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Year: 2004
Genre: Action, Horror, Psychological, Supernatural, Drama, Romance, Seinen
Episodes: 13
Rating: 3 out of 5
In 2004, Elfen Lied dropped on the world. The anime back then is known for its blood, gore, mature themes, and not kind to people’s atmosphere. When thinking back to 2004, I tried to remember what I was watching. I was definitely still into the Toonami era with my favorites of Gundam Wing, DBZ, and a few others.
Elfen Lied is an anime where little girls are tortured and experimented on because they are a different species. They have freaky weird invisible arms that tear people’s limbs off like Mr. Potato Head. Get ready for a strange and weird ride with weird girls, nudity, and enough blood to paint a skyscraper.
Overview
Elfen Lied begins with the breakout of Lucy. Lucy is one of the deadliest “Diclonius.” Diclonius is a newly mutated breed of humans born with a short pair of horns and invisible telekinetic hands called Vectors. Before her breakout, Lucy was held in a government facility built for research, but in reality, the girls in the facility are victims of inhumane scientific experimentation. Seeing an opportunity to escape, Lucy escapes her captors with a violent and bloody rampage only to be shot in the head, forming a split personality. Her second personality is the complete opposite of Lucy by being childlike and is known as Nyu.
The story begins when Lucy is found by two college students on the shore by the names of Kouta and his cousin Yuka. Kouta and Yuka unknowingly take the injured Lucy/Nyu in and treat her back to health, unaware that she is a murderous person. As they care for Lucy/Nyu, they become involved with numerous and often extreme attempts to recapture her by a Special Assault Team and several other Diclonius.
Review:
Elfen Lied is an okay anime. Most of the hype around it is with the violence, gore, and nudity. I will admit, the first 10 minutes of the first episode is extreme for an anime back in the day. I guess for even today’s standards, it is still a little intense, but Hellsing Ultimate is even bloodier and more violent than this anime. Still, watch at your own risk because people do get mistreated. Well, actually, all the girls get mistreated pretty severely.
Now for the story, it is a toss-up of trying to recapture Lucy and somewhat of a love story. After Lucy escapes from her prison, half of the anime is dealt with trying to either kill her or recapture her. The government sends a military team after her and several other Diclonius. Some of the Diclonius are even more extreme than Lucy with their Vector arms. The other half of the anime deals with this freaky love story between Kouta and Lucy/Nyu. We see that Kouta and Lucy had some MAJOR history with each other. It is just one person who messed up both people’s lives a lot. I know Kouta must be confused with the personality changes between Lucy and Nyu.
As stated before, this anime at the time was quite brutal and gory. Nowadays, this violence and gore is laughable. The anime starts off with a bang and with some harrowing scenes. We see Lucy detained, and when a guard comes and checks on her, he gets a hole through his chest. That is When Lucy starts painting the walls of her prison with the guard’s blood. Limbs and heads are ripped out. One of the craziest scenes is when an innocent and clumsy secretary runs by on accident only to have her head popped off like a grape.
With all the gore and limbs popping off bodies, the most f**ked up scene in this whole anime is Lucy’s childhood. I actually felt uncomfortable watching it. She grew up in an awful orphanage where she was bullied for no reason, and no one cared for her. Then the anime gives you a little hope as she finds a puppy to raise and comfort. She tells the one girl who she thinks is her best friend only to be stabbed in the back by her. The girl tells the bullies about the puppy, and all engage in killing the poor thing in front of Lucy. This is horrifying because they think it is hilarious and disturbing until the s**t hits the fan. Lucy’s powers awaken in a moment of rage, and the room has a nice fresh coat of blood all over the place. Homegirl killed everyone in the room. This scene is important because the consensus is that all Diclonius are evil. They are not evil; they are just driven and tortured that way.
Then there is the nudity in this anime. It seems like naked girls running around all over the place. Arm gets chopped off, here is a naked girl. Leg gets pulled off the body, here is a naked girl. Not everyone needs to be naked in this anime. For my old man rant, “put some clothes on girl!”
All the characters are quite forgettable. They are actually quite boring. The one to talk about is Lucy/Nyu. Lucy is a beast among them all. You feel somewhat bad for her because she was abused, and her childhood was a mess. When she found Kouta, you thought she might be happy when they were younger. The only thing is, when they were kids, Lucy killed his entire family on a train right in front of him. That is f**ked up.
Elfen Lied is a pretty good anime. If you are looking for some old school gore and violence, this anime will fill your appetite. Besides that, there are other anime series to watch where you can get violence from. The first 10 minutes are iconic in anime as it sets a serious tone. The characters are meh, but Lucy is a boss when she is not in Nyu mode. Give this anime a look if you are bored.
