Oct 13, 2011
The main reason I started Elfen Lied was because of the polarizing reception I've seen it get. It seemed to me that everyone viewed it as worthless, or one of the greatest series ever made. Sick of seeing all the bickering, I decided to go in and form my own opinion.
Now that I've seen it, Elfen Lied seems like a good concept, but suffers from very poor execution. The anime tries to combine elements of extremely kawaii moe into a series that is full of gore and philosophical depth. The result is a mess that will divide anime fans forever.
Elfen Lied goes radically from slice
...
of life moe, to extreme violence, blood, gore and loss of limbs. Amongst this, I've seen parts that I interpreted as homage to Neon Genesis Evangelion and Akira, two anime that I am very fond of. I believe the main reason the anime feels this way is because of the girl characters and their fitting of typical anime tropes. The most noteworthy being Lucy, also known as Nyu, who is possibly the biggest pile of WHY I have ever seen in an anime character.
Without spoiling too much, Lucy is the real backbone of the plot. She is a "diclonious", a human with horns that has powers similar to that of an esper. Lucy was originally held in captivity by the government until she broke free in the first episode by defeating them with her powers, in a similar fashion to Tetsuo causing destruction to Tokyo-3 in Akira. After this, she is found (naked) by Khota and Yuka. This is where the slice of life begins.
Lucy's memory keeps leaving and coming back. When it is gone, she initially only has the ability to say the word "Nyu" before learning a few other words. This leads to several awww moments, like one scene when she is reunited with Khota and screams "KHOTA! CUDDLE!". Lucky's back-story is explained in-depth and "Nyu" is not really her at all.
In the end, Elfen Lied did have enough of an interesting story and short length to keep me going, but failed hard at execution. In the end we're left with a mediocre anime with huge remake appeal. I haven't read the manga, but Elfen Lied on paper sounds like it's much better than Elfen Lied on film.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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