Elfen Lied

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Elfen Lied – Spoiler Free – Recommended

TLDR
Story – 8/10 – 8 x 0.275 = 2,2
Art – 8/10 – 8 x 0.2 = 1,6
Characters – 7/10 – 7 x 0.225 = 1,575
Enjoyment – 8/10 – 8 x 0.3 = 2,4
Total: 7,775 -> 8

Story – 8/10
Elfen Lied It's quite an interesting story that is well developed throughout the entirety of the manga. It is difficult to ascertain which parts of the manga were better, although the final sections are of tremendous quality and full of epic scenes. It was a tremendous read from start to finish that gripped the readers very early on. The premise is ... also well-made.
There are, however, some problems with Elfen Lied. First and foremost, Elfen Lied puts a big emphasis on sexual undertones or even, in some cases, sexual assault and abuse. Some of these aspects may play a role in the construction of the narrative, such as in the beginning, where it is fundamental for the reader to know how one of the characters is affected by its past. But there are others – such as with one of the characters late in the manga – that don't play any role whatsoever. It is also very common to have panels of the panties of underage children. And again, they don't play any function in the narrative.
There is also a big problem with plot armour in Elfen Lied. There are multiple instances of characters supposedly dying just to have them appear randomly and by pure luck a few chapters later.
When talking about the ending of Elden Lied, I believe it was a wasted opportunity: the penultimate chapter was excellent, but they had to ruin the ending with the last one, where everything had to turn a certain way – I won't spoil it, though.

Art – 8/10
The art in Elfen Lied is quite good, but nothing too fancy. There are some awe-inspiring panels, and it is very easy to understand what is happening in the manga, even in the action scenes. The scenarios are fairly simple but impeccable. However, a problem with the art is the character design of the female characters, which are very similar to each other; this gets better with the male characters.


Characters – 7/10
This is probably the weakest point in the whole manga. Most of the characters – with some exceptions, such as Bando (for his cruelty and individual arc), Kouta and Lucy (for being the main characters) or Kurama (my favourite character from the manga, which is an anti-hero) – are somewhat forgettable, although the cast isn't large, which helps minimise its problems. Minor characters, such as Mayu or Nana, mainly function as companions of the main characters. Characters in Elfen Lied are almost all underaged, and, therefore, issues such as sexual exploration are almost ubiquitous. They are also, in some sense, archetypal. Conversely, characters such as Lucy or Kurama are very well-made.

Enjoyment – 8/10
Elfen Lied is undoubtedly a delightful read. The manga always keeps the reader's attention through tension. There are also quite interesting individual character arcs that contribute to the overall reading experience, such as with Lucy or Kurama. If I had to change, however, one aspect of the manga it would definitely be the permanent and constant sexualization of the characters. It just doesn't add to the story. Aside from this, its gripping and interesting. Nevertheless, this manga is definitely worth a recommendation, mostly for its story.

(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”.

Story: the story really isn't too bad, but there's like such an unnecessary amount of nudity for the tone of the manga it feels forced and weird. Also I feel like there story should have ended way earlier than it did, near chapter 65. I felt like this dragged. I'm giving it a 3 for story.
Art: it had moments of awesome art, but man drawing faces is rough for the artist... 3.
Character: predictable side characters, just too plain for me. Not enough depth. 3.
Enjoyment: the only great thing about this manga is its pacing. Really great chapter writing in terms of how chapters end, and ... making you need to feel like you have to read what's going to happen next, even though the plot feels stretched out.