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while watching Fate/Stay Night or Fate/Zero, have you ever thought "you know what this anime needs? OP FRIENDSHIP POWERS that conveniently solves everything!" of course you didn't. but this anime is basically that, well that and writers putting little girls in sexually suggestive lesbian situations. so on short, expect 3 seasons worth of loli lesbian ecchi fanservice and some fight scenes where FRIENDSHIP POWER always wins, the 4th season is a little different though, a little more serious, a tiny glimpse of the source material this spin-off was from. not saying this anime is bad, well if it was bad i would've rated it ... below 5, it serves it's purpose well, i think it delivers what it's target audience wants, namely magical girls, ecchi, yuri, lolis and friendship trumps all stories, it just so happens that some of those things just don't align with my interest which is why i didn't find enjoyment in this spin-off as much as other people have. "why did you watch this knowing it's like that" you may ask, well it's Fate, simple as that, i love the Fate series, well the main series at least which is why i want to watch all things Fate even if they don't have the elements i'm primarily interested in.

learn to appreciate something for what it is, not for what it isn't.

many people end up disliking this anime because they where expecting it to be an intense fantasy, action, adventure, filled with incredible fight scenes, deep story lines, dramatic events and even tragic moments similar to Re:Zero then you're gonna be disappointed, it was never intended to be any of those, that's like looking for apples in an orange tree, of course you won't find it.

this is anime is intended to be just a fun anime set in a fantasy world, the kind of anime you watch while while relaxing, it's a chill type ... of anime, treat it as such then you will find yourself enjoying this show a lot more.

there's a scene in Ep.8 that perfectly demonstrates the whole appeal of this show, in this scene the MC builds a bicycle and the Duke tries it out for the first time, seeing a rich old man learning to ride a bicycle is hilarious! a man who has made it in life, has riches, family, material possessions, lands and titles, acting like a child again, seeing such happiness in his face when he finally learns how to ride a bike, that is the kind of appeal this show has, it's meant to be a light hearted fantasy anime you enjoy to relax.

This anime is often compared to Attack on Titan, mainly because of they're similarities in Story, World, Characters and Character Motivation, which is true.

It also had the potential to be as popular as Attack on Titan but it was ruined by weird pacing. The story starts really slow, especially during combat scenes, that's where it really suffers from weird pacing, you have characters talking and standing around in the middle of the fighting while the enemies just patiently wait for our heroes to finish their dialogue like its turn-based game, that problem really affected the overall enjoyment of this anime.

The story also only started to ... pick up on episode 10, when they finally revealed the main character's past and motivation, that's the point when it hooked me in but by that time the anime is already at it's end, it would have made a better impact if we were shown his backstory a bit earlier, say episode 3 or 4, not 10. it would also make it easier for the audience to feel for the main character knowing his tragic backstory and why he's fighting for like what Attack on Titan did.

Overall it had the potential but lost it because of bad pacing and slow action scenes but had amazing visuals and soundtrack.

This Hentai OVA is based of a Visual Novel of the same name but just to keep things short, my advice is don't watch this and play the Visual Novel.

The Visual Novel is about a Private Detective contracted to solve a missing person case from an All Girls School, set in the 1950's Japan, but he later finds out that this case bigger than it seems, The game has elements of Horror, Detective Thriller, Psychological and Moral aspects that were ALL LOST in the Hentai OVA, the only thing left in the OVA is the very basic story line and all the H-scenes and H-scenes ... was my least favorite part from the Visual Novel.

In the end this kind of story needs an at least 12 episode anime to fully utilize it's story and potential and not a hentai OVA which only focuses on the sex scenes, which was never really the focus of the Original Source Material.

Ratings
Visual Novel 9/10
Hentai OVA 2/10

i'll just keep it relatively short, i'll just tell what i like and dislike about this series and you can judge it from there, it'll have some minor spoilers though but their pretty vague so it's fine.

the first half the series was really good! it was interesting to see how a character without super powers or combat experience will deal with problems in a fantasy world filled with magic and sword fights, also the psychological aspect of it, seeing Subaru feel physically and mentally exhausted from all the hardships he endured and yet no one around him even has a slightest clue as to what ... he experienced multiple times, seeing him feel frustrated that he can't do anything about it or even tell the truth to anyone, he has to shoulder the burden alone, the people he cares about die all around him and it's "seemingly" impossible for him to stop it and i think Subaru's facial expression are also animated really well, it really shows his frustration and the feeling of helplessness in those situations, i really liked those psychological aspects of the anime

but the second half the series started to go downhill, with the whole flying whale thing, it started to turn into a typical action adventure anime, the parts where he's trying to convince people to join his whale hunting army and the old butler's backstory is still pretty interesting though but everything else seemed like your typical shounen, Betelgeuse/Petelgeuse at first was a very promising and interesting character though but his ending felt pretty unsatisfactory, also it looked like the animation quality also started to go downhill at this point.

don't get me wrong, i still really like this anime, it could have had so much more potential
I'd still give the anime an 8/10 though

there's already plenty of long reviews here so i'll just make a short one

Once you get past all the blood, gore and nudity, Elfen Lied is actually a very good anime with very interesting characters, good story and very tear jerking scenes, probably got my tear ducts working even more than Clannad After Story and Angel Beats did, probably.

So give it a shot, there's a saying like "A Diamond on the rough" Elfen Lied would probably be "A Diamond covered in blood" because the blood and gore turns away many people from watching this but its actually really good, a "feels" anime as they say.