Now before you go a head and downvote my review please hear out my reasoning for the score.
Elfen Lied begins with a great introduction which is both unique and memorable. A well directed scene that has a great contrast between it. A nude young girl, beautiful but deadly leaving behind her a trail of blood and strewn body parts.
It leaves a long-lasting impression that works strongly as an opening scene, creating intriguing questions about who she is and why this young girl kills with no sign of remorse or emotion.
And then it spirals downwards blisteringly quick.
What could have been a story that comments strongly on the negative sides of human nature and cruelty of potential experimental testing becomes a weak drama of childhood selfishness and immaturity. This "deepness" that other reviewers comment on is superficial and truly a great waste, pushed aside for a generic tale of 4 young teens. This would be forgiven if this show was made for teens or children but due to the violence and nudity prevalent throughout, it was clearly targeted for a more mature audience.
The only redeeming fact is the back story of Kurama and his daughter. I won't go into further details due to spoilers but by the end of the show the only character I truly felt for was Kurama with a beautiful scene in the last episode. Kouta I also felt for but the convenient amnesia he had felt ostensible and much too convenient.
The ridiculous and completely unnecessary side story of incest between Kouta and Yuka added nothing to the show and could have been taken out completely. In fact Yuka could have been removed from the show completely with no effect on the story.
Lucy the main diclonius girl is built up to be a deep character throughout and it does work to some degree, I did feel bad for her and the way she was treated (especially the scene as a child with her pet puppy). But it is hard to forgive her when she's tearing innocent families heads off for no good reason but her own selfish immaturity. Her character Nyuu was as another reviewer stated like a walking pokemon that only announces her name except for in a few conveniently used scenes. I just couldn't buy the polar difference between her personalities and it's a real shame.
And all this is before we get to the worst parts of the series. The exploitation of untasteful and pointless nudity prevalent throughout the show gets old real quick. I understand it's common for this fan-service to be throughout anime but is it really necessary every time someone gets knocked over? Or a bath scene nearly every episode? I'm not against nudity but only when used for a reason. It makes it difficult to take the show seriously.
The show had some redeeming qualities, the art style was attractive however generic and the soundtrack worked extremely well to both create tension during the darker scenes and melodrama during some of the more heartfelt scenes. It's truly a shame as there was so much potential watered down to a forgetful experience.
