Ranked #207

Elfen Lied (Manga)

"One heck of a disgusting bloody gore manga with an eye-popping storyline tangled with complicated character relations."

Made famous by its anime adaptation, Elfen Lied is well known for being THE cruelest, goriest, and a highly perverted, piece of work ever. The level of bloody mess you will encounter throughout the story can haunt the unprepared for many moons to come. In short, one is expected to have a strong stomach to survive these 107 chapters. Consider ...yourself warned!

Elfen Lied is perhaps the most controversial story of all time. Opinions on it varies greatly with some calling it "garbage of the century" while others claiming it an outstanding "masterpiece of all masterpieces". I prefer to stay away from these extremes but without a doubt naming Elfen Lied as the former is far from justified.

While it is rare to see "kawaii" horned girls brutally tearing bodies apart (or get their bodies tear apart), quite frankly Elfen Lied is infamous for that. However, that is not to say things just happen out of the blue and limps go flying for no apparent reason. In fact, it is evident that the mangaka put a great deal of effort into both explaining the background to this horrid power, and at the same time develop the story and character relationships. Many questions will likely come to mind as one read deeper into this manga. Questions like "why is this nude girl mercilessly killing innocents?" and "why do they possess these terrifying power?" will be among the first. Rest assure, that answers will be given in great elaborate details and the results will likely make heads go spinning, yet they will also cast an irresistible curse on you to keep reading.

The overall plot of Elfen Lied is truly amazing. It covers a wide variety of themes in great details, ranging from simple triangle love relationship, to the ever more common child abuse, to the horrid reality of non-ethical scientific research, to the threat of global terrorism, and lastly on human origin and our mutation/evolution. One can truly say Elfen Lied has it all.

However, nothing is perfect. What Elfen Lied lacked was some great artistic drawing. Although the reader can depict one action from the next, the amount of detail (ie. the quality of the artwork) is seemingly below what one would expect from such high quality story. But I guess we can also call it fortunate since if the artwork is better drawn, people might really start to faint from reading the manga due to excessive gore or result in severe nosebleed when the story gets to the more perverted scenes.

Strong character developments plus complex interrelations is another successful selling point of this manga. Although there are certain characters where we can easily identify as black or white (as in those we should love vs those we should hate), many actually belong somewhere in the gray region. Throughout the story you will find yourself rooting for a character in one chapter and surprisingly find yourself wanting to have that same character killed in the next chapter. It is precisely these types of character building techniques that make Elfen Lied loved and hated by many.

Finally I would like to once again remind my fellow MAL readers that this manga is not meant for young children and hopefully it will give you enjoyment rather than weeks of nightmare. I know I certainly enjoyed it to its fullest.


Reviewer BS:
*This is my first manga review. If you think there are places to improve on (and I know there are tons), please send me a friendly PM or just leave a comment. Thank You.* read more

This manga is a mix of comedy, cuteness, gore and drama, and if it doesn't have one of the best stories I've ever got involved in, it's characters would make up for it.

Story-
Is a evangelical sci fi twist. Read it long enough and you'll be caught up in it. This is Definately a seinen manga with alot of nudity and many sex references, despite that it doesn't get in the way of the main story, and you won't think that it's just about girls being nude. There are a lot of flashback chapters, but they don't dissapoint like in other mangas, as they dive into the past of the main characters, they make you want to read the manga even more.

Characters-
In this manga it's hard to say that there is a "good" side or "bad" side, but there undoubtedly is. The characters in general don't take up that definate role,like Bandou who comes in the second chapter, he'll start off as a villian but there will be sometimes you're rooting for him, then right after that times you'll hate his guts.
Overall there is no character greater than Lucy/Nyuu her bckstory, her now, all of it but a complicated romance drama, that you may never expect her character to have.

Art-
For this manga the art seemingly doesn't work, but is somehow fitting. The mangaka has a great ability to turn the most cutest things into something that'd make you want to throw up. Limbs will be torn off, and bodies ripped in half. In other words if you don't have a strong stomach don't read.

Overall-
If you're looking for a manga that will touch your heart, have you on the edge of your seat, have you rooting for the character you hated a moment ago, or just have you saying "I'm glad this is fictional." This is a manga for you... read more

By giving this series an overall rating of 6 is me being generous. Elfen Lied to me feels like a series that had so much potential. The ideas behind the story were deep (extinction of humanity, the moral question of what is human compassion). However, the way they were brought out were horrible.

Nearly every other page contains somebody crying in drama; so much that it got old fast. To those that will eventually read Elfen Lied; prepare for a big cry-fest. Rest assure though, the artist does randomly throw in comic relief, which end up make those moments incongruous with the flow of the story.

There came a point when the story became predictable. Many chapters ended with a cliff hanger... Too many actually. Cliff hangers ended up being so absurd (a character being killed off way too soon) that when I started the next chapter, I could almost exactly predict the outcome. My thinking process was "Nope, the artist doesn't have the guts to kill him/her off yet."

As mentioned before, the delivery of the story could've been better. 107 chapters were not necessary. I enjoyed the anime more than the series; it kept the main themes of the story short and sweet without dragging on. Around chapter 80 was when I realized that the artist is now trying too hard to hammer in her themes.

All in all, Elfen Lied was a huge waste of potential. With better story telling antics and better character development, this could've been a great series. read more

Story:
Story is quite deep, there are many unexpected twists and turns that'll make your head spin. While there are numerous events that do have a powerful effect upon you, there are some things that seem to replay throughout the whole story, but that doesn't hurt it in anyway

Art:
Don't know much about art but it was pretty nice. I think there are some scenes where the charcters are suddenly disproportioned, but they're in small little spaces so they don't stand out much. Quite a few bloody scenes that were done nicely.

Character:
Character development is a little slow at times and you kind of wish that you could give them a good kick. But what really makes up for that is the fact there are numerous characters that have different personalities who play their parts very well.

Enjoyment: I'm enjoying lots of things about the manga, but I think the one thing that draws you in is the story. Augumented with a variety of characters the whole thing comes together very strongly.

Overall: For now it's a 10. On the basis that the storyline is very strong with a nice cast of charcters that keep things interesting.

Warning:
Now here is where elfen lied probably loses a lot of ground to other manga. Even with spectacular story, a great cast of characters, there has to be a catch somewhere. It is unfortunate, but Elfen Lied brings out many parts of the story with strong graphical content. Examples would range from legs and arms flying from their owners in a bloody blur and ecchi that could almost be considered hentai. These scenes don't dominate the story, but there are enough gory scenes to cause some to turn around. So for kids out there or readers with weak stomaches, you are heavily advised not to read Elfen Lied. Also for those who consider themselves depressed or slighly mental, you might find yourself in a darker place if you read Elfen Lied. read more

It has anything you want: gore, needless violence, fanservice with lolis, secret military conspiracy, bloodthirsty mutants, a lesson about friendship, questions about morality, et cetera. This combination would be awesome for any idiot like me, still, Elfen Lied fails horribly and remains mediocre. First: the story is trying to be deep by pilling up any crap the author could about why the humanity is evil (it could be done good and I could bring up a few examples, but in this form, it's nothing but teenage angst). Second: every character is a full anime/manga stereotype except for Bando, who actually has character development, and don't forget Lucy, who is Tetsuo from Akira with tits and horns and another personality. Third: the horrible art. Ok, it's not that bad as ZUN's, but at least ZUN has a style everyone remembers and lately he developed himself.
If you're new to manga (or/and reading), Elfen Lied is sure a good story for one time, but if you read a couple of mangas before, just take anything else. read more

I first saw this as a preview, more I saw its anime's preview and the voice actors while the screen was split and my favorite line was playing. From the moment I saw that line I had made it my goal to find EL and see it. Over all its story is great. Though I'm only at chapter 45 from each chapter up to it I was caught of guard. The character known as Nyuu to the main is the most involving manga/anime characters I have ever seen, It's hard to say more with out spoiling it, so I'll leave it at that.

On the same subject of being caught off guard judging by the cuteness you'd never expect how gore this manga is, just reading the first chapter I my eyes were wide open I was biting my nails, and "Damn!" was my common exclamation. If you're a fan of the anime "This ugly yet beautiful world." Check this out. read more

Blood, boobs, and seldomly laughable events, Elfen Lied has it all. It is probably one of the goriest anime I have seen...just like everyone else. The story is deep, and touching in some points. Though it's perhaps a bit too disturbing for some viewers, I still recommend this anime.

Story:
Very deep, many branches and not exactly linear. The main storyline is Lucy's, while sub-stories belongs to other characters such as Mayu, Nana and perhaps Mariko. Don't want to spoil it, so not saying too much about the story. :)

Art:
I love it, but not that great in some parts. In the opening the creators used Gustav Klimt's painting, replacing the models with Lucy and other characters in the anime, I find this kind of...maybe interesting is the word. Flaws in this anime include out of proportion, or some parts where severed fingers were drawn on the wrong arm. (When Lucy was fighting Nana, whoops, spoiler, sorry.)

Character:
Each character has his/her own storyline. I find this quite interesting. It's like looking at a massive book with many flaps on a single page.

Enjoyment:
Got to say, personally I do not enjoy the gore scenes. The story however, is quite touching.

Overall:
It's a great anime, like I have said before. It's just a bit gory, and isn't suited for people who have weak stomach. read more