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I want to love this show.

I can't love this show for how many unforgivable flaws it has. There is too much to simply just disregard and try to ignore. The show can be good when it wants to be, and every time goes right, I feel that at least two other things go wrong.

-The Good-
1 - The Opening theme
This is easily one of the best opening themes to anime, if not the best. The song to go with it, "Lilium", is absolutely gorgeous and it never got old to hear from start to end. Rather than a typically animated anime opening, the opening consists of ... still images imitating paintings by Gustav Klimt, and I think it sets the mood perfectly.
2 - The first episode
One hell of a first episode. It wastes no time, and I meant that. The infamous gore and adult imagery will start within a matter of seconds of the beginning of the first episode. From then on, the shock value just keeps escalating. I admit, it did a good job of getting my attention, something I know many shows struggle with.
3 - Can be emotional
Emphasis on the word "can", when the show wants to be engrossing it can be, and one particular moment towards the end of the show was actually pretty emotional. I only wish the show was like this more than just a fraction of the time.
4 - The Music
The music is actually quite good in the show. When more horrific things are happening, the music sets the tone perfectly with psychological and eerie songs that fit just so well. As I said, the main theme plays throughout the show, almost in every episode. It usually has a different variety of versions, and they all sound just as good as you could imagine.

-The Bad-
1 - God-awful characters
You will grow to hate many of them, I can assure this. It has a fair share of bland, boring, or uninteresting characters, and those are a pain. But they come nothing close to how awful some characters can be. Their motives are weak for the drastic things that they do. Most of these awful characters are usually insignificant to the plot, such as background or side characters. They do awful things and I simply don't believe that so many people in a show would be so vile.
2 - Forced romance
I won't focus on this too long, but it's one of those shows where multiple females are going to try to hit on or even force themselves onto the main male character. It's annoying, it's forced, and I didn't like it.
3 - Incest
Yes, you heard me right. Remember when I said the show had force romance? Well there may or may not be a cousin on cousin thing going on. Who's idea was it to let this happen? I do not know.
4 - Unnecessary Gore
I can take gore in an anime just fine. If you remember, I think the first episode of this show is fantastic, and it is filled to the brim with blood and gore. It is a good way to shock the viewer. However, Elfen Lied uses the gore trick card way too much desperately trying to shock me. After awhile, the effect wears off, and it gets stale as hell.
5 - Plot isn't structured well
On concept, I love the idea of the show. A humanoid species that has the power to wipe out humans effortlessly is something I think you can span out multiple stories with. However, despite being a good idea on paper, Elfen Lied executes this plot device miserably. If you watch the show, you will likely have unanswered questions or find major plot holes later on. It shouldn't be too hard.

- Conclusion -
Out of all the bad shows I watch, I would say this is the best of the worst if that makes any sense. I can't really tell whether it's an amazing show with unforgivable flaws, or a terrible show with very strong moments. Either title works equally. I did enjoy this show, so I can't really say to steer away from it, but just know when you watch it, you probably aren't going to be dumb-founded for it being a masterpiece. It's flawed as hell, but something about it is worth at least a chance. It's one of those shows that everyone should watch, good or bad in my opinion.

4/10

Unpopular opinion time.

Rebellion is a masterpiece if you're only regarding to animation, but as a movie and continuation of the Madoka Magica series I think it drops the ball.

I feel like the series was left off absolutely perfectly up until this point. I didn't feel like the ending needed something more. This movie is something more, and I was right, I didn't need it. It's not a train-wreck that will soil how the show ends off, but it definitely feels like this movie was a bit forced, and isn't too vital to the series.

The best parts of this movie are easily the presentation. The animation ... is the best I've seen in probably anything before. The voice acting and music is good as well.

Easily the worst part of the movie is how there is nothing relatable or engaging like in the series. In the anime, I felt like everything mattered, and the characters actions did too. I really didn't adapt to the world or characters the same way I did in the series as I did Rebellion.

I dunno, this movie is a mixed bag for me. Pleasing to the eyes, not so much else.

I have already seen the anime beforehand, and I am not one to read manga. My perspective might be a bit biased because of that, but I feel like sticking to the anime is the best option.

The manga version still does a good job of feeling and looking like the actual anime, as the story remains relatively the same and the art style is not only perfectly replicating what the anime was stylized like, but in my opinion even outdoes the anime artistically. However, the manga is shorter than the anime, and the anime was already constrained to only 12 episodes total with almost every ... minute containing plot-heavy scenes.

Because of this, the pace of the manga isn't as welcoming as the anime, which I thought had very good progression. The manga can be completed in no more than a few hours, for some people only 2 even. This makes the manga feel like the stort is rushing itself.

That's not to say the manga version still isn't enjoyable or anything, because you'll still be getting the same experience mostly, but I feel like getting the manga is really just determined by if you enjoyed the anime enough to the point that you want to see what it would be like.