First off I think some of the characters could have been more interesting if they were given more thought such as the character of Kouta could have been an interesting character if some of his psychological problems were given more attention and was treated like a serious mental condition but instead people just treat it like his psychological problems aren't even there and sometimes even flat out ignore it and further more, with out spoiling too much, his psychological problems were caused due to a tragedy. I think the fact he had this condition was already a good set up for tragedy but of course they had to ramp up the stakes to needlessly over blown proportions.
I don't think there is such a thing as "Trying too hard" but I do think there is such a thing as trying too hard to impress somebody. And it seems as though the creator or whoever was behind this particular project was trying really hard to make the biggest, saddest and most shocking anime ever made. The intense violence is used to make the death scenes more shocking and with the mean and depressing atmosphere, the deaths seem a lot more sad than they actually are. At times the show even fools you to think some characters are going to die when in the next episode they are completely fine.
And the show is also guilty of using nudity to an excessive amount. It's fine at times, like I do think the use of nudity within the first minutes of the show was fine with the main character, but than the nudity is stopped being used for serious scenes and are than used for fanservice and comedy which is something that needs to stop in animes that want to be taken seriously. And I even find it laughable that the series is even attempting comedy for a series that is trying to be so tragic that it makes grown men cry.
So Elfen Lied is an edgy tragedy that used nudity and violence to make it's viewers cry, and it's fine for "dark and brooding" teenagers and people looking for yet another sad anime that will make them cry but for true anime fans looking for something special, well, honestly you may want to give it a look, I know I said a lot of bad things about it but it's just trying so hard that on some level, it actually does do it's job really well. And yes I won't call it good by any means because of it's questionable content but it of course does do it's drama pretty well, and plus i'm a little nostalgia blind since this is one of the first anime DVDs I have ever bought for myself.
If this anime just calmed the fudge down with it's explicit content and over done drama, I actually think this anime would have not been so infamous for being that ultra violent Japanese cartoon instead of being known for that epic tragedy like it wanted to be. And I don't think it's bad for it's use of violence and explicit content, it's just the way it was used. It was too "in your face" about it. It could have been used as a good metaphore for the many ways in which people can hurt each other. I think that was supposed to be sort of the underlining theme of this anime, because it seemed as though the characters were always hurting each other in some way, rather it be physically or emotionally. Intentional or not. But the theme sort of got over shadowed by the violence and explicit content, it sort of damages itself that way, but anyways that's man long rambling opinion on this anime.
Some people think this anime wouldn't have even been noticed if it wasn't for it's explicit content but I actually do think this anime still would have had something special going for it if it had been more softer and quiet.
