I'll admit that a few of my favourite animes, for example Wolf's Rain, I will fanatically defend to the death, but with Elfen Lied it is very love it or hate it. And I have to agree with your view of Mariko. It says a lot about most of the Elfen Lied fanbase when her page on here describes her as "relatively well developed psychologically. She is extremely homicidal and sadistic, and enjoys torturing and dismembering her victims."
Also having looked at your list I quite agree with some of your other choices, especially the Ghibli movies (though I've only seen Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away and Arrietty so far), and I was an obsessive pokemon and yu-gi-oh fanboy as a kid (I actually still play the pokemon games to this day). Have you ever tried the Yu-gi-oh abridged series? It's a brilliant parody that also manages to not horribly insult the original, I'd highly recommend it.
Otaku-Ninja8:"REVEAL FACE DOWN TRAP CARD!!!!"
Guy1:"Woah..he just played the senpai card"
MaiValentine:"!!!!!"
Otaku-Ninja8:"The effects of this card cause you to refer to me as 'senpai' since your completed list has fewer anime than my own!"
^0^ muah ha ha ha ha
Wow Im bored...gonna go watch some anime or something lol
Also, I would like to recommend Darker Than Black (season 1) to you, which I scored a 9/10. It shares a lot of similarities with Elfen Lied but it does right what Elfen Lied does wrong. I often bring it up when discussing Elfen Lied as an example of how where Elfen Lied went wrong, and why it is a terrible series by comparison.
I've just read your Elfen Lied review, and would like to make a few points on the character section. I understand Elfen Lied very much divides opinion, so I'll not try and make you change your mind about it, I'd just like to explain what those who enjoyed it saw in Lucy/Nyuu (and by that I don't mean the nudity, which I will agree was quite excessive). Lucy is a very extreme portrayal of someone who was treated as if she was not a person because she was different. Saying she had a "sad" past is an understatement. She was orphaned, friendless, constantly bullied, and had her dog murdered. While it isn't justification for her first killing spree (and the anime never claims it was justified, even she understands how wrong it was when she realises who Kouta is), it is very understandable. A 6 year old kid, with a power like hers, is then pushed to breaking point. Every bullied kid lashes out at some point, but she had the power to kill, and couldn't control herself. Then, rather than try to understand and help her, she's experimented on for ten years. Again, that may not justify mass murder, but you can understand why she did it. Yet even after that, Kouta's kindness towards her began to make her realise that not all humans were like that, and that what she had done was wrong. The point of her is that the hatred and fear from humans is what made her into the killer that they hated and feared, whereas treating her as a human being rather than an abomination, like Kouta did, brought out her peaceful nature, and she could understand that her killing innocents was wrong and try and find redeption for what she did. She shows how intolerance escalates, and that trying to be understanding and accepting of people who are seen as different causes the same in return.
I'm sorry for the essay on your first day on here, and I'm sorry for criticising your opinions. I can understand a lot of the other opinions in your review (I've written a similar review on how much I hated FLCL, which is constantly called a masterpiece but just seemed senseless to me), and don't expect you to suddenly like Elfen Lied based on what I said. I just felt I should defend Lucy, as I absolutely loved the character and wanted to explain another point of view. Feel free to dismiss it as someone with nothing better to do at half past midnight who horribly overanalyses things (I don't entirely disagree with that myself). And welcome to MAL.
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Also having looked at your list I quite agree with some of your other choices, especially the Ghibli movies (though I've only seen Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away and Arrietty so far), and I was an obsessive pokemon and yu-gi-oh fanboy as a kid (I actually still play the pokemon games to this day). Have you ever tried the Yu-gi-oh abridged series? It's a brilliant parody that also manages to not horribly insult the original, I'd highly recommend it.
Guy1:"Woah..he just played the senpai card"
MaiValentine:"!!!!!"
Otaku-Ninja8:"The effects of this card cause you to refer to me as 'senpai' since your completed list has fewer anime than my own!"
^0^ muah ha ha ha ha
Wow Im bored...gonna go watch some anime or something lol
I'm sorry for the essay on your first day on here, and I'm sorry for criticising your opinions. I can understand a lot of the other opinions in your review (I've written a similar review on how much I hated FLCL, which is constantly called a masterpiece but just seemed senseless to me), and don't expect you to suddenly like Elfen Lied based on what I said. I just felt I should defend Lucy, as I absolutely loved the character and wanted to explain another point of view. Feel free to dismiss it as someone with nothing better to do at half past midnight who horribly overanalyses things (I don't entirely disagree with that myself). And welcome to MAL.