A human mutant race called Diclonius is held captive at top secret research facilities to conducht experiments on them and their vectors. Vectors are their invisible additional arms which are even capable of ripping off body parts with ease. This species is unable to feel mercy and sympathy and kills their human parents at the age of 3, which also is the point where they get discovered by the facilities. So it would be pretty bad if one of those Diclonii got into the real world, right?
And exactly this happens, the Diclonius Lucy gets away due to a guard's mistake, kills a lot of guards on her way out, gets shot in head, survives and falls into the sea. After that she is found naked at a beach by Kouta and his cousin Yuka.
But due to the shot to her head she falls into schizophrenia now having a child-like alter ego who is only able to say "Nyu". The cousins feel sympathy towards her and take her with them. Little do they know, that her psychotic and murderous site still sleeps in her just waiting to awaken.
Of course the facility won't hold still and tries to get her back. In addition to that Kouta seems to have a shared past with the murderous Lucy, which he forgot about.
And so one of the most fascinating series I have seen begins.
The most interesting thing about Elfen Lied is probably its diversity. From gory mass murder to peaceful dinner, from pedophilia to romantic love and from animal cruelty to animal loving. Not really much you can not find there. Also does this anime toy with your emotions: You begin to detest Lucy as a brutal killing machine then she turns into her innocent alter ego you can not really blame for this, then she falls back to old behaviour and murders a child but afterwards you learn about her past, which shows that she just projects cruelties done to her onto other persons now. You do not really know how to feel about her. The fact that she rediscovers her love to Kouta from long ago and he answers this feelings does not make decisons any easier either.
Sadly Lucy is the only character with that much depth in this series, the rest is pretty average with not much development but Lucy is enough to fill the voids or at least make those acceptable.
The depicted tragedy and sadness which lies in Lucy's and Kouta's past is excellently reflected in the opening and soundtrack. It is a slow and sad song called Lilium sung in Latin which sets you in to the mood the anime tries to represent right after watching the opening, this song is reproduced throughout the series so it may seem lazy or annoying but I think because it fits the mood so perfectly it is fine this way.
The art though is hardly above average, there is nothing that can be pointed out as special in the artistic way, it just looks dull and too simple at some points.
Elfen Lied is an anime that relies heavily on an emotional connection with the viewer, it is itself nothing really special despite its ability to suck you into a vortex of sadness,romance and tragedy. To me this effect was powerful enough to neglect the flaws it may have, so I am not saying this series is flawless and has a 10/10, I say because you get so sucked into the different extremes and the strong contrasts that you are willing to overloook these flaws for the greater good.
I strongly recommend seeing this, because it is just so unique, so that even if you did not like it, you have made an interesting experience.
