There was enough mystery and suspense to keep me moving though this series at a breakneck pace; pieces of the history slowly revealed about the important characters until the ultimate crash of intertwined past. You can look at the same footage and argue completely different perspectives; many have spoken about the gratuitous violence and gore, heavy sexual undertones and nudity, and if that wasn't enough they had to throw incest and pedophilia into the mix. If you feel the need to reconcile the unpleasantries you could tell yourself that the scene of the dog getting its head caved was a poignant way to express condemnation against discrimination, childhood cruelty, and betrayal in a limited time frame.
The fact that I went through this series so quickly helped me enjoy it a lot more because it is fueled so much by emotion (empathy, heartache, curiosity), and the less time I had to think about things rationally or overanalyze the better. I can suspend disbelief over genetic mutants with horns and invisible arms shooting out of their backs and a crazed girl with a split personality, but how pathetic can their research be. Case and point: at one point you'll see one of the Diclonius being tested against high velocity projectiles, well wouldn't you suspect that they would garner from that test or through dumb trial and error that those bullets from assault rifles are useless and yet they keep using them. What happened to tanks or missiles? I'll leave you a question to ponder: How quickly can one get over the realization that his or her girlfriend is a pyschopath who ruined your life by killing your father and younger sister in front of you? I could continue on but I won't.
Characters development is weak and they tend to be one dimensional (we're not just talking about Bando here, it applies to main characters too), but feelings for them develop through baggage they carry as a result of their horrible past. Nyu would be unbearable without Lucy to fuse her with some life. But hey, isn't she the woman of every man's wet dream, not only is she unable to talkback or argue with you she is willing you to touch her breasts and giving you excuse to
dress and undress her.
Despite it all, I very much enjoyed this series, it's just that once I sat back and thought it over I didn't realize I would see so many flaws in it. The first episode gives good indication of the mature elements to come, so I would recommend Elfen Lied to anyone who is not put off by these things. So if you haven't watched this it is definitely worth a look, because it can be moving and exciting.
