further praise. I hope manga handles him differently.!~

__ANIMATION AND ART STYLE:__
Animation is a hit or miss. Characters are mostly stationary, and in most of its scenes, it completely fails to impress. However, when there are fights, the clean brutal cuts and sprays of blood do really well in conveying the power of the vectors. The fact that they're kept mostly invisible also gives them an additional oppressive tint, because you never know how far they're from their target, biding their time and waiting to slaughter their prey. That was a really good decision on the part of the animators. Aside from the way the animation handles gore and vectors, it isn't particularly notable. 
Art style, I actually liked much more. Especially the background art in Kaede household. Seriously, one of my favorite aspects of Elfen Lied is looking at the stunning, highly detailed art in the background, although considering that the show happens in a small seaside town, it rarely changes. There's also a lot of NSFW, which may sour the experience. 

__OST AND SOUND DESIGN__
So, Elfen Lied has one of the most notable tracks ever written, Lilium. This song is used as both, the opening, and an actual OST you can hear in the show. It's also canonically in the show, as Kota has a music box with the inscription of Lilium, which is one of Lucy's favorite tracks. Lucy also hums it near the end. There are a few versions of Lilium in the show. The music box version, Lucy's humming, Saint's Chant, violin, and the actual op. This clearly communicates that the producers knew they struck gold with this opening, and milked this cash cow for all it was worth. I love the actual OST but dislike the fact it plays during basically every important moment of the show. Other OSTs are also nice, but not particularly varied. 
Sound design is much more of a mixed bag. I noticed a lot of the time that there were subtitles while characters weren't talking. Makes me think the voice acting dips during some points, and it's really weird. However, the sounds of vectors cutting and slashing are awesome. They have this windy SFX when emerging and I really liked them.
Voice acting is pretty decent but nothing spectacular. My favorite performances are Kurama, Nana and Lucy. I liked the hoarse tint in Lucy's voice especially, although it sounded a tad edgy. 

__SUMMARY __
Elfen Lied is a mixed bag of successes and failures, but it's one I am sure to remember for a long time. I'd recommend this show purely on its value as a classic, and because it can open you up to newer themes, heretofore unseen.

A gripping ride with significant bumps down the line.

TW: Sexual Assault, Rape

As a preface, this is pretty much the first time i’ve done a proper review for anything outside of like idk school book reports so expect thoughts to be scattered lol. Also, yeah this will be pretty Spoiler Heavy in case you didn’t expect that. The first 3 paragraphs are pretty spoiler free, only covering to about episode 5 of the show but the rest has some late in the show spoilers.

   Elfen Lied is a… well, strange beast. It’s heavily derivative of other pieces of media, flat-out gross, exploitative, and just overall extremely uneven. Yet, for some reason, despite absolutely hating it, I think about it far too often. I’m writing this review to try and piece my thoughts together on why exactly this show has stuck with me far longer than other anime I’ve seen, and to try and explain why you should avoid it despite it being honestly pretty important for the medium as a whole.

   Elfen Lied, at its core, is a muddy mystery. It feels like it wants to be intellectually higher than the capabilities of the writers, but in that way nails a overbearing feeling of unease and genuine tension because you really have no clue of anyone’s motivations, outside of the main character, Kouta. The story follows him, a college student who moves near his cousin, Yuka’s, house to study at a college. The show is very vague about most of Kouta’s backstory until later on, with most of the show’s mystery being tied to him and his relationship to the other main character, Lucy.

The show opens with a pink haired woman, codenamed Lucy, breaking out of what seems to be a high tech prison facility, slaughtering most if not all in her way. It is a very striking mood setter for the show, perfectly underlining the theming and overall vibe the series will take in its 13 episode run. She is inexplicably naked in captivity, aside from a metal helmet placed on her head. This is never elaborated upon. As she makes her way out of the prison, it’s revealed to be an island, and as Lucy is about to make her final escape she gets shot in the head. The shot pierces her helmet, and she reverts to a split personality. She is found on a beach by Kouta and Yuka, who decide to take her home and clothe her since she is all on her own. At this point she can only say Nyu, so they decide to nickname her that. Before this it’s revealed that Kouta had a little sister who he claims to have died from an “illness” many years ago. However, when talking about it with Yuka she visibly is shocked by his account, implying that something doesn’t quite add up.

   I’m not going to go through this episode by episode but I felt like listing off the plot of the first episode was a good place to start since it establishes basic character traits and motives. As the show goes on, the organization that imprisoned Lucy sends a (certifiably insane, because of course) trained military officer to try and recapture her, feelings begin to develop between Yuka and Kouta (yeah they’re still cousins, i’ll get to that later), and Yuka and Kouta find a homeless girl living on the beach and take her in to live with them. As this is going on it’s revealed there are multiple types of Lucy’s species, revealed to be named Diclonius, and that they have another (later on revealed to have MULTIPLE) Diclonius in their captivity. After the military assassin, Bando, fails (in a very bloody way, staying true to the show’s ethos) the first time to recapture Lucy, the organization sends another Diclonius named Nana after Lucy.

   Let’s cut through the shit though, now. If you could not tell by the opening to this, I really hated this series. From the very beginning, it is clear that the people behind this series focused solely on pushing the envelope for the sake of controversy rather than telling an actual gripping story, one that could be grounded by how violent and dark the themes of the show become. I think this is perfectly illustrated in the story arc of Mayu. Mayu is the girl I mentioned earlier on who was homeless and later taken in by Kouta and Yuka, after she runs away from home because of family issues. In episode 5 it is revealed what exactly those family issues were, and they’re probably the darkest this show veers story wise. Mayu’s mother had remarried a man who sexually assaults Mayu every night, which the show does not shy away from guresomely depicting. Rather than feeling like a very brutal and real depiction of something like this actually happening, it just feels gratuitous with the shots of Mayu during these sequences, as if, they want the audience to enjoy this. And that’s how a lot of the show feels. It feels like they expect you to, I don’t know, get off to all this shit going on during the series. Every scene it feels like has to have some sort of sexual edge to it in an effort to make the audience feel like they’re not wasting their time. This sequence especially I think is exemplary of what this show wants to be, that it sticks with you because of how fucked up it is but also how realistic it can be on top of the weird sci-fi elements. The issue is that the writers are just flat out incapable of that, there’s no tact in any scenes that need it, the characters are either incredibly braindead or do absolutely nothing. Not to mention, the plot threads that never get any follow up (what the hell happened with the director? Did that entire plan just dry up after Lucy gets killed in the final episode?) Despite how good the show is at building foreboding tension there is no real gut-punching payoff. There’s no moment you really reflect on what’s going on and the gravity of how fucked up the situations in this show are, because there’s multiple episodes with the most gratuitous violence and sexual content that mar any scene that could be taken seriously. At best it feels like justification for the intense shit that happens, and at worst leads into situations like Mayu’s rape feeling gratuitous for the sake of titilation. It’s an impossible balancing act. Furthermore, they hardly show Mayu’s reaction to any of these events outside of the episode that it's featured in, throwing away any emotional weight it could have carried. Even when it is addressed, all we get is her trying to convince her mother about what her stepfather is doing, and that’s it. Outside of her running away from home, we get no insight to her thoughts and the show offers no real empathy for her, despite how blatantly horrible the situation is. Mayu deserves better. This was honestly the hardest part of the review to write, and at the moment of writing this sentence is probably the 5th or 6th rewrite it has gone through, because I’m just not properly equipped to put to words why the fuck this episode is just abhorrent and awful in every conceivable way. At the very least, I just hope that someone out there has done some sort of writing up or similar thing about why the fuck this sequence is awful because it really needs to be shown.

Another scene that shows this is one that happens while Lucy is wandering around town, where there is a woman walking home from work talking on her cell phone about her day. She mentions that her boss is a creep and keeps staring at her butt and that he wishes he would stop. She accidentally walks into Lucy, who retaliates by decapitating her, and as her body falls down, there is a very long shot of her body, with the camera pointed directly at her butt, as her head falls onto the ground. It just feels gross. It makes me want to turn off my television constantly because the creators are just doing this for the sake of being edgy. Lied feels a lot like it wants to have both of its feet in the exploitative, shlocky 80s horror style of horror while also having its foot in the down to earth very real side of horror a la something like Get Out, and it just does not work at all. I’m sure a balancing act like that could, and probably has, been done but Lied fails spectacularly at this.

   In episode 10, we finally learn the backstory of Kurama, one of the researchers in the cultivation of the Diclonius. We learn that he was hand picked by a classmate in college to participate in the organization's experiments when one of the first modern Diclonius is captured by a SWAT team. He is very reluctant when first shown examining the Diclonius, only named “Number 3” during her brief on screen appearances. And this is where another main issue comes in, any time that any Diclonius is shown on screen in the organization's headquarters, they are naked. For no reason, they are just stark nude, in what I can only assume is a cheap attempt to shove fanservice into the show. I’m not going to sit here and argue against or on behalf of nudity as fanservice in anime and media as a whole, but it is fucking disgusting that there is so much fanservice of actual children featured in this series. Most of the “fanservice” featured in this show not related to guro is of actual ass children and frankly, that’s just disgusting as hell. The show goes to great lengths to insert fanservice into scenes where it has no place, a crude attempt to appeal to people who like this gross-ass shit.

   On the other hand, I think that this show has good aspects which is why I feel conflicted. There are signs of a good horror show buried in there. I think it is genuinely eerie and has an overwhelming sense of dread that perpetuates throughout every scene early on, and the way the show slowly reveals its mysteries is very well done. The world of Lied is so unnaturally bleak and depressing in a way few horror movies and old school tragedy stories are. Nobody makes it out of this unscathed and because of that there is a pervasive sense of dread leaking into even the happiest scenes in the show, largely due to the soundtrack. I hope the composers of this show went on to do something far more deserving of their talent, as the soundtrack was consistently the strongest part of the series. There is a world where I could see Lied becoming an instant classic with the right editors, directors, and overall talent behind it. It obviously takes a huge inspiration from stuff like Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, but unlike those it is not one of the firsts of its kind, nor is it refined enough to really stand out aside from the timing of its release in the mid 2000s.  At the very least, Lied had me guessing through the end, with the reveal that Lucy killed Kouta’s little sister when they were kids, and the ensuing sequence with the revelation Kouta has (minus the weird 3 minutes of reusing footage we’ve already seen) is honestly done so well, especially the scene where Lucy sings Lilium to Kouta. 

Lied was also responsible for a large shift for a brief period in the mid 2000s in anime towards more horror and exploitative entries into the medium, with adaptations of games like Higurashi and School Days which carry similar themes of mystery, horror, and gratuitous violence. The creators of Stranger Things have even gone on record saying that they were influenced by Elfen Lied when they were originally coming up with the main character, Eleven, and her power set and general character traits. Clearly the effect the show had on its viewers was a net positive. But I also don’t think that absolves this show of its issues. 

   For years I’ve been hearing vague whispers about Elfen Lied, from friends, from internet personalities, from just various posts about how edgy it was, how it was this experience you’d never forget. In a lot of ways, they were right on the money. But I also think that hyping it up like that is a disservice to viewers. I think the show gets away with far too much considering its status as a very influential piece of animation. It deserves to be criticized properly. I’ve had a couple of very close friends say to me “oh the manga’s better”, or “anime wouldn’t be the same without it”, and while yes, that is 100% true, I think that it’s important to make that distinction that it's not without fault. I think there are plenty of pieces of both anime and western media that have done what Lied tried to do but better and less offensively, and more tactfully. Stranger Things season 1 holds up very well, and the same friends who have praised Lied to me have stated that Higurashi does a lot of the mystery/horror vibe better than Lied does. I would absolutely love to see someone who is a better reviewer than I am (or, frankly, smarter) take a crack at Lied’s positives and negatives to try and get a better grasp on why everything feels so uneven in this series. Honestly, even after writing this, there is still this nagging feeling that I should really read the manga to see how wildly different it plays out, but idk. After hearing the manga’s author’s other series, Byrnhildir, was just kind of Lied again but about witches and wizards I think that whatever level of intrigue or genuine writing talent that author could’ve had was just a stroke of luck. Regardless of that, I don’t think I'll be writing any reviews after this unless there is something I want to get the word out about, or if I come across something like Lied that I feel strongly about. Thanks for reading!

Note: These are just my opinions and i’m just some dumb ass on the internet who barely knows what he’s talking about, if this made you mad I genuinely apologize (unless you’re defending the child nudity then get the fuck outta here)

An incredibly important anime that you should avoid at all costs.

Backlash against things that are popular is pretty much unavoidable, but it’s rare for the reputation of a piece of media to sink so drastically over the years that it becomes difficult to imagine the work in question has been popular at one point in the first place.

Elfen Lied is one such work. Having gained traction for being ultra-violent, bloody but also philosophical and sad, especially at a time where these things have become rarer in anime, it was obvious that many older fans would call these elements into question. The show just being shock value, badly written and faux-deep has become almost the consensus, to a point that having a positive opinion on Elfen Lied will make you look like a fool among the anime community.

And I can totally understand why. As a fan however, I disagree with a lot of these criticisms. Or at the very least, think there is a lot more nuance to the reasons for why the anime is the way that it is. Instead of doing a typical review, I’d like to only examine a lot of the problems people have with the series. I will be doing this partly bit by bit as they get introduced to the viewer in the story, so spoilers will follow.

We start with the opening, Lilium. This is definitely the least controversial part of the show with pretty much universal praise for at least the theme song. The visuals being replicas of famous paintings with “moe” girls, not so much. I like the illustrations of Lucy here but the others don’t work that well in my opinion, though Nana looks kinda cool. What’s more important is the establishing of the intended tone, as it creates a very tragic feeling. Regardless of what manga author Lynn Okamoto’s vision was, the director (Mamoru Kanbe) clearly didn’t want this to be only a fetishistic anime.

This carries throughout the whole show with the opening theme being used as a leitmotif in multiple variations. This is really important to me, as with the following bloody massacre often comes the notion for it being “baby’s first gorefest”. To me this implies similar, better anime with graphic content. But it completely ignores the framing though, which to me is fairly unique. Whether the content of the story is supporting it or not, it has a specific appeal that you cannot simply replace.

It’s not just the music though, the way the gory parts are animated also doesn’t give me the impression it’s just trying to be cool or any crueler than it in reality is, like you’d find in 80s or 90s OVAs. With reality I mean the fact of it happening, not the intricate process that is also never implicitly shown. Like a lot of detractors say, it does have a cartoon-ish element to it. Now for me, this is actually one of the big reasons why I like it so much. Because it is anime, it can tell inherently brutal stories and both heightening the violence for thematic purpose, but also make it way more digestible than it if were live-action.

That said, personally even watching Elfen Lied as a teenager it never was really shocking to me. I very quickly learned to accept the violence as complete abstraction, but I acknowledge there are many people who cannot do that and understand not liking it for that reason. Just as well I can understand not being able to take it serious at all, though I think that one is easier to compensate by giving it a real chance and meeting it on its own terms.

I want to briefly address the production in general. It is by no means outstanding, but I think it gets a bit too much of a bad rep itself. I like how colorful the show looks, and a lot of the backgrounds have nice textures to them. Sometimes it can be quite garish and there are a lot animation errors, but when everything works together it creates some beautiful and memorable scenes. The in-universe invisible vectors that act as extra arms and for attacking have a really cool effect I haven’t quite seen elsewhere too.

Besides the gore, probably the biggest turnoff for most is the protagonist. Kouta is being introduced as your completely average fish out of water character. He is “just a nice a guy”, and his generic design certainly doesn’t help. I can understand the frustration, but I never found this inherently bad. I like seeing nice people who help others, and who can keep it up even when it’s getting more difficult. He feels pretty genuine to me, but I admit he doesn’t have a very exciting personality to watch which I do consider a flaw. Aside from that, I can’t really see much wrong with his backstory and suppressed trauma however.

For his female cousin I don’t have too much to say. She’s a solid support character and I think the way her jealousy is portrayed is pretty good. Maybe it’s just because she’s a college student, and there’s not much room for high school tier melodrama. Regarding the incest.. who the hell cares. Sorry. It really is not relevant at all to the story whether she’s a cousin or just a family acquaintance.

It’s the same with the ecchi humor. I get why it’s bothersome, but it’s just a bit of comedy that I don’t find funny. It shouldn’t be a big deal. I guess I also have to talk about the piss scene though. Yes it is very likely included for fetish fuel. It also made sense why it happened though and reinforced Nyu’s helplessness. Whatever.

Bando is just a bit too over the top at first. He gets a surprisingly high amount of development, and I actually haven’t heard many complains about him.

The rest mostly has to do with preferences in storytelling. I don’t mind contrivances if it brings the characters into interesting situations where they have to make difficult and consequential decisions. From this perspective, Elfen Lied is for my money one of the most effectively written stories ever.

Another reason the show is being called too edgy is a form of supposed “misery porn”. Besides murder and cutting off people’s limbs, it brings up things like torture, child abuse, rape and genocide. In no way do I like to see those things. But hear me out. To me, Elfen Lied is actually about forgiveness and hope.

It crafts this ultimate grim setting to ask if there can still be salvation for humanity despite all of our cruelty, and thematically it does so on both a large and small scale. While there is no definite answer to either, at the end of the anime our main characters did manage to save two seemingly lost causes from their fate and are able to live on.

Call it artificial or cheap, but to me it is effective. Part of the reason we write about bad things to begin with is to make the eventual victory that much more convincing. It makes me hopeful that whatever happens, we can make it through. I understand though that it is difficult to digest and not to view as cynical. There will always be a line for us where beyond it is just not worth it. I for example cannot make it through Oyasumi Punpun. But maybe I could offer a new perspective for this one.

All said and done though, I don’t consider Elfen Lied to be perfect either. The fact the message can be hard to gauge, the unintentional hilarity and some bland characters do drop it down even for me. But after years of thinking about it, I still consider it a favorite.

I’m not afraid to admit that Elfen Lied was one of the first anime that I saw before “officially watching anime”. What? I was 14 with Netflix on my 3DS and nothing better to do while pretending to sleep, why wouldn’t I check out something with [this poster](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fb/86/ab/fb86abd929c889368319f75bd6c19f3c.jpg)? I only saw the first 2 episodes before putting it down, and I hadn’t watched those two episodes again until doing the AWC challenge. Regardless of AWC, I was going to watch Elfen Lied either this month or the next. I found out recently that on MyAnimeList, Elfen Lied is the most popular anime that ended before 2007. Hell, besides Naruto, One Piece and Bleach, it’s the most popular anime that started before 2006. Once I found this out, I knew the time was right to finally watch Elfen Lied.

Elfen Lied is a very polarizing and controversial show, Google Image search it and you’ll immediately see why. It was made by ARMS, who at the time made hentai. This is important to bring up because Elfen Lied is the reason they stopped making hentai. With a big success like Elfen Lied, ARMS was able to escape the hellscape that is the hentai industry. Which is a shame because ARMS made great hentai. Front Innocent is probably my favorite hentai and don’t let anyone guilt you into thinking that it’s not a masterpiece of pornography. But they absolutely made the right choice to stop making hentai in favor of something that can make money. This way, they were able to live off of Elfen Lied and Ikki Tousen money until the time of this review.

But let’s get down to business, did I like Elfen Lied? For the most part, yeah. But it’s hard for me to really explain why. Is it violent? As a matter of fact it’s one of the most violent shows I’ve ever seen. Is it sexual? Past some classic anime tropes, none of the nudity is sexual. Is it edgy? I guess. But I’m biased because of recent shows that bring new meaning to edgy. There are scenes in Elfen Lied that I’d call edgy, if only for showing more than they needed to, but I’ve seen edgier. Disturbing is the word that I would use to describe Elfen Lied. That being said, only one scene really made me look away and shut my eyes in response to what was being shown on-screen (and anyone familiar with the series will know what scene I’m referring to). In regards to other aspects of Elfen Lied, there’s the visual aspect. If someone asked me what anime character designs in the 2000s looked like, I would show them these designs. Some may call it generic, but I find them to be more iconic instead. But really, I think the best part of Elfen Lied is the directing. The show never feels comedic, any “light-hearted moments” feel significantly more awkward than humorous. The content is graphic, but the actual directing is great. It makes me wish Mamoru Kanbe directed more shows in-between this and The Promised Neverland. Simply put, it’s just a surreal yet fascinating anime that’s practically an endurance test of “how far can a show go before it feels like you’re watching the anime equivalent of a snuff film” (the answer is the scene I was talking about earlier by the way). Whenever it’s not shoving genuinely gruesome violence or naked chicks in your face, Elfen Lied feels like a fever dream.

So when I found out that Elfen Lied is one of the most popular pre-2000s anime of all time (I mean I knew it was popular but not THAT popular), I began to think of why this would be the case. And the main reason is simple: Elfen Lied is one of the most important and defining anime of the 2000s. For a lot of people, its extreme content influenced how they viewed “mature anime”. That’s not to say that I think Elfen Lied is a “mature anime”, it’s about as mature as a slasher horror movie, and just as dumb. But it certainly made one hell of a statement in how brutal it is despite how good it looks.

My biggest problem with Elfen Lied is that it takes way too long to try to take itself seriously. It took until Episode 9 for me to start thinking if the show was trying to be about the origin of a serial killer or lore revolving around the Diclonius. I’m sorry, but when your first 8 episodes are about as “deep” as a cheesy horror movie, it’s gonna be difficult to suddenly start taking the show seriously. Basically, when the show REALLY wants you to take it seriously, it starts to really fumble. The reason is because the Diclonius lore IS interesting. Done right, Elfen Lied could have been an NC-17-rated anime version of X-Men. But it isn’t told right. The anime doesn’t dive deep into the lore until it’s too late for anyone to care. And man, once the series starts to ditch the horror elements that made me appreciate it in the first place and goes full-blown action, I just give so much less of a shit. God, the last few episodes are when I really start to lose interest in the show. From the overabundance of flashbacks to conflicting tones, it drops the ball that was already pretty low to the ground.

And yet, despite everything, I’m still going to give Elfen Lied a positive score.

What stops me from really disliking Elfen Lied is the fact that I couldn’t stop watching it. A show like this should have bored me, and I completely understand how it can bore other people. But even when it wasn’t showing off its extreme content, it was still entertaining because the direction gave every scene some sort of uneasy feel to it, no matter if the scene is supposed to be dark or light-hearted. Otherwise, there’s no way I would have been able to binge all of it in a day. A true fever dream that, mostly, is a guilty pleasure for me.



Also the ED sounded way too much like Avril Lavigne's Complicated for me to take it seriously in comparison to the legendary OP.

One of the 2000s most popular anime, Elfen Lied is an ultraviolent fever dream that's essential viewing for anime fans.

# _THIS IS MY FIRST REVIEW, SO APOLOGIES IF I CONTRADICT MYSELF OR MAKE LITTLE SENSE, ALSO SPOILERS_

Elfen Lied Depends on your taste, the show has tons of nudity, gore, blood, death, plenty of Ecchi scenes are a few bits I'd considered yikes, its a relic of its time when anime was not as big and the main audience was not as sensitive as modern audiences are. I personally found it interesting, enough for me to binge it in a single day, most of it without headphones. I think the show is good personally, but not a masterpiece as some ancient reviews on IMDB claim it is.

I had came across this show completely by accident, I saw the opening, Lilium and fell in love with it, decided i've watched enough cutesy things, maybe I should see something more dark. The story revolves around these monster people named Diclonius, they are born with a mission to wipe out humanity and replace humanity with they're own, I don't know how to explain em other then they are monster girls but boys and be em too.

The opening for the show is amazing, it doesn't try to trick you like Madoka but its not bland J-pop girls singing or "edgy look at this girl with a gun". I thought I should mention my love for the opening cause I really liked it.
I really liked Kurama as a character, I cannot understand why I became attached with his character, my guess has to be that he was someone who's in a pinch, he wants to do the right thing but his order say otherwise, I think they way he goes about things, the actions he takes are relatable as I would do the same in his situation, and (Spoiler) near the end there was a scene I felt was extremely powerful with Kurama ~!He's holding Mariko, who we just found out was his daughter not long ago, the way he deals with it is pretty sad, I can't considered what specifically made me think of it as such a powerful moment, the fact that he choices to let her live despite knowing what she is capable and what she has done, despite having killed many Diclonius who haven't even done so, the fact he has became so attached to Nana as to treat her as a daughter despite what she is capable of doing, and he ultimately pays the price for not completing the mission, dying with her in his arms as the bomb planted inside her goes off!~

I obviously feel deep sympathy for most the characters, Mayu, Yuka and a little bit for Kouta. The Animation is fine, obviously its nothing great, I really liked the concept of the Diclonius, ~!Or rather I like the fact they are more then just mindless killing machines, they do in fact have feelings and as seen with Lucy when she's Nyu and Nana and when Mariko see's he father Kurama they're urges to kill go away. They are not just monsters for the sake of monsters, they are written complex!~

What I disliked is Ecchi stuff, like the fact that Kouta and Yuka ~!yet they are in whats pretty much a romantic relationship, kissing each other and doing the most lewd thing ever, holding hands!~ and the parts where Lucy and Kouta accidentally do something lewd, but that's my fault for watching a Ecchi show, so I guess its not a valid criticism. Lucy as a character was not that great, sure her story is sad but its just that, sad. Something being sad in my opinion isn't enough, many shows makes me really sad, however unlike this show it doesn't stick around for me, most sad events besides what i mentioned in my first spoiler isn't really sad, I think it has to do with the fact I'm not given much of a reason to care, unlike Kurama who I became attached, so his backstory and his ~!last moments with Mariko before they're death. Lucy starts off as a unredeemable killer, and remains one in my opinion, the only difference is that she doesn't want to kill those close to her. I think Lucy's character needs to be worked on a lot more.

I disliked Lucy and Kouta's back story, ~!having them met each other in the pass and having Lucy be responsible for the deaths of his Sister and Father to me was a mistake in my opinion!~ I felt Lucy is a wasted opportunity, more could've have been done her as a character. So I am a bit disappointed with how she turned out.

Elfen Lied is not a show for those who dislike Ecchi, Gore, Violence, and stuff like that

Well, to all the people who think that logic of this anime is absurd then why do you even watch anime....its clearly stated that genre of the anime is gory , science fiction and dark fantasy. The creators must appreciated because they give exactly what an anime of this genre must give.
  Now, to answer  "how can you love someone who killed your sister and father?". Well, try to put yourself in the shoes of kohta...he was a kid, was in shock and trauma from deaths of his family, and still instead of hating he understood Lucy's suffering and made amend with it.
   It is one of the most touching and heart wrenching anime.... its so good that I'm gonna ignore all the other technical errors and just give it straight 10 out of 10.
This is a very good anime but if you have any and I mean ANY reservations to mature content then you may have a hard time liking it. It is very brutal, disturbing and violent. However at the same time the series has enough soft moments to balance out the constant vicious blood and gore. The characters are very well developed (which makes it all the more heart wrenching when some of them get ripped to pieces) and the pacing is very good. The show also has several thought provoking themes about isolation and bullying, It just has a very in your face way of showing them. Overall a masterful but very visceral anime that only the hardcore should watch.
For those who don’t want to read the rest of my review for whatever reason, I just want to say that I recommend watching Elfen Lied.

People dislike the show because of the gore and nudity in the show. I personally would say the English dub wasn’t the best either. I bought the entire show on disc and watched it again in Japanese. It was a lot better than I remembered. People who reviewed the slow and complained about the gore and/or nudity probably shouldn’t have watched it in the first place. The story is supposed to be about how cruel the world can be to people who are considered different. Considering how it’s an anime from 2004, made by studio not well known (at least at the time it aired) and crammed into 12 episodes (and one OVA) I am surprised it came out this well. It’s definitely a good anime and worth a watch.
I don't think we should just judge this great anime just with the thing we saw.
You know lots of character are kinda symbolic and it must not be judged with first watch. Cause it may not show what it really got in hands!
The whole atmosphere is some how very bright and cute but also you can feel the _darkness !_
If see some comments about why this man gets erection most of the time and there are 2 very simple answer for that;
first of all he is a teen and second some things that are not taboo in your country might be in other's country.
in conclusion, __don't die before watching this great anime!__

Note: This review does __not__ contain any major spoilers.
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This is a completely honest review, after dissecting every flaw and key positive of this anime.
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After having watched Elfen Lied in quite a lengthy duration compared to most of my usual watches due to breaks and excessive doubting of it's quality, I committed to completing it and do not regret watching it, despite it not being worthy of liking.

How I feel about Elfen Lied is a little bit, mixed, for lack of a better word. I did somewhat enjoy it, but it was not a splendid show due to many things it's failed to have done. 

__Episode 12__ was the redeeming episode for Elfen Lied.... don't get me wrong, Elfen Lied isn't bad, it's just i wish they executed it better, it had so much potential, I mean some scenes were close to brilliant, but never hit that mark..

It's an okay anime. It felt like a 8/10 at times, but it evens out with the cringe and lackluster moments in the anime, it feels as though around 20% of it is actually solid.

When it comes to being dark, it excels, but not in a dumb way though. It doesn't have much regard for human emotions and might slaughter just to be dark at times, but perhaps not as much as the general dark genre in media. It's story is what truly makes it dark, not it's gore and gruesomeness in that sense. I won't go much into spoiling territory at all for those who haven't sat down and watched this unique anime. The flashbacks get periodically more intense, and a few times are executed quite well, despite the bothersome 2004 animation and the mediocre VA. Overall, fairly well displayed in terms of gruesome and apathetic horror, and not to be overlooked due to it's many apparent flaws
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This anime is often either adored or truly despised of. I find this to be repelling and obnoxiously annoying. This anime deserves at the very least an honest and unbiased review ad a reasonable one at that. Many viewpoints on this anime are extremely strong and often lack clear explanation for it's disliking or favoring.

Personally, I find it important to look at both sides, and try to just stop and think about the whole picture. Again, this isn't a terrible anime, but it isn't great either, it sits well at the score given below in my opinion.
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Those who find this anime to be complete and a garbage, at least comprehend that this is easily not so. 
For a full recap, this is my rating (also __TL;DR__):
- Animation: 6/10 - not terrible, but not that good either
- Story/Plot: 8/10 
- Execution: 6/10
- Voice Acting: 6.5/10
- Characters: 7/10
- Entertainment: 6/10
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Note: The opening song (Lilium) it's very good, it lured me to check this anime out after knowing very little but controversy of it.
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__Overall Score: 7/10__

Is this the greatest anime? Not by any means.
Is this terrible? Not so as well.
Is this worth a watch? I'd say so.

An Okay Anime With a Promising Story, But Lacking in Execution [No Spoilers]

Imagine that from birth, you had horns growing out from your head and invisible hands sticking out of you. Most people would see the horns and make fun of you, and before you realize it, you've gone insane and killed those people with those invisible hands. What would you do then? This is an anime I've been wanting to watch for I can't even remember how long, but somehow, after being asked by someone I'd like to consider a friend if I'd watched it, my desire to watch it grew even stronger; you can see where that led me. All I can say is that you know that an anime is going to be bad on the gore level when the first thing you see when watching it (well, after the opening) is a bloody, detached arm, but that does not mean it is bad on the enjoyment level; in fact, I found myself really loving this series.

Ladies and gentlemen, here is my review of the popular horror anime, Elfen Lied.

In the world of Elfen Lied, there are diclonius, who not only have horns sticking out of their heads, but they have invisible arms alongside their two visible ones; these arms were meant for killing. At the beginning of the series, one diclonius, Lucy, escapes the laboratory where she was being held captive by the government, but she gets shot and falls off of a cliff into the ocean. Eventually, two university students, Kohta and Yuka, discover her on the beach, but she has lost her memories and can only say the word "Nyu". Lucy, who is now "Nyu" to the two, is taken in to live with them; however, there is the problem with the government being out to kill Lucy. Also, just because Nyu has taken Lucy's place doesn't mean Lucy's gone for good....

The story in Elfen Lied was perhaps its strongest quality; there's a few slice-of-life elements if you pay close enough attention, but the true story of Elfen Lied is very dark, as you can probably tell from my comment about gore earlier. The story also provides a lot of character development, especially for Lucy.

Lucy is fascinating from the start, making you wonder why she is the way she is, and once you find out, you'll find yourself feeling sorry for her! I like the other side of her, Nyu, too; she just makes me smile whenever she shows up on screen! Besides her, there are a lot of likable characters, along with characters I absolutely despise. I'm a bit torn about Yuka, though. Her love for Kohta, who is her cousin, kind of disgusted me, but at the same time, it's obvious that she cares about him, Nyu, and other characters who are introduced in the anime.

I really liked the animation; it really sets the tone of the anime. However, sometimes, it felt a little bit outdated; it really is kind of obvious that it came out over ten years ago. As for the voice acting, I switched between watching it Japanese (with English subs, of course) and English every episode, and the voice actors for both versions really nailed their roles. The background music also did a good job setting the tone of the anime, and the ending song, "Be Your Girl" by Chieko Kawabe, was quite catchy. However, you CAN'T talk about the music without talking about the opening, "Lilium" by Kumiko Noma; not only is it a depressing song with a nice melody that really fits the anime, this is the only anime song I know of that was entirely sung in Latin. Well done!

Overall, Elfen Lied is a solid anime. If you don't have a problem with blood and gore, I recommend you give it a try if you haven't already. Oh, and you'd better not have a problem with nudity, either, as I forgot to mention that this anime is FULL of it!

"Elfenlied" was one of my first anime I've seen. I even remember it now. I remember, that I watched it on YouTube, the bad quality in the 2016, german dubbded version. Sadly I cannot find the old video anymore. The memories of the anime is still there because I really dislike this anime but I started to watch the anime because of the name. "Elfenlied" is kinda a german name. I really don't know how I watched it completely as a child. Disturbed by those stuff that were shown...

Anyways, let's talk about it more seriously:

# 1. Story

The anime "Elfenlied" could be described as an horror and psychological anime. In this little short stuff, I will insert a Wikipedia article about this anime which describes the story very well, since I didn't know how to describe it:

>Elfen Lied takes place in Kamakura and Kanagawa, and focuses on the "Diclonius", a newly mutated species. Their appearance is similar to humans, but with several differences, namely horn-like protrusions on the forehead and the presence of telekinetic invisible arms called "Vectors". One such Diclonius, Lucy, is the main character of the series: Initially held in a facility built for experimentation, located off the coast of Kamakura, she manages to escape and wreak havoc, but is injured in the process, an event which causes her to develop a secondary, childlike personality known as Nyu. [link ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elfen_Lied)

In the start, we see how "Nyu" or better Lucy got found at the beach -naked- by Kouta, who studies at the local university, and his cousin Yuka. They both brings her back to their home. 

img220(https://static.giga.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/elfen-lied-002.jpg)

I mean, ye I take a weird looking woman with blood to my home. I don't know anything about her.. But ye they won't do me any harm. I just don't know. Maybe people would, but I wouldn't.

As the story continues, the both, Kouta and Yuka, get into more trouble because they saved Lucy. Most of the episodes also contain graphic violence, including instances of torture and at one point the series addresses consequences of the rape of a child. 

I would say, that is absolutely not something, children should watch. Maybe that is also why, I really hate this anime. 

img220(https://gfx.videobuster.de/archive/v/czr2auWhcIb4lqvAhZ2AS0gcz0lMkawriUyRjA4JTJGaW1hmSUyRmpwZWclMkbYZWWnZWJk_8hl_GLXpjdkrWSsyjdlLmpwZyZyPWi_MA/elfenlied.jpg)

With this I'm already on the 2300 words. As you may see, there are a lot of points, which can be criticized.

# 3. Characters

I just cannot sympathise with the characters eventhough they got through torture and so on. I don't know why but it is, what it is. 

Lucy get's the splitted personality when she got hit as she tried to escape. Nyuu got produced in that way and as a "new personality" she could only say "nyuu". That personality is like a little child. She doesn't know that Lucy existed and Lucy doesn't know that Nyuu existed. In "Elfenlied" her both personality switches and we see them both in action. 

In the anime, there isn't much of a character development, we just get to see more secrets from the experiments they do on Lucy and the race like her.

img220(http://31.media.tumblr.com/0678354b920114d5db360bb078974ee6/tumblr_mof2hwlSPq1snn0hpo1_500.gif)

# 3. Animation / Soundtrack

I kinda don't like the art style. The characters are very bland and there are a lot of scenes with violation and naked people. Considering the age when "Elfenlied" got produced, it should be okay. Still, in this age time, I wouldn't watch it.

img220(https://giffiles.alphacoders.com/184/184651.gif)

The only okay thing I've seen in "Elfenlied" is probably the song. More hear than see... 

youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPVq30bPq6I)

It reminds me of church music and a nostalgic feeling. Sometimes I hear this song but I remember the anime than again, so I don't listen to it often. It is really sad in my opinion. The song is too good for this anime.

# 4. Conclusion

All in all, I really don't like the anime. The plot is basic, it could have been much better. I like the plot, that there is some other species that humanity is torturing, but how the story ended up like that... I really dislike it. Only the song give me the reason, why I won't give this anime a 0/10. For the sake of the song, I'll give the anime a 1/10.

Worst anime I have seen, but good opening which didn't diserved to be treatened like that.

Elfien lied is one of the greatest blue comedy of all time. For those of you uncultured plebs whose sense of humor is reduced to cringe tiktok videos

>Blue comedy is comedy that is off-colour, risqué, indecent or profane, largely about sex. It often contains profanity or sexual imagery that may shock and offend some audience members. ... A "blue comedian" or "blue comic" is a comedian who usually performs risqué routines layered with curse words

In a way this anime is the very manifestation of the angst of the silent emo kid in the class, ~~who is about to shoot your school~~, who is really introverted and wants to get their feeling angst and misanthropy out. It's this level of maturation, picturizing and refining of fine ideas and intermixing of different style of genres, that makes elfien lied a fucking an unspoken masterpiece.

So with this long fucking intro- I'd like to begin with my review!

1. Character- The character writing in elfien lied is nuanced, tragic and full of depth. It's as engaging as a book and needs help from the viewers part. The Main character lucy is every jealous bitch ever. I can totally relate to this, Lucy is like your jealous psychopathic girlfriend who loves you so much that she can't even stand the sight of your relatives and instantly murders them. Relatable right? Oh and the character writing is full of depth and takes its own liberties when it comes to science and psychology (As I said its this fine refining of ideas). Like Lucy's dissociative personality disorder. That stuff transcends Science. One moment she can turn it a kawai neko and the other a bitchy psychopath. This symbolizes so many things when it comes to women as a whole. Like when your pockets are full she is the neko, when they aren't you know what to expect. And you know the convenient switches in characters (lucy and nyu)? Nah they ain't cheap, they symbolize how life sometimes can decide to fuck you over with you realizing it. Its that randomness. There is so much truth to be found in this anime.
As for what I said earlier. This show is also quite challenging and requires viewer engagement and forces to them to go of their prejudices. Like this show expands your perspective on life itself and makes you empathize with the most terrible of the characters. And one can see the impact as weebs are the most open minded, creative and tolerating people ever. A cat girl who changes into a deranged psychopath? works for WEEBS. ~~It's their ability to simp on anything cute/sexy regardless if its the most retarded shit...~~. I mean its thier open-mindedness and the ability to look at people and life through various angles and perspective, is what makes the show a masterpiece. Some random pleb can't understand the level of depth this show achieves. Other than lucy every other character is great in their own way and while not as deep as lucy, they certainly work wonders for the show and add to the entertainment of this show.
Kohta- Represents the kinder side of humanity and asks you to be more forgiving
Bando- He is the epitome of masculinity. He is the very manifestation of grit and determination, never stopping at anything.

Nana- Who doesn't like Innocents girls calling their daddies? BEST VOICE EVAA

2. Plot- My tiny brain can't comprehend the greatness of the plot so fuck it.

3. Themes- Elfien lied deals with a plethora of themes such as evil in humans etc.
The standout out theme elfien lied deals with is racism against other beings. The anime is ineffective at doing so, because of if cat girls were real, I bet they wouldn't
This anime expertly puts forward the plight of the oppressed and it puts forth a rather radical approach to battling the evil of racism and that is the Tarantino way of doing it. ~~What it means is that you Fking slaughter everyone and if violence doesn't work you do more of it and beat those stinky ass Motherfkers~~
While the method itself is quite questionable, this anime definitely does force you to expand you perspective on these topics and may as well make you open a twitter account, so you can start a meaningful and academic discussion online and educate more people. 

4. Art/Music- This show also manages to expand upon its suited demographic by having certain marketable aspects to it. Like are you an avril lavigne fan? don't worry the show has an ending song which is like a japanese ripoff of her. It suits the show really and well and manages to create a sense of horror and "dark" comedy the show is dealing with. The art is good.

Conclusion- Consider yourself a patron of art? Watch this
100/100

The Greatest Blue/Dark Comedy of all time. 

Elfen Lied

Overall rating 9/10

~~~_Obvious spoilers in the characters section and generally throughout_
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Now time to break down the elements and put down my thoughts into each section

___Plot/Story___  
I personally enjoyed the plot/story of Elfen Lied, a genetic modification of humans that go by the name of Diclonius have a motive to rebirth Earth using their own species, eliminating humans in the process in order to create the ideal advanced society, this is the summary of the story. Beyond a simple story explanation there is a duality and depth to the Diclonius themselves in their actions, you begin to ask yourself if the violence in their nature is born naturally or created by the way they are treated by humans. Pacing for a 13 episode series felt good, questions are proposed in the beginning that progress throughout the watching experience, and the revelations felt rewarding in my opinion. Although some may argue it's not the most in depth story to ever be written, and this is to be expected, there is a lot more substance beyond the face value of the gore and nudity. A primary theme of death, tragedy and trauma.

___Animation/Design___
Environments are pleasant, specifically the shots of the stone stairwell that lead to the view looking upon the sea, the Kaede-House itself and the surrounding land are also well designed including the steps proceeding to the property. The cities and fairs are well designed, nothing stood out as unrealistic or vacant, the glow of lights from lamps and fire felt like it had its own warmth. The beach location feels authentic with the various buildup of equipment, aged by salt water and air, used by anglers and seamen alike. Last majorly notable location I will mention is the sterile and concrete feel of the research facility, with its blank colors and tight security personnel/equipment, mixed with the contrast of the colors that belong to the bosses office, draped in blues overlooking the sea.

___Characters___
___Kouta___:
Sometimes he seems blindly kind to people, taking bloodied people off of a beach and offering them refuge into their own home, walking out into knowingly dangerous circumstances. Besides general flaws I would debate that Kouta is a rather interesting character. His past trauma has been suppressed by his mind, notably how Yuka says he spent a year in the hospital after the accident. Kouta is an example of how I believe the story has more depth behind it just beyond the simple things the show is known for. The effects of PTSD add layers to his character and to the story, driving some of the plot that he and Lucy share. Generally interesting development
___Yuka___: 
Yuka is arguably a more one dimensional character, most of her devotion is towards her growing affection towards Kouta as they rekindle a connection after years apart, post incident. She does feel like an anchor character, prompting help and compassion towards her surrounding companions, Mayu compares her to feeling like the mother of the house, she exhibits these instincts with her general caring of Kouta, Lucy, Nana and Mayu. She has the occasional humorous interaction with Kouta, for the majority though there is a sense of sadness knowing despite how Yuka has looked up to Kouta from very early on, it seems as though she is either cast aside or replaced despite her displays of how she feels. She's a rock but also depressing, doesn't stand out as strongly as Kouta or Lucy throughout the primary bulk of story.
___Mayu___: 
Introduced later on, Mayu is a homeless girl running away from her abuse and strife in the household she came from, then being adopted into the Kaede-House. Similar to Yuka she feels like an anchor character, providing emotional support and reassurance in time of need, notably she is the one that tells Yuka that she sees her as a motherly figure. Her character is featured more so with Nana and feels like the companion character to her development, similar to how Kouta and Lucy are the driving force of each other. I don't really have nearly as much to say about Mayu, I don't really have any inherent character flaws to point, besides her blind ambition to run into Lucy and Nana during their initial fight. Generally a stable character who builds on Nana and adds more than she would take away from the story.
___Lucy___: 
One of the primary characters, Lucy could essentially be argued as the main character to this show. From the notable first episode all the way until the end. Lucy is the most interesting and dynamic character of the bunch to me, her split personality creating Miss Nyu and herself feels both unique and offers depth to the story. Lucy is the textbook example of the earlier question of whether or not Diclonius are truly aggressive by nature, or are swayed by the actions of humans. Her back story portrays the tragic nature of how people treated her for being different, breaking her spirit with their cruel behavior and actions and thus awakening her pact with the demons inside her and vowing her to kill all the humans that stand in her way. There is a recurring theme of tragedy in this show, Lucy being a prime example of this from the inception of her character until the last moments of the show. The visual change when her personality splits from Nyu to Lucy is well done and provides a sense of dread when you realize the resentful murderer has been awakened again. You can tell she has pure intentions with some of the actions she makes, it seems that the path she has chosen is not her most ideal image of life, it allows you to debate whether or not she is pure evil or has chance for redemption. She makes an excellent driver to the plot and a good companion character to Kouta.
___Nana___: 
Nana is the other primary Diclonius that ends up living with the main cast. Nana compared to Lucy has much more clear intentions, she does not seem to have the inability to stop herself from killing the humans that surround her. She is clearly displayed as a weaker character, losing to her first battle with Lucy, given a second chance at life she is eventually looped back around in a twist of fate to the Kaede-House by the kind hand of Mayu, with some time she realizes that Lucy, most of the time Nyu is not the same murderer that she initially knew. She becomes another part of the family, all which come to assist each other come the conclusion of the show. Her and Mayu make a good example of companion characters. Generally a good character, sometimes feels like potential fodder, but she drives the story and comradery of the group.
___Mariko/Kurama___: 
I'm going to bundle these characters together as I feel like they can be summed up together relatively well. Kurama is another key example of tragedy, undertaking the task of killing the Diclonius offspring by his own will, the one he couldn't kill though was his own daughter, Mariko, by the dying wish of his wife. Mariko is the obvious ace in the sleeve, locked up tightly, and although physically weak she has the strongest example of hands (vectors) of any of the Diclonius. She is aware that Kurama is her father, the duality and sorrow between the characters was genuinely sad and felt like a further stab into the tragedy of Kuramas development. Despite her raw display of power there is not much I can say about Mariko, her inclusion was rather late. The sacrifice made in the conclusion was one of the more tugging revelations despite it occurring so close to the end.

___Audio/Soundtrack___
The OP, Lilium, and it's inclusion in the soundtrack is one of my personal favorites. The song has a part of the plot, being a recognized tone from a music box that was a centerpiece to Kouta and Lucy when they initially met as children, also having part to do with the final scenes of the anime. The rest of the soundtrack is the typical music placement to evoke emotion depending on the subject of the given scene. The OP itself is enough to stand out in my mind and be infinitely relatable to the show and the feelings left after completing it.

___Conclusion___
Elfen Lied is a unique and enjoyable experience, bringing a likable and interesting cast that delves into deeper meanings and asks questions about the deeper effects of the mind and how death, tragedy and trauma can be displayed in a visual form of media. I would actively recommend the show to people I know, although I would urge them to read the description of the anime and some of it's more notoriously controversial subject matter before they decide to delve into it, unless they are like me and don't necessarily care about the more 'visual' parts of the show. It has been described as 'edgy' and yes, it is, but not so to the point that in my conclusion of viewing, that it made me wish I could go tear people in half in the blink of an eye. it evoked emotion in me and was generally a feels-y conclusion that made me sympathize for people that aren't even real. Deserving of my personal rating of 9/10

I am by no means a good reviewer, this is the first major one I have done, there needs to be much reform to make my analysis and thoughts more concise and useful to readers to get an idea of how good/bad an anime is with providing valid written construct without it feeling like a bland summarization.

Despite controversy and debate, I think Elfen Lied is a rather enjoyable and in depth anime. Recommended

**Overview:**

When you are just sitting there wanting to see some titties but then come out changed with a new philosophical outlook on the world… well Elfen Lied is one such anime that could lead to that lol. Its an anime filled with torture, sins of man, feelings of disdain and anguish with a dash of dat lil sweet thang to keep you going :mrclean:.

Starts out immediately with Lucy causing a bit of trouble with a bit of a teaser as to who was behind it. The person behind it within a couple eps is introduced and well the climax of that is quite the splooge. Their goals were simply not compatible, I guess.

For the most part the show goes over Nyu and the capture for the organizations hidden agenda. They push hard to obtain her with an ending that was left up to the viewer to decide… stay after the credits to know what this means.

Throughout we are introduced to a few characters and each intertwine at one point or another due to various reasons. Background and flashbacks are pretty brief given its only 13 ep series. When flashbacks are given though, they can be pretty powerful and just as the series as a whole have a pretty good message included in it.

**Visuals/Music:**

Visuals are one of the things that given its time, are clean and detailed. They can still hold up decently well and with the type of styling it has. I believe would still top a fair amount of cheap copy paste style stuff from a few studios that pump a plethora out each year ~~A1~~. Everything is fluid and the way they depict everything matches quite well with the source. It’s a darker and more mature themed show with its animation matching to better help the viewer get immersed.

As for music, the opening speaks for itself. Lillium is a beautiful song. The visuals alongside Lillium are up there with some of the best Anime has to offer. The opening showcases and captures the entire vibe of the show that the viewer will be dragged into. It isn’t often that shows can capture the feeling spot on. One other that is well known id say is the first opening to Naruto Shippuden, Heroes Come Back by nobodyknows+. Completely different genre of show but the way that opening hits is quite similar where you know what’s going to happen. Rest of the OST’s are pretty well placed throughout with a attention to getting the viewers immersed and helping the emotional aspect of the scenes. By far the opening is what puts the seal and wraps it nicely though.

**Final Thoughts:**

Elfen Lied is a personal favorite of mine since first viewing. Love the series quite a bit and holds a special place. It is one of the shows I cannot recommend enough to people. There is nudity but it is used to more enforce a message than anything. You see it but its something that is just there. Nudity isn’t like a lot of other shows where it is used as a method to capture more viewers’ attention. The show itself is one that if a person wants, they can go in and come out with nothing and just a ‘eh that’s nice’ feeling and story or delve a bit with the topics they put forth.

There are some pretty serious differences between the manga and anime. The story follows the same general path but that’s about it. The main points are pretty much there with the message which is what matters most. The main differences being some characters not introduced and some of the… fetish type things missing. Like the Lucy peeing herself :poortom: some parts better left out but at the same time would rather no matter how out there the source gets at least keep to it. Either is great in their own respects. Can’t go wrong with either. Anime is an unfinished story but will likely not get finished due to the tangents in comparison to the original either requiring a massive amount of *conveniences*, plot shifts or changes… or just a straight up reboot to flow and work properly.

Remember if you ever find yourself in a low state of mind, Elfen Lied will enter chat showing how fucked people are. False promises followed by deceit and *heartfelt* words claiming to understand. Faithless lies and fluff pushed as reason they care when its just that mute words of nothing. Usually ending with statements of missing the days of old… even though the real meaning behind those words are missing the memories of/with the person not the person.

It is a dark and depressing show. Watched it when was younger and has been one that hits pretty hard in some of the topics they show throughout. Nowhere near perfect in any sense but what makes it so good is the execution and story aspect.

Lucy though… heh, she still my favorite female character out there in all aspects. From her personality to looks :LC_A_Perfect: . Her longer hair preferred but she pulls off short hair just as well. She was for a lack of better words just a wee bit misunderstood and the circumstances around her led to the path of death to those around. Was the easiest and quickest path to achieving the self-gratification that otherwise wouldn’t have been granted. She seeks to be good but in action couldn’t be. Then the moment she decided to take the leap of putting trust in another, they simply betray her with the guise of `not knowing it would end like that` . Every moment of her life was shrouded with deceit and ill minded people that sought to belittle and raise themselves above for their own self-satisfaction… strange, correlates pretty well with people in schools and society, well the concept and idea, not necessarily the mass murder lol. Her inner self was split and torn into Nyu, Kaede and Diclonii (or known as Lucy). Even that aspect of the 3 personas correlates to Kaede being normal while Nyu and Diclonii representing Angel and Demon on each shoulder that is frequently discussed in religion. She veered more towards the demon side but only due to events of past. Essentially from the day of birth being ousted by society and the place that takes her in… only having a certain fear and disdain towards her for having horns. Both the staff and children would constantly mentally and physically abuse her. One of the most prominent showings in the anime being the dog scene. Where the one person she decides to put her trust into simply puts that false face on in what I believe was an act of further hurting her. Acting close but with the reason of gaining the love and trust of her only to leave and break it, which is one of the most hurtful ways to harm a person. Casting love only to never have had such emotions, leading the person to believe in an undoubtably bleak future. The mental abuse that leads to a person unable to trust fully in those that even have the intention of wanting the same. All of the abuse was unjust and much like it doesn’t make sense why people would do it in real life. The reasoning of assuming that one holds power over the other holds true. It’s an unspoken hierarchy that gets crafted anywhere. More harshly showcased in smaller groups and places such as schools when we are young. The children form groups and likeminded social statuses where there is always a person put down at the others expense. Ones loss is another gain type thing, similar to capitalism where one’s loss is another’s gain. In this aspect the loss is the persons sense of self-worth (leading to self-hatred and self-deprivation filled emotions), trust and humanity, while the other gains the false sense of elitist power over the other where they believe themselves better and above the other. Difference is the children in the orphanage were all in a state of despair and the way they coped with their situation was the outward expression of hate towards Lucy that got progressively worse until she finally snapped. Lucy was not blind to this though and very much understood both sides but I mean c’mon now, who didn’t have a smirk and feelings of extasy as they faced punishment for their deeds… knowing full well that what she did wasn’t something to be proud of. Followed by her meeting Kouta where she was sketch after being subject to the orphanage’s treatment. He is the only person she was able to put show her true self to, being her kind and bashful self. Like she waifi at heart is all that matters lol. Kouta realized fast with his mental blocks of why its best to not lie to her… even though Kaede again understood what was happening and spared him knowing her actions were unjust but not knowing how else to express herself sadly. She wants the best but at the same time will not put her trust in such things due to having no faith in it.

Nana and Mariko who had to go through similar hardships but chose vastly different paths of coping to deal with the hurt and pain. Nana refusing to give into the darker side and bar herself mentally away with the outward expression of Papa… which is sad all on its own. Mariko neglecting both sides and refusing to accept the reality in front of her. Only expressing herself in a way that is best put a child. She was young, yes, but the way she coped with the institutes methods was holding dearly to the resentment she has towards her father and mother just to keep herself sane…ish. Both still felt pain and know the feelings of neglect, detesting both. They’d put on the front but when reality was thrusted upon them they’d snap back, especially Nana. All 3 of them do this to a varying degree as well. Each aspect of them contrasts well and pretty much shows how everybody is different mentally with how they go about themselves given adversity. Afterall a person’s true self is shown only through adversity.

Characters (main) – 4/5

Characters (sub) – 4/5

Enjoyment – 5/5

Visuals – 5/5

Music – 4/5

Story – 4/5

```Overall Ratings - Rec: 5/5 Raw: 86%```

Come for titties, leave with philosophical dilemma :frog_sweat:

___SPOILERS BEWARE!___

Elfen Lied is still talked about from time to time since some of the topics it covered are a bit controversial most notably there is a *LOT* of nudity at the beginning at least. I originally watched it back in 2019 and rewatching after three years I can still feel the similarities as to what I felt back then. The beginning to Elfen Lied is pretty extreme as the first ten minutes may very easily throw you off from even continuing but if you make it past these then you will be fine for the remainder of the show. Lucy, also known as Nyu later in the show is a Diclonius that possesses invisible arms called vectors that reach a max length of two meters which can kill and destroy objects with ease. After being sniped she loses her memories and becomes Nyu *basically a new born baby* that has to learn everything like any other human would. We learn later in the show that she actually possesses two separate personalities which she switches between being Lucy and Nyu. Even though the first ten minutes are brutal and gruesome they are necessarily in showing how much of a threat Lucy truly is.

img800(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635602177833959439/964614007338201199/unknown.png)

Since Lucy escaped the facility she was detained at, the institute that researches Diclonius had to take drastic measure in order to hunt and kill her for the sake of humanity surviving. For this they deploy a 2nd Diclonius Nana as these specie are able to sense each other from afar. Using this method Nana does track down Lucy but her battle does not go as planned as she loses all her limbs and is essentially completely defeated by the superior Diclonius. Mayu is the first normal human excluding the institute that learns of Lucy’s true personality but she is unable to bring herself to believe what she saw as the reality.

img800(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635602177833959439/964614688262455376/unknown.png)

Mayu is a young runaway girl that escaped from her home because it was too much for her bare. Her backstory is revealed to be pretty disturbing as from what is shown her step father raped her when her mother was out. I have no idea what happened to her real dad as he is never mentioned in the anime, her backstory starts off with only her, her mum and her new step father which took advantage of a young pure girl. This is likely one of these controversial topics highlighted by this show as her backstory suggests that these events really occurred however since this is a normal anime and not a hentai it only remains as *suggestive*. You know how I am with sad backstories by now, I love to sympathise with these characters so it’s no different for Mayu. At least she had Wanda by her side so she wasn’t truly alone when she run away from her home. At this point I joked that Kohta’s harem is only expanding as Mayu was the third girl to move into his house within a span of a few episodes and well I wasn’t wrong since Nana moves in a later point too.

img800(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635602177833959439/964615557242556416/unknown.png)

As Lucy spends more time with Kohta memories of her past with Kohta are vaguely resurfacing and triggering flashbacks to her childhood. She describes a tragic event that she caused eight years ago to do with Kohta's family. This isn’t revealed till a few episodes later as Lucy’s childhood was also pretty disturbing. She got bullied as a child and when it got too much she snapped and killed her bullies with her vectors. The scene with the dog being killed is pretty horrendous as how can kids be this inhumane??? She met Kohta one day and had fun for the days they were together, she liked him but he lied to her saying he was going to the festival with a boy when it was really Yuka. That's what triggered her to snap and murder people at the festival. The conclusion to this backstory isn’t revealed till the penultimate episode where the incident with Kanae is finally revealed. Lucy killed Kanae and Kohta's dad since he lied to her about who he was seeing at the festival. Lucy herself says that he was spared since they were friends which is a pretty disturbing thing to say to someone you just spared. After this flashback Kohta finally regains all his memories of the past that he had sealed away. Its surprising that Kohta suffered memory loss from this period of time for so long as you would think he would at least remmeber Lucy a girl with very unique characteristics like horns as well as the incident that had occurred on the train but it may have been so horrific that he lost memory of it so he could go on living without falling into despair. A nice touch was the music box that Kohta brought had Lithium written on it which is the name of the OP of the show.

img800(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635602177833959439/964616468052443146/unknown.png)
img800(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635602177833959439/964616662919839774/unknown.png)

The 10th episode of this anime is very enlightening for the whole series as it provides more insight not only to Lucy but the whole Diclonius specie as a whole. Lucy is the queen which means she can make men breed her offspring as this is what happened when she touched Kurama's forehead as when his daughter was born she was indeed a Diclonius. This seems to be the case for anyone else that Lucy has had contact with that has survived to tell the tale. This backstory gives Lucy a whole new meaning of being the entity that could singlehandedly wipe out humanity. Even in the final episode she mentions that she would only need a few years to turn the whole world into future Diclonius.

img800(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635602177833959439/964617252878049350/unknown.png)

This same episode reveals a third Diclonius that is from the third generation. Her name is Mariko and she is Kurama's daughter that was spared on an agreement he would cooperate for the benefit of the Director's institution as there was a rule that any child born with horns was to be murdered. Kurama himself took on this responsibility but was unable to do so when it actually came to his own blood. Mariko possesses 26 vectors which span an incredible length of 11 metres. She is regarded as the strongest in history because of these reasons and she is only kept alive since she is from a new generation. She also has a bomb implanted in her as a security measure to kill her instantly in worst case scenario. In the final episode Kurama finally sees Mariko for the first time, shortly after they are both killed by the bomb implanted in her but at least they spent their final moments with their most important person.

img800(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635602177833959439/964617933324169246/unknown.png)

In the final episode of the anime aside from seeing Kurama finally reuniting with his daughter. We see Kohta acknowledges his feelings for Lucy even after all that she had done. The anime had an open ending with the final moment provoking the idea that it was indeed Lucy that comes back but we see her lose her 2nd horn during the battle in the night after Kohta and Lucy confessed their mutual feelings towards each other. Since this is an open ending it felt like the story hasn’t been finished at the point where the anime stops. I did some brief research and turns out the anime only adapts half the manga because not all of it was released at the time so I wonder if there was ever meant to be a sequel season that simply never came. This is a series I might check out the manga for since I liked the story so far and if its not the end then surely I would like to see the true end to Elfen Lied.

img800(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635602177833959439/964618604236668968/unknown.png)

By the end of the anime we Nana survives and is allowed to continue living. Well it was revealed much earlier in the show that she was *disposed of* which never happened and also the reason why Mariko got involved in the first place. There is an extra OVA for this series which is worthy checking out as it gives even more insight into Lucy’s past and how she made another friend while on the run which also unfortunately died. I suppose Nana could feel these emotions that Lucy experienced while dreaming and felt sympathy as originally Nana planned to kill Lucy herself however Nana is a Diclonius that has never killed anyone before so her original plan was never going to be put into motion anyway.

img800(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635602177833959439/964612950402953276/unknown.png)

This is a show that has such a majestic unique OP and sequence that it would feel wrong not mentioning. The OP sequence to Elfen Lied is unlike something I’ve seen. In fact when I initially watched this anime back in 2019 and was presented with the OP sequence followed by the first gruesome ten minutes of the anime I was left scratching my head upon what had I just stumbled across. Also never have I seen an OP used so much in a single work however Elfen Lied makes it work. The instrumental is used countless times yet it’s always fitting. The ED is a complete contrast to the OP as its upbeat and something you would expect from an anime. The OP for Elfen Lied has easily become memorable for the nature of what it was and apparently back in 2004 people had wacky ideas for an opening sequence. The sequence almost tells a story in itself but how you interpret it is completely up to the viewer.

youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFnazAsMOQI&ab_channel=Spacey)
youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziU36CDT1wU&ab_channel=JackFrost)

To conclude I see this anime getting a lot of hate on here, now it may not be the greatest show out there but its far from the worst as well. Even after rewatching Elfen Lied I still enjoy it for what it is but it may best to experience its true end by reading the manga. For what was offered in the anime up to this point in the manga I enjoyed and would like to see more. Lucy is a fascinating character so I want to see more Elfen Lied.

I'll start off by saying that this anime isn't the greatest. I feel physical restraint to say that it is good, but that's just because I'm biased towards the Diclonii design-wise + character-wise. This will have heavy spoilers on characters and for the show itself, just be warned! For the sake of brevity, I'll put this into bullet points for longer sections to make this easier on the reader.  


I think I'll start with the good because it feels mean to go rabid on this! As stated before, I *LOVE* the Diclonii's design; the horns and the pink hair show that they are a foreign and mysterious race. The vectors were such an interesting power that I grew to really love. 


~~~~~~ ____DISABILITY REPRESENTATION____~~~~~~ 
This surprised me, and in a good way! I rarely see characters that have physical disabilities, so it was interesting to see a quad-prosthetic and a wheelchair user. They handled this wonderfully, as they didn't make the character their disability nor did they take their power away from them or make them seem 'weak'. 

That's... all i can remember really liking. Other than Nana and Mayu, love them both to bits. 

I have nowhere to really start ripping into, so I'll just chomp onto Wikipedia's 'themes' that this show has first.

~~~~~~ ____ "...discrimination, social alienation, prejudice..."____~~~~~~ 

I understand where the writers were trying to put in discrimination, and it worked... ish. Call me crazy but the Diclonii *are* something akin to monsters as framed by the show, which... Has some pretty bad implications, to put it bluntly. But I would be here all day if I equated this to real-world race issues. Perhaps I'm just lacking in memory (a very possible occurrence) but aren't they also... feared for a good reason? The scientists claimed that they just killed humans whenever and didn't really care about them all too much despite care being shown, which paints a picture of a race seen as oppressed being inherently dangerous and something to fear. Not the best message.

**BUT WAIT!** I know I know, Nana is a good little critter and doesn't decide to turn people into shredded cheese. And Lucy seemed to only lash out after she underwent some serious trauma + bullying. 

*"Random reviewer writer Diceyseraphim, you absolute oaf, can't you see that humans actually made them lash out via horrible actions, and the scientists are just misconstruing it?"* 

Well, my lovey strawman I just made, I thought the same thing at first. But then I thought a little too hard about it. This view implies a two things. 

- Trauma excuses lashing out (it doesn't, but it is a reason *for* the action. There is a difference.)

- All Diclonii are inherently good until antagonized

Buttt as we know, this isn't true. 

- ~!Lucy brutally murdered families just to live in their homes, they did nothing.!~

- ~!Lucy murders people who show compassion towards her, for some unknown/unrealistic reason Kouta is an exception !~

- ~!Lucy. That's really it, if you watch the show you know that she just kills just because. Sure, she's given up on humanity- but you don't have to go and snap them all in half- she also kills kids if she must.!~

- ~!Mariko turns the woman who was kind to her and regarded herself as her mom into a meatball sub, which like ok I understand you were in a vat of pee or whatever but she seemed to legit care about her, she can't help Mariko's circumstances.!~

- ~!Mariko literally kills her the first time she's been let out. Can't say the woman is at fault, but she is a child + may believe that the woman was doing this to her so i suppose I give her a pass.!~ 

**Long story short, horrible at handling discrimination race-wise, I understand people are afraid of what they don't know, but I find it impossible to view this without the lens of a blatantly failed commentary on racism. I suppose you could argue that society made them monsters, but we see ~!Lucy embrace the 'Diclonii' side of herself, which can be viewed as a symbol heritage or her race, and then start turning people into legos.**!~ 

***Just my interpretation though, you can gloss over this part if you don't agree! ***

~~~~~~ ____ "... abuse, jealousy, regret..."____~~~~~~ 

-  Abuse was handled alright I suppose, but I would be going feral if they included *that one character from the manga. You know the one.* All I have to say is the abuse is just a way for the anime to believe it is touching on sensitive topics respectfully, and also just a way to keep that feel of... edginess. (Sorry, hate the word but it fits this too well.)

 - Does Mayu actually ever recover? Does she triumph over it? She doesn't exactly tell anyone but somehow is 100% fine despite having a horrible trauma that never, never goes away. It's like it never existed at times, which would be sweet if she got some good therapy. 

- Jelousy was the worst sub-theme in the world. It was boring and was only really used to further Kohta's worth to the audience. I'll touch on that later. No relevance to the plot outside of motive for ~!Lucy!~.

- I imagine regret refers to ~!Lucy killing Kohta's family, but frankly how is your audience going to connect with a mass murderer when you touch on regret? I'd understand if this was used on more characters, but the only person who comes to mind in this matter other than Nana's 'dad' is Lucy, which is probably the most impossible to relate to action-wise. Boohoo you killed your crushes family. huh??? obviously you're gonna feel bad if that's the main reason the dude doesn't want anything to do with you near the end, but that's just feeling bad for yourself, not regret.!~ Perhaps in a different universe they handle regret better and do it in a more relatable matter as to resonate with the audience. 


~~~~~~ ____ THE SHOW RUINING PROBLEM____~~~~~~ 

Ok, yes, i'm being dramatic but come on, let me have a little fun. The Top review already touches on its edginess so i'm not going to go into that gere other than saying i 100% agree that some things were uneeded and were just there to make the anime feel special about its perceived 16+ rating. ~!If you don't agree, please refer to Mariko's first meeting with Nana. Had no reason to strip her and took away any tension it had.!~

Alright, I hate the Main character. Big whoop, throw the tomatos at me if you so desire. It's not for his character, but moreso what the writers do with it. I'm putting way too much time into this so- erm. Bullet points my beloved, aid me in these trying times.

- Removes agency from every character and acts as a completely uneeded 'hero/savior'.
 - Nyu's 'savior'
 - Was Lucy's 'savior'
 - Was Mayu's 'savior'
 - "That one chick in the manga I promise myself i wasn't going to bring up but here I am
"'s savior

I'm focusing on Lucy right now though because she paints the picture better than anyone else.

~!Despite her ENTIRE CHARACTER! HER PERSONALITY! HER EVERYTHING! She doesn't kill Kohta. WHY? Because he was kind? Are you high on crack? Do you have any idea how many times people were nice to her only to die or be seriously hurt? People who tried to be nice? Kohta literally 'betrayed' her in her mind, but she didn't kill him. "B-but Diceyseraphim!!! You absolute animal!!! She LOVED him!!! They had a special bond!!!" Yeah ok so I see you forgot her first friend who got her ~!dog killed accidently but not even actually causing it. If I told someone about my friend's coke bottle and they drank it, would my friend kill me as well as them? NO! They would only kill them obviously, seeing the giant crime commited was done by them.!~ Do you see the many holes in logic? In her mind Kohta had commited such a horrible sin that ~!his punishment was HIS FAMILY DYING.!~ HE was the one that did that, why in God's name is this man still having all his limbs?!~

I'm not getting into the others because I'm beginning to be a little sleepy, but just think about how much things center around this guy despite the fact they absolutely shouldn't. I understand he's the main character but the plot armor this guy has is thicker than a bowl of oatmeal. 


Last jab at this is how poorly the show handles info. I am left with more questions than answers, and you know what- maybe the manga actually explains half the stuff in the show. But I shouldn't be scrambling to understand what that one dream sequence was all about only to have it never have any relevance outside of the obvious hamfisted symbolism which doesn't even make sense in the context of her situation. It's sad when the theories I had were more interesting than what the show had to offer. I thought the Diclonii were a hivemind of sorts and it all loops back to this one single Diclonius that is inside of them all, which means that this core diclonious is able to show them things other Diclonii had experienced. (I'm referring to the crucifiction thing, and also this explains why they can sense each other and such). Alas, nothing actually came out of it. Sobbing. 

**At most I would consider this at a C-tier. I am utterly baffled by how people love this, and honestly I have no idea how people can like it if not for nostalgia or your fix of booba. I respect your opinions of course, but this show just felt like such a slog to get through and the plot quality was garbage, sorry qwq. Uh, but Mayu and Nana are the best characters and if you disagree sorry ur wrong XD **

Fails in most of its themes, many holes in character actions + logic. Nice disability rep though.

~~~Before this review gets underway, I need to let you know that unlike my usual approach I did not make any effort to avoid spoilers, so consider this your sole warning if you really do want to avoid that. Also, this anime contains a lot of graphic content, be it through depicting scenes that have sexual undertones or in how it handles violence, I don’t go too far into details about that stuff but it’s still worth a content warning nonetheless, especially if you were planning to watch the anime and didn’t somehow already know about that from its reputation.

img(https://files.catbox.moe/afsqmm.gif)
img(https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/606619f9dd6e6f584c98fd24/ba42de5f-ccb3-4be6-81f5-995efa4da72b/THUMBS_ELAR.png?format=1500w)
Elfen Lied is a story that needs no real introduction. In the almost twenty years since it was first released it’s become a permanent fixture in the anime landscape, either you already watched it as one of your first few shows or you’re still planning to out of simple curiosity over the attention it received and its eye-catching aesthetic. I found myself in the latter category until I finally sat down and watched through its 13 episodes over the course of the last week. The very beginning of the first episode does a great job at setting this apart from anything else you might watch, the anime’s opening song has an almost operatic feel to it and genuinely interesting visuals - mosaics and patterns that when taken together with the song’s lyrics possess a clear religious quality. It all draws you in and gets your mind trying to work to figure out what you’re seeing or what significance it might have for the show itself before the visuals cut and the music dies down as the single best sequence in the entire anime begins. Lucy, one of this story’s main characters, completely eviscerates everyone in her path, using her psychic powers to behead or dismember the armed men sent to prevent her escape from the strange facility the first scene is set in. There’s a lot of violence, a lot of blood, and above all a lot of mystery over who precisely she is, or What she even is, what her relation to that facility was, and the significance of the religious connection the show advanced in this scene through the sound of church bells as she began her escape. As far as intros go, Elfen Lied gets a perfect score, but it doesn’t manage to maintain that level of quality throughout its relatively short run. That mystery that gets built up doesn’t quite have a satisfying resolution, and its overt religious symbolism and other concepts it presents ultimately don’t lead anywhere significant either.

Rather than keeping a somewhat consistent tone and fully exploring the mysteries it sets up or the ideas and themes it hints it, Elfen Lied very quickly reveals its true form as two half decent anime in a trench coat. There’s the gory, darker story we get to see whenever it does venture into darker ideas like trauma, abuse and the effects of violence and prejudice, then there’s the ecchi harem stuff (with a dash of incest, because why not). Lucy’s breakout lands her in the company of Kohta (our harem protagonist) and his presumably Alabaman cousin Yuka, who occasionally grows extremely jealous towards Lucy or any other living thing with a vagina that Kohta pays any amount of attention to. Far from the merciless killer that left a locked down and well guarded government lab in disarray, when Kohta encounters her she has reverted into a state of amnesia, and has taken on the persona of a little child. You might think it would be the logical course of action to go to the relevant authorities, whether doctors or police, when you’re strolling on the beach and find a concussed catgirl, but fun fact: no! They literally just take her home, name her Nyu (the only sound she really makes at first) and turn her into a founding member of Kohta’s harem. I understand that by the second episode they deliver sufficient justification for why they wouldn’t take her to the police, but this is just the first example of characters in this anime being just stupid enough to make the plot happen, and it does start to get more and more frustrating with every instance. It’s also an example of the broader pattern to this story’s writing, that being how Forced everything starts to feel after a while.

I leveled the criticism that a lot of things felt forced against [another story](https://anilist.co/review/16156) I reviewed that dealt with trauma and other dark topics, accusing it of making certain characters cartoonishly evil in different moments or depicting sexual violence just for the sake of shock. But Elfen Lied takes that to a completely different level, without really delving into its ideas enough to have any redeeming qualities. Lucy’s backstory is a tragic one, she was abandoned by her family and raised in an orphanage where she was routinely bullied by some of the other children due to her physical appearance - primarily the horns sticking out of her head. Her sole respite from her awful existence was a stray dog she’d taken under her care. The bullies found out about the dog through someone Lucy thought she could trust, and pummeled it to death right in front of her, causing her to lash out at them in desperation in a burst of power that left everyone in the room dead. The whole sequence might have an impact on you if you’re really invested in it, but I don’t think I was personally sold on those children - even if they were bullies - doing what they did in that scene. Over and over again in this anime the absolute worst thing possible will happen and that makes it painfully predictable and uninteresting in a way I haven’t really felt about anything since I watched Akame Ga Kill and all its pointless deaths. A few things even happen just for the purpose of setting up later violence or conflict without any regard for how much sense it makes for characters to make that decision in context. Nana, another character that had been imprisoned in the same facility as Lucy, was marked for execution before that facility’s director (Kurama) freed her. It was established that they had some kind of a caring, parent-child relationship in a twisted way so I don’t have trouble with him having acted to save her, the problem arises in him having released her into the exact same environment that she had previously been grievously injured by Lucy, and where the facility he wanted her safe from was actively conducting searches. I can’t reach any other conclusion than that he chose to do what he did because the story needed the extra bit of conflict, tension and action. Then there’s characters like Bando and Kakuzawa who exist solely for having someone Evil™ to oppose our main characters. I could go on, but you get the idea. 

Back to the ecchi harem stuff I mentioned earlier, this anime spends an obscene amount of time on unfunny sexual “comedy” largely focused on Lucy/Nyu and the incestous romance between Kohta and his cousin Yuka. There’s an element of incest you can read into Kohta’s dynamic with Lucy, who was framed as a stand-in for his dead sister at times, but we are Not going to be unpacking that today. You can think about the incestous sub-text in your own time. Instead we’re gonna talk a little bit about Yuka, whose entire character is defined by her feelings towards her cousin. I’m going to be entirely honest and say it was so overt I wasn’t able to tell anymore if they were meant to be related, they both just accepted it so readily and the story never addressed how strange it was in any way at all. I mean there’s even an episode where they’re fully kissing in the rain and Yuka says something that seems to suggest she got wet - and the rainwater had nothing to do with it. It is bizarre. Then on the sexual comedy, it just felt deeply inappropriate because as I said before Nyu is functionally a child, and even without the amnesiac second personality she’s still physically a teenager, so there’s no circumstance in which I would be laughing along when she sexually assaults Yuka or gets naked in an awkward situation or something. These moments contribute significantly to the anime’s tonal dissonance, perhaps even more than the forced and/or stupid character choices. You’re presented with this show and its serious subject matter and ideas, and just constantly get whiplash from its back and forth between being dark and introspective then overly sexualised and light hearted. The experience falls apart even before you try to pick the story apart.

After all that, it also doesn’t come to any kind of satisfying resolution. Mayu’s trauma at being neglected and sexually abused completely disappears when she joins Kohta’s harem. Kohta doesn’t even momentarily dwell on Lucy having killed his entire family, they kiss and then right afterwards she’s randomly alone again and seemingly gunned down. Kurama does try to atone for his actions at the lab by killing himself and his daughter, and you’re probably supposed to feel bad about it but he’d been an unsympathetic character all the way through so there was very little impact to it, and it was undercut by a random person from the lab in the very next scene just switching back to being comically evil again out of nowhere. I would normally try to have a section at this point to cover the themes of the story, except in cases where It’s Really Not That Deep, and this is definitely one of those cases. But unlike the Jujutsu Kaisen movie or Vampire In The Garden where the story or experience was generally still good, Elfen Lied veers more in the opposite direction. It tries to go into different concepts, but it all ends up too shallow to be worth much of a comment. Honestly, even if it did its ideas justice, that would do nothing to redeem it. For instance, there’s something you could say about what Lucy’s character represents, that being a question on what really makes someone who they are. Was she a murderer from birth as some characters insisted, or did she become that monster because of the circumstances she was confronted with? The same question is a central part of Naoki Urasawa’s masterpiece of a story, Monster, and while that story had me on the edge of my seat for its entire run trying to piece together an answer, it would’ve been something else altogether if Johan started groping Nina every episode or two.
img(https://files.catbox.moe/afsqmm.gif)
So in the final assessment, while I wanted to enjoy this anime a lot more and did enjoy some sequences and ideas it presented, it’s just far too messy for me to rate it highly or ever want to return to it beyond its first few minutes. This review might have been a little bit too harsh, because for as bad as Elfen Lied gets I would watch it a million times before I would watch something completely devoid of life like the Skycrawlers movie or something. Its biggest sin is just that it tried to do too much, and I can respect that. All its (flawed) effort nets it a __65 out of 100__, because there’s the skeleton of a more interesting story buried beneath all of its problems. I mean I didn’t even talk about the vectors (invisible arms that the Diclonii like Lucy have) and how cool they are conceptually and in some of the fight scenes throughout the anime. As a final side-note though, just because I couldn’t fit it anywhere else, it’s more than a little weird that nobody in the story acknowledged that the “horns” of a Diclonius look just like cat ears. It was hard to take seriously at first, idk.~~~

# Il canto della mediocrità

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Una reclusa da laboratorio si libera dalla cattività su di alcuni scienziati che compivano esperimenti su di lei, uccidendoli tutti brutalmente con degli oggetti invisibili. Dopo essere fuggita, finisce in una pensione gestita da due coetanei, ma ha perso la memoria e il suo aspetto sembrano cambiati completamente e ingentiliti, ma cosa l’è successo? E che soprusi ha subito in laboratorio?

È questa la premessa di __Elfen Lied__, trasposizione uscita nel 2004 dell'omonimo manga seinen di __Lynn Okamoto__. Una serie che punta sul mistero delle premesse e sulla bizzarra combinazione tra disegni spigolosi nei momenti più __horror__ e disegni delicati, intenzionalmente bambineschi, a cui aggiungiamo anche un forte sottofondo erotico.

Sulla carta c’è di tutto insomma: ci sono le mode “_kawaii_” tanto amate in Giappone, l’erotismo __ecchi__, il mistero, l’horror, un'aura intellettualoide che non rischi di far sentire in colpa lo spettatore.

Questo mix furbetto riesce a lasciare il segno? La risposta è: no e, certo, da un anime ecchi non c’era da aspettarsi un alto livello qualitativo. Non era però impossibile fare un prodotto perlomeno decente di questa categoria ed è un peccato che sia andata così.

Ciò che infastidisce di Elfen Lied non è il fatto che sia così amato (dopotutto, un fattore esterno non influisce sulla qualità del prodotto), ma la volontà di andare a pescare temi seri come i paradossi del senso paterno, la manipolazione psicologica, i limiti della scienza, il disturbo della personalità multipla (è evidente come sia essenziale l’inflazionato topos del Dr. Jekyll e Mr. Hyde), senza però trattarli con il giusto rispetto e la giusta perizia.

La pretenziosità della serie si nota già dalla scelta del titolo in tedesco che significa "__canzone degli elfi__", proveniente una poesia di __Goethe__. A ciò contribuisce la sigla cantata in latino che vede scorrere dipinti modificati di __Klimt__ con sopra la protagonista __Lucy__ (unica cosa bella della serie).

Insieme al titolo la sigla dovrebbe comunicare l'idea di una serie eterea, levigata e dalle tinte mistiche, cosa che va in controtendenza rispetto alla trama, nel quale sì c'è un certo alone di soprannaturale ma si tratta di una sorta di __fantascienza__ alla giapponese, che non ha veramente nulla in comune con il titolo, probabilmente dovuto ai contenuti del manga che si ferma oltre il punto d’arrivo dell’anime (poco di più che una marchetta per il fumetto).

Riecheggia il tipico tema del "topo da laboratorio" ribelle che esiste fin dai tempi di Frankenstein: topos trito e ritrito ma potenzialmente sempre valido, specialmente quando abbiamo "scienziati pazzi" interessanti. La storia li rappresenta però in maniera molto blanda, caratterizzando le loro motivazioni solo come figure egoiste che mirano a prosperare ai danni delle diclonius, naturalmente questi cattivi sono convinti che i soggetti possano essere pericolosi e sanguinari.

Il lato "horror" viene esibito non tanto come un espediente per fare paura, ma più come una sorta di sfogo delle recluse ai danni degli avventori dove vediamo splatter di teste staccate, moncherini, litri di sangue spruzzati. Tutto questo combinato con uno stile di disegno dolce e infantile, che per antitesi enfatizza la sordidezza di questo sfogo.

All’epoca una simile violenza per un anime di afflato così popolare e giovanile poteva fare scalpore e comunicare freschezza, ma finita quella fase l’impressione è che la serie sia semplicemente sorta al momento giusto, subendo implacabilmente gli effetti del tempo sulle sue qualità e il suo impatto emotivo.

L'erotismo per cui è conosciuto ed enfatizzato dalle locandine, dalla sigla ecc è però tipicamente visto in chiave goffa e adolescenziale, che sicuramente è adeguata ai diciott’anni dei protagonisti e allo stile di disegno ma che di certo è molto fine a sé stesso, una scelta fatta per accentrare la storia in funzione di __Kouta__: un personaggio che viene mostrato praticamente senza difetti (se non sull’orribile finale con una storia che però vuole ancora una volta farti sembrare che non ne abbia), mentre le diclonius sono grigie e __Yuka__ fa la figura di avere come uniche caratteristiche quella di essere gentile come Kouta, ma anche di essere la gelosona della situazione, con tutto in funzione di un protagonista maschile che ha praticamente un harem, sembra che giri tutto intorno a lui e le donne non sono in grado di reggersi sulle proprie gambe, sempre psicologicamente dipendenti da qualcun altro, non sono passati neanche vent’anni da quando è uscita questa serie e sembra già invecchiata male.

Nemmeno un altro anime ecchi (cioè con scene di nudo) pieno di _fan service trash_ come High School DxD arriva ai livelli di santificazione di questo sogno bagnato maschile perché perlomeno lì il protagonista appare con sbavature, comportamenti considerati ridicoli e impertinenti, in un anime che in generale si prende meno sul serio.

Le scene piccanti mirano ad essere innocenti a tutti i costi o anche comiche per cui, pur prendendole a sè, avulse dal contesto non suscitano granché, danno l'idea di un anime che vuole in qualche modo provocare e mostrare i muscoli con la violenza, ma che non mostra tutta questa levigatezza e innocenza per fini narrativi, ma più per timore di non arrivare al più grande pubblico possibile, come a voler fermarsi in un limbo tra conformismo e iconoclastia, pratica che ormai da secoli è perfetta per cercare di intortare più pubblici: quello più "alternativo" e quello più "ordinario".

I cattivi sono nella stragrande maggioranza dei casi tutti d'un pezzo, tagliati con l'accetta e che urlano puerilmente "guardami, sono cattivo" per come vengono caricate le azioni meschine ai danni dell' indagine psicologica, salvo il padre di due delle diclonius che comunque ha una parabola molto prevedibile, mentre il tema della personalità multipla è ancora più prevedibile nel suo funzionamento e non crea mai particolari conflitti interni, sembra fatto solo per mostrare due sfumature di carattere opposte senza che si relazionino tra di loro in qualche maniera diversa dai soliti stereotipi.

In conclusione, Elfen Lied è un’opera bruttarella e deludente, con un finale tra i più inverosimili e pessimi che io conosca, è un anime che intrattiene solo nei momenti in cui il mistero deve essere ancora svelato e che rapidamente lascia spazio a problemi intrinseci, che in seconda visione, mancando il mistero, risulteranno sicuramente ancora più impattanti sui pregi.

Un anime mediocre, banalotto e superficiale, con una falsa patina di orrore raffinato e un erotismo fasullo.

Elfen Lied Series Watch Order

Season 1

Elfen Lied OVA

Season 1 cont.