[kitaek27]

Kitae's Psychological Dramatic Anime Review #5 (and most likely final)

Elfen Lied takes second place to Higurashi in the category of horror. It wins the popularity prize, being one of the best known animes when it comes to "blood and gore".

Length: 13 Episodes, with one bonus special episode.

Genre: Drama, Horror, Psychological, Romance

18+: Excessive Violence, Excessive Language, Drugs, Full Blown Nudity, Mild Adult Themes. (for an anime with so much nudity screen time, the fanservice seems about as minimal as the next Negima show)

*Elven Lied anime splits off and ends early, while the manga continues on with the plotline further down.

Though on the outside Elfen Lied seems to be made of nothing but for the joy of any sadistic person who enjoys watching blood flow, the story is fully backed by romance and a incredibly depressing plotline.

The Diclonius, a mutated homo sapien that is said to be selected by God and will eventually become the destruction of mankind, possesses two horns in their heads, and has a "sixth sense" which gives it telekinetic abilities. They are said to have a natural instinct to kill humans. By the age of 3, they develop the ability to use "vectors", which are extendable invisible hands that can be powerful enough to block bullets or bend steel. Due to this dangerous power, they have been captured and isolated in laboratories by the government.

Lucy, a young and psychotic Diclonius, manages to break free of her confines and brutally murder most of the guards in the laboratory, only to get shot in the head as she makes her escape. She survives and manages to drift along to a beach, where two teenagers named Kouta and Yuka discovers her. Having lost her memories, she was named after the only thing that she can now say, "Nyuu," and the two allow her to stay at Kouta's home. However, it appears that the evil "Lucy" is not dead just yet.

The government is always sending a new force to try to capture Lucy. Who exactly is Lucy? A hidden memory that Kouta has denied from shock during his childhood knows Lucy's true identity. What happened between the two?

The cute and innocent Nyuu, who seems like someone who couldn't hurt a fly.



Awakens Lucy, who swore to kill all of mankind (its instinct, but due to Lucy's past, she is fully motivated to follow her instinct)



It took me forever to find an APPROPRIATE trailor for the forums. Most of them seem to have the excessive violence or full blown nudity that I didn't want to show. Well, it seems the official trailor pretty much does a good job (silly me, why didn't I find this one sooner?). Be warned though, the trailor itself is still pg13.

YouTube - Elfen Lied official english trailer

**Though it can be debated which anime is the most violent, it is easy to say that the blood and gore in this anime is very straight forward. Also, a good 40% of the screentime will feature nudity, though many argue its "artistic"**

[AnnabelleMarie]

:3 i loves this anime i saw its last years ;oo *gives 5 stars* the opening this anime is just woah <3

[kitaek27]

Originally Posted by AnnabelleMarie

:3 i loves this anime i saw its last years ;oo *gives 5 stars* the opening this anime is just woah <3

Supposedly the opening is artistic too.

[Bob YoMeowMeow]

this anime is totally yummy
the cat doesnt think it's too insane
the cat sees dead rabbits every day

[TempoUp]

I really thought they killed this anime with all the boob showage :\ didn't really seem to fit the whole blunt, straight out blood and gore thing. I still pretty much enjoyed it though.

[Kiyohime]

Watched this for a long time ago (like two years or so). a very great anime, but it was maybe a bit too "bloody" for me. Creepy when humans are getting ripped apart and things like that T.T I think its one of the few animes I've cried of too *sob*

[Nickel]

Loved the anime so much i was soo sad when the last episode came.
Same with Haruhi x.x
TT.TT

[kitaek27]

Originally Posted by Nickel

Loved the anime so much i was soo sad when the last episode came.
Same with Haruhi x.x
TT.TT

But the haruhi manga is still going and we'll have a second season.

[Shivore]

Originally Posted by kitaek27

Supposedly the opening is artistic too.

Um... "supposedly?" You do realize they took works from a well known german fine artist (too lazy to look up the name right now), and put in the anime characters in place of the figures he drew. That is as much imitation of fine art as you can get without going ahead and showing the actual, original paintings. Now wehter that's a cheap rip-off, or a nice homage is another issue I think.

As for the rest of it... got it fairly well, though the anime does not end early, it takes a completely separate path from the manga. You can't really compare the two storylines past episode 5 or 6.

40% screentime on the nudity? A bit of exageration there, maybe more like half that. (Which I admit is still a lot) Also excessive language? Assuming you aren't going by the english dub, but instead the official english subs, I am actually surprised there wasn't more considering the events taking place. And if you go by the unofficial subs, which I suspect most here would see, it has even less. Still PG13 on language alone, but considering the subject matter I would hardly call it excessive.

Also, yes the official designation is Action/Horror, but I'd say a much more appropriate genre title for it would be Comedic Tragedy. (Comedic in the literary sense, not in the humour sense.)

[Nickel]

Originally Posted by kitaek27

we'll have a second season.

I know ive been waiting for long time :P