A lot of people seem to want to take this show down a peg for its flaws. While it undoubtedly has many glaring flaws and there is a lot of room for criticism, my own viewing experience was definitely a positive one. People say it is overhyped, liked only for its shock value, and so on, but I didn't know about any hype or much about its shock value before I started watching. I just started watching an unknown anime that I knew had some gory stuff at the start.
I'm no expert on anime, but what I have seen is that most of them are lacking in some fundamental departments. Realism. Characterisation. Plot. Consistency. Pacing. Editing. Tone. This is as true for the cream of the crop as it is for the everyday slop that feeds the masses of harem fantasies. I have come to think of these deficiencies as part of the style and charm of anime as a whole, so when people criticise any particular story based on those things, I find it hard to take them too seriously. That said they all fail or succeed to different extents in those categories. The plot of Code Geass was fantastic. The tone of Ookami to Koushinryou was masterful. Both are touching stories that are memorable and poignant. So when I say that the tone of Code Geass was jarring from time to time, and that the plot of Ookami to Koushinryou was, occasionally, a confusing mess, it's not because I don't like them.
So we come to Elfen Lied. I'm not going to try to defend its deficiencies. To my eye the visual and auditory experience were perfectly adequate. The story is a bit of a mess, since there are really four or five stories, none of which is given enough weight to really plumb its depths, but it doesn't make this anime a fail on its own. For my money the most entertaining part of this anime is the story. Specifically the story of the Diclonius. Where did they come from? What are their powers, motivations, hopes and fears? What havoc will this mysterious monster wreak in a populated area? The mystery is what compelled me to keep watching at the start, and at the end it was the hope that this violent creature might see redemption.
Despite the most entertaining aspect of the story being the character story of the Diclonius, it is the rest of the characters that are the major problem in this anime. I'm not going to call them idiots because they are not real people, I'm going to call the writers lazy. The other main character is Kouta and none of his actions make the slightest bit of sense. He seems to be washed along by the needs of the plot rather than taking any real intelligent independent action. Apart from his lack of genuine humanity and self-direction he is a complete cliche. The only time something unexpected happens to him is when it's demanded by the plot. Otherwise he may as well have been lifted straight from any other shounen. As I said before this is not necessarily bad, but in Elfen Lied the story doesn't explain his actions at all. If his actions made sense we could forgive the writers for making him a convenient tool to push the plot, but as it is he comes off creepy, narcissistic and idiotic.
The other abiding memory people will take away from Elfen Lied is the abundance of blood, gore, and nudity. I actually found the nudity refreshing, since most anime just try to cover it up or show it for no reason, but in this the inmates of that research facility being naked makes enough sense that it's related to the plot. The casual way it is shown communicates something to the viewer about how the creatures were treated, so I have to say in that aspect it's not at all offensive. What is offensive to me is the pointless fanservice nonsense, especially with obviously underdeveloped females. This is not a problem unique to this particular anime of course, but it's so utterly out of place with the dark tone that it feels like you're trying to concentrate on porn while Saw IV is playing on your other monitor. Why is this show trying to give me a boner and show me people being dismembered in slow motion?
On the topic of blood and gore, again I find it somewhat refreshing that the show doesn't shy away from the reality. The blood is obviously overdone, but it's anime so I don't have a problem with it. What I do have a problem with is the utter cheapness of life. In the opening sequence wave after wave of security guards, presumably with wives and children, are butchered like it's nothing. None of them runs, none of them screams, none of them surrenders. None of them figures out that the standard automatic weapons they are using don't work and tries something else. They just let themselves die. This is true later in the story as well. If we are to accept the premise that the ostensible point of the facility is to save lives by killing and confining the Diclonius, and that the main character is struggling with her own violent past, why does the facility throw away all those guards? And why does Lucy brutally murder them even when they pose no threat? Since these deaths have nothing to do with the plot you can only conclude that they are there for the shock value, and it doesn't say much about the director's confidence in the value of a story when he thinks he needs to shock audiences into watching his show.
A lot more could be said about many aspects of the characters, plot, tone, and so on, but those things, while perhaps valid criticisms, are not the point of this show. If nudity or gore are not your thing look elsewhere, but I enjoyed the mystery and none of the bad points were enough to ruin it for me.
