Brynhildr is the latest animated series from Lynn Okamoto, the original creator of the masterpiece that we have come to know as Elfen Lied. And while Elfen Lied may have explored many different themes and ideas that were, at the time, not very common to the anime community, this new series embarks on a new exploration of the same things and tries to make it look like it's discovering them all for the first time. Basically, Brynhildr In The Darkness is the Christopher Columbus of anime. Columbus showed up in America one day and was all like, "I am the first person to find this!" while all of the Native Americans who were already over there were just like, "Dude, what about us?" and then he killed them all. This is the same thing.
Brynhildr focuses mainly on the life of Ryouta Murakami, a seemingly average dude with an above average intellect. After watching his best friend from childhood plunge to her death while they were trying to walk across a huge pipe thing (Or something), Murakami dedicates his life to astronomy because...well...that's what his dead friend liked and stuff. So one day, several years in the future, a girl looking exactly like her (Kuroneko) escapes from some lab thing and is ultimately discovered by Murakami, who is then like, "Yo I thought you were dead," only to be greeted by, "Wtf are you talking about? I'm a witch lol". So obviously the correct thing to do in this situation would be to run away from this creature with ridiculously abnormal telepathic power. But, instead, Murakami helps her assimilate with the average high school kids because that's totally not dangerous at all.
As time goes by, we discover that Kuroneko and the rest of the witches must take some pill to suppress their power from leaking out and demolishing them. Obviously, though, this pill isn't sold behind counters and must be acquired directly from the lab the witches are from. Considering at this point in time our home team consists only of Murakami, Kuroneko, and the quadriplegic best-girl (Kana), more help must be recruited. You know what this group needs? A Tsundere. So they go find one (Kazumi) and apparently she is a super-hacker that helps Kuro and Murakami break into the lab and get some life-pills. All is fine and well until the dude who I guess owns the lab is like, "Shit, we should get those witches back" and starts sending better witches after them. So then some more stuff happens and Kuroneko gets cut in half. But that's cool because the witch they were fighting against has the power to rewind time and of course she ultimately winds up doing so because the main girl can't die before the halfway point of the series.
After escaping from the evil laboratory for the second time, Kuroneko and Murakami realize they're in some deep shit. More witches keep being sent out to find them, each one stronger than the next. So the rest of the series is a bunch of rinse-repeat as the astronomy club repels their murderous attackers while slowly gaining more good witches to join their club. Eventually, the main evil guy from the lab is like, "Know what? I'm just gonna unleash the super bad witch to track them all down." The super bad witch winds up being really mean and puts a serious damper on things when she [kind of] kills one of the good witches. Kuroneko gets really mad at this because she is also a good witch and then decides it's time to unleash her ultimate power and kill the evil super bad witch lady (Who is also her sister. Surprise!). Then yay, everything goes back to normal. Or does it?...
If you couldn't tell by now, Brynhildr in the darkness is basically a slightly-tweaked retelling of Elfen Lied with more girls and fanservice thrown in. In fact, almost every single thing that happens in Elfen Lied also happens in this series. Here, I'll break a few down with this cool timeline.
Elfen Lied: Lucy escapes from the isolated evil lab and is taken in by the good guy.
Brynhildr: Kuroneko and Kana escape from the isolated evil lab and are taken in by the good guy.
Elfen Lied: Evil lab dude sends out Nana and Bandou to track down Lucy.
Brynhildr: Evil lab dude sends out like five different witches to track down Kuro.
Elfen Lied: We discover that the lab is genetically modifying cute girls to create superweapons.
Brynhildr: We discover that the lab is genetically modifying AND CLONING cute girls to create superweapons.
Elfen Lied: Woah, Lucy is actually Kouta's childhood friend!
Brynhildr: Woah, Kuro is actually Ryouta's childhood friend!
Elfen Lied: Lucy prevails and Nana now has no limbs.
Brynhildr: Kana's limbs don't even work in the first place.
Elfen Lied: Evil lab man gets fed up and sends out Mariko (Who, for some reason, loves evil lab man).
Brynhildr: Evil lab man gets fed up and sends out Mako (Who, for some reason, loves evil lab man).
Elfen Lied: Mariko's powers aren't enough to kill the protagonist. Evil lab man shows soft side and dies with her on a bridge.
Brynhildr: Mako's powers aren't enough to kill the protagonist(s). Evil lab man shows soft side and dies with her on a balcony.
Okamoto couldn't even get creative with the names of the characters. Kouta/Ryouta are the protagonists. Mariko/Mako are the bad guys. Honestly, I think it might be possible that Okamoto was just trying to relive his glory days with this. After Elfen Lied came out, everyone saw him as this mastermind with a fantastic story to tell -- which, he was. Since that, though, nothing he did really took off the same way. It wasn't until he basically rewrote the story that he put into the spotlight again. And honestly, if he hadn't already created Elfen Lied, this would have been a lot better. The characters are actually extremely lovable and I was incredibly surprised by how much they grew on me. The fanservice is a little heavy in this series, but the comedy is actually the best part of the entire show. Some scenes literally showcased 10/10 humor and made the watching experience increase tenfold. I tore apart the series above, but it really wasn't THAT bad. There are still some elements that really make this a relatively enjoyable show. However, certain things like Okamato's new-found hatred toward permanently killing off his characters, I would definitely change.
All in all, this series was enough to make me want to read the manga, so I guess it worked it the end.
In Summary:
Just watch Elfen Lied instead.
