Well, after the moderate success by Death Note review garnered, I thought I'd turn my attention to my personal favourite anime of all time, Elfen Lied.Elfen Lied is probably one of the more infamous recent animes. It uses nudity and violence in the same way we use linking devices in sentences. In short, it's pervasive and explicit. Should this turn you off Elfen Lied? Hell no, because to me it is one of the most emotional and poignant animes I have ever watched.Elfen Lied revolves around Lucy, who is a Diclonius, a mutated human. At the start of the series, we see Lucy escaping from the facility she's held, in the most bloody fashion possible, while also fully naked.
After her protective helmet takes a hit from a sniper rifle, she falls into the ocean and winds up on a beach, where she is rescued by two college students. Lucy has appeared to have developed a split personality from the bullet to the head, and pretty much has become a human Pokemon, named Nyu, who can only comminucate by saying 'Nyu', of course. As is customary, this displeases those at the facility who plan to track Lucy down and exterminate her.If the overarcing plot seems somewhat formulaic, that's because well. What really makes Elfen Lied shine is the charaterisation. Pretty much all central and minor characters have deep levels of complex and intricate characterisation which adds such depth to their actions and the impact they make. You feel so attached to these characters by the astonishingly emotional finale.Despite it's basic framework, Elfen Lied is not really a blood-soaked, tense thriller with a few sci-fi twists.
What it is, at heart, is a deeply poetic love story based on redemption, forgiveness, jealousy and change. All of these elements are so well woven into the narrative, that the gory action really stops becoming the draw, and you really begin to care for the characters and their relationships.The only real problem I have with the plot and narrative is the ending, which is left open. I'm fine with that, but there was a truly hauntingly beautiful scene before it, which I felt really would have been perfect for the series to end on, rather than the open ended nature of the true epilogue. I've heard the manga explains the ending more thouroughly.
Is there any chance someone who has read it can explain if this is true in the comments? That would be much appreciated.To really go into much further depth would require fairly deep analysis, which I fear for doing in this review due to spoilers. I may post a later review which will simply be an analytical criteque, but for now I'll try to keep things simple.So Elfen Lied has the themes and characterisation down, but is the presentation good enough to support these qualities?
I feel it's a resounding yes. The art style and animation are absolutely stunning in every possible way. It does have the characteristically big eyes which may put some people off, but every movement is silky smooth and the art is just great to look out, with excellent colouring and enviroments.The soundtrack is absolutely incredible too. Most of it is made up of simplistic piano and string arrangements, but by god does it work. There are some cases where the music clashes with the event taking place, but apart from that the soundtrack is excellent, and I believe a lot of people will recognise Elfen Lied by it's opening song more than anything.For the Japanese voice acting, it's an extremely solid performance by all the cast.
The voice actors for the children in the flashbacks were a particular highlight. I really do not recommend using the English dub however. It is by no means bad, if you refuse to read subtitles, but a lot of the voice work fell flat for me.There are some problems, however. This is not going to be for everyone.
As I've mentioned, the blood and nudity are pretty frequent (although most of it is used effectively for symbolic purposes). There is some particularly nasty violence towards young girls, with some pretty bloody beatings, explicit gore and rape.
There is an extremely uncomfortable and brutal scene near the end of the series involving a young girl on a bridge, which I found to be one of the more disturbingly violent moments I can remember from any recent anime.Also, may be this is less of a taboo in Japan, but Kohta and his cousin? Nobody mentions once that it might be a little weird? If you've seen the series you most likely know what I'm talking about.I understand that this may really seem like a glowing review for what I dub my favourite anime of all time, but to really get into why I love this series I would have to do some pretty explicit analysis, which would mean major spoilers, so for now I'll leave it with a more simplified review.If you liked this review, let me know if you would like to a see a more analytical piece where I really dig in to Elfen Lied. I never really got some people's fascination with Elfen Lied. It's an awkward combination of Love Hina's 'boring guy lives in a house with a bunch of chicks, shenanigans ensue' and Evangelion's 'I try so hard to pretend I have depth it's laughable', with a ridiculous helping of blood and guts because THIS IS A MATURE ANIMU GUYS SERIOUSLY! EXTREEEME!It tries way too hard to pretend it's not just a random smattering of fanservice and goreporn by heaping on a pile of nonsense and then talking like it all means a damn. The characters are as two-dimensional as they come, the story is as deep as a puddle, and the action is based on nothing but shock valueYeah, I didn't like it.
Just finnished it last month actually, it was a pretty good and emotional ending indeed even with it on dub. The story was awfully predicable though, and the way they went around sending platoons of nameless, fucking pathetic, and ill equipped henchmen pissed me off and made me want Lucy to kill off the world and rid us of our incompetence, the anti-tank rifle was a highlight for them and the only one. Plus Bondo (however you spelled his name) pissed me off with his incessant monologues.As for the action and the nudity etc etc, I did feel it was shock value, but more anime's should let go of the steam and the annoyingly suspiciously person magnetic clothing that they have and just show us stuff for realism's sake (if nothing else). The characters were well done in my opinion, and the story elements like redemption and its ilk mentioned above were there and held me when elsewise I would be yelling at the stupid henchmen. Plus its better the lesser cousin evil than having your gf be the one who killed your dad and sister.In the end I'd recommend it, just with a grain of salt. What happens after the anime ends.
Good review, Elfen Lied has long been on my List of 'things to do' (I even have a word document to help me keep track) I really should get on that.Also, I count atleast three errors. 'By' should be 'My' in your opening sentence, 'sentances' should be 'sentences' in your second uhhhh sentence, and 'charaterisation' should be 'characterization' in your third paragraph.Sorry, just nitpicking.Ah hell, thanks for catching those. I'll change them.Awesome review man. Some words were misspelled, but thats just nitpicking on my part.
Some images would also help to break up the whole 'wall of text' impression.I've heard the manga explains the ending more thouroughly. Is there any chance someone who has read it can explain if this is true in the comments? That would be much appreciated.If you dont want the 'ending' ruined, don't read last paragraph.
Let me just say that it is cheese-tasticly horrible. What happens after the anime ends. Really great review.While I've never though of Elfen Lied as being in the vein of 'artsy and intellectual' which it seems to attempt to pass itself off as at times, I find it a pretty exciting and very emotionally engaging anime nonetheless for the reasons you state. A bit of the violence and a lot of the fanservice seems unneccessary to have to wallow through though.Bonus info: There's a pretty well made abridged series of the first 1/2 to 2/3 of it floating around on Youtube, for those who feel the original didn't push things far enough. I never really got some people's fascination with Elfen Lied. It's an awkward combination of Love Hina's 'boring guy lives in a house with a bunch of chicks, shenanigans ensue' and Evangelion's 'I try so hard to pretend I have depth it's laughable', with a ridiculous helping of blood and guts because THIS IS A MATURE ANIMU GUYS SERIOUSLY!
EXTREEEME!It tries way too hard to pretend it's not just a random smattering of fanservice and goreporn by heaping on a pile of nonsense and then talking like it all means a damn. The characters are as two-dimensional as they come, the story is as deep as a puddle, and the action is based on nothing but shock valueYeah, I didn't like it.Yeah pretty much. There's just so many vastly superior titles that do what it's trying to do SUCCESSFULLY, like Berserk or the works of Urasawa, that there's no reason to bother with what is ultimately a shallow experience. It's been ages since I've seen this one. I don't remember thinking it was all that good, but I enjoyed watching it all the same. I've recently come to the conclusion that there is a difference (most of the time) between things one enjoys and things that are good (when it comes to fiction). So I liked Elfen Lied, but I don't think it was all that good.
The characters are pretty weak, the plot is just stupid when you sit down and think about it, the unnecessary gore and nudity just made me go 'that gore and nudity is unnecessary' as opposed to having any shock value or anything else. I still liked it, I just didn't think it was all that good. I never really got some people's fascination with Elfen Lied. It's an awkward combination of Love Hina's 'boring guy lives in a house with a bunch of chicks, shenanigans ensue' and Evangelion's 'I try so hard to pretend I have depth it's laughable', with a ridiculous helping of blood and guts because THIS IS A MATURE ANIMU GUYS SERIOUSLY! EXTREEEME!It tries way too hard to pretend it's not just a random smattering of fanservice and goreporn by heaping on a pile of nonsense and then talking like it all means a damn.
The characters are as two-dimensional as they come, the story is as deep as a puddle, and the action is based on nothing but shock valueYeah, I didn't like it.Same.Oh ok, I'll elaborate. You're exactly right when you say it's an anime of two dimensional characters, one of the dimensions just happens to be 'pain'. What the characters go through to try and make them into 'deep' characters is frequently so ridiculously over the top that you can't sympathise.You can't launch an anime as a discussion of the evil of the human condition and not have the characters behave like people, it completely destroys any relevance the characters' actions may have had! A very good review.There is actually a lot for me to bitch about concerning this series.
You said it yourself, the whole cousinly love.ugh. Apart from that I found the animation and art style a little cheap looking. And the whole science behind the Diclonius and the offspring felt a little stupid and unnecessary to me.But it's the character of Lucy and the sense of hopelessness, seeking redemption and being sub-human in a cruel world that made this series so engaging for me. This concept always reminded me a lot of Frankenstein. There is this one line in that story that basically sums up Elfen Lied in a nut shell: - ' For the sympathy of one living being I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of wich you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of wich you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy one I will indulge the other.'
-And near the end where you discover what really happend to Kouta in his youth, I was seriously covering my eyes in advance, knowing what horrific spectacle was about to reveal itself.Oh, and that opening has me in tears everytime I see it. Well, after the moderate success by Death Note review garnered, I thought I'd turn my attention to my personal favourite anime of all time, Elfen Lied.Elfen Lied is probably one of the more infamous recent animes.
Elfen Furry
It uses nudity and violence in the same way we use linking devices in sentences. In short, it's pervasive and explicit. Should this turn you off Elfen Lied?
Hell no, because to me it is one of the most emotional and poignant animes I have ever watched.Elfen Lied revolves around Lucy, who is a Diclonius, a mutated human. At the start of the series, we see Lucy escaping from the facility she's held, in the most bloody fashion possible, while also fully naked. After her protective helmet takes a hit from a sniper rifle, she falls into the ocean and winds up on a beach, where she is rescued by two college students. Lucy has appeared to have developed a split personality from the bullet to the head, and pretty much has become a human Pokemon, named Nyu, who can only comminucate by saying 'Nyu', of course. As is customary, this displeases those at the facility who plan to track Lucy down and exterminate her.If the overarcing plot seems somewhat formulaic, that's because well. What really makes Elfen Lied shine is the charaterisation.
Pretty much all central and minor characters have deep levels of complex and intricate characterisation which adds such depth to their actions and the impact they make. You feel so attached to these characters by the astonishingly emotional finale.Despite it's basic framework, Elfen Lied is not really a blood-soaked, tense thriller with a few sci-fi twists. What it is, at heart, is a deeply poetic love story based on redemption, forgiveness, jealousy and change. All of these elements are so well woven into the narrative, that the gory action really stops becoming the draw, and you really begin to care for the characters and their relationships.The only real problem I have with the plot and narrative is the ending, which is left open. I'm fine with that, but there was a truly hauntingly beautiful scene before it, which I felt really would have been perfect for the series to end on, rather than the open ended nature of the true epilogue. I've heard the manga explains the ending more thouroughly. Is there any chance someone who has read it can explain if this is true in the comments?
That would be much appreciated.To really go into much further depth would require fairly deep analysis, which I fear for doing in this review due to spoilers. I may post a later review which will simply be an analytical criteque, but for now I'll try to keep things simple.So Elfen Lied has the themes and characterisation down, but is the presentation good enough to support these qualities? I feel it's a resounding yes. The art style and animation are absolutely stunning in every possible way. It does have the characteristically big eyes which may put some people off, but every movement is silky smooth and the art is just great to look out, with excellent colouring and enviroments.The soundtrack is absolutely incredible too. Most of it is made up of simplistic piano and string arrangements, but by god does it work.
There are some cases where the music clashes with the event taking place, but apart from that the soundtrack is excellent, and I believe a lot of people will recognise Elfen Lied by it's opening song more than anything.For the Japanese voice acting, it's an extremely solid performance by all the cast. The voice actors for the children in the flashbacks were a particular highlight.
I really do not recommend using the English dub however. It is by no means bad, if you refuse to read subtitles, but a lot of the voice work fell flat for me.There are some problems, however. This is not going to be for everyone.
As I've mentioned, the blood and nudity are pretty frequent (although most of it is used effectively for symbolic purposes). There is some particularly nasty violence towards young girls, with some pretty bloody beatings, explicit gore and rape. There is an extremely uncomfortable and brutal scene near the end of the series involving a young girl on a bridge, which I found to be one of the more disturbingly violent moments I can remember from any recent anime.Also, may be this is less of a taboo in Japan, but Kohta and his cousin? Nobody mentions once that it might be a little weird? If you've seen the series you most likely know what I'm talking about.I understand that this may really seem like a glowing review for what I dub my favourite anime of all time, but to really get into why I love this series I would have to do some pretty explicit analysis, which would mean major spoilers, so for now I'll leave it with a more simplified review.If you liked this review, let me know if you would like to a see a more analytical piece where I really dig in to Elfen Lied.i.i just finished watching the series.im in tears.sobs.
Elfen Lied Anime Deutsch Download Free Online
Despite the cover, Elfen Lied is an extremely serious manga. The main character, Lucy, is not a regular human.she's a Diclonius, human-like in every way except for two cat-ear shaped horns and transparent/invisible arms called 'vectors' in addition to the two normal human ones. The story maintains many plots and sub-plots, and contains many sad and tragic elements combined with graphic-violence and nudity, but interspersed with comedy, the start of what could be romance in later chapters, and Despite the cover, Elfen Lied is an extremely serious manga. The main character, Lucy, is not a regular human.she's a Diclonius, human-like in every way except for two cat-ear shaped horns and transparent/invisible arms called 'vectors' in addition to the two normal human ones. The story maintains many plots and sub-plots, and contains many sad and tragic elements combined with graphic-violence and nudity, but interspersed with comedy, the start of what could be romance in later chapters, and ultra-cuteness. Over all, it is a very interesting and addictive manga (something some series need more of.cough.Naruto.cough.).More to come. This used to be the series most recommended to newcomers as means to show them a amanga which was not some silly cartoony characters with spiky hair.
There were already many violent manga around but this seemed to be the most broadly advertised and most didn’t know the rest so it’s like it was the only one. It also mixed lots of favorable elements such as nude and gore, along with interesting story ideas.It also starts with a bang since in the first chapter we see a massacre of the highest poss This used to be the series most recommended to newcomers as means to show them a amanga which was not some silly cartoony characters with spiky hair. There were already many violent manga around but this seemed to be the most broadly advertised and most didn’t know the rest so it’s like it was the only one. It also mixed lots of favorable elements such as nude and gore, along with interesting story ideas.It also starts with a bang since in the first chapter we see a massacre of the highest possible gore and splatter you could ever dream of witnessing back then, backed up by a scary naked woman wearing a demonic metal mask and horns.
You even see a person who acts all silly assuming to be the main comic relief character throughout the series to be eventually brutally murdered in seconds. WOW, HOLLY SMOKES, WHAT IS THIS??? Instant hook! And here starts the rave of the series. Sex and violence always sell and EL happened to have an extremely amount of both.That was so political incorrect that drew people in by the thousands; especially after the anime version came along. Because after all, the more political incorrect something is, the more attractive it appears to young people.
Everyone was either crazy or evil; there were no clear good guys and bad guys. No sir, here the humans are sadistic little bastards who like tormenting little girls and are being slaughtered like pigs as revenge. Even children and women were not spared! When was the last time they showed even women and children being killed? Heck, even kicking puppies was quite cruel and rare back then.Now let me make it clear that in the following years all the elements of EL were copied in following series.
Mainstream manga nowadays are far more sexual and violent, something that EL helped visualizing thanks to its gargantuan fandom. People wanted sex and violence and that is what they got. Open any recent manga and there is little to no chance to not see nude, splatter, lolis and all the sick stuff successful series like EL helped to establish.So far so good, sounds like the best manga in existence, right? Not by a longshot really.
Vin to pin code. It sounds like you have a project in mind.
It does feel shocking and different and special if you are a newbie in the field without any previous exposure to this sort of manga but otherwise it feels quite ridiculous by itself if you are already a veteran reader. I was already exposed to far more sinister stuff way before EL and guess what, it didn’t seem worth not even half of what everyone was raving about. Because the shock value was low. And here is where this series most aims at in order to impress. The more it shocks you, the better it appears to be. Because without it, it feels as silly as watching Goku eating a mountain of food without gaining a single pound.Let’s get now to more conventional analysis, starting with the artwork.
It starts off with very crude visuals, stiff motions, simplistic caricatures, and silly splatter. Along the way it improves a lot and after midway it looks like a well drawn harem show of multicolored hair bimbos doing silly stuff all over the place. The characters remain cute, with huge eyes and silly clothes, which I guess contributes to the shock of seeing them taking part in gore. It helps to hook you by the extreme amounts of fan service it has.
There are panty shots and boobs almost every 5 minutes, while underage girls are most of the time shown being tortured. Yeah, great eye catcher stuff for sadists.The story is essentially about humans being sick bastards who like tormenting little girls in an attempt to not be exterminated by a new race of horny (literally) red haired lolis which are genetically created and programmed to kill everything that moves.
So, the story gets more complicated when the female ringleader of those lolis has convenient memory loses and turns from a heartless killer to a playful pussycat every time the scriptwriter wants to prevent the story from ending. Also, the characters keep behaving in the most ludicrous way possible as means to not end the whole mess in 10 seconds by implementing common sense. And if you don’t believe me, think of this:“Hey, mister police officer, I found a naked girl on the beach.
Better take care of her because I am a male teenager living alone and can’t just take her home where anything can happen.”There, see, he just took her home and didn’t do anything to her, despite being defenseless and amnesiac, all excused by the fact that he was very pure in heart and missing a dick. Then follows a long line of enemy waves who want to capture Lucy, the ringleader. But are all so damn stupid, they can’t even breathe without chocking to death. Imagine sending in a sadistic military dude to capture Lucy. He will be talking for half an hour about what a bastard he is instead of just capturing her, until Lucy conveniently gains back her memory, cuts him to pieces and then conveniently forgets everything again. Then imagine a girl who was being molested by her father and another horny girl who was almost killed by Lucy, to be accepted in Kouta, the dickless boy, in his house. Supposed, they are safer in the house where Lucy kills someone every now and then than just going to the police.
Or the police themselves being so autistic they never do anything about the dozens of people who are being found in pieces right outside of that house. Wait, that could be because they are in league with the villains, right? Sure, and that is the only reason the dickless boy and his harem of lolis don’t leave that house despite being targeted by manslaghtering sadists every two days.Add to this the way they throw in incest and even more amnesia for other characters just as extra shock value that has nothing to do with the story, how everyone meets (or meats lol) someone, remembers and forgets, finds and loses, in the most far-fetched ways possible and always in the most convenient times and well the story is written with the mentality of a 5 year old. But as I said it is all about shock value rather that realism. The plot is quite fast for its duration and shocking every 5 minutes, while there are many social messages to leave you something to think about.
Still, as I said, it only works if you are a newbie in the field who never thought of such things up to that moment. The logic of the drama is paper thin to fall apart while the ending is basically not any different that a silly date sim, proving that it was essentially made to please otakus and not other people. Yes, it was a series by otakus, for otakus after all.In all, if it got to shock you the first time, it is bound to become your fav for many years and even open a portal to you, leading to the darker regions of the otaku realm. It has done so a million times already. All I can say is that it is much harder for someone to be impressed today by it because most modern manga are far more violent and sexual. Heck, even cartoons are.
In fact I know many who admit that they have no idea why they liked that series so much. Simple, the shock value faded away and left behind only ashes and bones. So while I give it a high Value for its very important contribution in mainstreaming anime (for good or bad; I kinda hate the way most modern anime are all full of fan service) I must still give it a very low mark in Enjoyment because it doesn’t work if you are not a newbie and in no chance in hell it feels good if you are a veteran reader.