ELFEN LIED

3 stars out of 5

Elfen Lied is not a required viewing. In fact, I wouldn’t even recommend it to people who are anime fans. I just happened to have enjoyed the anime. I am not surprised at all that there aren’t a lot of people who would include this in a top 100 anime list. The violence and nudity have been flourished with controversy and it’s no surprise. The opening shot of the anime is a bloodied, severed arm on the floor. You then see Lucy, the guilty party responsible for that arm being on the floor, naked and ready to attack even more.

Source: Netflix. Elfen Lied. Copyright Lynn Okamoto, Arms.

For the first 10 minutes of the anime, we are suffered through bodies being destroyed, heads popping off and even a heart being pushed out of a man’s body. Oh, and a woman is used as a shield. Lucy didn’t need that girl. She can stop bullets in mid-air but hey, why not use a woman to shield bullets; that will definitely show everyone she means business!

After that opening sequence we are introduced to two new characters, Kohta and Yuka, who come to care for her after she escapes from a secret facility. It is typical clichéd stuff here: Lucy is both a terrible, destructive killing machine, and Nyu, an innocent, sweet and vulnerable girl. It’s the two-sided personality that actually dilutes the anime the most. She turns from Lucy to Nyu at the most convenient times. Again, pretty clichéd stuff.

Source: Netflix. Elfen Lied. Copyright Lynn Okamoto, Arms.

Lucy/Nyu is being chased around by clichéd crazy, cold-hearted military men in Bando and Kurama, the head scientist of the facility that Lucy was held in. The tension of them trying to find Lucy/Nyu is nothing that will make you on the edge of your seat but it does the anime justice.

The music is fantastic and is probably the best thing about this anime. The opening theme especially has to be one of the best anime themes of all time. The ending theme is supposed to be a change of pace because it is light-hearted rock number which is actually very catchy. The music does add some tension during the action scenes and it helps during the emotional scenes too but sometimes the music overshadows the action that is happening on screen.

Source: Netflix. Elfen Lied. Copyright Lynn Okamoto, Arms.

Overall, this anime is faulted by the controversial gore and while this anime is very predictable and has some head-scratching moments, it’s not too poorly executed. I did wish the characters were more developed, especially Bando. He makes me laugh. He isn’t supposed to be the character that makes you laugh but he does. The ending was an original idea by Mamoru Kanbe because the manga was not finished yet. Whether that hurt the anime overall lies in the eye of the beholder, but to this beholder, it had mixed results. A good anime but nothing special.

- Shaine