Elfen Lied is a psychological (a bit) violent harem thriller with elves, telepathic powers and protagonist whose behaviour goes against all sense of logic. The mix of all these things, however awkward, ends up as something fun and entertaining if not particularly good or deep. So give this show a shot if it sounds like something you`d like as there is nothing else quite like it.

You have to create a place where you belong yourself.

Original drawn as manga by Okamoto Lynn and directed by Kanbe Mamoru (I”s Pure) Elfen Lied is in essence a violent love tale between a human and a being from another step of the “evolution” ladder. While it is told through the overused and kind of lame anime harem theme (adapting most of its weaknesses) it still is a psychological (a bit) thriller and certainly doesn’t shy from showing you your favourite character’s intensities. On surface it concentrates on an freshly facility escaped two-horned telepathy wielding superhuman, also known as diclonius, Lucy (who for some reason nets herself a split-personality) and her new life in Kouta’s, the most normal guy’s in the world, house. The two themes this show adapts (harem and thriller) don’t go along so well and it appears quite fractured sometimes, it doesn’t take long to see the pattern of ecchi happening at the beginning and middle of the episode and violence, action and other sick things happening near the end (and usually at night). Nonetheless, though very flawed, Elfen Lied is ultimately sewn up to quite an entertaining show. As long as you can turn a blind eye to some obvious inconsistencies with reality and logic, you will find Elfed Lied a nice show which is quite hard to forget.

Not only Elfen Lied is one of the most popular anime in the realm it also appears to be one of the most hated. Even if you haven’t seen the show you might have already seen some hater going on about how bad this anime is. And while indeed Elfen Lied is not even half the show its hype made it out to be, it’s also not as bad as many delusional haters paint it. But I guess it is not something to be surprised about, as it’s natural that after every hype people with their expectations raised somewhere above Mount Olympus watch the shows only to get disappointed with them. Personally, I took Elfen Lied into my hands five years ago with lowest expectations and found myself pleasantly surprised by its, while not exactly good, at least entertaining things. The biggest problem this show has is likely its inability to tame the suspension of disbelief as you will constantly find yourself being very timid to believe in SOME of the awkward actions taken by characters. That is also probably the reason why so many people have either love or hate relationship with this show. You will either believe into everything it throws at you and enjoy it for what it is, or keep rolling your eyes until severe muscle damage. Of course, you can always tell yourself the show is set in dimension where common sense and logic is slightly (or entirely) different from ours and fool yourself into enjoying Elfen Lied. It worked for me.

To be more specific, Elfen Lied as awkward as it is, poses a full-fledged depressing story full of violence and thorny love. It combines your average harem with a bloody thriller and, though the execution is far from perfect, the end result (depending on what you have initially expected of course) is satisfying enough. Unfortunately, the overall impression of the show is brought down by its cast, since half of them could have been switched by packing material and be twice as interesting (original Lucy’s persona and few guys from the side cast are about the only people worth paying attention to). Animation has aged considerably and sound, while with a few genuinely great tracks of music, is more repetitive than any non amnesiac would like. Nonetheless, dark and cruel atmosphere which (inadvertently or not) makes you think about humans a bit makes this flawed show into a very worthwhile watch, especially if you have sadistic tendencies.

Animation: 3

Animation done by Arms (Genshiken 2 and many hentai titles) was okay five years ago, now, however, it’s nothing to be excited with. The fact that this show adapts little artistic value and goes for technical prowess with bright color palette, usage of lighting (dated) and detail in various things of gore flying through the air (like severed limbs, heads or even organs) makes it very easy to age; especially since the quality of animation was improving rapidly in the past few years. Nonetheless, Elfen Lied doesn’t look bad, drawings might not impress you anymore, but it’s unlikely they will retract anything from your enjoyment either. Backgrounds are, for the most part, average and hardly memorable (though there are few nice sights offering a plausible level of detail). The show, kind of, goes around one place all the time so the number of different scenery is certainly not impressive. I, personally, found color palette a little bit too bright considering the atmosphere this show brags about. I mean, bright colors certainly work for the ecchi part and so on, but bright severed limbs look kinda off. There is little to comment on motion fluidity as well since it’s exactly what you would expect from a show with adequate budget. You wont find any particularly impressive movements, nor is there much battle choreography, however, neither simple movement nor more complex stunts ever look awkward and details of gore fly through the air with grace. The few inbetweens present are mostly used up on all the gory things.

What might certainly disappoint, however, is character designs. First thing - eyes are big. And, you know, we are all used to big eyes in anime now and all, but in Elfen Lied some characters (particularly Nyuu and Kouta) have their eyes take half of the face. While to some fetishists it might sound like a good thing, most people will find it hard to get used to this, almost, insect level of largeness. It’s made even worse by the fact that there is a serious lack of facial detail making heads of some characters appear as balls with faces painted on them. Well, it might no be as bad as I describe, but character designs, save maybe for Lucy, are certainly below par and age is not to blame here (it’s not even that old anyway). Also as I have already mentioned before, artistic value of the show starts and ends with limbs flying around (I wonder if some other studio made the OP, the artistic level of the intro and the real thing are like forest and desert).

Sound: 3

First and foremost I would like to comment on the most awesome of OPs I have ever had the pleasure to hear and see in any anime so far, Lilium by Kumiko Noma. It’s a depressing melodic psalm sung in Latin followed by an imagery you’d expect to find in an arts museum. Moreover it fits the original idea of the show perfectly (too bad overall execution never reached the level). Level goes down with ED, as it’s just an another song you’ve already heard in other anime and there is but one image which follows it (though it’s a good one). Overall BGM by Kondou Yukio (I”s Pure) is also a mixed bag. In essence you could say there is but one melody in the show (the same that plays in the OP) and its various variations play over and over. If there is any other music you will certainly never notice, or even if you somehow will, you wont remember it. Anyway, though the original melody is certainly a great piece of music and I find it hard to believe there are people who could dislike it; it still gets tiring after the millionth time you hear it. Nonetheless, though extremely repetitive, it still is one of those melodies you actually like to hear a lot of times and the overall impression is, well, good. It would have been nice if they had a little bit variation, but the one song they go on about is a good one and certainly works.

Voice-acting is for the most part average with very few performances worth nothing. Lucy is about the only one who has some energy and memorability in her voice at times sounding just as chilling as her cold murderer’s blood is. It’s not a surprise though, as she was voiced by Kobayashi Sanae who knows very well how to make her character’s voice get into your head. It’s also surprising that Nakata Jouji sounds below par in this show; maybe because his character sucks, but certainly the worst performance I have ever heard from him.

Story: 3

It would not be a lie if I said that the first impression of Elfen Lied is highly positive. Soon after the artistic OP the show jumps into some sort of research facility where a naked and seemingly emotionless red haired woman with a grotesque mask is chopping through armada of security guards immersed in a depressing Latin choir music you’d expect to hear in a church. Human experiments? Illegal imprisonment (ever since reading Dumas’ The Vicomte of Bragelonne I have this special reaction towards masks)? Religious sin remarks? Something about evil? Well, certainly the themes I personally find attractive and thus high hopes for Elfen Lied had been lit… up till the middle of the first damn episode where a generic harem lead character invites the aforementioned split-personality murderer girl (during her below 50IQ mode) into his house and has many Chobits-like ecchi situations with her. What the hell is going on, where did all the solemn atmosphere suddenly go? Anyway, while the show certainly falls into many traps for lonely illiterate otaku it also offers some nice views on the darker side of humanity, depressing atmosphere and much delicious explicit violence to lighten the mood up… Err, I mean, the other way around.

Anyway, the show works as a harem (was all that ecchi necessary?) at day and bloody thriller at night (various people usually getting decapitated by Lucy). This awkward combination continues up until the show finally hits Lucy’s backstory in the second half and without all that crappy sexual harem innuendo the quality shoots upwards. And, frankly, it’s much more interesting to see where did exactly Lucy lost that screw from the head than watch all that melodramic crap between Kouta and his cousin. Once you learn some substance behind Lucy’s behavior it gets more interesting to see what will become of her; and the show remains kind of fun till the very end. Kouta makes some awkward decisions which might make you question his sanity, but overall, Elfen Lied is moderately well paced and tied exactly at the point where it should have been. It’s not particularly easy to predict and if you wont expect too much - you will certainly have fun with it. Though adapting a lot of unoriginal things from various shows Elfen Lied still maintains a relatively distinguishable level of individuality and is certain to remain in your memories after many other harems will fade way (if only for the violence).

Characters: 2

The main problem with characters is that their behaviour, sometimes, goes against the laws of logic resulting in many very awkward situations. There is this scene where a girl approaches a completely maimed gunman, who is having convulsions and is shouting about how he will fucking kill everyone, and asks “What happened?” in casual manner. Then there is this moment where Kouta runs half a kilometer towards a bloody girl surrounded by an army of soldiers and doesn’t notice them until they start shooting (which is after he actually reaches the girl and talks with her). The best, however, is the scene where a person is killed in a train car and blood splashes all over Kouta. Kouta, obviously, starts shouting and so on; and the the other passenger in the car asks him “What’s wrong?”. Now… I either smell some serious cases of mental problems or lame scenario planning here. And something tells me it’s the latter.

Anyway, apart from some completely whatever characters like this insane gunman without a backstory or any reason to do all the nonsense he does, Kouta is the worst character in the show. If he was just an idiotic harem lead, which he also very well is, it would still be plausible, but thanks to the aforementioned “awkward” behaviour his personality is reflected even in a worse light. Not only the guy has absolutely no personality traits, he is stupid to boot. Not to mention he is damn malignant, he talks inconsiderate nonsense - gets slapped by Yuka; exhibits violent behaviour towards girls for no reason and contradicts himself more than the previous US president. Frankly, if you will not want to shoot the damn bastard to death by the end of the first episode your nerves are made of mithril… sir.

And if the guy is not annoying enough, we have Nyuu, the result of Lucy’s mental illness. A girl with a mental age below three (I’m serious)… it took the scene where she pissed on the floor (in the first episode) for me to realize that her characteristics might be… hard to predict. Thankfully, during the better moments of the show original Lucy takes her body from Nyuu back and does some serious killing or other pleasantly sinister things. She, herself, doesn’t let you know anything personal until the flashback episodes kick in; but don’t worry - not only she is a full fledged character, she is certainly the best in the show (not that it says much, heh). Anyway, she has a past, and her past affects her in the way logic tells it would, her resolutions and feelings are well conveyed. Though it will depend on your set of values what exact emotions you will feel towards her, you will doubtless realize that at least there was some actual and sensible work done with her personality.

There are many side characters; many of whom are not important (still better than Kouta). Highlight of the side cast would certainly be Kurama and his relationship with his “daughters”. Though Nana certainly can get annoying at times with her father complex, she is still one of the few characters in the show who actually tend to make sense more than not. You might even get emotional when it comes to some more complex situations between her and Kurama, but that’s a long shot. There is also this homeless girl whose personality doesn’t make sense given her background, but some of her interactions with Nana might pull a bitter smile out of you. Anyway, though not particularly good, side cast is okay, I guess… as long as you can turn blind eye to some reeeeeally awkward reactions.

Conclusion: Elfen Lied is a psychological (a bit) violent harem thriller with elves, telepathic powers and protagonist whose behaviour goes against all sense of logic. …The mix of all these things, however awkward, ends up as something fun and entertaining if not particularly good or deep. So give this show a shot if it sounds like something you’d like as there is nothing quite like it (or at least I haven’t seen it yet). At the same time it’s not exactly original, I mean, it’s on surface an awkward combination of the stuff you never mix but eat a lot… Err, like ice cream with salt?