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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Elven Song, Elfenlied, MOL, Digitopolis, memoria

Japanese: エルフェンリート

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 12

Chapters: 113

Status: Finished

Published: Jun 6, 2002 to Aug 25, 2005

Genres: Action, Drama, Horror, Romance, Supernatural

Themes: Gore, Psychological

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Young Jump

Authors: Okamoto, Lynn (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.81¹ (scored by 50,183 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1251²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #141

Members: 98,192

Favorites: 5,466

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Reviews

Filtered Results: 39 / 43

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Jul 30, 2011

DarkDiminionX

Recommended

The most bloodiest,goriest,psycho,depressing manga read in history. Elfen Lied is disgusting and yes it is very depressing. But its story telling is amazing and is very enjoyable. But be warned, these are the most violent and depressing 107 chapters you will read in your life. Every page is graphic(not literally), but is an amazing manga that shoud be read by all manga fans. Elfen Lied has amazing storytelling and its epic.

Jun 22, 2014

moonkingdomify

Recommended

Elfen Lied is one of those series that you read and question whether or not it was a good series, oh wait, no it isn't. Elfen Lied is an amazingly written series that had a lot of very adult themes. It was the first series that I had ever read that I had come back to at a later age with more education and enjoyed it more due to my expanded knowledge. Whether your a psychologist or a biologist this series has a lot to offer to both different professions. It's less than I can say for Okamato's other work.

Elfen Lied takes a scientific approach ... to the whole "magical girl" genre, I put that in brackets because they aren't technically magical in this series, they use a force created by their bodies that the humans have taken to calling vectors (one defintion of vector being "an organism that transmits a disease or parasite from one animal or plant to another), which is a sort of way to insult these beings because these arm like appendanges can transmit their DNA into the bodies of humans, meaning that the humans infected with this DNA will give birth to Diclonius children (Diclonius being another insult to them, calling them an animal with horns). What makes this series so interesting to a person who believes in science like me is the fact that they explain everything with science, and very well so. Okamato uses already existing aspects of humanity and amplify them to create the dliclonius as a fictional species and makes it believable. In a strange sort of way, author Lynn Okamato makes it so that this fictional species that has monumental power is decently believable. Then the story of the series is pretty well written as well. For those of you that haven't heard of or prefer to avoid spoilers for series to a massive extent, this series is about a young diclonius woman who falls out of a tower and is found with amnesia on the Kamakura beaches by two other young adults, it follows these people through their experiences that all seem to revolve around the diclonius girl. The manga has a great amount of character development, even for lesser characters and even villains. Even the villains are well written. From an institution director attempting to protect his daughter, to said daughter attempting to protect her father, or even a diclonius man that has endorse humanity viewing his species as monster-like. There isn't a single human character. Though I can't say why the series is called Elfen Lied without spoiling a major plot point. This series also has a knack for portraying very adult themes very maturely while keeping a good amount of levity at nearly all points of the series. The sexual/physical abuse that one of the characters has survived is handled extremely well in a really realistic way. Then you also have a character that has a such a lack of self confidence that she has to wear a diaper because she can't control her bladder due to her lack of self confidence, this is still handled in a very mature way.

But the series is kind of lacking in the means of art. It starts of decently drawn and ends off a bit better, and as this is the authors first manga. His next series, Brynhildr in the Darkness, looks a lot better but of course it does everything else worse.

Age Rating: M for Blood and Gore, Disturbing content, Child Rape/Abuse, Nudity, Adult Themes, Explicit language, Intense Violence, and Incest.

Disclaimer: This is not for the faint of heart or those who are squeamish, there is a lot of mature content that something from North America wouldn't dare touch on. Okamato doesn't censor this series in the slightest.

Overall Rating: 9/10

Elfen Lied is a very well written series with a slight amount of fan service. But in the end it takes its intended audience seriously, which makes it one of the most enjoyable series I have ever seen.

Jul 26, 2014

GamingDragon11

Not Recommended

This review will contain spoilers. Elfen Lied is an manga that tries to be deep, but in the end, because of the horrible storyline, it fails to. Elfen Lied is a mangq merely composed of blood, pointless ecchi, and annoying characters.

Storyline:

Now, the storyline is dark, however it isn't deep like people say it is. Lucy and other dicloni were abused in some psycho ward place. So what? Lucy got bullied by some kids and they even killed her puppy. That's so not ...

Jan 10, 2016

Demi_V

Not Recommended

I owe an apology to VAP and Arms. After completing the anime, I blamed them for Elfen Lied’s mediocrity. In actuality, it's the fault of the mangaka Lynn Okamoto for its creation. Elfen Lied resembles a puzzle with missing pieces and pieces that don't belong. Although the concept is uniquely complex, some parts were unexplained or just plain ridiculous.

The story wasn't entirely bad, just a bit dramatic. The characters were distinguishable in personalities. As a harem, every girl that entered Kouta’s life had a tragic past. The best part were the backstories, even illustrated in extra chapters. It tells the story from the character's ... point of view and displays their emotions. It's understandable about their situation of not having anywhere else to go. Thankfully, not every single character is infatuated with Kouta (the male protagonist). Three girls have feelings for Kouta, but he never showed favoritism for one or the other. There's also character development in Nyu, who matures from the girl who only uses one word and enjoys groping other girls after a time skip in the story.

The idea of a mutant called Diclonii was good at first, until Lynn decided to vastly vary them from humans without an explanation. First, it's gory with the Diclonii’s ability to kill humans with telekinesis, their invisible vector arms. The amputated heads and bodies ripped apart grab your attention. Then it turns comical. Their bodies appear humanlike. They even die like humans. However, their bodies are apparently made of plastic, as they receive plastic body parts instead of bionic parts like regular humans. This makes them appear as your typical Barbie doll. It makes no sense, because Kouta squeezed Nyu’s non-plastic boobs plenty of times. At the very last minute, Lynn decides to give one specific Diclonii the unfortunate ability to melt for overusing her power, when this was never mentioned throughout the story. Then I questioned why can't she die normally. Also, Lucy is the original Diclonius from a virus that spread during the time she was born. The manga failed to mention how this virus originated. The lab named Lebensborn was apparently using young Diclonii as test subjects to discover what's unknown about them, but those flaws, among others, were never explained.

Apart from the flaws with the Diclonii concept, there are major things that ticked me off about Elfen Lied. As the story progresses, it became clear that Lynn couldn't make up his mind about what he wants to do. A scene would become a teaser with the character being backed into a corner, on the brink of death, or going through a psychological state. Then things suddenly brightened with the character surviving a near-death experience or turning back to normal. For example, a character had a gun to his head, and the scene cuts to a scene of blood splatters. Then the character later appears with an excuse of someone saving him. If foreshadowing took place, I'd excuse this. The most ridiculous thing is how you witness a character taking his/her last breath from having his/her guts spilled out, body split in half. Then they appear chapters later completely unharmed. There's also a lot of pointless tears, especially from Yuka, who disliked Kouta not showing her enough affection or not remembering their childhood.

The ending didn't make sense at all, and Lynn threw anything together just to end it all. Sad scenes occurred, and they weren't realistic. They'd cry one minute, perk up the next, and then go back to bawling. Characters that died suddenly come back to life. Then new information was introduced at the last minute just to hurry and end the story. Reminds me a lot like Lynn’s other work “Gokukoku no Brynhildr.”

The character design was average. It's just your typical big-eyed characters. The background design is what really stands out. It was moderately detailed from the cracks in the wood floors to the swirly clouds in the sky. The gradient colors were good, too, especially in the streets at night and dark hallways. I don't invest my time much into ecchi, but it's fanservice galore of course. I think it was done well, just wish it was done at appropriate times.

The meaning behind “Elfenlied” (“Elf Song,” a poem in German) is creative in terms of the title. Behind all of the amputated heads and chopped bodies lie a mediocre story. There are several other minor flaws in Elfen Lied, such as a character who wears a diaper and characters with family complexes. If the puzzle was completed with all of the right pieces, I would've enjoyed it more. Overall, I thought Elfen Lied had the right idea, but it wasn't drawn correctly.

Dec 6, 2019

Frickface

Not Recommended

You're probably wondering what I'm doing writing a review about a manga that ran from 2002-2005 in 2019. With my patience for sitting down and watching an anime dwindling, I've been attempt to explore manga and LN's more and more, and Elfen Lied was perhaps the first anime I had ever watched, so it felt natural to try and visit the original manga. Boy was this a mistake.

(Spoilers will be included in this review!)
The manga and anime do not start straying apart by any significant means until volume 5, chapter 43. This chapter introduces a character who's sole purpose is to add in a diaper ... fetish, and to tie in the iconic song "Lilium," which in the manga is "Elfenlied." Her role is so insignificant that she was easily replaced by a music box in the anime. This is about the point where I knew I was in for a ride that would probably only be going downhill.
Next comes convoluted "this character hasn't died yet" convenience one after another. Remember how in the anime, Kurama comes to understand his sins and his failure as a father to Mariko, and with this he accepts their deaths as he embraces her in his arms? Well... this comes close I guess? They embrace, and a giant non-explosive warhead then comically crushes only Mariko despite them being embraced, before another is fired and crushes Kurama. They're dead, right? Nope! Mariko has somehow saved them both, and is now docile in a "Nyu" like state. Shortly after this, she dies anyways when facing off Lucy, just to have Kurama live in comatose grief for the next 2 years until he gets the perfect conditions to have a happy ending with Nana, which also tries to bait that she's his lover now! Real sweet.. I guess? The count for these ridiculous encounters only increases as the manga goes on, and they're ridiculously predictable, as well as frustrating. Maybe just don't put characters in situations where they should by no means survive if you're not ready to kill them off yet?

The contrived conveniences aren't the end of my frustration with this manga. I guess at some point or another I should address the characters that actually had some purpose.
- Kouta is Kouta, there's nothing to say on him. He's bland, he gets a backbone occasionally, but he doesn't really offer much outside of caring about and protecting his family.
- Yuka is... Yuka. She's basically obsessed with Kouta, can't properly express her feelings, and classic tsundere style punches or kicks Kouta anytime something embarrassing happens. I tried to sympathize with her character more than I have in my previous watchings of Elfen Lied, but I just couldn't. She cares about Kouta remembering her more than she cares about Kouta remembering and coming to terms with the deaths of his father and sister, and sobs about it in every other scene.
- Mayu doesn't really get much further development in the manga, she's probably one of the most stable characters next to Kouta. She's sweet, she cares about her new family, and wants to keep them together and safe. She also... ends up with a crush on Bandou. And kisses him. About 30 minutes after he just got done calling someone else a pedo for nearly raping her.
- Nana is probably one of the most frustrating characters for me. She's adorable, well intentioned, and despite her lack of knowledge does her best to contribute to the Kaede residence. Right up until Kurama disappears after promising her he'd return. Remember how in the anime, Nana learned to live with the grief and move on? In this she becomes borderline obsessed with Kurama, to a point where it seems like she's ready to ditch her closest friends over him without a 2nd thought. It reaches a point where it's all she seems to think or talk about.
- Lucy/Nyu is probably the strongest character of the series much like the anime. She's still intricate, deeply scarred, and ultimately tragic. She is however, robbed of her complexity, and to explain that gripe we're going to move on to the next topic.

The Diclonious virus, the biggest threat of this world and what ties this whole story together. We're often lead to believe in the anime that it is normally not the diclonius children themselves that leads to mass killing and destruction that occurs around them. They have a "killing instinct" of sorts embedded into their DNA, that's often awakened by cruel treatment or the enforced message that there's no possible way diclonii and humans can co-exist, that they are freaks that must be exterminated. Up until the point where it straight up takes control like another personality and forces that character to do harm. Isn't there supposed to be some moral gray in this series? How does this voice become so prominent that it can completely take control of a "host" and force them to be violent and destructive. Diclonii become exactly what the anime seemingly tries to fight the message of: a race that could never co-exist with humans, that will only bring ruin, that is to face genocide. Despite this manga trying desperately to tie the end of every character's story in a pretty bow, this is the fate of the diclonii race.

I could honestly continue ranting for quite some time, so let's try to wrap this up. Elfen Lied is a story with a lot of potential that ends up wasted trying to prove just how """mature""" this series is. I can deal with ecchi, it's not my cup of tea but I can tolerate it. This manga pushes it too far on more than one occasion purely for the sake of it, down to our previously mentioned diaper fetish character. Any mature themes feel like they're muddied down to "this guy good, this guy bad," and despite handling these themes, somehow nearly every character you may root for ends up with a happy ending now matter how contrived the plot got to place them there. The diclonii are now nearly extinct, humanity does not have to answer for it's crimes of mistreatment and experimentation against an entire race, and everyone's happy, yaaay! This manga left me with a bitter taste in my mouth, and I wish the ugly art had been enough to steer me away from it in time.
If you're looking to experience nudity, blood, gore, and darker themes but don't mind them being toned down, just watch the anime. It's better in practically every regard down to the resolution, and while many questions get left unanswered in the anime, it does not create nearly as many that are quite as ridiculous as the manga does.

Jan 17, 2019

LiedElfen

Recommended

Elfen lied is the single most impactful manga that i've had the pleasure to read, it shows how a person can destroy many lives without noticing it, it shows how the innocence of a side can clash with the violence of the other, it shows that life is a fragile thing that if you don't care enough for it it can easily go out of your hands and dissapear into thin air.

The story of Elfen Lied is one characterized by the sheer violence, blood, pain, suffering, problematic, ilness that represents many people's lives out there and how if time isn't cherished enough it evaporates like ... glass and never comes back. It is also characterized by the company, compasion, love, unconcern and harmony of having a family, one special thing in our lives that if taken the sufficient care can be the main reason of our waking up and living our lives to the absolute fullest making the most out of every moment.

In the story is present a clash between one factor and another, the Diclonius are superior beings and are powerful enough to cut the heads of
People using invisible hands that form part of their bodies. They are beings that were born to dominate the world and present a real threat to humanity and any living being. They are more intelligent, bigger, stronger, good looking and more physically prepared to hold the key to a united kingdom that consist of the entire world.

The characters are well represented in the story, Kouta a boy that meets a friend when he was in childhood and don't seem to remember important events of his life, Lucy a Diclonius who has a double personality the first one being an innocent girl that isn't capable of having any kind of extended conversation and whose real name being Nyu Kaede and the other one being basically a monster that holds hatred towards humanity because of the treatment she had when she was a child and how the other kids behaved worse than animals bullying her psychologically and thus causing her to give in to her inner personality that wanted her to take all of their heads off. There are also Nana who is a diclonius and who cherishes her papa like there's no tomorrow, Mayu a little girl that was welcomed in Kouta's house and Yuka who is family of Kouta and admires him with all her forces.

The art is really special, the panels are well depicted and truly describe the atmosphere felt throughout the story, the character's have unique designs and the use of light and shadows is well managed in the different parts of the story. The form of all the pieces together makes it work and take life as a piece of art.

This series is truly legendary, everything felt specially well constructed with a meaning and a purpose, the story alongside with the characters are something to behold making it one of the most accomplished work in the entire history of the medium and giving us the real meaning of what a legend is. This is amazing and legendary in every possible immaginable way and the enjoyement i felt while reading it's pages was something that can't be really described and the only form to say that it's real is to experience it.

Jan 7, 2018

sadballadman

Recommended

(This is my first manga review, sorry if it's not helpful.)

Elfen Lied, a manga by Lynn Okamoto, published in 2002 to 2005, with twelve volumes collected, with an anime adaptation. It is considered as one of the goriest series of all time. Believe or not, I really enjoyed this series.

I first started out Elfen Lied by the anime, it got me easily hooked by the second episode, and after finishing the anime, I wanted more. I found out it was based on a manga, and the anime and manga are different, which then I immediately started reading it. If I could describe the manga in ... one sentence, I would say "A rollercoaster of emotion."

Story 10/10
The story got me easily hooked, it's original and well written. The anime ended in a note where many questions were unanswered, however, the manga answers most of them. One thing about the story of the manga however, is the ending, I think the ending was very confusing and I'm still trying to figure it out to this day. The story goes in a bit of a slow pace however.

Art 8/10
A lot of people say the art is not very good, I have to agree around the first volume, the art is not the best. However, around volume 10 till the ending, the art changed, it looks very sci-fi like and it's very detailed. Don't believe me? Compare the art from the volume 1 and volume 12, and tell the differences.

Characters 9/10
Heck, this story when it comes to characters, it does a great job with backstories and why the character acts that way. My favorite character is Lucy, mostly because she's one of the most well written characters I have ever seen. The side characters are also likable (except Yuka), one of them was Nana, she was the comedy relief of the story, and she did handle them well. The side villains such as Kurama or Bando are even likable even if they did horrifying things in their lifes.

Enjoyment 8/10
If you are not okay with people having their limbs torn off or people getting dismembered, then this story will not be the best choice for you. This story has so much gore, I don't think I've read a manga with that much gore. The story has also a lot of nudity, if you dislike seeing cute girls naked, then maybe this won't be your kind of story. There is so much nudity in this, it was pretty close of being a hentai. The story also tackles issues such as pedophilia and how people treat other people due to their differences.

Overall 10/10
I personally enjoyed this manga, I understand there are people who dislike this manga due to its graphic violence and nudity. I liked this story because it's different from other stories I've read in the past. If you're looking for a story that is dark and also has its sad moments, Elfen Lied is perfect for you.

Thanks for reading my review :)

Aug 18, 2014

Perfect8

Recommended

All I can say for this manga is that is sticks to the main storyline and is incredibly gory as well as incredibly perverted.

The manga was better than the anime for sticking to the plot but it really goes overboard with its more than dark themes and off topic conservations between characters. But I found the manga very enjoyable for concluding the story with a somewhat happy ending and keeping attached to the murderous but sexy main character Lucy.

This manga will remain as one of my close but not too close favourites and I recommend to reviewers to read it themselves and give ...

Feb 9, 2021

Resting_Bonfire

Not Recommended

Elfen Lied

This proves once again that the manga is not always better than the anime. The anime adaptation actually showed more quality and censored many of the unnecessary perverted scenes from the manga. Of course, it fell short in terms of the story because the anime didn't cover the entire manga.

The Elfenlied manga has an at least subtle main plot right up to the end. But all of this failed because of the Creator's lack of talent. The story was done immensely, the characters were almost catastrophic and this work had almost no detail.

A particularly negative point about the work is the writer's massively sick ...

Sep 8, 2020

smurdles

Recommended

The art was horrible in the beginning, but trust me it gets better as the story continues. This manga is viewed very critically and it seems like a lot of people don't like it, but I actually do. I really liked the worldbuilding, Lucy as the main character and the relationship between Bandou and Mayu which was very flat in the anime. Overall it wasn't as horrible as many people say it is. Sure, a lot of characters are flat (Yuka was annoying af), but it still is a good manga because of the story and worldbuilding. At least that's how I think about it.

Dec 30, 2016

eggoist

Recommended

this manga was pretty much really enjoyable, it had abit of humor there abit of romance here and lots of blood, gore & ecchi. not to mention incest too :-)
the story was really great as it's not any cliche storyline i've seen before. it comes on really strong in the start & it only gets better. also, some of the problems faced by the characters in the manga are quite relatable in real life & the manga also ends off quite realistically.
the art is good, not great but it's alright i guess!!
the characters are really cool and their way of thinking is rather realistic ...

Nov 17, 2019

mouthpiece

Mixed Feelings

(just for the record, this is a slight alteration of my anime review)

This used to be the series most recommended to newcomers as means to show them a amanga which was not some silly cartoony characters with spiky hair. There were already many violent manga around but this seemed to be the most broadly advertised and most didn’t know the rest so it’s like it was the only one. It also mixed lots of favorable elements such as nude and gore, along with interesting story ideas.

It also starts with a bang since in the first chapter we see a massacre of the highest possible gore ... and splatter you could ever dream of witnessing back then, backed up by a scary naked woman wearing a demonic metal mask and horns. You even see a person who acts all silly assuming to be the main comic relief character throughout the series to be eventually brutally murdered in seconds. WOW, HOLLY SMOKES, WHAT IS THIS??? Instant hook! And here starts the rave of the series. Sex and violence always sell and EL happened to have an extremely amount of both.

That was so political incorrect that drew people in by the thousands; especially after the anime version came along. Because after all, the more political incorrect something is, the more attractive it appears to young people. Everyone was either crazy or evil; there were no clear good guys and bad guys. No sir, here the humans are sadistic little bastards who like tormenting little girls and are being slaughtered like pigs as revenge. Even children and women were not spared! When was the last time they showed even women and children being killed? Heck, even kicking puppies was quite cruel and rare back then.

Now let me make it clear that in the following years all the elements of EL were copied in following series. Mainstream manga nowadays are far more sexual and violent, something that EL helped visualizing thanks to its gargantuan fandom. People wanted sex and violence and that is what they got. Open any recent manga and there is little to no chance to not see nude, splatter, lolis and all the sick stuff successful series like EL helped to establish.

So far so good, sounds like the best manga in existence, right? … Not by a longshot really. It does feel shocking and different and special if you are a newbie in the field without any previous exposure to this sort of manga but otherwise it feels quite ridiculous by itself if you are already a veteran reader. I was already exposed to far more sinister stuff way before EL and guess what, it didn’t seem worth not even half of what everyone was raving about. Because the shock value was low. And here is where this series most aims at in order to impress. Shock value. The more it shocks you, the better it appears to be. Because without it, it feels as silly as watching Goku eating a mountain of food without gaining a single pound.

Let’s get now to more conventional analysis, starting with the artwork. It starts off with very crude visuals, stiff motions, simplistic caricatures, and silly splatter. Along the way it improves a lot and after midway it looks like a well drawn harem show of multicolored hair bimbos doing silly stuff all over the place. The characters remain cute, with huge eyes and silly clothes, which I guess contributes to the shock of seeing them taking part in gore. It helps to hook you by the extreme amounts of fan service it has. There are panty shots and boobs almost every 5 minutes, while underage girls are most of the time shown being tortured. Yeah, great eye catcher stuff for sadists.

The story is essentially about humans being sick bastards who like tormenting little girls in an attempt to not be exterminated by a new race of horny (literally) red haired lolis which are genetically created and programmed to kill everything that moves. So, the story gets more complicated when the female ringleader of those lolis has convenient memory loses and turns from a heartless killer to a playful pussycat every time the scriptwriter wants to prevent the story from ending. Also, the characters keep behaving in the most ludicrous way possible as means to not end the whole mess in 10 seconds by implementing common sense. And if you don’t believe me, think of this:

“Hey, mister police officer, I found a naked girl on the beach. Better take care of her because I am a male teenager living alone and can’t just take her home where anything can happen.”

There, see, he just took her home and didn’t do anything to her, despite being defenseless and amnesiac, all excused by the fact that he was very pure in heart … and missing a dick. Then follows a long line of enemy waves who want to capture Lucy, the ringleader. But are all so damn stupid, they can’t even breathe without chocking to death. Imagine sending in a sadistic military dude to capture Lucy. He will be talking for half an hour about what a bastard he is instead of just capturing her, until Lucy conveniently gains back her memory, cuts him to pieces and then conveniently forgets everything again. Then imagine a girl who was being molested by her father and another horny girl who was almost killed by Lucy, to be accepted in Kouta, the dickless boy, in his house. Supposed, they are safer in the house where Lucy kills someone every now and then than just going to the police. Or the police themselves being so autistic they never do anything about the dozens of people who are being found in pieces right outside of that house. Wait, that could be because they are in league with the villains, right? … Sure, and that is the only reason the dickless boy and his harem of lolis don’t leave that house despite being targeted by manslaghtering sadists every two days.

Add to this the way they throw in incest and even more amnesia for other characters just as extra shock value that has nothing to do with the story, how everyone meets (or meats lol) someone, remembers and forgets, finds and loses, in the most far-fetched ways possible and always in the most convenient times and… well… the story is written with the mentality of a 5 year old. But as I said it is all about shock value rather that realism. The plot is quite fast for its duration and shocking every 5 minutes, while there are many social messages to leave you something to think about. Still, as I said, it only works if you are a newbie in the field who never thought of such things up to that moment. The logic of the drama is paper thin to fall apart while the ending is basically not any different that a silly date sim, proving that it was essentially made to please otakus and not other people. Yes, it was a series by otakus, for otakus after all.

In all, if it got to shock you the first time, it is bound to become your fav for many years and even open a portal to you, leading to the darker regions of the otaku realm. It has done so a million times already. All I can say is that it is much harder for someone to be impressed today by it because most modern manga are far more violent and sexual. Heck, even cartoons are. In fact I know many who admit that they have no idea why they liked that series so much. Simple, the shock value faded away and left behind only ashes and bones. So while I give it a high Value for its very important contribution in mainstreaming anime (for good or bad; I kinda hate the way most modern anime are all full of fan service) I must still give it a very low mark in Enjoyment because it doesn’t work if you are not a newbie and in no chance in hell it feels good if you are a veteran reader. I got the same messages the series has in Akira, the same type of gore in Choujin Locke and those felt far more realistic and credible, without fan service and ridiculous behaviors fooling you to consider “idiotic” as “brilliant”.

Dec 9, 2020

FranBunnyFFXII

Recommended

It has been a while, so I took the time to sit down a re-read of the Elfen Lied manga since I had recently rewatched the anime and have been on a re-watch binge during the pandemic.

And my reaction is simply "Wow that was a beautiful mess" a beautiful story that has a lot of stuff that undermines how powerful and impactful it could be.

I 100% understand why the anime does a lot of the things it does. I mean I kinda already knew why, but trying to see where the things work and dont, you really see where Lynn Okamoto got totally out of ...

Apr 20, 2018

FellaWhisperer

Mixed Feelings

Elfen Lied.... Going to make a very short review.

With such a great start, it seems to only go downhill.

Story- Had a ton of potential but nope, flush it all down the toilet. The last chapter didn't feel rewarding at all; it made me feel as though I was wasting my time rooting for Lucy and Kouta.

Art- Nothing to brag about, sometimes the characters look amazing. And others they just look mediocre. Can't complain much because I loved Lucy's character design and Kouta's. Nana and Mayu both look compelling as well most of the time. I however wasn't a fan of Nyu's design, but that's ...

Jun 12, 2021

Xalvador789

Recommended

Elfen Lied. This was an anime/manga I've been looking forward to completing for quite a while. Now that I'm done, I've decided to give a detailed review on the series. I'm new to reviews, so I hope mine will help with your decision on whether or not to read it.

Story:

I think the overall story was very enthralling. The idea of the diclonius and their powers of invisible arms was a really neat one. The backstories of the characters, particularly Lucy's, are well done and help explain how each character turned out the way they did. The first lab escape scene is enough to get anyone ... hooked. The only real problem I had in the story was how "Nyu" came to be. In the first volume, Lucy gets shot in the head with a bullet and gets amnesia. However, what is never explained is why she reverts to a child-like state, repeating the noise "nyu", and suddenly going back to her first personality whenever she gets a head trauma. Other than that one small problem I had, I think the story was great all the way through.

Rating: 8/10

Characters:

This part of the series had some more flaws than the others. I liked most of the characters, however, the main two were the most problematic to me. Kouta, the male protagonist, had a decent role in Lucy's backstory and the formation of her character, but was mostly just played the role of a stereotypical, bland, "dense" male harem protagonist like so many others. The actual series as a whole wasn't really a "harem" exactly (not all of the female characters liked the main character or served for fanservice), but it did give off those vibes once in a while.

Yuka is the second one I didn't like. She always played the role of the extremely jealous love interest, and was generally unlikeable. Not to mention she'd get emotional so often from any little thing Kouta did.

As for the others, I liked them, some more than others. My personal favorites being Lucy and Nana. Lucy was the most dynamic character in the series and despite being a "villain" in the series, trauma from her past explains her current state of mind, and she's not purely good or evil throughout. Nana, was like a foil for Lucy. Even though she was also experimented on and treated poorly, Professor Kurama served as a loving father figure for her, which resulted in her being more optimistic and "innocent" to a degree. Even though some other reviewers dislike her and say she's "annoying" I think she was a sweet, likeable young girl who also went through a good amount of development throughout the series.

Rating: 6/10

Art:

The art wasn't stellar, but was still fairly good throughout. The anime's art was a bit of an improvement, but the manga still had a decent art style. The character designs were also fairly well done.

Rating: 7/10

Overall thoughts:

I think Elfen Lied was a great manga. It was very enjoyable to read, and I'd recommend it for any science fiction manga fan. It isn't flawless, but I'd say it's an above average series. My overall enjoyment is a 9/10, but in terms of a critical review, I give it a 7/10.

Jun 30, 2017

Yon_Nyan

Recommended

There were many things that I loved about Elfen Lied. It has very good action (lots of crazy blood, gore, and explosions), it has plenty of comedy (in that cute haremish sorta way), and best of all it has characters that actually evolve (without the typical shōjo romance BS). Each character has a background and extenuating circumstances that make him/her unique, most of them tragic. Watching these people grow from the roots of their issues is quite beautiful. The development doesn’t lack in showmanship or emotion and that is what makes Elfen Lied absolutely amazing.

Flaws? Well the art is good, but it’s not phenomenal. The ...

Dec 24, 2021

cherry_pyon

Not Recommended

Preliminary (78/113 chp)

Reading Elfen Lied is like getting a mind rape. Even though there are interesting ideas and concepts in it, The story is so horribly executed and most characters will annoy the hell out of you. So many pointless deaths that feel cheap that I became numb with any major character death halfway through the manga. The protagonist is bland, and Lucy/Nyu could've been an interesting character if it weren't for her absolutely inconsistent character portrayal. The only somewhat bare able characters are Nana and Bandou. And don't get me started with the fan-service. It becomes so out of place and annoying, and it's done in ...

Apr 11, 2022

eroeru

Not Recommended

"Pathetic" sums it up.

It's a grade schooler's fantasy world. It's honestly really baffling how people can consider this manga "deep".

No character is believable, everyone acts as if in a 4th grader's tried desperately to write meaningful characters.

Art's terrible.

Only "good" thing it that's it's easily readable. No one thinks in here, everyone just acts in accordance to idiotic character archetypes that luckily aren't anywhere near believable nor hold any substance.

Ugh. And the forced nakedness and ecchi of underage girls here for the "enjoyment" of the dull but apparently super-attractive main character... the book's rather fascinating in its vulgar simplemindedness.

Dec 19, 2016

CloacaMahoney

Mixed Feelings

The first thing I thought when reading the first few pages was 'good God, that art though'.
It didn't get much better from there.
Elfen Lied is a series that could've really gone somewhere. It has an interesting basis as a story, but it just doesn't really deliver on it well. The serious, gory moments go back and forth with the impromptu fanservice scenes, which tend to be more awkward than anything.
The characters are typically of the exceptionally bland variety, with the exception of a few here and there (most noticeably the head guy with the glasses; I can't even remember any of their names).
The ...