Elfen Lied

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"One heck of a disgusting bloody gore manga with an eye-popping storyline tangled with complicated character relations."

Made famous by its anime adaptation, Elfen Lied is well known for being THE cruelest, goriest, and a highly perverted, piece of work ever. The level of bloody mess you will encounter throughout the story can haunt the unprepared for many moons to come. In short, one is expected to have a strong stomach to survive these 107 chapters. Consider ...yourself warned!

Elfen Lied is perhaps the most controversial story of all time. Opinions on it varies greatly with some calling it "garbage of the century" while others claiming it ... an outstanding "masterpiece of all masterpieces". I prefer to stay away from these extremes but without a doubt naming Elfen Lied as the former is far from justified.

While it is rare to see "kawaii" horned girls brutally tearing bodies apart (or get their bodies tear apart), quite frankly Elfen Lied is infamous for that. However, that is not to say things just happen out of the blue and limps go flying for no apparent reason. In fact, it is evident that the mangaka put a great deal of effort into both explaining the background to this horrid power, and at the same time develop the story and character relationships. Many questions will likely come to mind as one read deeper into this manga. Questions like "why is this nude girl mercilessly killing innocents?" and "why do they possess these terrifying power?" will be among the first. Rest assure, that answers will be given in great elaborate details and the results will likely make heads go spinning, yet they will also cast an irresistible curse on you to keep reading.

The overall plot of Elfen Lied is truly amazing. It covers a wide variety of themes in great details, ranging from simple triangle love relationship, to the ever more common child abuse, to the horrid reality of non-ethical scientific research, to the threat of global terrorism, and lastly on human origin and our mutation/evolution. One can truly say Elfen Lied has it all.

However, nothing is perfect. What Elfen Lied lacked was some great artistic drawing. Although the reader can depict one action from the next, the amount of detail (ie. the quality of the artwork) is seemingly below what one would expect from such high quality story. But I guess we can also call it fortunate since if the artwork is better drawn, people might really start to faint from reading the manga due to excessive gore or result in severe nosebleed when the story gets to the more perverted scenes.

Strong character developments plus complex interrelations is another successful selling point of this manga. Although there are certain characters where we can easily identify as black or white (as in those we should love vs those we should hate), many actually belong somewhere in the gray region. Throughout the story you will find yourself rooting for a character in one chapter and surprisingly find yourself wanting to have that same character killed in the next chapter. It is precisely these types of character building techniques that make Elfen Lied loved and hated by many.

Finally I would like to once again remind my fellow MAL readers that this manga is not meant for young children and hopefully it will give you enjoyment rather than weeks of nightmare. I know I certainly enjoyed it to its fullest.


Reviewer BS:
*This is my first manga review. If you think there are places to improve on (and I know there are tons), please send me a friendly PM or just leave a comment. Thank You.*

Overview:

I have written many anime reviews, but this is my first time writing a manga review. Please be gentle critics! Usually the manga is better than the anime...unfortunately, today we will be looking at an exception to that rule of thumb.

SPOILERS! This is a compare/contrast with the anime. If you haven't read the manga yet, skip this review!!!

Elfen Lied (despite the bashing it gets on MAL and 4chan) is actually my favorite anime of all time. I'm not even being ironic, I'm dead serious! However, the manga... kind of sucks ass. I personally preferred the anime for quite a number of reasons.

Firstly, Lucy's character ... was more interesting with 2 personalities: 1 good (Nyuu) and 1 morally complex and greyish (Lucy), whereas the manga had 3 personalities with good (kaede) good (nyuu) pure evil (literal voice of DNA). This 3 personality path divided the character into clearly good and evil parts and robbed the primary character of much of her complexity. This also brings me to the next HUGE problem with the manga: DNA taking over and forcing people to be evil. The anime was much more ambiguous on the nature vs. nurture side of the diclonius killing instict, but leaned towards nurture since the only time we see a diclonius kill without prior heavy abuse is in Kakuzawa Jr's stories he told Kurama. Not exactly someone who can be trusted since nearly everything he says in the series is a lie. Although still debatable, the manga leans heavily towards nature and the diclonius simply being evil. This totally undermines the anti-discrimination theme that is a key part of the story, since it makes the discrimination and inhumane treatment seem justified. The Diclonius are wiped out in the manga, and we the reader are supposed to cheer this on! An entire human sub- race is simply evil at the genetic level and must be wiped out rather than learning to coexist with the rest of humanity. If the anime Elfen Lied was like X-men, the manga is basically "The Ugly Mushroom", a Nazi children book explaining to kids why Jews must be exterminated. Besides arguably having the worst moral of any manga EVER, it is also complete bullshit since DNA does NOT work that way! You can be genetically pre-disposed towards sociopathy and limited empathy, but DNA does not grab hold of your body and force you to be evil like Lucy's did when she sliced Kurama rather than allow herself to be shot.

Now we move on to Kouta, who is very average in the manga, whereas in the anime he just about the nicest guy ever. He is like Keitaro from Love hina, DBZ fused with Mohatma Gandhi. Although not the most realistic, I actually prefer this version of the character. At least he's memorable and interesting unlike manga Kouta who is just bland and forgettable. Another reason I like the anime is that I vastly prefer Kouta/Lucy to Kouta/Yuka. Lucy may have murdered Kouta's family, but the amount of remorse she feels and her desire to repent and become reborn (via Nyuu) coupled with Kouta's extreme kindness and forgiveness make them an interesting couple. They seem similar to Rodion and Sonya from Crime and Punishment. Rodion murders her best friend, but in the end she still loves him and forgives him following his extreme remorse and repentance. He goes through a Christian rebirth rather than an amnesia from bullet rebirth though. Kouta/Yuka is not only a rather dull couple, but Yuka is a truly irritating and unlikeable character. She whines more than any other character despite having had by FAR the best lot in life. She lashes out with violence every 5 minutes for minor shit ( Thank GOD she wasn't the one born with vectors). I also think Kouta/Lucy pairing is a far better reflection of the themes of repentance, love, and forgiveness, so it even adds better artistic aesthetics along with being more interesting and enjoyable.

Another thing is the tone of the anime under Kanbe's direction vs. Okamoto's tone and writing in the original manga. The anime has some silly ecchi moments, but the fucking manga goes so overboard, it REALLY makes the series difficult to take remotely seriously. Hell, there is an entirely wasted character who's only point of existence seems to be that her incontinence satisfies one of Okamoto's many fetishes. Kanbe stated he wanted to make an anime that could make 18 ups cry and challenge our assumptions on things like the limits of love, repentance, forgiveness, etc. Okamoto never took himself so seriously or had such a strong artistic vision. As proof, he personally made the first hentai doujin of elfen lied. I'm not fucking kidding, look it up! Kanbe has a strong resume in directing great anime and even made shoujo like card captors far better than they needed to be. He worked under Miyazaki himself on Nausicca for crying out loud! Okamoto has some good ideas, but is a writer with a bad need for an editor and has never written anything else of note.

Finally, as the plot in the manga went on we saw more and more silly shit that I could have gone without. If Kakuzawa had a whole clone army of totally controllable Marikos, why did he send the wild and uncontrollable original? The answer is that Okamoto clearly had the idea for babara and the other Mariko clones after the fact, and it creates a massive plot hole that makes Kakuzawa look even dumber than he already is. Did anyone think the Unknown man added anything other than a hilariously un-aerodynamic weapon? He got to make Bando a hero at least, which no one even wanted. Even Bando gets a second chance in this life, but not fucking Kaede? WTF?! We also get that admiral that looks like Itachi Uchiha and that god damned ridiculous vector tank! Overall, I will take an open ending over a bad closed ending any day! Why do people think having a closed ending makes something better? Brothers Karamazov: open ending. Birdemic: neatly wrapped ending.

PS. although minor compared to some of the manga's more grievous sins, the artwork in the manga is TERRIBLE! It sort of improves halfway through, but my god is it bad!

This manga is a mix of comedy, cuteness, gore and drama, and if it doesn't have one of the best stories I've ever got involved in, it's characters would make up for it.

Story-
Is a evangelical sci fi twist. Read it long enough and you'll be caught up in it. This is Definately a seinen manga with alot of nudity and many sex references, despite that it doesn't get in the way of the main story, and you won't think that it's just about girls being nude. There are a lot of flashback chapters, but they don't dissapoint like in other mangas, as they dive into ... the past of the main characters, they make you want to read the manga even more.

Characters-
In this manga it's hard to say that there is a "good" side or "bad" side, but there undoubtedly is. The characters in general don't take up that definate role,like Bandou who comes in the second chapter, he'll start off as a villian but there will be sometimes you're rooting for him, then right after that times you'll hate his guts.
Overall there is no character greater than Lucy/Nyuu her bckstory, her now, all of it but a complicated romance drama, that you may never expect her character to have.

Art-
For this manga the art seemingly doesn't work, but is somehow fitting. The mangaka has a great ability to turn the most cutest things into something that'd make you want to throw up. Limbs will be torn off, and bodies ripped in half. In other words if you don't have a strong stomach don't read.

Overall-
If you're looking for a manga that will touch your heart, have you on the edge of your seat, have you rooting for the character you hated a moment ago, or just have you saying "I'm glad this is fictional." This is a manga for you...

By giving this series an overall rating of 6 is me being generous. Elfen Lied to me feels like a series that had so much potential. The ideas behind the story were deep (extinction of humanity, the moral question of what is human compassion). However, the way they were brought out were horrible.

Nearly every other page contains somebody crying in drama; so much that it got old fast. To those that will eventually read Elfen Lied; prepare for a big cry-fest. Rest assure though, the artist does randomly throw in comic relief, which end up make those moments incongruous with the flow of the ... story.

There came a point when the story became predictable. Many chapters ended with a cliff hanger... Too many actually. Cliff hangers ended up being so absurd (a character being killed off way too soon) that when I started the next chapter, I could almost exactly predict the outcome. My thinking process was "Nope, the artist doesn't have the guts to kill him/her off yet."

As mentioned before, the delivery of the story could've been better. 107 chapters were not necessary. I enjoyed the anime more than the series; it kept the main themes of the story short and sweet without dragging on. Around chapter 80 was when I realized that the artist is now trying too hard to hammer in her themes.

All in all, Elfen Lied was a huge waste of potential. With better story telling antics and better character development, this could've been a great series.

Oh how the times have changed. At a point earlier in my life, before I reached what was probably the half-way point of Elfen Lied, I would have given this an overall better score, but I'm afraid things did not allow that. If anything, elfen lied is a testament to having to finish a series before you have a good idea of how you're going to address it, and for that reason before I go on I want to bring something up. Elfen Lied might tempt you with scenes of gorn, but it takes a lot more than that before a series can be called ... mature. Yes, you'd be right to say that it's not for the screamish, but the only thing that keeps it from being a shonen is the aforementioned trope. That aside, let us begin.

Story:
On the very cliche side of things, Elfen Lied follows an amnesiac protagonist, as the story progresses and they slowly regain their memories. What makes Elfen Lied stand out, is just how they lost their memory and what led to this eventual loss. For anti-spoiler reasons, a lot can not be said about what you'd see in the story, but what can be said is that it manages to stay to the end. Even though there are some very glaring issues that take away from the enjoyment, Elfen Lied remembers what its about to the very end, and if you can ignore it's other faults you will not be let down, the problem however, is that these faults can't go ignored.

Art:
Character design is very generic. It is of the variety where ever character that shares a gender has the same face with varying sizes, hair and eye color. What stands out in this series is how the mangaka draws the surroundings, and the military equipment that you'll see a lot. While I can't call myself a military nut, and it'd be wrong to say that they aren't generic, Okamoto puts enough detail into the weapon, but that's not really saying much. Of all of its traits, Elfen Lied's art is the second best, but that's not a hard accomplishment in the presence of its other scores.

Characters:
There are a lot of problems I had with Elfen Lied when I originally read it, but ultimately they could be ignored when there was actually a good character about. Elfen Lied is done pretty well in the moral ambiguity department early on, so much so that at points I could be rooting for one character one moment, then completely root for their opponent the next. This excelled best with the character Lucy, who's split personalities provided a perfect parallel that made you like them both. Unfortunately however, this is completely thrown away. There are a lot of despicable bastards in Elfen lied, and at the half way point the more likable ones join them. This gets every bit worse, when the characterization is thrown out by the series end.

Enjoyment:
When I first started Elfen Lied, I did like it a lot. It was the first seinen manga I read, that actually made me care about the characters. There are a lot of issues however, that you'll see in a lot of seinen, namely the fact that people often don't know the meaning of mature. A lot of the "mature" content in this series could have been left out, and had it been, it would be been a much easier read. Another thing that would have made it easier would have been better handling of its end. If it didn't try so desperately to prove that it was a seinen, and it didn't suffer the fault that a lot of anime and manga fall for, Elfen Lied could have been great but sadly that's not the case.

Overall:
I'd like to say "if you want a good sci-fi story, then Elfen Lied could easily be this for you." but such words can not be spoken in truth. While the story isn't trash, the art is unimpressive, the characters start overall good but quickly join the heap of other bad characters, and you'd have to be a very apathetic or depraved person, to say that your enjoyment of elfen lied is high. This very raunchy series has a lot of potential, but I do not judge on potential so thusly give it a 3 out of 10.

Story:
Story is quite deep, there are many unexpected twists and turns that'll make your head spin. While there are numerous events that do have a powerful effect upon you, there are some things that seem to replay throughout the whole story, but that doesn't hurt it in anyway

Art:
Don't know much about art but it was pretty nice. I think there are some scenes where the charcters are suddenly disproportioned, but they're in small little spaces so they don't stand out much. Quite a few bloody scenes that were done nicely.

Character:
Character development is a little slow at times and you kind of wish that you could ... give them a good kick. But what really makes up for that is the fact there are numerous characters that have different personalities who play their parts very well.

Enjoyment: I'm enjoying lots of things about the manga, but I think the one thing that draws you in is the story. Augumented with a variety of characters the whole thing comes together very strongly.

Overall: For now it's a 10. On the basis that the storyline is very strong with a nice cast of charcters that keep things interesting.

Warning:
Now here is where elfen lied probably loses a lot of ground to other manga. Even with spectacular story, a great cast of characters, there has to be a catch somewhere. It is unfortunate, but Elfen Lied brings out many parts of the story with strong graphical content. Examples would range from legs and arms flying from their owners in a bloody blur and ecchi that could almost be considered hentai. These scenes don't dominate the story, but there are enough gory scenes to cause some to turn around. So for kids out there or readers with weak stomaches, you are heavily advised not to read Elfen Lied. Also for those who consider themselves depressed or slighly mental, you might find yourself in a darker place if you read Elfen Lied.

A beautiful, beautiful piece of work to say the least – a special thank you to the creator: Lynn Okamoto! This manga captured the shocking revelation of a true human society that was thought unknown, whilst still evoking emotion with every blood and tear drop. The manga leaves the reader with an internal conflict, rendering them unable to deduce right from wrong – were the actions of Lucy ever justifiable given her constantly miserable circumstances?

The ending, from what I’ve gathered, has been highly censured; it wasn’t some asinine, outrageous ending, it was just considered… ‘Unpopular’. I, personally, fail to see any alternate ... ending that’d please the audience whilst maintaining the plot’s integrity and I still believe that the ending was far better than what could’ve been.

I’d recommend this manga to anyone who is interested in the philosophical and morale aspects of life or to anyone who wants to be emotionally moved by such works. It is definitely the best piece of literature that I’d ever read; I was continuously reminded of the times of happiness (and how precious they are), times of sadness, times of pain, times of love, times of loneliness, times of anger, times of fear, times of betrayal, times of confusion, times of blood and times of tears.

I’ve loved every element of this manga, sure I’d change a few things around for my personal benefit however it’s perfect the way it is!

"Elfen Lied," or in english, "Elf's Song," is a manga series inspired by a German poem written by Eduard Morike. The poem tells the story of an Elf who unknowingly wanders into a small village and is ostracized by the humans there. The poem ends with the Elf being clobbered over the head by a man.

In this manga, our 'Elf,' is a mutant named Lucy and our 'village,' is Kamakura, Japan. Herein lies a tale of racism, prejudice, misanthropy and incestous relations between cousins. I came into Elfen Lied with high hopes after hearing how it was supposedly, "sad," and "beautiful," it is. ... Sadly, the manga was nothing like the Germanic poem I read in preparation for this. What I read was a mess, a very poorly written mess.

The story, as I mentioned earlier, revolves around a Diclonius mutant named Lucy. The Diclonius bear striking resemblance to humans, except for the two horns that protrude from their foreheads and the fact that they have telepathic hands that allow them to rip anything apart. It begins with Lucy breaking out of a top secret facility, after massacring about 20 people. She then gets shot in the head, falls into the ocean, and wakes up with amnesia so bad she can only utter one word, "Nyuu."

Firstly, I would like to point out how cliche that amnesia is as a plot device. I have seen a million and one shows and books using the same thing. But, I am not as close-minded as to judge an entire manga based on a plot device. So, I continued to read on, hoping that the story would pick up. 107 chapters later, I was left disappointed. There are so many problems with Elfen Lied, one of them is the fact that not every character gets developed.

At one point we are introduced to a 13 year old girl who was sexually abused by her stepfather. And that is it, the author never expands upon this other than mentioning the fact that she was raped. Another character has to wear a diaper at all times because she has panic attacks were she ends up urinating on herself. The only characters who get any development are Lucy, Kouta(the male protagonist) and his cousin/love Yuka(the equivalent of Shirley Fenette in Code Geass). Even those characters are not compelling or relatively well written.

Lucy, is plays the role of the "moe," helpless amnesiac girl who, when threatened, turns into a killing machine. She is the star of manga, and anytime there is a female lead, nudity ensues. She spends 1/3 of the manga naked, to me this seems like overt fanservice to get people to by the manga. Next, we have Kouta the man who obviously has romantic feelings towards Lucy, but any attempt to romance her is thwarted by his cousin Yuka. Now Yuka is the absolute worst character in this manga. I despised her with every fiber of my being. First off, Kouta is her cousin/childhood friend yet she still wants to marry him. Why does she want to marry him? Because of some stupid childhood promise they made when they were five years old. Her love was complete artificial not to mention the childhood promise has been done a million and one times.

Another issue I had was how it dealt with its themes. The entire manga focuses on the contrast between the Diclonus and humans; how they differ from one another and how they are the same. I felt there wasn't enough differences to truly differentiate one from the other, unless that was the author's intent. Next, we have the other prominent theme of misanthropy. We people committing vile acts one after another, kids murdering animals with vases and scientists performing inhumane experiments on the Diclonus.

First off, at what elementary school do you find groups of kids brutally torturing and killing animals? I know that is a work of fiction, but the implausibility of the situation makes the drama seem blatantly forced. And the "evil," scientists performing insane experiments on living creatures has been a common trope in the science fiction genre. Everything seemed so sloppily put together, any supposed emotional scene left me feeling apathetic.

I would say the only entertaining parts of Elfen Lied would be Lucy turning into a badass, and killing lots and lots of people. You see her telepathic hands rip people limb from limb. It is a truly glorious sight to behold.

Overall, Elfen Lied gets a 6/10 from me. It isn't well-written nor all that intelligent. The only way I could enjoy Elfen Lied was by turning my brain off, and simply taking it all in. There is nothing wrong with a manga that does not require a lot of thinking but when this show is touted as something of an intellectual masterpiece, I can't help but be disappointed.

Elfen Lied has done the imposable when it comes to manga and me- grab my heart and force me to cry. Anime can do this easily, but up until I read this gem of a manga I never even shed a real tear to print media.

Art (5/10)- I understand that this was (and most certainly is) suppose to be a bloody, gorey, nudity fest that usually appeals to guys and girls who are fans of guro. I wouldn't say I'm not a fan of guro, but I would say I'm not a fan of pointless guro which the first few volumes of the series seemed ... to be. The artist draws very awkwardly character wise during the first 6 or so volumes of the series, but when the art does improve it is a great time because the story kicks it up a notch as well.
Characters (8/10)- Some of the characters were really awkward in my opinion. Especially this one girl who has a habit of peeing when she gets nervous. Some of the other characters were a bit too one sided for me to even remotely want to give them a fair chance at capturing my heart; there was one in particular that had a redeeming moment too late. Overall the characters were well rounded, even some side characters who were only part of the story for less than a volume were able to make me feel for them.
Story (10/10)- What Elfen Lied lacks for in art, it makes up for 10x fold in story. The anime felt just like a gore fest while the first half of the manga felt the same, then the plot really kicked in during the second half and started to make me shed real tears. Then that last volume. Ugh, how can an artist/writer DO THIS TO ME! I've never ever read a manga that made me cry real tears. It is so well written...

As noted within its genre, Elfen Lied is a tragedy. In my eyes, it's the most beautiful tragedy to have been created. This is not to say the content of Elfen Lied is beautiful in the way that it should be in reality as well. I mean it is beautiful as being a work of art that draws out powerful emotions of sadness and horror at the acts that go on within in.

It's unfortunate that many people claim it to be only about gore and nudity thus completely ignoring the plot. True, the first glimpses of Elfen Lied show ... both nudity and gore, but it's not meant to be taken as only that.

The nudity is obvious when Lucy is bound in her confinement in chapter one. Why give someone like that clothes? They view her as a monster not a human. There's no reason to clothe her form their eyes.

The gore is also obvious. Lucy doesn't care for the lives of the humans, thus in chapter one when she cuts down the humans in her way, it's understandable form her viewpoint.

Now, later on in the series there ARE times with ecchi in it with it being more of a typical ecchi. Also there ARE time with blood and gore with it being aligned with a seinen work. People watch/read ecchis and seinens all the time, and I think it's unfair to find Elfen Lied to be "disgusting" based off seeing someone naked and seeing someone die.

I'm assuming the "disgusting" aspect comes from these factors taking place with "little girls". This is where it should be noted that this is a tragedy. An innocent child being forced into this horrible world is something that pulls the hearts of the readers/watchers rather than an adult. Girls are also seen as more emotional (though there can be debate for that) which also plays into this tragedy role.

I unfortunately haven't finished watching the anime of Elfen Lied because of what I've heard of how it ended. I recommend to anyone who has only watched the anime, and/or hasn't seen the manga to read it. It seems to have a fuller story behind it than the anime from my understanding.

Story: the story really isn't too bad, but there's like such an unnecessary amount of nudity for the tone of the manga it feels forced and weird. Also I feel like there story should have ended way earlier than it did, near chapter 65. I felt like this dragged. I'm giving it a 3 for story.
Art: it had moments of awesome art, but man drawing faces is rough for the artist... 3.
Character: predictable side characters, just too plain for me. Not enough depth. 3.
Enjoyment: the only great thing about this manga is its pacing. Really great chapter writing in terms of how chapters end, and ... making you need to feel like you have to read what's going to happen next, even though the plot feels stretched out.

Elfen Lied is the ultimate man's manga; including all fundamental aspects one has come to expect from a male oriented manga with no exception of blood, nudity, sexual references and imagery, brutal violence, science fiction and even cat girls. As a girl, I won't complain, having a natural affinity to the more male oriented themes, however this is no manga for the faint of heart; the story often making you cringe as you witness limbs fly in every direction. Strangely enough, the brutality is probably one of the manga's most redeeming qualities, the way death and pain is delivered is intriguing at the least which ... brings us to the science fiction component of the manga.

The manga, if I recall correctly begins with an epiloguesque scene with Lucy escaping from a research facility, brutally murdering the people around her without a stitch on her. Already you can see what I'm talking about what with the immediate distinction of its targeted audience. Smut and blood aside, I found the beginning to have been much more well thought through than it might have seemed as, on a closer look, already the manga has established its three themes; science fiction, ecchi and action/gore as well as introducing the main character and a major plot point.

I found this manga to be an interesting one and is an instant recommendation, the manga a thrilling ride, though not so much intellectual, it is a wild and incredible ride to be on nonetheless. Much like a roller coaster, it is more adrenaline than thought and who doesn't want to ride a roller coaster?

Though short, I hope this review will convince you to some extent.

This is my first review...and I didn't think would ever have made a review for a manga/anime! I am a person that prefers anime over manga every time; however, Elfen Lied changed that. After watching the anime, I felt that the anime was in my top 10. It was awesome. Soon, I found out that the manga has a different ending than the anime and was more complete. Feeling uneasy to start reading, I just read the first few pages to see how it was. I was hooked. I started to burn right through the pages...I ended up completing the whole manga in a few ... days. I felt soo attached to the characters, and the ending chapter gave me a feeling of enlightenment and a tear to my eye. I feel empty, yet fulfilled reading this manga.

For anybody who watched the anime of Elfen Lied, I highly recommend you to also read the manga. I believe the whole delivery of the manga was a lot better than the anime.

Thanks!

Time to get really controversial. *Rubs hands together* Lets go.

Since Elfen Lied is a very popular anime with a bit of a cult following to back it up, I found myself very interested in giving it a shot. Not to mention, it had some things that I really appreciate in my anime, like cute pink haired killer girls, gore, and an amazing theme song. Seriously though, I love the Elfen Lied opening, I listened to it even before I learned about the show. Go check it out, its very beautiful.

Now, most Elfen Lied fans suggest the manga above the anime. Since the manga has over ... 100 chapters compared to a 12 episode show, I figured that the manga might truly be the superior one of the two, considering it would have more depth, character study, etc etc. So I downloaded the story and read most of it at school within a week or so.

I really wanted to enjoy this story. But I will go in to detail now as to why I could not stand so many important aspects of this manga, much to my dismay. I will try to be as specific as possible.


Story-
My score: 3

Elfen Lied has a very generic story that could have been developed into an interesting one. For the two people that have not heard of it, the story focuses on Lucy, (who I will be delving into shortly) a young woman who was born from test experiments to be a killer. She is referred to as a Diclonius, a breed of dangerous humans with cat like horns coming out of their heads. But what is so dangerous about Diclonius girls like Lucy, you ask? Well, they can use their anger towards others to produce invisible ligaments that can tear apart men. Lucy went through intense torture as a child, so she used her dangerous powers to leave the lab at an early age and hid from the government, killing those who she needed to kill as she was on the run. However, Lucy got a concussion during her escape, meaning that her killer tendencies are bipolar. She can be an innocent, kind girl at times, and then resort back to a stone-cold killer with little knowledge of the switch.

Elfen Lied focuses on Lucy and a few other Diclonius girls, such as Nana and Mariko, seeking refuge out of fear of further violation from the government. One by one, each of the girls cross paths with one another, and end up all confiding in Kouka, a young boy that is the son of an inn keeper. I think you know where this is going.

Now, I would like to explain that I do not hate harems. And Elfen Lied did actually have a decent set up for one. I mean, a boy taking care of wounded monster girls, teaching them social skills? That actually sounds kind of cute! But even with the occasional fluffy or endearing moment, this harem was absolutely ridiculous.

For starters, the girls in Elfen Lied just got naked a lot. For literally no reason either. The fanservice in this manga feels so unearned and cheap. I just wanted the plot to progress, not to see a bunch of girls getting groped.

Everything about the scientists trying to find Lucy was ridiculous and almost felt comical. They would assault and harm children for literally no reason, and had no motives. The story never delved in to why the diclonius existed, either. So I was confused almost the entire time reading it, curious as to why these scientists had even made Lucy in the first place.

The gore in this story was literally only there for shock. I did not want to see children get their bodies scissored and see a dog get beaten to death. This gore made no sense to the narrative and felt so childish to watch. I enjoy gore if it fits the story to have it, but this story's shock scenes were only there to scare the viewer. They felt so unnecessary.

Every single woman in this story was sexualized, and every single man was an evil douche with no personality. This story had themes of "the world is cruel" in every corner, but it was so exaggerated that I could not take one bit of its message seriously. None of the characters felt relatable, so the message did not fit this story one bit.

Elfen Lied also felt so flimsy and choppy. Sometimes the story would focus too long on boring aspects, and sometimes it moved far too fast. The ending was too rushed and by the final volume, I was scratching my head and wondering what the hell was even going on.

The story was edgy, full of unearned gore and fanservice, and had a jumbled, dumb plot and message. I almost chuckled at times over how ridiculous it could get.


Art-
My score: 6

Decent backgrounds, especially the lab shots. Lucy's kill scenes were well drawn too.

However, for a seinen manga, the characters looked too shoujo. Big eyed pink haired girls makes no sense for a story like this, and it almost felt laughable.

Nana, Mayu and Lucy have nice designs though. Still, they looked completely out of place in a violent manga like this one.

The scientists had some of the least unique character designs I've ever seen. I could not even tell them apart.


Characters-
My score: 3

Lets start with the elephant in the room, Lucy.
Lucy's killer form was badass and actually pretty cool to watch it action. I found the best parts of Elfen Lied to be when Lucy was a stone cold killer.
However, Lucy's "cute" (if you can even call it that)'s form was UNBEARABLE. I get that the "nyu" thing was for moe appeal but good lord it was annoying. And Lucy's cute form would often molest and strip the other girls at the inn, but she got away with it because she "did not know any better." A little character development towards the end did make her soft side a little better, but I personally found the bipolar thing with her really wishy-washy and dumb. Her killer side was too brutal and her sweet side was too saccharine and cheesy. This is not even mentioning that she has absolutely no character development. She just went on killing people the entire story with no progression or morals whatsoever. What a shame. Lucy had the potential to be a cool character, she even has a great design. But she felt so unrelatable, unrealistic and unlikable.

Nana and Mayu were fine. While not developed nearly enough, they were both sweet and were by far the most likeable of this bunch. I felt legitimate sympathy for both of them, such as Nana's terror in Lucy and Mayu's cliche, but still sad backstory. A little more development would have made them so much better.

Kouka was absolutely generic with no personality outside of his interactions with the girls. By the end of the story, I knew nothing about him. It never showed him on his own, never showed his motivations, never showed his hobbies, nothing. Such a bland plot device. He seemed to only be in the story so that Lucy would have someone showing sympathy for her. While his sister's death was sad and he did have the occasional moment that made me feel for him, he was really only there for Lucy's development. He could not have been any other character archetype besides a bland harem MC.

Yuka was very annoying. At least Kouka was generic but still a nice guy. Yuka was honestly just a generic, mean girl with a brother complex. She served no purpose other than fanservice and to be Lucy's competition in the harem, even though her and Kouka are related. Seriously, if you had taken her out of Elfen Lied the story would have had no changes.

All of the scientists were stereotypical, "evil" villains that just wanted to hurt Lucy with no reason to root for them. God, they were so annoying. None of them had any personality or backstory, and they were so damn interchangeable. Why even bother with them. Horrible, one dimensional villains that had nothing interesting about them.

Arakawa, the only female scientist, was okay but had no development outside of fanservice. She just walked around with panties on in a lab that did human testing. Because, you know, that's realistic. Could have been cool, but just a boring fanservice device.

Overall, Elfen Lied had a boring cast of characters, with all of them besides Lucy and Nana feeling like plot devices.


Enjoyment-
My score: 5

Here is where it gets weird.

Why such a high score if I had so many issues with this story?

Honestly, as dumb, over-the-top, and down-right aggravating that Elfen Lied was in almost every category, it was so damn entertaining.

Reading this manga was pretty fun, and I'll admit, the story was investing. That could likely be because I just wanted the story to finally get good, but it was a quick binge for me. I had fun reading it, as groan worthy as it was. Straight up horribly written pop-corn entertainment, like a Micheal Bay movie.


Overall-
My score: 3.5

Elfen Lied could have been better. So much better.

It was super generic and over the top with its story and gore. The characters were mostly cheesy and annoying with little development. And while the art was decent, the character designs looked so out of place. The story felt so flimsy and rushed, especially towards the end.

Still, give Elfen Lied a shot. I can understand why some would like it, pink haired girls killing people violently is pretty cool. Reading it was a ride, for sure.

At first sight Elfen Lied is terrible. First of all, the artwork is mediocre at best. Second, It's seems like It isn't more than an ecchi/harem with some unnecessary gore, and I am not a particular fan of any of these. And if that is not enough some characters like Bandou are just badly constructed and many of the organization's security plan seems too stupid to be true.
However, you can't judge a book by It's cover. What looks like plain and shallow are, actually, just the first steps of an amazing story.

This manga has a really complex background, and talk about prejudice, instincts, human ... nature and more. What used to seem like just an excuse to show violence and female nudity, shows to be way more intellectually challenging than we thought. And It all is told to us in a clear, simple and direct (You won't find fillers) way.
There are many flashbacks and speeches, however none of them seems too expository or forced. They flow well, despite dealing with such heavy themes and situations.
Plus, there are surprises in every corner. During many moments you won't believe that actually happened. It is really difficult to say what will happen next and the results rarely disappoint.
Some characters evolves in a incredible way (while some of them are really just disposable and useless). Lucy, Nana and Kurama specially. Even the art turns into something more acceptable, even beautiful at time to time.
So, the deeper you go into Elfen Lied the deeper you will get hooked in, and you probably won't even noticed It. When It grabs you, It doesn't let you go until the very ending. And what a ending. Although there are some things in the last chapter that I didn't like, It was probably the best I remember. I am still amazed by It.

Too bad I can't give Elfen Lied a 10 cause It has some serious flaws. The author is so cruel since the beginning, that at some point It starts to be funny. It takes part of the feels away. But the major problem in Elfen Lied is that the author stop killing people and start to pretend that they are dead. Most of them just don't make any sense. They just survive miraculously and since It is all so violent, you can clearly know when somebody died for real or not. If you haven't seems their heads flying off, the odds are that they are still alive. And It is obviously not good for the reader.

In the bottom line, Elfen Lied is a piece of art. Cruel and beautiful at the same time. I can't promise that you will like It, but I can tell you this: You probably won't see anything alike so soon.

"Her name was Lucy. She was gifted with tremendous power, and cursed with it as well. She was a dangerous enemy, and a good friend."

Ok, so that quote is not from Elfen Lied, and her name was Terra, not Lucy. But then again, Lucy's name wasn't Lucy or Nyu, either--but I digress.

How do you have sympathy for, let alone like, someone who does the things she so often and so casually does? I think its because not only do we get to see how she got that way, but how this isn't always an excuse. She can be an utter asshole in both her ... main personas, and to be fair, her childhood method for trying to avoid becoming openly angry was neither healthy nor practical. Humankind may have started young Lucy off, but she followed through with some spectacular errors that mark her off as being all too Human. She is so badly alienated from Humanity she may as well be an alien, but quoth the Possum, We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us.

Only in the sheltered universe of a run-down former restaurant do we find Humanity at its best. Flawed, but caring. The male lead is dense about feelings. The secondary female lead knows why the male lead is dense, and that he has a damned good reason to be so, but she still chastises him for it. The tortured innocent they take in spends a lot of time being wrongly suspicious of her new host while seeking the affections of the one man who may be as violent as Lucy herself. A girl with horns like Lucy pines for the makeshift father who permitted her to spend her life as a lab rat. Another girl is crushed spiritually and made weak by her father's efforts to save her from a danger he doesn't tell her of till she stands up to him - an act which so enraged him years before this, it started the whole cycle.

Then there is our anti-heroine. Before the first half of the series is done, we have seen her murder many, as Angelus said to Buffy, with a song in her heart and a smile on her face. Two of those permanently ensure that the one she loves will be out of reach. What she does to a complete innocent in the first chapter is wrong on so many levels, it can't be counted.

Yet the dense one gave both the murderer and the tsundere the best memories of their childhoods, and is a genuinely nice guy who always tries his best. The tsundere gives all she has as well, and treasures all those who live with her, even her bloody rival. The tortured innocent not only gets past her suspicions, but is successful in reaching the violent man's better nature. The other girl with horns redeems her fallen 'Papa' and is a joy to read. The crushed girl refuses to stay so, despite more than one setback--including a squicky assault by the hero/villain's good side.

Our hero/villain had the option to make better choices : she simply didn't have a lot of them, and she lacked any social tools to make them with. One small betrayal - really done to protect her fragile feelings - reads the same as a much larger, more deliberately hurtful one, and suddenly, her hopes of easy redemption are lost to her own fury and instability. She becomes a monster because we told her to be one, but then she herself runs with the ball, this Lucy becoming her own Charlie Brown, making the same bad choices over and over again, despite knowing better.

So that is why I see Elfen Lied as a masterpiece, its not-so-hot art aside. It is a warts-and-all kind of story, and nobody has any business being perfect. The moral are flawed, the amoral are forced to care, and the master villains make logistically dicey choices that bite back hard on them. And as an aside for EL-Anime viewers : Almost every WTF? moment will be filled in if you read through. There are one or two dropped storylines at the very end, and not all characters are given true final fates. But then again, if Elfen Lied is a masterpiece, no masterpiece is ever truly perfect.

This is by all accounts my favourite manga of all time. I warn you however that I am partial to dark, twisted animes/mangas and a little bit of gore never bothered me so this may have aided my love for Elfen Lied.

*Possible spoilers ahead*

Story - A brief summary for those who don't know. These are Dicloniuses in the world which are distinguishable by the horns on their heads and they tend to have exceedingly murderous tendacies. They usually kill using their invisable hands called "Vectors".I don't want to give too much away but I adored the plotline to pieces. I've never really read anything quite ... like it that could make me sort of dislike but also love Lucy at the same time.

Art - I really enjoyed the art. I haven't really go much to say about it, except that Nyuu was very adorable.

Character - Lucy is one of the most well development characters I have seen in the mangas I've read so far. She is troubled, she is angry and she is out for revenge on humankind! It is interesting how she also recognises her other alterego (Nyuu) and often refers to Nyuu every now and again before changing back. Nyuu's character is so different to Lucy's character but somehow it works so well. For me, Yuki was unbelievably annoying but I will let this slide for how awesome Lucy/Nyuu is.

Enjoyment - I enjoyed this manga throughly. I watched the anime first but I was happy to continue the story from where the anime stops and I think that the second half is actually the better half of the plotline with some wonderful twists and what I think is a very fitting ending.

Overall - If you like a bit of gore, good deep characters and a decent plotline then this anime is for you!

I'm horrible at writing reviews but here I go. Elfen lied is an manga that delly brings out a humans true nature in my opinion. When a person finds something different they want to destroy it right? I'm sure many other reviews say something similar. It brings up many issues that make me choke up. Bullying, devices that stop a races murderous intentions, using sentient beings as your science projects, etc.. This is a cruel creation light hearted at times but it takes dramatic turns frequently and keeps you on edge. I highly suggest this to those who are a fan of more hardcore ... dramatic things. Also the anime adaptation leaves so much out. The manga is much better. That is all.

Elfen lied is the single most impactful manga that i've had the pleasure to read, it shows how a person can destroy many lives without noticing it, it shows how the innocence of a side can clash with the violence of the other, it shows that life is a fragile thing that if you don't care enough for it it can easily go out of your hands and dissapear into thin air.

The story of Elfen Lied is one characterized by the sheer violence, blood, pain, suffering, problematic, ilness that represents many people's lives out there and how if time isn't cherished enough it evaporates like ... glass and never comes back. It is also characterized by the company, compasion, love, unconcern and harmony of having a family, one special thing in our lives that if taken the sufficient care can be the main reason of our waking up and living our lives to the absolute fullest making the most out of every moment.

In the story is present a clash between one factor and another, the Diclonius are superior beings and are powerful enough to cut the heads of
People using invisible hands that form part of their bodies. They are beings that were born to dominate the world and present a real threat to humanity and any living being. They are more intelligent, bigger, stronger, good looking and more physically prepared to hold the key to a united kingdom that consist of the entire world.

The characters are well represented in the story, Kouta a boy that meets a friend when he was in childhood and don't seem to remember important events of his life, Lucy a Diclonius who has a double personality the first one being an innocent girl that isn't capable of having any kind of extended conversation and whose real name being Nyu Kaede and the other one being basically a monster that holds hatred towards humanity because of the treatment she had when she was a child and how the other kids behaved worse than animals bullying her psychologically and thus causing her to give in to her inner personality that wanted her to take all of their heads off. There are also Nana who is a diclonius and who cherishes her papa like there's no tomorrow, Mayu a little girl that was welcomed in Kouta's house and Yuka who is family of Kouta and admires him with all her forces.

The art is really special, the panels are well depicted and truly describe the atmosphere felt throughout the story, the character's have unique designs and the use of light and shadows is well managed in the different parts of the story. The form of all the pieces together makes it work and take life as a piece of art.

This series is truly legendary, everything felt specially well constructed with a meaning and a purpose, the story alongside with the characters are something to behold making it one of the most accomplished work in the entire history of the medium and giving us the real meaning of what a legend is. This is amazing and legendary in every possible immaginable way and the enjoyement i felt while reading it's pages was something that can't be really described and the only form to say that it's real is to experience it.

As you may know, Elfen Lied has lots of gore, nudity and such. But the story line is amazing. I'm not usually one to really read this kind of stuff but... It fascinated me in many ways.
Story; 10: The story is amazing, and very elaborate, it will really get the reader hooked within the first few pages, strength of every action and scene in this made me ready for more!
Art; 8: The art wasn't the best part of the manga, it wasn't really eye catching, but since the storyline was great, the art didn't make a huge deal, ... though I think everything in this manga is great.
Character; 10: The characters are all amazing, going through individual struggles, and feelings. They just make you feel for them and understand the pain, even if you possibly haven't been through what they have. Their actions are believable because, trust me, if I went through what they did, I would probably react the same way.
Enjoyment; 10: I truly, truly think that this manga was amazing, it is worth more than a thousand words, though, less nudity would be nice, I really enjoyed this manga.
Overall, I believe this is one of the best manga I have read, (I heave read a lot, haha) and I think that the mangaka deserves a round of applause for coming up with such an amazing story. If you read Elfen Lied, I hope you enjoy! (Oh, and if I should make improvments on my reviews please send me a message or something! This is only my second review. thanks!!!)