Elfen Lied

"Elfen Lied" has been nothing short of a phenomenon. There were no big budget promotions (like "Full Metal Alchemist" had), the manga wasn't exactly red hot property (like "Death Note" was), but it was suddenly catapulted to fame in an incredibly short time in 2004. It's the kind of overnight success story that films and anime have been made from. But does it deserve all this hype?

The short answer is no. The long answer is nooooooo.

Only kidding - this review is the long answer, obviously!

When I first noticed "Elfen Lied" on an anime site, it was listed as horror. But the picture shown ... on the site (not the picture from the MAL page) was this typically cute, giant eyed anime girl with pink hair. First thing that came to my head was: WTF? Cute, seemingly innocent little girl with a dark side going around killing everyone? Little did I realise how close I'd struck to the actual premise of "Elfen Lied". What I didn't anticipate was how far below its hype it turned out to be.

To be fair, my initial impressions of "Elfen Lied" were actually pretty good. From the haunting melodies of its opening song "Lilium" and the combined gothic-anime style artwork in the opening credits, the atmosphere was compelling from the outset. The opening episode throws us straight into a blood bath, with heads and limbs flying in all directions curtesy of Lucy, a diclonius (a kind of mutant human) who is one of the central characters of the story. It was hard not pay attention. "Wow! This is going to be awesome!" I remember thinking. But five minutes of bloody massacre later, an extremely stereotypical ditzy secretary character waltzes in and trips over into the path of Lucy. I blinked as I struggled to get to grips with this juxtaposition, and a small voice piped up in the back of my head: "What the hell is this?! A horror or a goofy comedy?!"

Turned out "Elfen Lied" is both, and it was all downhill from there on. Having been infected by the hype beforehand, I was so convinced that this was going to be one of the greatest anime ever that I'd persuaded a friend of mine to watch this "masterpiece" with me, having sold it to her as this "really highly rated, brutal horror" ... and we both watched with synchronised, slack jawed amazement as "Elfen Lied" descended from that potentially great horror themed show down to a, well, a bizarre horror of a show. (Ok, it's not THAT bad, but I had to use that line :P)

This anime is meant to be horror, and though the horror elements are there, the pr0n elements are almost as strong, if not stronger. I'd heard about the violence, but I wasn't expecting all the fanservice. If people get hit, their clothing magically rips off their bodies; if a person falls over, you can bet the scene will feature the best angle for a pantyshot. On top of that, the female characters all seem to be looking for any excuse to start stripping. It's so over the top that, given any situation, I'd be wondering how they're gonna squeeze fanservice out of it. For example, when the characters got caught in the rain, I was like: Here we go again … I can feel a wet t-shirt scene approaching; they might even start throwing their clothes off once they find shelter! Lo and behold, my wild guesses will hit the mark more often than not. Incredibly, even after the anime had conditioned me to anticipate fanservice at every turn, they still managed to somehow surprise me with it. The prime talent of the creators of "Elfen Lied" appear to be the ability to convert any situation into pr0n.

Now let's look at the horror aspect - it's impossible to talk about "Elfen Lied" without mentioning it. There's an incredible amount of blood and gore in here, but just how effective and appropriate are they? On one hand, the violence does serve its purpose to a certain extent. Its sheer brutality and the fact that, like the fanservice, it can occur at any (and often unexpected) moment gives "Elfen Lied" a heightened sense of tension and dread. When all is said and done, the credentials of "Elfen Lied" as a horror is solidly cemented by all the violence. On the other hand, the violence of "Elfen Lied" is plasticky both in a visual and in a deeper sense. Visually, the series is a bit of a one trick pony when it comes to violence - it's very direct, involves a lot of blood (often too much), and the bodies being ripped apart looked a bit like Barbie dolls being dismembered. It all feels a little fake, and there's nothing as vivid and as disturbing as some of the violence portrayed in the likes of "Berserk" and "Narutaru". Beneath the surface, the show's violence is mainly deployed as shock tactics with very little actual meaning beyond that. Furthermore, "Elfen Lied" goes waaaay overboard with it, and the overuse of this often less-than-meaningful violence inevitably led to diminishing returns on its effectiveness. After constantly being bombarded by the downpour of blood and severed limbs, I found myself numbing to them by the end.

To its credit, I think "Elfen Lied" has got some intriguing concepts to build on. Mutants with invisible, deadly vectors hands? Sounds interesting! Involvement of a secret research facility that has a sinister purpose behind it? Tell me more! But unfortunately, they don't appear to be particularly interested in telling me this story. Unlike the fanservice, the plot points are difficult to come by. In the end, all I'm left with are some half developed concepts, some giant question marks, and a hollow lasting impression. Instead of expanding on its interesting sci-fi premises, it chose to divert a significant portion of its attention to something that vaguely resembles a teen drama (but an ultra-violent one, remember!) Does that mean it poured blood, sweat and tears into developing astoundingly good characters and dialogue then? If only. While the sci-fi aspect of the story can be described as wasted potential, the drama aspect never had any potential to begin with - because it's of the dreaded harem variety. People can try and kid themselves all they want but we all know it's rare to get anything of value originating from that particular genre.

Unless you value lame humour, cliched romance and laughably unrealistic characters, that is.

Speaking of the characters, the marriage of violence to the harem genre has resulted in what would normally be plainly bad characters becoming atrociously bad. If someone tries to strangle you for no reason, would you simply sit up afterwards and ask in a conversational tone: "what did you do that for?" I don't know about you, but I'd be trying to get the hell away from that person! If someone suddenly attacks your friend on sight for no apparent reason, and then tell you they did it because they were hungry, would you believe such a lame ass excuse? My friend and I actually burst out laughing when we heard the excuse... then our mirth turned to astonishment as the dumbass in question not only accepted this sorry excuse of an excuse... but then proceeded to let the attacker into his house. (This extraordinary turn of events only make sense on a meta level when you realise you're watching a harem anime, and the attacker who is a girl was joining a house that was already occupied by about five other girls by then. When looked at it in this light, it's hard not to be impressed by how much effort went into twisting the story and the character interactions in service of the anime's credentials as a harem.) I know that some level of suspension of disbelief is required for a show like "Elfen Lied", but did the makers even read the script to see if it made sense on any level? The portrayal of scientists is mostly a joke, the mercenary/security are practically useless... even the dog that featured briefly was nothing but a plot device, abandoning its owner for no good reason other than so that it could interact with another character and garner sympathy from the viewers for the said character. I've heard of dogs being abandoned by its owners before, but rarely the other way round!

Kurama is one of the few bright spots of amongst the characters. His dilemma is choosing the right thing to do between the contradictory feelings that arise from his roles as a rational scientist, a normal human being, and a father whose child is caught up in the thick of things. This is arguably the only aspect in "Elfen Lied" that doesn't feel a) forced and manipulative, b) inconsistent with the character and the situation, and c) shallow and black and white. Aside from Kurama, most of the characters in "Elfen Lied" are ridiculous to the point of being hilarious. A pity the same cannot be said for the bits that are genuinely meant to be funny (the harem comedy bits).

I've heard many claims about how "Elfen Lied" is a deep anime that explores the ugly side of human nature and societies. Somehow, I am unconvinced of the ability of an anime so chock full of gratuitous fanservice and harem drama to deliver much of substance, but let's examine a concrete example in detail. One of the girls in "Elfen Lied" got given a tragic past that you'd think would have some lasting impact on her ... but looking at her you'd NEVER be able to guess it if it wasn't for the flashback that showed that event. It was like the creators wanted to design this cheerful, upbeat little girl, and then, as an afterthought, tried to give her some depth by shoving in a tragic backstory by way of a flashback ... and then just left it like that. All traces of the effects of her tragic past on her character magically vanish after the flashback, to the extent that I'd totally forgotten about it by the end of the series. Is this really exploring the so called social issue? No. It just smells suspiciously like a shortcut to gain viewer sympathy and a heavy handed approach to character development. What exactly are the profound messages this supposedly deep anime is trying to convey? That children can be cruel? Love conquers all? Don't piss off mutants that have dangerous powers? Shit happens? I don't really know and I'm not sure the anime does either. Like the genre of this show, the messages - assuming it's trying to communicate anything - are all mixed up. Apart from Kurama's dilemma, almost everything monotonously boils down to an excuse for more cruelty and abuse. Worse, the countless abuse that happen in this anime feels quite sadistic, as though someone is getting a kick out of making this, which I find disturbing.

And this is why I can't see for the life of me why this show is so popular. It's blatantly just a shallow ecchi/harem flick, and it's rare to see ecchi harems considered good, let alone being touted as the greatest ever. The only thing that makes "Elfen Lied" stand out against its brethren is its violence, and so I am forced to conclude that showering an anime with blood will fool people into think it's "hard hitting" and "profound". Given the atrocious and manipulative handling of the story and characters, this anime has no chance of ever becoming deep, but with a bit more effort applied in the right direction, it could have at least become a really good atmospheric horror/sci-fi show. It's a crying shame that, instead of focusing on those more intriguing aspects, the makers were apparently more interested in coming up innovative ways to apply fanservice.

Personal rating: -0.5 (mediocre)

This is kind of tough for me to do. It really is, mainly because most of the people who love this series are also fans of many of my favorite anime. Maybe I just don\'t see something that everyone else does?.. and I feel the need to explain myself...

I have to say, I have been very confused as to why this anime is so widely known and loved. Awhile ago I tried to start watching the series and got about 2 episodes into it before deciding it was a waste of time. My initial impression was that sure, the show had a ... great opening score/artwork, but as soon as the real action began, there was nothing to be impressed with. Of all the anime I have seen thus far, this one has some of the blandest animation and character design. Nothing horrible, but definitely nothing noteworthy. Nyu may have some kind of sexual appeal to the audience [not me], but other than her supposed \"cuteness\" it is hard to feel any kind of attachment to her. I was immediately turned off by not only her persona, but those of two other main characters introduced early on. Kouta and Yuka are very diluted and weak characters, and there is nothing particularly interesting about them. The initial premise of the story was interesting, and the first episode provided plenty of gore for those who are easily entertained by exploding heads and flying limbs.

Several months after losing interest, I was again exposed to plenty of support and praise of this series and thought I\'d give it another chance. I guess it was just pure stubbornness that led me to actually watch the entire series through-I had to find out if there was some truth to all the hype. But uh-yea, again I have to be honest. I was sorely disappointed. I can see where the series may lure people in with its light vs. dark or the struggle of humanity or some such thing. I guess there are some interesting questions that could be raised by the series, but I felt no connection or empathy with the characters at all here and therefore was unable to feel that the moral questions raised were of concern to me. The relationships between characters and their development are what usually interest me more than anything-and even a weak storyline can be somewhat salvaged by strong characters. However, Elfen Lied is full of half-assed character development, which to me is more frustrating than anything. Not only am I annoyed by the actual character design [we are never fully aware as to why these creatures have horns that look like cat ears which supposedly make them cute.. lame.. and the gigantic eyes are a bit much] but I am stupefied by the way things are left between these characters. I won\'t leave any spoilers here-but I have to say that the ending was at the very least unsettling. For one, I didn\'t even like Nyu\'s character, so I can\'t say exactly how the ending made me feel. I was unhappy though, that\'s for sure. The relationships are never sorted out even a little-Kouta and Yuka have some kind of connection [we have no way of understanding why Yuka is so obsessed with her uh, cousin.. especially since they hadn\'t seen each other since they were very young and have no interactions in the series that seem significant.. other than a little undies/kissing show the audience is witness to at one point].. the whole thing frustrates me-and then the relationship between Kouta and Nyu/Lucy.. it seems to be the only possibility for saving this weak series.. but no.. we are yet again left with absolutely no answers-Kouta is indecisive and has no strong points in his character that stand out or are interesting.. sure he is a \"good\" guy-but hell, I have never witnessed a more boring good guy in all of the anime I have seen.. Yuka might as well not even be in the anime.. and even though Nana\'s appearance creates more action, she also seems unimportant to the story and is equally as diluted as the other characters.. also.. Nyu\'s voice is like nails on a chalkboard if you ask me, though I understand that all of her \"nyu nyu\" crap is adorable to some people.. her real personality [Lucy] is the only one that interested me at all-and we didn\'t see much of it [aside from the back-story and the scenes with ultra-graphic violence].. I think the anime could have been better if a few characters had been eliminated, and the series had perhaps focused more on the relationship between Kouta and Lucy [not the unbelievably stupid amnesia-induced Nyu].. their back-story was the only part of the series I actually liked.. it\'s tough for me to enjoy watching an anime if I can\'t relate to any of the characters.. on top of that, if I don\'t like the character design or the animation or the storyline, it\'s bound to be a HUGE flop..

going back to the storyline-I can\'t say that it\'s a terrible one, but then again it was boring enough for me to forget almost immediately.. of course we aren\'t meant to see the plot as realistic per se, but a few things just don\'t sit right with me.. for one-is it in any way conceivable that these \'demons\' or freaks [or whatever they really are-it is never fully explained] would be treated so cruelly?.. especially ones like Nana who showed no real violence in them.. i mean come on-hurdling heavy objects at them while they\'re chained up naked??.. i just don\'t get it-unless the producers of the series felt that the audience would enjoy seeing a lot of unnecessary nudity and violence that doesn\'t add to the plot [which i suppose is the case..heh].. then we have the underdeveloped explanation as to how this mutation happened in the first place and why it would happen the way it did [so uh-random?-extra limbs that are invisible].. if this is about survival of the fittest or some shit like that, we could have made it a bit more believable or interesting.. and as for the villains in the story.. again.. weak.. Kurama was alright, but his touching back-story wasn\'t enough to save the series.. it seems that the internal struggle of Nyu/Lucy is the main focal point here.. and it gets old.. after finishing the series, i was left feeling empty-and not in the awed sense, where the significance hits you later on.. i didn\'t get anything out of watching the series.. it seems that everyone else finds some kind of deep and powerful message, something that really stuck with them-but i see nothing special at all.. even at surface/entertainment value.. i really feel guilty in saying this, but.. there are very few anime that I hold in such low regard as this one.. I hope you will all be understanding.. I really wish there were someone out there to agree with me on this one..

heh.

[and i just realized that it\'s nearly impossible for me to punctuate sentences correctly.. i reverted to my usual format halfway through.. ah well]

It's tough writing negative reviews, because for some reason people who've already seen the anime want to come along and rate it as useless because they disagree. But this review is for people who haven't seen this anime yet.

Let's be clear on this one. One of the reasons I dislike this anime may be because it made me face the horrible realisation that I might just be too old for it (I'm 26, so maybe 14 years too old).

Elfen Lied is a harem anime featuring a collection of bulging-eyed stereotypes (including pathetic bitches) crossed with extreme violence to the point of perversion. If this sounds ... like it may appeal to you then you certainly aren't alone.

Anyway, let's consider the plot before we start ranting about how shit it is.

There exist certain people on Earth that have conspicuous horns growing from their heads. The female versions of these people have a varying number of invisible arms that can be used as weapons. These people are also usually very angry about something, and unsympathetic to any concept of compassion. Like an evil Tachikoma... maybe.

Anyway one day one of these bad girls washes up on a beach where she is picked up by some guy who takes her home with him. Said guy has just been placed in charge of an old ryoukan with ten rooms, which he then goes about blandly and cluelessly populating with other stigmatised young women. Sexually embarrassing situations arise, and so do disturbing yet poorly animated scenes of bodily mutilation and relentless, unapologetic killing.


Story 5/10.

The series doesn't start very well. A young, horned girl breaks out of a secure facility by killing everyone. She is also completely naked. She then runs away and turns up on the beach to be picked up by this guy. Only now she has spazzed-out into some pathetic little shit who can't say anything except the grating-cute "nyuuuuuu!". She also doesn't know anything about anything and ends up sat in a puddle of her own piss. But it's all very cute and erotic and lalala. Then the girls take off their clothes and have a bath. Then the guy gets in compromising situations with the annoying exhibitionist in front of his cousin (who incidentally fancies him) and its all so very charming and stereotypical hahahaha.....

Then people get brutally murdered again and chicks get naked again. Repeat, repeat.

I think the horned-people want to rule the world, or something. They hate humans because they pick on them and kick their puppies and shit. So if humans won't accept them, then they must "make a world for [them]selves". What that means isn't explained, but I guess it has something to do with removing humans from the picture. The rest of the plot is nonsense filler about the characters and their history, including a totally implausible "we knew each other as kids" backstory, and a "revelation" which I want so badly to shout about because it is so stupid, but don't want to 'spoil' for anyone out there who can't work it out from the heavy-handed hints throughout the short series.

The idea of the soft-hearted girl with the hidden harsh personality is certainly not new. The first thing to come to mind is the vastly superior initial OVA series of 3x3 Eyes. Except in 3x3 Eyes the calm version of Pai actually has some charisma.

One of my major issues with this anime is the liberal use of nudity. Worse, child nudity. Warning: this series contains many, many shots of 13 year old girls in the buff. In fact, it shows just about as graphic scenes of child porn as is (for some reason) allowed by the censors. We're talking full pussy shots on all fours. That shit is fucked up. What's more fucked up is that that is the most sexual of all the nudity in the series. Every episode (and the entirity of the opening and closing credits) bulges with breast and pussy shots, but they are so badly drawn as to not have any effect on anyone over 12. However, when the young-guns come out, the poses and situations get more and more perverse. I know 13 is technically the age of consent in Japan, but come on.

The violence is way over the top throughout, and the style often reminds me more of Ikkitousen than any attempt at being vaguely serious. The less bloody ecchi moments, too, defy all logic. One girl allowed herself to be groped by another girl for a full two minutes while doing nothing but blushing and weakly saying "I said no". This kind of pathetic clown is one of the worst traits of Japanese media.

Towards the end the series is plagued by bawling sentimentalism. It manages to convey at least some feeling, and does feel like it picks itself up a little. But it is ultimately too little, too late. It was interesting, however, and the only time when you are actually asked to consider the characters as the children they are instead of just hard-ass emotional wrecks.


Animation 6/10.

Considering the hype there always was around this series, it is strange to see how low the animation quality is. The framerate is not good at all, the designs are sloppy, and the locations are severly limited/similar (though often nicely detailed).


Sound 4/10.

Rubbish. Only one or two different songs performed in a variety of ways. Boring. "Nyuuuuuu"!


Characters 5/10.

Tired stereotypes by the bundle. Huge, plump eyes even grace the dopey male lead; shit hairstyles in stupid colours too. All very nice and cute, and clearly intended to be in juxtaposition with the bloody violence. However, rather than working to make it all the more powerful, it just looks wrong. It doesn't work. The violence is more like a sexual perversion in this setting.

And just when you thought all the characters were present and accounted for, there's the guy with the spiky black hair and the very reflective glasses. Oh, and what's he doing? He's pushing those glasses up his nose with his middle finger while giving the camera a slightly sideways smirk. Holy shit. I promised that I would kill a man if I watched another anime featuring him, but when it comes down to it all I want to do is kill myself.

The only good character, literally, is the bad-ass soldier guy. He punches women in the face in a way that makes me think he is angry to be in the show at all. Winner.

The harem is an often-referenced bad point of the show, and I won't disagree. As if two sworn enemies would live together. One has her arms and legs cut off by the other, then agrees to live with her. Whatever. The harem-hotel is where the series abandon's all sense of seriousness and becomes more like a gorey Tenchi Muyo.

I guess the main theme is stigma, but I'm confused. The pathetic "nyuuu" chick is some kind of anti-hero by all accounts. It seems like we are supposed to feel sympathy for this girl who indescriminately kills people. Hell, the cast seems to manage it. At one point a very young "Nyu" gets bullied, so she kills all the kids bullying her (otaku revenge anyone?) and then goes on a rampage killing families for a place to stay. There is little about that that says "poor victim". Nothing really makes me feel anything for this character. Certainly nothing balances how damn annoying she is in every scene. I suppose we should believe that she cannot control her power, but without something likable is it almost impossible to feel any balance. It's interesting that you are ostensibly 'supposed' to feel sympathy for a child who wants to be human but cannot embrace any element of morality or compassion. Look at Tetsuo in Akira; he ruthlessly murders people and barges through Tokyo on a wave of destruction. But throughout the whole movie he somehow retains sympathy for his problems. Nothing like that applies to Elfen Lied.

Also, why the hell don't the girls in the series kill each other? They have an inexplicable tendency to push each other about and/or give each other a slap. You want them dead, so use your silly arms and kill them like you kill everyone else!


Overall 5/10.

Some anime forces you to look beyond the stereotypes and tired themes for the real story. I tried that with Elfen Lied and all I got was this lousy review.

Before reading any of my reviews, please keep in mind that I am a VERY harsh critic. I do not hand out 10's easily and anything I rate 7 or higher I consider recommendation worthy.

Before I even start defending my opinion I just have to say that anyone who thinks this was amazing because of the amount of "gore" probably hasn't read 3x3 Eyes (also, Elfen Lied appears to be influenced by 3x3 Eyes, I'm not the only one to come to this conclusion). In short, this series is severely over-hyped and over-rated. If you want the long then keep reading. . .

Story: 5/10
The story ... itself was okay, but not really anything special. For the most part it was somewhat compromised to favor action scenes. The only part of the story that really interested me was Lucy's past which did not disappoint (9/10), other than that the story wasn't that great. Before I started watching Elfen Lied I was informed by many that the series was "amazing" and "groundbreaking" because of all the blood and gore. Well they got the blood part right, but gore was not evident. Let me clarify, gore is not getting decapitated or losing limbs, gore is being cut in half and having your innards strewn across a lengthy flight of stairs exposing your ribs and spinal cord for all to see(3x3 Eyes manga 5, it was actually one of the most ROMANTIC moments of the series, they did something very similar again in volume 29). I was thoroughly amused in episode 1, though. I don't want to ruin it for those who haven't seen, because it was as unexpected as it was amusing. Anyone who has seen will know what I'm talking about. The ending was butchered, for lack of a better word. They could easily make a 2nd season as the plot was very much left unresolved. That was probably the biggest drawback of the series. So if you're expecting something epic, then forget about it, it ain't a happenin'! You'll get a lot of blood and 0 conclusion, leaving you wanting to read the manga to find out what REALLY happened. The whole idea that Lucy is this psycho mass murderer and everyone wants her for their own means (either to kill her to enhance their reputation or capture her to make her the leader of a new race) is not really that original. It's been done before. The resulting bloodbaths that follow are completely expected and unentertaining. Nyu was entertaining at times, annoying at other times. The story about the shell was very nice, changing her clothes was priceless. The endless molestation was very unnecessary. . . To sum up, it was average. Nothing to really hate about it, just didn't live up to the hype. The idea was great, the follow through was terrible.

Art: 8/10
The art was pretty good. The CG was done moderately well and the backgrounds were all nice and all, especially the beach, but I'm a sucker for beautiful beaches. Lol. The cels were all crisp and clear, which was good. The character designs were good as well. I particularly liked the eyes and hair of the characters. The blood and "gore" scenes didn't look very realistic though. It's blood. Blood is red. Very artistic. Must have been fun to animate though, so I have to give credit for good cinematography.

Sound: 7/10
I wasn't too fond of the opening song, but I loved the ending song. The BGM fit fairly well, none really stood out as being particularly bad. The voice acting was okay. I liked how Lucy's voice was done. Nana and Nyu were annoying at times, everything else was good. Nothing special, but it was done well. I had no real complaints about the sound in Elfen Lied.

Character: 6/10
Lucy was good, Kurama was good. Yuka, Nyu, Nana and Mayu I didn't really like that much. They annoyed me at times, especially Nyu, her act got old in a hurry. Everyone else was okay. The biggest issue I had with the characters was Lucy/Nyu. . . Where have I seen something like that before? Ah, yes. 3x3 Eyes. The airheaded yet sweet Pai and the dangerous and powerful Sanjiyan. It's kind of hard to dispute where Okamoto-sensei got her inspiration from. I saw Kurama as an interesting tragic character, but he wasn't really built up quite as much as I'd have liked. All the characters seemed rather stereotypical to me. Nothing to write home about.

Enjoyment: 4/10
Aside from Lucy's story and a few select scenes early on I didn't really get much enjoyment out of this series. The ending annoyed me and left me saying; "That's it? Where's the rest of it?" Because of that I ended up starting to read the manga, which to my dismay wasn't any better. Not only did it stray from the original plot after the incident which concluded the animé, it also seemed to concentrate on molestation, rape and sex more than I would have liked. I ended up dropping the manga in disgust in volume 8. The animé actually is better, despite the open ending. So aside from the first few ep's and the story of Lucy's past I really didn't enjoy this series very much.

Overall: 5
I meant what I said, it's over-hyped, over-rated and most definitely NOT a classic. While it wasn't exactly bad, it wasn't the amazing show that people had me believing it was. Anyone who wants to see something "gory" should look elsewhere. Might I suggest the 3x3 Eyes manga?

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 Gossip Girls. 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 Diclonious 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, I hate to use this word so lightly, but she’s retarded. Like, literally retarded. I know I shouldn’t use that word, because it’s a very mean and insensitive word, but I don’t think you’ll ever see an anime character who fits it more than she does. I’m not talking ‘makes bad decisions and does stupid things’ retarded, oh no, I mean ‘pisses all over the floor for no good reason’; retarded. She’s basically a walking infant with boobs, which she will happily squeeze into somebody’s hand. 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 Adam Conlon, 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. You can find that at http://manga.clone-army.org/nana.php.

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.

I really feel like this anime, much like its main character, has an identity crisis. For me, this anime is all over the place and the only reason I think it became a sort of "cult classic" is because of its gore, nudity and bizarre characters.
The reason I say this is because although the concept of the story and characters is good, it was handled very poorly. The anime tried to transmit this overly dramatic story which also influenced the character developents, but it also wanted to mix comedy, romance and slices of action in the middle. It got very confusing to watch as ... in one scene the protagonist would be doing the most silly of things and in the next the characters would be having a competition to see who has the most traumatic backstory. The other thing that bothers me are the logic flaws the anime has, and just expects you to accept, I won't spoil anything but I think if you see it you can get there yourself.
Anyway, I overall found this an extremely medíocre anime, I also understood the messages it tried to convey (satirization of society and etc.), but it was in no way "deep" as I heard some people call it, simply because they were so blatant, like the creator was afraid people wouldn't understand them.
In the end what saved this anime (for me) was the soundtrack and the art that I found to be very good, considering its age.

This anime keeps getting compared with Gantz everytime I mention it to someone. As I have seen both I must sadly admit that this comparison is applicable. Like Gantz, this series has an excellent premise that gets wasted on excess gore, character cliches and a tediously dragged out plot.

To its defense though, Elfen Lied has something that Gantz does not, and that is a heart. You can see through situations in the series that the creators are trying to make a point of the loners and outcasts of society. Sadly, they went for the "road most travelled" by including distracting plot devices that very much ... take away from a simple story.

The animation for this series is what is to be expected for an anime of its time, no more no less. As a result, the background are rendered beautifully and the frame rate is excellent. I was not a big fan of the character design because I got the feeling from it that I was expected to feel more touched by the gore because these things were happening to "pretty" characters.
The other problem this created for the series was that it resulted in an unconvincing look for the characters after they had been battered or ripped to shreds. It was almost comical to see some of those dead bodies as the artists had trouble making a convincing look for them. Another thing about the animation, more precisely the Art I did not like was the way the blood looked in the show. As the blood is quite an important theme, this creates a problem for me.
For starters, most scenes with blood had the blood looking like a painted wall with hardly any rendering. Then the excessive use of blood in general just made the series lessen its impact overall as the blood lost its meaning by being presented so often. Had they been more scarce in its usage, the blood would have had a much stronger impact on the viewer.

The sound here is mostly appropriate and suits scenes successfully. The only concern I had was the overuse of the Lilium symphony for EVERY sad scene. Like the blood element, it took away what was so special about the song with excess. Lilium the song is a wonderful intro though and the images that go with it are just another reminder of what could have been. The outro is also a good little song but I was concerned with its atmosphere as that did not really suit the show.
The voice actors in this were just decent overall. The standout would of course be the one for Lucy as she is the only one who manages to bring a none melodramatic tone to her character. The others were satisfactory in bringing their character to life but the melodrama could get a bit much at times.

The story is one of the aspects which show a lot of promise at the start. From the first episode I thought I might actually be in for an interesting and heartfelt exploration of one's inner torments with Lucy. What I got was a tired old "personality disorder" with added amnesia on the part of our male protagonist.
You'd think that would be enough cliches to sustain a series but no, you also get your typical girl who does not know how to deal with her feelings and instead spends time punching the lead, and also a shy little girl who looks to have been abused in one way of another since childhood.... can anyone say Love Hina? Or most other harem show stereotypes? You even get a crazily stubborn older gentleman trying to recapture Lucy for added emphasis...
And to add insult to injury, the plot itself gets to a fairly stagnant place somewhere in the third episode and remains there until the eleventh, where another dinoclius comes in for some more twistedly torturous gore scenes. The ending also leaves a bit to be desired. I am usually a fan of open endings but here it just feels like they did not know where to go with it all as opposed to them leaving things open.

As pointed out in a couple of paragraphs before, the characters are just harem stereotypes and unfortunately harem characters do not really suit the story. The fact that these characters work (use the term loosely) for Love Hina and other harem is that they are comedies. Elfen Lied wants to and should be taken more seriously than Love Hina but it mildly succeeds in this regard when it should incandascent.
Add the Nyuu twist instead of a proper exploration of Lucy as a character and it just does not work. The characters we had a chance to feel for are sadly dealt a very short hand. These characters would be Lucy, Nana or their "father".
Instead, most of the time we could get a useful flashback, you get Lucy, Kouta and several other children acting cutesy. Except for one twisted flashback which makes you feel for the murderer more than the victim.
The creators should have looked at shows like Now and Then Here and There or Berserk to see how to incorporate interesting plot devices or flashbacks to have an anime that is more successful.

As if it, you are left with a very sour taste in your mouth (much like with Gantz) when you think of what could have been. However, the fact that it is raved about so much means that there is an audience for that out there. I also found it interesting when I was watching it but I now unfortunately realise it was for all the wrong reasons. So if you think this could be something you will enjoy, then go for it but if you are one who likes a little more from your anime see Berserk and Now and Then Here and There as they deal with these themes a lot better.

Elfen Lied is one of those anime that everyone hears about at least once or twice. Almost everyone in the anime community has heard of it. “How amazing, how beautiful, how tragic!” its fans say. Needless to say, I went into Elfen Lied with quite high expectations, and indeed, the anime started off with an enormous amount of potential. Unfortunately, it fell flat disappointingly fast.

A young woman with horns – who we later learn is a Diclonius (which is also, in fact, a genus of dinosaur, did you know that?) – escapes from a government facility. A shot to the head renders her infantile, only ... able to utter the word “nyu”. A pair of cousins encounter her and decide to take her home with them – perhaps they assumed she was a type of Pokemon? Nevertheless, the duo take her home, name her Nyu, and soon become entangled with the police. A question lingers at the back of the cousins’ and the anime viewer’s minds – who exactly is Nyu? Sounds interesting, right? Well, it’s also where this story goes downhill, because why would you take an injured young woman home with you? Who has horns, for that matter? To its credit, Elfen Lied also manages to bring up numerous extremely interesting points about humanity and society in general, for which I applaud it; however, it does this in a bad way and the entire anime screams bad execution.

One of the major things that bothered me about Elfen Lied was the characters. The bulk of them were flat and unlikable. Kouta was uninteresting and uninspired; while he had a couple good traits, he was essentially a dreary and dull character. Slapping girls is not going to get you anywhere in my good books, sorry. Yuka was all right, if a bit bland. Certainly not a stellar character. As for Lucy, my apologies, Lucy – Nyu got old very quickly, as well as, dare I say it, annoying. It’s rare I find a character to be truly irritating, but in this case I actually did. There are far more realistic and compelling ways to develop a split-personality. Chii from Chobits is a more interesting character. In addition, you don’t need to go around trying to get people to grope your breasts, or trying to hump people, for that matter. It’s not cute. At all. And I really don’t know about Kouta, but I personally don’t find anything sexy about a mentally disabled young woman. Speaking of which, the majority of characters seem to lack any common sense whatsoever – or even a semblance of a brain. Tell me, if you found a naked, bleeding girl who can only say “nyu” standing in the middle of the ocean, with horns sticking out of her head, would you take her home with you or would you take her to the hospital?

The only characters that I found myself growing attached to at all were Kurama, Mariko, and Nana – these three stole the show for me. Kurama should be getting an award for being the most fleshed-out, well developed character in the entire series – he was a joy to watch and I found him to be an extremely realistic character. Congratulations for making me cry, Kurama. I also found Nana and Mariko to be highly sympathetic characters as well, despite the latter having relatively little screen time and the former being a “stereotypical” happy-go-lucky naïve girl. I guess I just have a soft spot for those character types. Mayu was also very sympathetic, although this was in retrospect mostly due to the cruel background given to her.

The anime took few attempts to flesh out its characters. Kurama and Lucy are the soul exceptions. For instance, there is one character in particular, whose name is Bando. He is introduced not only as a violent individual but also as horrible a misogynist. At one point, he encounters the young girl I mentioned before, Mayu. As I watched their interaction, I could practically smell an appealing plot point; Bando would develop some sort of attachment or soft spot for little Mayu, and they would have a bond or relationship. This would have done wonders in not only increasing the depth in Bando’s character (he actually has a compassionate side! he actually has a heart!), but also adding some interest to the character relations in general. Alas, this did not happen, and Bando instead became violent toward Mayu, showing off his repugnant qualities. After this particular encounter, I don’t recall them ever seeing each other again. In other words: the anime seems to be afraid to jump out of stable little character molds. Giving Bando a relationship with Mayu would have made him a more likable and sympathetic character – hey, he may be a bastard, but look how great he is with Mayu.

Another problem with this anime is the nudity. Most fans of Elfen Lied claim that it is a “mature” anime, citing the copious amounts of nudity as proof of it. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m fairly certain that the true hallmark of a mature anime is a lack of nudity – or, if there is nudity, it is done tastefully (see Darker Than BLACK and Wolf’s Rain as examples). This is not the case in Elfen Lied. The presence of completely needless as well as senseless fan service manages to further cheapen the entire experience. I’m not saying that nudity is inherently “bad” (look at Wolf and Spice, a perfectly lovely anime), but it’s uncalled for here. At least ninety percent of the nudity is pointless and serves no purpose whatsoever. It’s also a bad idea to include fan service with nudity, as it simply degrades the anime. Conversely, as horrible as it sounds, the violence did not completely disturb me. Blood-C and Hellsing Ultimate are far more gory flicks (for the record, I do hate watching horror films and slasher flicks with real life actors; drawings and reality make a difference for me and my squeamishness).

And despite all its flaws in terms of plot, characters, presentation, and logic (don’t pull a, “hey, it’s anime, it’s not meant to be logical” argument on me), I’m giving Elfen Lied a…fairly high score of six. Why, you ask? Because it had some interesting points to discuss. It really succeeded in making me hate my fellow humankind (not that I didn’t already). It had a gorgeous soundtrack (the opening song is absolutely beautiful), and it had a premise that promised to be interesting. I feel bad giving it a rating of four, because I believe it deserves higher; I also believe it deserves higher than a five, because despite my many misgivings, I did find some parts interesting and even compelling. But I can’t give Elfen Lied anything higher than a six, because in my books, it simply doesn’t deserve it.

If Elfen Lied is already controversial for its nudity and violence, why not go the extra step? Elfen Lied could have brought up some truly fascinating topics for discussion and analysis, but it chooses not to. For instance, the Diclonius children that do not have a specific ability that allows them to pass on their genes to human beings are killed. Elfen Lied could have asked us the question of whether it is right or wrong to kill a child merely for what we perceive to be mental or physical defects – is it ethical to kill the baby who has Down Syndrome? Is it right to cull a child who may not be able to walk? Instead of taking this path, Elfen Lied briefly alludes to the fact that most of these Diclonius children would be completely normal if not for how the government treats them, before pushing the plot point aside. The other characters of Elfen Lied suffer the same treatment.

Mayu was sexually abused by her stepfather and rejected by her mother, who was jealous of the attention that her daughter received. Not only is this horrendously tragic, but this also sadly does happen in real life. We feel sad for Mayu – but only because the anime expects us to. There is no further development or exploration of Mayu’s character. Surely such a traumatic experience must have left its mark on her? But we aren’t privy to it – had we skipped over that scene, Mayu would simply be a shy, homeless girl. She isn’t given any development other than that. Perhaps she would be afraid of Kouta, who is male? Perhaps she would seek some sort of maternal comfort from Yuka? Perhaps she would be afraid of Kouta when he raises his voice? Maybe she has nightmares, or maybe she can’t sleep at night? There is no attempt to give this character any depth other than crudely slapping on a tragic past. Most of the other characters are the same. Lucy simply kills other human beings, even when they have shown her no hostility or desire to harm her. Yes, we understand that she is angry about her pet, but it’s oddly hard to be sympathetic for her when she goes to people’s houses and massacres them in order to take a shower and eat some food.

In addition to its poor execution overall, Elfen Lied also has some flaws with its voice acting and animation. While I have not seen the English dub for the anime and thus cannot vouch for it, I must say that the Japanese VAs sounded surprisingly bland. Even Noto Mamiko, the voice of Yuka, was weak, and I usually like her roles very much. It may have had something to do with the fact that I did not like the character she played that much, though. The poor voice acting is especially noticeable with the absolutely beautiful soundtrack Elfen Lied has, making it all the more a shame. Another shame is the art of Elfen Lied – it’s ugly at worst and passable at best. The characters are not pleasant to look at in the slightest, and the colour palettes of the show definitely leave something to be desired. The juxtaposition of enormous gooey eyes and gore might have been lessened by pretty drawings, but this is not the case. Top it off with the fact that the Diclonius’ horns look more like cat ears than anything else, and it’s clear it’s a whole lot of fan pandering.

Elfen Lied will definitely make you think, it’ll definitely make you sad, and it’ll definitely make you depressed to some extent. It paints a grotesque picture and it had the potential to be a truly psychological work of art. But I don’t think it’s a masterpiece by any means. The execution is too poor to be deemed as such, and the majority of the characters are simply uninspired and unlikable. It goes nowhere with its plot points or twists, and simply slaps them on without thinking. Tantalizing sub-plots are waved under your nose and then swept away as if they never existed. Overall, it’s a whole lot of cheap entertainment that had the possibility of being something more.

You might be quite surprised with my views on this show, I personally think the show is really good and really well told, but I only watched this show once and personally I can only stand the violence and cruelty once. You may be wondering why I gave everything else except the enjoyment and overall a 9 or 10. The fact is this is a great series, but I did not enjoy this series. I don' t think anyone could enjoy it, it has some real painful material in it and that is why I cannot higher the score on this. The music is ... some of the most beautiful I have heard in a show and the opening with it's latin lyrics and it's beautiful homage to Gustav Klimt is amazing to look at. The character and story development are top notch, so why am I rating it so low.

Bottom Line: There is a scene of Animal Cruelty which really really upset me beyond belief and some of the violence was really really difficult to watch, It was kind of terrifying to watch some of that stuff, I also found a lot of the child nudity to be extremely disturbing and upsetting to watch. Bottom Line, you have to have a strong stomach to watch this show and I didn't so that's why It lost favor with me.

**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**

Elfen Lied is a very enjoyable anime, but not for the reasons that it thinks it's enjoyable. I initially had a different opinion on this show, but rewatching it has allowed me to come to a definitive conclusion: Elfen Lied is not a "dark" or "disturbing" show at all, which is something that many people will tell you. Elfen Lied is a FUNNY show; I'm talking laugh out loud hilarious. This is the kind of anime you show your friends because you can't even believe it exists. They'll be like "What's this?" and you'll be like, "Oh, you'll see…". Every character in Elfen ... Lied is basically a piñata full of blood and guts, and the first 5 minutes of the first episode are more then enough to let you know what you are getting into. Why shouldn't this be considered "messed up"? Well, we will get to that:

Story: 5/10
Synopsis: A girl named Lucy breaks free of a high security government lab, where experiments were being conducted on her, by killing all the guards in one of the bloodiest sequences in anime history. She manages to reach the ocean and jump in, but not before she is hit the head by a bullet. Lucy, as it turns out, is a "Diclonius"; a specially evolved species of human who are born with "vectors", which are some kind of invisible set of arms that vibrate at high enough frequencies to cut through nearly any material. Lucy then wakes up on the shore of a beach where she is found by Kouta and Yuka; our other two main characters. However, Lucy retains no memory of who she is what so ever. She goes from a merciless, stone-cold-killer to an innocent girl with the intelligence of a pokemon: She communicates only by saying only one word: "Nyuu", and so that's what Kouta and Yuka name her when they decide to take her home and look after her. Meanwhile, Lucy's escape from the lab has prompted extreme measures from the government and military, because Lucy's abilities are apparently devastating enough to pose a threat to national security, so a huge manhunt is conducted.
 
Elfen Lied is the bloodiest, nudiest show you will ever see. As previously mentioned, the first five minutes should be enough to convince you of that. Not a single episode goes by without gratuitous amounts of blood and fanservice that gets way, WAY too excessive, which brings me to something I simply need to get out of the way:

Fans of this show are convinced that Elfen Lied is some sort of tragedy; that it tells a very mature, very serious story in a masterful fashion. *Sigh. My friends: NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING could further from the truth!

Elfen Lied is not mature show because it tries so hard to be one. It is unfathomably shallow. The opening sequence of the show is so over the top that the viewer becomes 100% numb to the rest of the violence of the show. It stops being disturbing and it starts crossing into the territory of just being fucking hilarious. I mean, hell, after that opening sequence, the only way the show could possibly top itself is to… I don't know… Cut the legs off of a chi-… Oh. How about beating a puppy to dea-… Oh. The show clearly demonstrates that it doesn't give a fuck, and therefore neither should the viewer; I simply laughed my ass off at the absurdity of it all. Elfen Lied looks for any excuse to show boobs or gore for pure shock value in every single possible scene, and that is both the biggest problem and the best part of it.

Anyway, Elfen Lied is supposed to be a tragedy; it attempts to tell a depressing and meaningful story about a girl (Lucy) who has been nothing but a freak in the eyes of everyone she knows for her entire life and to convey that when a person is mocked, ridiculed, and outcast without ever having so much as a single friend, he/she will eventually reach a breaking point. To be fair, there were actually some very nicely written and effective story telling techniques used in Elfen Lied, but the absolutely absurd tone of the show makes it impossible to take seriously. Maybe something in the show could have actually resonated with me if Lucy's tits weren't popping out every 15 minutes as she proceeds to slaughter mostly innocent people. Throw in a lot of pacing issues, plotholes, and overall strange writing decisions and you have a storyline so ludicrous that it is hilarious to watch. So it's both very good and very bad at the same time?... I guess so.

Art: 5/10
The animation on the environment is alright. The backgrounds and settings visually appealing some of the time. The character animation? Not so much. Elfen Lied's animation is usually fluid and satisfactory, but inconsistency exists. A few of the action scenes are handled poorly, while others are handled great. That doesn't matter much when 90% of the screen is covered in blood most of the time though, does it?

Sound:8/10
Elfen Lied has a fantastic stand-alone soundtrack, but boy does it not fit the mood of what is happening on screen. Sure, it fits the mood of what they were TRYING to do, but what they were trying to do is very different from what they actually did. The voice acting is average in the sub and below average in the dub.

Characters: 3/10
Everyone says that Lucy is the only interesting and worthwhile character in Elfen Lied, and, well... Yep. Pretty much. But even she's not that great.

The characters in Elfen Lied are just painfully boring, and the budget for their character development probably went towards animating Lucy's boobs.

Kouta, the protagonist, in particular is just unbearably devoid of a distinguishable personality. There is nothing interesting about him except his back-story, which we get to see for mindless bloody fun. There isn't really much else to say about him.

Then there's Yuka. Oh god have mercy. FUCK Yuka. She is beyond the point of uninteresting. She is the only character in any TV show I've ever seen to have no personality, and STILL be annoying as hell. She never shuts her damn mouth about things that the others characters don't care about and the audience ESPECIALLY doesn't care about. Horrible character.

Lucy, of course, is considered the heart and soul of Elfen Lied. Her back-story is tragic, blah blah blah, but despite how cold-blooded and murderous she is, blah blah blah, she's no that bad on the inside, blah blah blah. Now back to more blood and boobs!... But in all seriousness, nobody should care about Lucy's backstory because it doesn't appear that the show itself even cares; the "main themes" of Elfen Lied take a backseat to mindless violence, which makes it impossible to take seriously. Not to mention her "Nyuu" form is embarrassing and shameless objectification, but that's another story.

Overall: 5/10
Elfen Lied does not give the mature and serious themes it contains the attention they need and deserve in order to thrive. Instead, those themes are overshadowed by a complete and utter bloodbath of cute, pink-haired anime girls doing insanely violent things for no other reason then because they are violent. This makes for a very funny and comedic experience, but really not much else. If you are 17+ years of age, give Elfen Lied a watch (with friends, preferably). You will either somehow not be put off by its absurdity and get something out of it, or be treated to a good laugh. It's a win-win situation.

An anime that tackles discrimination, and humanity's fear of what's different with a lot of violence along the way.

The series had a creative new breed of human, called diclonius (consisting of horns and invisible arms that seem to destroy whatever they touch), which I felt to be quite a good design for the purpose of the discrimination, and violence. A good design also if you're into cat ears on anime girls... Though they aren't to be mistaken as such. There was one aspect of the anime which I found very nice: The music. The opening song was eerie and set an excellent tone for ... the series I thought I'd be watching, and was enough to convince me to try the series out.

However, I was greatly disappointed by the series. It's a harem, hardly anything more. With it's lack of direction, and typical characters, the actual story doesn't really seem develop. I feel like they focused on the main character too much - considering his complete lack of purpose in the series. I know, he had some involvement with the situation as a child, but it never felt believable to me.
I don't wish to waste much time on this review, but my overall feeling was disappointment. Considering how much potential this series had, it was let down by it's boring characters (e.g. Nyu's personality has been done, and it wasn't good the first time), and it's harem-like focus.


However, if you're a fan of cute and somewhat indestructible girls in a mixture of blood/guts and hilarious ecchi scenes and over the top/rushed drama, then sure, watch it.

In Elfen Lied's infamous first 10 minutes or so, where a naked girl escapes some kind of laboratory while telekinetically ripping apart the guards, blood gushing, we have a little side story with a secretary going on. In my view, she says a lot about Elfen Lied. This secretary is extremely clumsy. She drops coffee trays and fails to complete the simplest tasks. Before the escape is over, her head has been ripped off and her body used as a human shield. In other words, her whole, entire character, and the nature of it, exists solely to make things as shocking as possible. Nevermind the ... realism of such a person being hired to work at a laboratory such as the one in question, it's better she be as innocent as possible, and let's be really blatant about it! What could have been an artistic piece of violence in a show that otherwise, for that matter, dares go where few other animes do, becomes a self-consciously shocking scene that is either laughing along with or at the outraged viewer. By the end of the show, most of the characters are revealed to be not much different from the secretary. They are all in some or another way similarly often self-consciously in this way outrageous.

What's strange is that this self-irony is combined with some genuinely touching drama, told with occasional artistic flare. The imagery of Gustav Klimt is played with and the central character of Lucy/Nyuu is very cool. It's almost fascinating how our sympathy for her never wavers, despite the fact that the reasons this show is sometimes referenced as horror, mostly comes from her actions. Sadly the story otherwise shows little subtlety: Once the big emotional moments are out of the way, the principal plot is actually literally left unexplained at the end of the last episode.

In sum it's a very strange anime. Sometimes playing on the most subtle strings, other times making fun of itself, or even being in hypocritical in using for entertainment the things it criticizes. Sometimes being cute, and warm, other times being wildly violent. All this might make it worth watching it for itself. It is a novelty, no doubt about it. But otherwise, the story is not well-told, or even finished at all, while the characters feel too much like toys of the creators for cheap shocks, and emotional moments, for one to take them too seriously. Seen as a conventional anime then, Elfen Lied mostly fails. It is horribly curious though.

Disclaimer: The following review is based on my personal opinions, and does not feature many objective analyses. As such, this may not coincide with yours, or the general publics opinions.
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“Are you enjoying this?”

A series so notorious for it’s nudity, gore and overall adult themes, loved by so many people, even called a masterpiece or “the best ever” by some... Yet when I watch this, I can’t help but feel like this is all a petty excuse for unnecessary nudity and excessive gore, paired with a pretty sub-par story.

Some people are turned away by just the first 10 minutes, which are filled with copious amounts of ... blood & gore, as well as fact that the killer is also fully nude, the whole time.

Some people say that it’s not really a proper start to the show, because it’s not all like this, and it’ll get much better later on, but to be honest, I think this is a pretty good preview of what you can expect;

Excessive amounts of gore, nudity & a pretty mediocre story.

Story: (6 / 10)

The story, while not all that great, isn’t really worthy of being called horrible either.

Basically, demonic girl escapes from facility and starts living with 2 cousins. She’s then hunted by the people she escaped from as they’re trying to recapture her.

That’s it. There’s nothing more to it, and yet, people think this is some kind of innovative masterpiece... To add upon this, the part of the story I described, while being the overlying plot, doesn’t really take precedence all of the time. A lot of the time, episodes may just focus on the cousins daily lives, taking care of Nyu, and flashbacks to their childhood.

Which brings us to the reason why this show is not rated nearly as low as I would’ve first thought; the flashbacks.

Here we get to learn about what Nyu’s childhood was like, being bullied and discovering her “demonic” powers. We also get to share some tragic, and happy (but mostly tragic) events of Kouta, one of the cousins, past.

(The OVA for this show, which I didn’t actually know was an OVA until afterwards, also add to Nyu’s flashbacks).

This “arc”, if you want to call it that, was one of the main reasons I could keep going with the show, and was probably the only reason I could even remotely connect with any of the characters in the show.

As for the later parts of the story, the anime actually broke off from the manga, and made its own standalone ending (because iirc, the manga wasn’t finished at the time), but if you ask me, I think waiting would’ve been a better choice...

Art: (5 / 10)

The art quality is very much just decent. It has a very “old-school feeling” artstyle, and some of the gory parts are also quite well done. However, character designs aren’t really anything special, if you ask me, which kind of brings us to another problem...

Fanservice; This show has it. A ton of it. I hear a lot of people saying things like “But dude, it’s part of the mature theme of the series”, and saying it makes more sense for it to be there, than every character always being perfectly covered up.

But really, this just seem like even more pathetic excuses for some nudity. I mean, they even have a scene where Kouta needs to change Nyu’s clothes, because for some reason, they just couldn’t have the female cousin do that...

Sound: (5 / 10)

I’d definitely say the OP, “Lilium”, is absolutely perfect for this show. It does well in setting the mood for the episodes, but this is sort of countered by the ED song, “Be Your Girl”. See, while the lyrics for this song fits the characters very well, it’s the upbeat and happy tone of the song, and the poorly timed cliffhangers that come with the song, that really ruins the feeling of the show.

Basically, you have this sort of dark and moody, almost scary OP set the mood for the episode, then you get to see all this gory, butchering and whatever dark things might take place, and then just as you’re starting to get into it, you’re interrupted in the middle of that sad or depressing scene by this super upbeat & happy song... Granted, I think it’s a fantastic song, but it very much ruined the feeling for me.

If you’re looking for a fantastic OST, however, I’d advise you to look elsewhere. Basically, this anime’s OST consists of 4 or so different versions of the OP... Sure, it may sound good, especially when you play it in different styles, but really, it gets repetitive.

As for the voice acting, Nyu is (early on) probably one of the most annoying characters I’ve ever heard, however I can’t really blame the VA for this, as it’s just how the character is designed.

Even putting that aside, I feel like a lot of the dialog was pretty stale, and the sound effects aren’t really anything to gawk at either.

Characters: (4 / 10)

Once again, I found most of the characters pretty annoying. The male cousin, Kouta, is probably the dumbest character I’ve ever seen, and during the flashbacks, he’s just totally ignorant as to what is happening around him (seriously, not even a child is this dumb).

As for Nyu... Well... This is easier if you look at her as two different characters. You have Nyu, the less-intelligent, one-word cutie, who is a big contender for the most annoying character. I mean, all she does is say the same word over and over, then she’s suddenly naked and someone has to help her dress...

Then you have Lucy, the “real” version of the two, if you’d like. At first, Lucy will mostly only appear as a sort of “defense mechanism” for Nyu, like when she gets hurt or the like. Because of this, she will come out, butcher some people, then just go back to being Nyu.

I think this is too bad, as Lucy is by far the most interesting character in the series.

A lot of the side characters help portray some feelings of love, loneliness, sadness, etc. throughout the show, but there’s not really anyone I felt like I could relate to, or even cared for that much.

Enjoyment: (4 / 10)

Had the entire show been as good, and well done as the flashback episodes, then this would’ve gotten a much higher score from me. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and my opinion remain the same. Elfen Lied, to me, is still a pretty pathetic excuse for unnecessary nudity and excessive gore. The story was pretty lackluster, I didn’t really care about any characters, and the ones that were around would mostly just annoy me.

Any feelings they would have managed to build up throughout the episode would quickly vanish as soon as you heard the ED, but there were truly some depressing scenes here and there.

Yet again, these mostly appeared during the flashbacks, and one of the more well-known, is probably a certain “dog killing” scene.

All in all, a pretty mediocre show. Could’ve been done much better, and probably would’ve been if they hadn’t strayed from the manga (then again, don’t know when they started doing that, maybe it was doomed from the start).

It's some of the most f*cked up trash you'll ever watch while also being one of the greatest animes out there. It's the car crash that bent into a piece of art. While I can't stand multiple aspects of the show, the fact that you'll never be bored while watching and wind up accidentally binging the series speaks testaments to its quality. It's a bloody mess (literally), it's horney in all the wrong ways, and the romance can't decide if it wants to go to Alabama, Utah, or Neverland Ranch. But even after now watching it for a second time since my first viewing over ... a decade ago, I still find myself binging it the same way I did that first time. I will admit my memories of it had some rose tinted glasses, which is why it's gone from a 9/10 easy recommendation to a 7/10 I'll tell you about it if you ask me, but I can rightfully say it's worth watching if you haven't seen it. It will hold your attention for 13 episodes undividedly, so long as you can get past the more problematic elements.

A defence of Elfen Lied

There is a major problem concerning Elfen Lied, especially its animated adaption. This problem is: the show is very objectively poor. Elfen Lied is everything everyone loves to hate about anime in general. For a start I’ll address what people generally tend to have a problem with and address it objectively, without letting my personal opinion affect it because honestly, if you find any of the following things I’m about to discuss off-putting in anime, you will not enjoy this show. It really sucks but Elfen Lied just sets itself up to be disliked, throughout its entire 13 episode running course ... it tries its damnedest to make itself almost impossible to appreciate, even though within it lies a brilliant social commentary and character development which is worth the watch.

First off, its nature as an ecchi-harem set up. You’ve seen this a million times already, you know exactly how it works and exactly what part each of the characters are going to play (and they do). As you should be very much aware, the set-up is very inappropriate for the genre Elfen Lied is supposed to fit. Basically, if you’re into the more action-packed gory side of anime that no doubt intrigued you about Elfen Lied in the first place, this set up is going to make you hate the show. Which leads me to another thing: the gore and the “pseudo-intellectual” thing that it has going on. For a start, the gore makes the show difficult to appreciate for a number of reasons but most importantly because of the impression it gives that Lucy, the central character, is a mindless butcher driven by blind rage (which she is, but I’ll get to that later). The gore is very over the top and this makes the show feel like it is forcing itself to be as edgy as possible for attention. All of this amounts to the psychological themes (if you can even tell there are any considering how well the terrible set up and the over the top gore masks them) running through the show coming across as cheesy and forced simply for the sake of being received in a certain way, being edgy. Then of course there is the terribly sugary “kawaii” portrayal of the characters, especially effective in making you not want to feel any empathy for the characters at all, Lucy in particular. Then of course to top it all off, the voice acting in both the Japanese and English dubs are awful, possibly some of the worst I’ve ever heard. Neither of the dubs are successful in bringing out the characters through their vocal portrayals and of course what does that mean? Yeah, you guessed it, it makes it nearly impossible to appreciate the story.

No matter how you look at it, Elfen Lied is objectively terrible, it’s everything you hate about anime. I feel fairly certain in saying that if anything in the above paragraph puts you off, you will not enjoy this show.

Which is a shame, because of what you could potentially enjoy under the surface. Elfen Lied has one important thing running for it for the most part: Lucy’s character. You could enjoy Elfen Lied if you just look at Lucy and what the show actually deep down behind its façade wants you to know. Lucy’s story is a very clever display of the effect of social discrimination, emotional betrayal, maternal neglect and bullying can have on the human mind. Around the middle section of the series, you get to discover why Lucy is the destructive monster that she is. Whether or not you accept the events that turn Lucy into a demon, because they seem relatively small considering how indiscriminately she kills, you’ve got to look at the bigger picture. Lucy is the minority lashing out; a release of contained anguish. All through her childhood, Lucy is picked on, alienated, psychologically abused you name it. And when her emotions are betrayed by people that she has let get close twice, her mind can’t take it anymore and she gives into her animal instinct (Lucy is a diclonius; diclonius pretty much exist to kill humans). The thing is, bullying is a huge problem in today’s society, always has been and always will be. But bullying and abuse is a cycle. When Lucy gives into her powerful instinct to kill, she completes that cycle unconsciously. It’s Lucy discovering that she has become a monster gradually through her relationships with other characters (the harem set up ends up being necessary for this particular reason) that you need to be watching. It’s a real shame because Lucy’s story is actually heart-breaking once you realise it, but thanks to the shows terrible execution it’s difficult to truly appreciate what the artist actually wanted you to see. This is not just limited to Lucy either, Chief Kurama contains an equally heart-breaking tale within his character as well, but I may ruin part of the story if I go into too much detail here.

You may enjoy this show, but you probably won't unfortunately because you have to dig through its excessive market value design to get at the actual heart of the show. Elfen Lied is actually beautiful, however this adaption of the story is poorly executed and it’s very difficult to enjoy. I would suggest giving its source material a spin instead rather than this, although some of the same inherent problems are still there it is slightly easier to like and the story and characters are fully developed whereas this anime adaption doesn’t even make it halfway. Basically my point is: you probably won’t enjoy this show because of its nature but under the surface, it is amazing, it’s just a shame that it tries so hard to get you to ignore the fact that there is a purpose to it all. I think that this show is brilliant, but at the same time I also hate the way it was executed and you probably will to.

Dear god, what the hell did I just watch? Part of me was sickened and part of me kept watching. Honestly, I ran into this one with little to no notice as to what I was getting myself into, and it's going to take awhile to get this series out of my head which is what I believe they wanted to do. Will not post any spoilers, but be forewarned from this point, this isn't for the timid or weak. Nudity and gore is one thing, but child abuse is another.

Don't fall into the hype trap. This anime is certainly for the destructive-oriented among us anime fans, but the tension is what breaks0 the camels' back.

This is definitely one of the most intense anime series I've ever watched. However...

It's so tense that it makes a shallow story line seem as if it has a sophisticated depth. The fun part is being gripped in the suspense, the not so fun part is watching nothing really unfold except an awkward social situation only a Japanese writer would consider. The relationships and the energy between the characters is dynamic and holds this boat afloat ... until merciless action and gore take over the screen.

I felt as if the overcast of doom and depression interwoven in the setting suffocated me from desiring to relate to the characters. The action sequences were a myriad of color in an otherwise grayish temperature. The contrast left you feeling a little disillusioned while the surreal emotional energy from the characters left you wondering how this compares to anything you've ever seen.

I signed up specifically to write a review about this anime. I can see why it is so popular but not only do I not think this anime is worthy of its reputation I think most people that gave it a poor review sensed why but missed the mark.

This anime is as most reviews state basically Gore and Fanservice... lots of it. I don't mind gore in an anime and I thought it was appropriate in this anime. I also didn't mind the fanservice but these two things are just decorations on top an anime. They can't be the anime itself. For an anime that ... pushes the boundries to truly be great it must do so with purpose; this one attempted to but falls very short.

The anime is very brace in that it shows nudity of children (which I didn't feel was necessary), molestation, and torture. These are serious subject matter and happen in real-life... so I'm not opposed to them being used as story telling devices in an anime. In fact some great movies and anime have used them very sucessfully.

However, in this anime they are thrown at you in the hopes that you'll latch on to the blatant shock and forget that there wasn't much story or development behind the incidents to begin with. There's no reason to the madness. In addition, not one of the characters are developed very well at all; in there place is simply shocking slices of story... just the climax with no explanation or development if you want to look at it that way.

With all the shock-value being thrown at you it's easy to forget that there isn't much substance here. I'm not saying it's as bad as some animes which are just vehicles senseless gore... the story tried to provide reasons for all the gore, nudity, and shock but didn't do so in any sort of convincing or meaningful manner.

This could have been a masterpiece but the depth of story and character development just aren't there. And even though there are countless attempts to convince you otherwise in the end it's just a psuade.

This anime had a good plot and pretty decent characters. The artwork was also well-done in my view.

The major drawback for me with this title was the amount of gore in it. I understand that some gore was needed to carry the plot and make the story stick well. The creators went way over the top with this though. It seemed like if 5 minutes of anime passed with no gore, the writers felt the need to stick in random killings for no reason.

I had to make sure I never ate while watching this series, as I had made this mistake in early episodes and ... quickly lost my appetite and felt sick to my stomach. If you dislike gore, this'll be a hard title to make it through. Thank god it's only 13 episodes.

Also, I sat through the entire series and got a crap ending. Keh!

Elfen Lied is an anime that opens up with a sequence of a naked girl cutting people into pieces, seemingly with her mind, for about eight minutes. This sequence then leads to an episode replete with comedy and moments that make you smile. As the anime progresses though you lose that smile on your face as you are suddenly quite sad because everything’s so bloody screwed up. Every characters past comes to light and you suddenly can’t tell what side to take, you don’t know who you want to survive or die. It’s an anime that builds itself to be depressingly sad, and it’s the ... thing that holds it together.

Story
The story of Lucy and the Diclonius is actually somewhat compelling if it were given any better an explanation or was the main part of the story. Instead the main part of the story has to do with Lucy’s past and what has gone on between the main characters. In order to get more into the Diclonius plot, you have to read the (not as good as the anime) manga and go past the plot of the anime. The anime only reaches about chapter 60 of the manga and takes a few liberties. The plot does holds itself together pretty well and you really do get to care about the characters more than you should. Maybe it’s all the tragedy they have been through or maybe it’s just their likeability, either way the plot is sad. My problem with this though, the major problem, is that I don’t know what it’s trying to be. It’s replete with boobs, panties, jokes about boobs, jokes about panties, and just general hentai/ecchi kind of things. These are dispersed through the anime but with the serious and sad feel of the anime, you can’t tell whether this was built to be a hentai or a drama. There is so much fan service, it’s ridiculous (it’s even worse in the manga though) but I think it’s there for the guys to feel bad for the cute anime girls. Hell, I fell for it, and maybe that was the plan of the creator:

“The more boobies and panties, the more men care about characters. No man wants to really like an anime character and see her go through hell, so let’s do just that, make them cry, and then make them like the series.”
-Creator


And, as stated, I fell for it. I absolutely loved the plot despite all its problems. One of the biggest parts that annoys me though is the part where a professor takes Nyu/Lucy, claiming that she was his brother’s daughter.
“She’s my brother’s daughter. Let me take her or I’ll call the police.”
“OK.” Kouta states.
“NYU!”
“I’m sorry Nyu, but the fact that many people are after you and this guy I barely know says your the daughter of his brother is a good enough reason to let you go.”
The anime, as stated, doesn’t go through the whole manga so there are a lot of things left unanswered and the main bad guy who you think will be the final fight in the series is just there. He shows up every once in a while, but he is left alive at the end of the series and doesn’t even make an appearance.

Animation
While the animation is a rather basic anime look, it looks good on this anime. All the characters look good, the action scenes are fluid, and I can’t find too many faults with it.

Sound
The sound is good. I watched the Japanese version and I enjoyed the voice actors performances, as well as the sound effects. The opening song is bloody fantastic, so haunting and something that sticks with you.

Characters
There are faults in all of the characters and they are all archetypical of the genre in their own ways, but they are all likeable for whatever reason. Characters like Kouta, who would generally annoy me, I actually liked. I loved Lucy, and I find her to be a fantastic character for those of us who are bipolar (like myself). It’s a perfect representation of someone like me: stupid and nice Nyu one moment, dirtbag and Kill Em’ All attitude Lucy the next. The worst character is the main bad guy who heads the facility for the Diclonius who barely has enough screen time for you to even care, let alone has anything to do with the plot. He could have been left from the anime and there wouldn’t be any complaints about loose ends at the series conclusion and where he fits into anything.

Overall
This anime is definitely not perfect, but it can grab a hold of you and pull you in. Its characters are rather basic, but they somehow become extremely likeable to the point that you cry for them (and that’s not an exaggeration). This is the kind of anime I should hate as a fan of very complex, very adult anime. This anime just holds a place in my heart though for whatever reason and it has become one of my favorites. Despite all the complaints listed above, it still maintains a certain charm and likeability. It’s not for everyone at all, but there is just something about this series that tugs at your heart strings and keeps you coming back.

I’m going to give it a 6/10 because I really enjoyed it. I ran through the series faster than any other anime. But the problem is, this is a love it/hate it anime, maybe even the epitome of love it/hate it anime. I am not going to complain about bad reviews, because I can see the faults. I can see how someone can not enjoy this.

Am I telling you not to take my review with a grain of salt? No, I hope you do consider watching at least an episode if you haven’t. But if you dislike it and come back and tell me, I won’t fight with you. There is just some sort of charm it holds over me that it holds over a few, but doesn’t over others.

I’m assuming the charm is the cute anime girls getting violently beaten and going through hardships, which as an angsty teenage guy, makes me severely sad because I’ve been through a lot of the same things to a lot less extreme extent. Maybe it’s the fact I felt Lucy was an embodiment of someone like me, an outcast whose being an outcast has made him/her into a social pariah and someone who has a relatively dark outlook on life and hates people.

So there you go, whether you love it or hate it, whether you’ll watch it or won’t, I won’t blame you.