Elfen Lied

Lucy is a special breed of human referred to as Diclonius, born with a short pair of horns and invisible telekinetic hands that lands her as a victim of inhumane scientific experimentation by the government. However, once circumstances present her an opportunity to escape, Lucy, corrupted by the confinement and torture, unleashes a torrent of bloodshed as she escapes her captors.

During her breakout, she receives a crippling head injury that leaves her with a split personality: someone with the mentality of a harmless child possessing limited speech capacity. In this state of instability, she stumbles upon two college students, Kouta and his cousin Yuka, who unknowingly take an injured fugitive into their care, unaware of her murderous tendencies. This act of kindness will change their lives, as they soon find themselves dragged into the shadowy world of government secrecy and conspiracy.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Lucy Main

Kobayashi, Sanae Japanese

Nana Main

Matsuoka, Yuki Japanese

Kouta Main

Suzuki, Chihiro Japanese

Mayu Main

Hagiwara, Emiko Japanese

Yuka Main

Noto, Mamiko Japanese

Kurama, Mariko Supporting

Kawakami, Tomoko Japanese

Bandou Supporting

Nakata, Jouji Japanese

Kurama Supporting

Hosoi, Osamu Japanese

Number 3 Supporting

Takahashi, Mikako Japanese

Kanae Supporting

Yamamoto, Maria Japanese

Tamura, Manabu Producer

Morijiri, Kazuaki Producer

Koshinaka, Osamu Producer

Suzuki, Seiji Assistant Producer

Reviews

Nov 28, 2024

yakisobari

Recommended

This anime is not suitable for sensitive people, as it contains nudity and extreme gore. Taking this very important factor aside, the story is unexpected, mysterious, entertaining, emotional and overwhelmingly beautiful to the point one might consider this one of the best animes ever made. Initially focusing on Lucy (Niu) and Kouta, it slowly develops more and more onto other points of view; making it a complete masterpiece. The characters are well-rounded, the art style is classic and the animation terribly smooth (especially during the visceral scenes). It's about murder, feelings, family, friendships, relationships, mental health and philosophy. Prepare to gasp and cry a lot: ... it starts with blood and ends with tears.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jan 29, 2025

The-Demiurge

Mixed Feelings

After some reflection, I believe that I was overly generous with my initial rating. So, I had changed a few sentences and republished this review. - (>ω•)

The main appeal of Elfen Lied going in was its reputation as being one of the goriest anime ever produced. Obviously, it would be naive to overlook the primary attraction of this show, which is where these high expectations were changed. The copious amounts of mid-quality gore and fan service is laughable, and my anticipation of watching something unsettling quickly disappeared. Even if there are scenes that depict violence against animals and children, I still found these scenes to ... be tolerable because the scenes meant to be disturbing were introduced too quickly after the first “real” shocker. This review may sound negative from here on out but I still found it to be enjoyable, at least in some aspects.

Right off the bat we are introduced to a gorefest enough to tip some people over the edge. Although this was introduced quite quickly, and largely the bloodshed caused was largely impressive for a floorpisser, the wreckage nonetheless was really twisted and intriguing. The main focus of the story revolves around a Diclonius with small horns named Lucy, who possesses the ability to switch between being a violent murderer and acting like an untrained dog. This second personality, “Nyu” was found by two cousins who take her in to their home. Meanwhile, other plots and flashbacks are introduced involving Kohta as a child and his memories involving the Diclonii, which were nice to watch. There are other character relations, including the romance sub-plot, which was so unnecessary and forced it doesn’t even deserve to be mentioned. I feel like its presence was used to distract us from the rather uninteresting story and concepts that were left largely unexplained. For example, the Diclonii’s mysterious powers and the inclusion of the invisible hands that felt like a random inclusion were bizzare. Nyu also transforms into Lucy at the perfect moment, isn’t that convenient? Most of the story revolves around the relations between these Characters, which is where the story starts becoming convoluted. And as for the theme, most of it revolves around trauma experienced by the Diclonii and how they are differentiated from humans. Feeling sympathy for the Diclonii was largely a choice. Oh, and for the gore, uh, it made up for it I suppose, but I’ll get back to that later.

The sole focus of this story remains on Lucy, and to be honest she’s probably the only character that really matters. A few of the other Diclonii were mediocre at best but they weren’t expanded upon at all. It’s hard to feel much for Lucy when a decent chunk of her character was used for that stupid romance subplot. Her tragic backstory was glossed over and was ruined by two characters, Yuka and Kohta (Kouta?). Honestly these two are so boring seeing them on screen was just awkward. Kouta has a generic protagonist-but-not-the-protagonist personality who somehow won the ecchi lottery (if you can even call it that, his harem consists of his cousin and a dog). The first episode is the best you’re gonna get, maybe if they were both actually likable it’d be better. Yuka was only there for the fan service and the occasional helper for Nyu. Looking past that, Lucy’s herself as a character could have been expanded upon more, since most of her character was used as her Nyu personality when she was fonding over Kohta for some reason. Lucy was bearable when Nyu was out of the picture, the scenes where she tortures the officers are funny to watch. Either than those three, everyone else either acted like cartoon supervillains or had no relevance to the story at all. So, the Diclonii were likable when they weren't infantile and the humans were really boring and one dimensional.

Something that I was certainly not expecting were the large buggy eyes. Yes, this is to be expected of in anime, but it appeared much different in artwork before I started watching Elfen Lied. The character designs were pretty alright even though they looked kind of generic. On the other hand, the background had some pretty cool visuals showing itself off in the earlier episodes. I’m not picky when it comes to art, mostly because I don’t have much to compare it to. Elfen Lied’s visuals weren’t amazing, but they were still all around pleasing to the eye.

The opening theme was great, and I liked the other tracks that helped shape Elfen Lied’s atmosphere. The voice acting was in the middle of the road, it was not particularly noteworthy. Though, Nyu can be a bit annoying, but then again, it’s Nyu. (I watched the sub)

The gore and nudity is as significant enough to warrant it its own category. I do not mind nudity and gore in itself, in fact, Elfen Lied could be improved if even more of the budget was be dumped into making its presence worthwhile. The nudity and gore were decent contrasting themes, ex. one showing the innocent site of humanity (involving Nyu) and the other being something completely unimaginable for someone childlike to do. I would have preferred if it stuck to this theme throughout because at most around half stuck to this theme, the rest was thrown in for the sake of it. My main gripe with this series was the quality of the nudity and gore in itself, not the large presence of it. Come on, the gore is not that shocking, if the first episode scene wasn’t already the goriest it wouldn’t be surprising to get over its tolerability quickly. For something to pride itself in being the “goriest anime you’ll ever see” I would have hoped to see people puking their guts out or seeing some exposed brains. Nope, Elfen Lied’s gore was mostly red paint and anatomy consisting of one large bone going in the center of their body. The gore was too clean, and too cartoonish, which made it a bit goofy at times. None of the gore had any psychological aspect to it at all. If Elfen Lied wanted to, make the deaths slow and painful, make it more human. Though humans are malleable and human nature does not have to be one hundred percent biological, morbid curiosity and the desire to see certain people suffer could be considered as a core piece of humaneness. The nudity that was present didn’t irk me as much. It’s present, but it’s not eye-blinding or anything, most of the time it’s the hypothetical holy light in the right areas.

This is probably a good sign to disregard Elfen Lied’s story entirely, and watch it entirely for the gore and fanservice. If you’re looking for a story or characters to invest in, then Elfen Lied isn’t for you. The theme was quite good although some of the characters in these themes weren't really worth investint in. Otherwise, it's good for deriving some amusement from the hilarious amount of mediocre gore. I’m surprised Elfen Lied’s rating mentions mild nudity but not gore, neither felt real so might as well lump both of them in. Elfen Lied works great as an unintentional comedy.

I understand the negative reviews, but at the same time, I don’t hate it, it’s a mix between “good job on shocking people for some reason” and “meh, it was pretty mediocre."

Oh to be incoherent...

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jan 28, 2025

Mik0_o

Not Recommended

Oh wow, I don’t even know where to start. Throughout the entire time I was watching, the only thought on my mind was how I would criticize this anime afterward. The sole reason I even watched it was the opening—I really liked it. The music was fantastic, and the visuals were aesthetically pleasing. Unfortunately, the opening was the only good thing about this anime. Every other aspect—everything—was a complete disaster. Not average, not bad, but outright awful. Thankfully, it was only 13 episodes long because I wouldn’t have been able to handle more.

I honestly can’t understand how anyone can enjoy this anime or even give ... it an average score. If you do, please explain to me what you liked about it.

Let’s start with the story and plot. It’s at the absolute lowest level—boring, filled with clichés, and artificially constructed. There’s no emotional depth. They try to create emotional moments, playing sad music to make it seem meaningful, but it falls flat. I couldn’t care less about anything happening on screen. I couldn’t even tell what I was supposed to feel while watching these characters (we’ll talk about them later). The story starts off weak and remains a mess throughout. Every decision feels random and unjustified.

The ending? It felt like the whole plot was written by a six-year-old playing with toys, trying to create some kind of drama. Honestly, I can’t imagine how anyone could take this seriously or feel anything other than frustration while watching it.

Story/plot/depth/emotional impact: 1/10

Now onto the characters—the weakest part of the anime by far. None of them feel real. They’re all just lifeless puppets incapable of evoking any emotions in the viewer. The show tries, but you simply cannot take them seriously. Every character is unbelievably stupid, making completely illogical decisions. As a viewer, the only thing you think about is, "How can someone be this dumb?"

The main character is a walking cliche—uninteresting and spineless. The entire supporting cast only exists to fill empty space in the story. None of them feel like full-fledged characters; they’re just artificial props. And then there’s Yuka. Oh boy, she takes stupidity and irritation to a whole new level. Every time she appeared on screen, I wanted to punch her. Her sole purpose in the anime was to cry, nag, and obsess over the fact that her cousin didn’t want to sleep with her. Yep, incest. Just what this anime needed to complete its masterpiece of awfulness.

As for Lucy, people often say she’s an interesting character, but I completely disagree. She’s yet another example of this show’s childish writing. Her backstory and personality are just as nonsensical as the rest of the story. It’s like a six-year-old wrote her to seem "deep," but the result is pure idiocy.

Characters: 0/10

Now let’s talk about the dialogue. I cannot imagine how someone could write dialogue this bad. The characters speak in completely random phrases that make no sense in context. Their emotions and reactions feel so out of place that it’s laughable. I write stories myself, and I can’t fathom how anyone could be this careless and produce such low-quality dialogue.

The only line I can remember that stood out slightly was:
"Everyone in this place is unhappy. And since they're unhappy, they're probably looking for someone worse off than they are."

Dialogue: 1/10

I won’t even bother breaking down the rest of the flaws individually because I don’t want to spend any more time on this disaster. Everything else, from the pacing to the animation, is subpar at best. Sure, the animation was okay for its time, but that’s the only neutral thing I can say about it.

As for the violence, I don’t understand its purpose. Is the excessive gore supposed to make this anime feel "serious"? When the story is this bad, adding pointless violence every two minutes just makes it look desperate and pathetic.

And let’s not forget the gratuitous nudity. It served no purpose other than cheap fan service. If there was some deeper reason behind it, I sure didn’t see it.

There are so many other negatives I could talk about—like the pacing, the overall OST, and more—but I’ll stop here.

Thanks, at least, for making this anime only 13 episodes long. I can’t imagine enduring any more.

Final Rating: 1/10
This is the first time I’ve ever given a show such a low score. I’ve never seen anything this bad

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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