Halo Legends Mini-Review

Halo Legends is a series of 7 anime shorts produced by  a variety of animation studios.  Several of these are quite big names, responsible for anime or manga such as Bones (Wolf's Rain, Eureka Seven, Soul Eater, Fullmetal Alchemist), Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell, End of Evangelion, FLCL), and Toei Animation (Dragon Ball (Z, GT), Sailor Moon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Digimon, and MUCH more).

I'm a huge Halo fan, although that bias doesn't show in this review.  I was fully expecting Halo Legends to be just a major corporation milking a cash cow.  I expected it to be crap, but crap that I would enjoy watching for ~70 minutes.

Holy hell, it was actually amazing.  Not only was it not a shallow action piece, but somehow they managed to achieve character growth in several of the shorts.  Character growth and poignancy, in 10 minutes.  There are some that are more action, and one that's comedy, but the overall grouping is amazing.  I rated this anime 93 out of 100, for a 5 star rating.  Ironically, despite what I commented above, poignancy and character development were actually the most heavily penalized categories (though they are still above average).  I heartily recommend this series, especially since you can watch it easily in a single sitting.

Ayakashi Mini-Review

Ayakashi is a lesser known anime, and is generally pretty average in most respects.  It poses an interesting premise, though it's execution leaves much do be desired.  If you're a fan of anime that focus on summoned creatures fighting for the summoner (a sort of pokemon or digimon like approach), then you'd probably like this anime.  I'd also recommend it if you're just looking for another enjoyable anime to watch, too.

Basically, these supernatural parasite creatures bond themselves to an individual, and can then manifest themselves into a physical creature by tapping the host's life force.  This has the expected nasty side effects of, say, slowly killing the person when they are physically manifested.

I overall give this anime a 55 out of 100, which is a 3 star rating.  This is unfortunate, as it had the potential to be much higher.

Neon Genesis Evangelion (Series) Mini-Review

Neon Genesis Evangelion, or simply Evangelion for short, is, to put it simply, a brain fuck.  The entire series is a train that has been derailed.  You wait for it to finally wreck, with a morbid fascination at each bump and jostle that threatens to cause it to finally come to a fiery end, and right when it's about to tip, it's hit by a meteor instead.

The anime follows Shinji, a rather pathetic young boy thrown into the middle of a battleground between giant mecha and giant alien-monster-things called Angels.  The focus is on about 3 primary characters or so, who collectively have enough issues to archive in a 20 volume set, and enough baggage to open up their own airline.  Add to this a world bordering on apocalypse, secret cabals, and an emphasis on Freudian symbolism, and you have a pretty good description of Evangelion.

I give this anime a 54 out of 100, which is 3 stars, though I wouldn't recommend this anime to someone looking for anything other than character growth and a philosophical debate.  The anime has some interesting moral and philosophical themes regarding life, individuality, and abandonment.  Expect to have no idea what's going on, even after the series ends, though.  The character perspectives are also intriguing, though much of the development occurs right at the end of the series.

Glossary

Mecha:  Giant robots.  Most accurately, mecha are generally piloted machines of war in a generally humanoid shape.  They are a common staple in anime.

Elfen Lied Summary (Episode 4)

So we open Nana telling Lucy that it's time to come home, and that she's already contacted the others.  And then, totally without fear, asks if Lucy is going to kill her now.  Lucy simply replies that she hasn't killed a single person so far, and begins walking off.

Lucy tells Nana to go home, despite her persistence that she needs to bring her back, but Nana refuses to give up.  Enter fight scene between the two diclonius.  Nana has longer reach than Lucy, but is also a far less experienced combatant.

That ain't no slap

Alternate with Kouta and Yuka.  Kouta tries to dismiss the question, and tries to get out of answering it by looking for Nyu (wrong move, but then again, in this situation there is rarely a winning move).  She wants to know why he wouldn't tell her that he was injured by getting on the wrong side of soldiers, to which he replies he didn't want to worry her.  She objects; "Is it not alright for me to worry about you?"  He tries to find out what's wrong, but gets slugged for his efforts.  As I said, no win scenario, especially when suffering from CGS*.

We get a flashback, of sorts, for Yuka.  Mannequins take the place of the adults around her, as a symbolic representation of what she went through as a child, with most of Kouta's family dying, and him not coming back.  She is as much upset at herself as anything else, as she knows that Kouta is the one who truly had it rough, rather than her, but it is apparent that she had very few people her own age around.  And any special attachments to Kouta.

Return to diclonius fighting.

Mayu gets some free bread (probably yesterday's bread) from a grocer, ostensibly for Wanta (her dog).  Though it's fairly transparently for her too (as the bag of bread cubes is about as big as the dog is).  Yuka runs into her as she's leaving, so Yuka decides to talk to the grocer about Mayu.

Return to diclonius fighting.  Now's when the power advantage Lucy holds becomes clear (even if her vectors lack length).

Mayu hears something coming from ahead, and comes forward in time to see the end of the diclonius fight.  She rushes forward, saying to not fight.  The momentary hesitation of Nana is all that's necessary to let Lucy win. 

And by win, I mean the removal of all four of Nana's limbs.  And Mayu, right in the middle of everything, get's to see Nana's leg get ripped off.  I'm sure that won't cause her any issues.  Though Mayu does survive, simply getting thrown aside by Lucy instead of actually injured.

Nana does survive, though, due to sniper reinforcements, but alas, the first shot misses, meaning that without the element of surprise, they're not going to be able to do jack to Lucy.  Though Kurama, truly a badass at heart, just walks up.  This morale boost lets Nana overcome the pain of becoming a multiple amputee the hard way, and does something with her vector to Lucy's head.

Lucy's vectors stop working.  Kurama walks right in front of the disabled Lucy, ignoring her to walk over to Nana.  He chides her semi-gently for not waiting for him, though she confesses that she jumped the gun a bit because she thought he would praise her if she could bring in Lucy herself.

Lucy taunts Kurama that his daughter is supposed to be dead, a fact which he confirms, though follows it up with a bitch slap.  Let me reiterate.  He may or may not know about what Nana did at this moment, but in either case, he just slapped around someone who killed 23 people in 5 minutes using her MIND.  Forget Bando, Kurama is the real badass here.

Despite all the guys with guns, Lucy manages to run away.  And by the way she jumps, either she's a ninja, or diclonius are more powerful physically as well.  Although that latter notion is rather supported by several previous events.  (1) Lucy shot a sub-machine gun one handed.  That is no mean feat for a gym-rat soldier, let alone someone who's been in a straight jacket for who knows how long until just recently.  (2) Nana is shown to be crashed into walls and the ground hard enough to create dust explosions, and doesn't seem to be phased by it.  Although this is sort of an anime staple, it does suggest a level of increased durability.

But despite Lucy, the sole purpose for them being out here, getting away, Director Kurama just doesn't care.  He's with the badly injured Nana.  She's concerned that she's no longer 'useful' to him, but he tells her that it's alright, and to not talk any more.

Now back to Yuka, as she reflects on a conversation she had with the shopkeeper.  The baker (probably) tells Yuka that Mayu is probably homeless, wearing the same clothes and picking up what scraps she can every day.

'tis just a flesh wound...

The helicopter carrying Nana and Kurama goes overhead.  Kurama is visibly distraught at what's going on with Nana.  He gets a call from his assistant.  I haven't bothered to mention her before now, as she was just kind of there.  She did exposition on Kurama, and that was about it.  But the gist of the call is that he needs to speak to the Director General when he gets back to the base.  He is surprised, and apparently displeased by this turn.

Yuka finds Nyu out near the scene of the fight.  She must have transitioned back from Lucy off screen, sometime after Lucy fled. 

Kouta, back at the house, is worried about how late Yuka and Nyu are out, noting again the broken clock, and seeing his reflection in it.  He gets a call.  Apparently Mayu, having been found and redirected to the hospital, gave them Kouta's phone number.  She promises to pay him back for the hospital money eventually, and is evasive on why she told the hospital to contact him rather than someone else.  When her stomach growls, he invites her over to eat, suspecting her living condition.  She accepts furtively.

Yuka and Nyu are already home when Mayu and Kouta arrive, but when Nyu comes in, Mayu is suddenly struck with fear, having seen Lucy dismember Nana.  When she sees how nice Nyu looks, though, she dismisses the notion, assuming that it was just a weird dream.

They eat, and after getting a bit over-emotional about having an actual cooked meal (on Mayu's part), Yuka offers for her to take a bath.  Nyu joins her, and with them away, Yuka and Kouta have a serious discussion about Mayu.  Yuka fills Kouta in on the fact that she'd probably been living on bread ends.

Budding Romance.  And that's a fade out: they aren't that close

Kouta also tells her what happened on the beach to make him not trust the police.  His story also explains to Yuka why he's been so concerned about Nyu, and that it wasn't just romantic attachment or something of that ilk.  This breaks through a lot of the tension that's been between them this whole time.  It appears to be building to a romantic moment before Nyu bursts in to disrupt the moment.

Yuka uses the kind-but-insistent persuasion of hers to get Mayu to stay over for the night, citing the fact that there are plenty of rooms around.

Now, enter the Director General, talking to Kurama in a giant office.  He tells Kurama to kill Nana, because "A diclonius [they] can't use is just too dangerous a being."  Kurama accepts, though is noticeably taken aback.  As he walks out, the Director General takes a call from a Professor Kakuzawa.

Kakuzawa's apparently the Director General's son.  He's doing research relating to diclonius to help find and apparently capture Lucy, though the exposition is rather vague.  He was mostly just calling to get more funding, and to provide a very smooth transition from the Director General to Kakuzawa and his lab assistant.  Her name isn't dropped in the conversation between Kakuzawa and herself, but it's apparent that she's competent, knows about diclonius and such, but is apparently ignorant about the actual workings of those she's with.  It's also apparent that Kakuzawa has machinations of his own, kept from both his father's and his lab assistant's knowledge.

We now find out Kurama's assistant's name is Shirakawa, as the two are about to put Nana down.  It is apparent that neither one is particularly happy about the event.  Kurama insists on doing it himself.  Even as a torso on a table, Nana is still happy to receive an affectionate touch from her 'papa'.  Nana's eyes close slowly as she 'feels sleepy', to visible thinly-restrained-resentment from Kurama, at having to do this.

Nana looks up at him, and says goodbye to him before going limp, catching him off guard with her understanding and acceptance.  The whole scene is given added weight by the force of the Saints version of Lilium.





GLOSSARY
CGS:  Clueless Guy Syndrome, I defined this "condition" in the last episode's review.

Elfen Lied Summary (Episode 3)

With more and more exposition finished, it becomes easier to summarize in brevity.  And so the title sequence moves through, bringing episode 3 to its beginning.

We open with the awkward scene we left before with Yuka walking in on Kouta while he's trying to help not-Lucy change.  Also, for convenience, I am going to start referring to not-Lucy instead as Nyu.  I'm not sure when they make it official, but Kouta and Yuka decide to call her Nyu, as it is the only thing she ever says.  As of episode 3, they've addressed her as it a couple times, but I was trying to wait until they more formally decided on it.  Screw it, Nyu's easier to type.

Confrontation before the Broken Clock

So Yuka drops the key off, and excuses herself icily, stating that it "looks like [she] interrupted something."  When Kouta follows to protest that it's just a misunderstanding, she randomly asks him if he remembers the festival they went to together when they were younger.  She slaps him, hard, when he's confused.  Though there's been some indication before, this is more definite confirmation that there had been something between them in their younger days.

Kouta's very confused at this strange behavior.

Now back to Kurama, and this new girl with horns he calls "Nana".  (In Japanese, Nana is the number Seven.  Additionally, this is also a popular girl's name, so it works well for the double meaning.)  The girl seems friendly enough as she's unchained, despite the blood caked on her, but Kurama simply states that he has something to ask of her.

Episode title.

Yuka's now looking atbox of small cut-out shapes.  Apparently of some kind of thin wood or ceramic.  Through flashback, it is apparent that it is some kind of carnival game in a festival she and Kouta were at.  He teases her about being unable to finish one without breaking it, and cuts one out himself just to walk the walk after she calls him out.  He does it flawlessly, and they make a bet that if she can do one perfectly he'd have to do whatever she wants.  Silly kind of childhood bet.

Well, now Yuka has an entire box of the finished things, some of rather intricate detail.  It's obvious that there were some feelings between them (especially on her side).  She's been holding it back mostly until now, but the misunderstanding when she walked in on Kouta trying to change Nyu brought it all to the surface, it seems.

She crushes some of them in her hands as she cries, and the flashback statement of Kouta's, that he'll be sure to remember the promise/bet, seems to be the origin of it.  She calls herself an idiot, most likely for reading too much into the things that were said.

Papa: Keeping you happy when you're bleeding from... everywhere.

Now back to the girl in the cage and Director Kurama.  It seems, through EXPOSITION, that it order to have a test subject dedicated to dangerous experiments, it was necessary to have some support, so Kurama filled this role as a surrogate father.  She's apparently been a test subject here since the day of her birth.  This is one of the few places where the theme is directly stated.  The picture to the right as the exact quote (at least based on the subber* for my viewing of it).  This specimen number seven has apparently refused to fully use her 'vectors' against a real person so far, but now Kurama is asking her to kill Lucy.  She doesn't want to hurt a person, though apparently she is the only one who can locate another 'diclonius'.  Nana agrees to try to find her, but refuses to kill her.  Kurama doesn't press the point, and tells her that all she has to do is stop Lucy.  She just has to call in after finding her.

It's worth noting that this is the first time we've heard the term 'vector' or 'diclonius'.  Cutting to the chase, the 'diclonius' are those with horns and vectors.  We learn more about them later.  'Vectors' are the invisible, telekinetic hands the diclonius use.

She eagerly will help her father, though he goes right back to calling her 'number seven' instead of Nana as soon as he steps out of the room.

Kouta meanwhile, has a fever.  There's a small scene between him and Nyu.  She still has no understanding of what he says, but she tries to help him in her own way (namely, when he asks for water, she brings him a slipper), but as Kouta comments, it's the thought that counts.

Yuka drops by to drop off some clothing for Nyu, trying to avoid Kouta.  Nyu comes out and grabs her, though, knowing that she'd be able to help Kouta more.  She's correct, and Kouta reveals that the reason he was so clueless, was because he can't remember the day at the festival, what with that being about the time his father died in an accident, and then his sister getting sick and dying, and what's a little amnesia among friends when THAT's going on around you?

And now back to Bando.  He's having a heated argument with Kurama while in a hospital-like room (though probably in the super-secret base place, by the metal walls).  Turns out Kurama's balls are forfeit.  EXPOSITION!  Apparently diclonius are mutant humans, and their vectors have awesome cutting ability.  Apparently most of the diclonius are sterile or something, but Lucy has the ability to breed or something, which is why she's so dangerous.  This point is probably more clear without translation issues.

Now, back to the Kouta/Yuka channel.  They're still trying to figure out what to do with Nyu, though Kouta doesn't want to admit to the whole attacked-by-a-soldier-sent-to-kill-Nyu-after-police-were-looking-for-her thing.  Yuka decides that in any case, it would probably be best if she moved in.  There are plenty of rooms, she could

And now we go back to Nana.  She's ecstatic that she's been given some clothes to wear.  Again, they ask her to do a mission, rather than just be a specimen in a cage and then give her clothing, a symbolic acknowledgement of her humanity.  She is eager to do the mission for even the smallest recognition, literally for "a pat on the head".  Kurama is just and stand-offish as always, but he does tell her that it is fine to run away, and he wants her to make sure she comes back.  This could simply be to make sure not to waste a valuable specimen, but given what we saw with Kisaragi (klutz girl) in the beginning, it is far more likely a small demonstration of compassion.

She does state that she would like one small favor, though we don't hear what favor this may be.

And now back to house chores.  Kouta is doing some cleaning while Yuka unpacks.  Nyu seems to want to help, so Yuka goes to get her a cloth to help clean.  While she's out, Kouta accidentally bumps her boob (an honest mistake, with his elbow).  But Nyu takes it once again a step further than Kouta is comfortable, by essentially inducing grope.  Yuka takes walking in on this better than last time, delivering only an off-screen slap rather than walking out.

As Yuka goes for some shopping, the young girl with a dog who found Bando on the beach comes by to return the umbrella Nyu dropped when Bando made off with her.  When he finds out that she was in that area, and saw someone who looked like a soldier, he brings her in to ask her more about it.  Yuka's initially annoyed when she returns, but softens when Kouta says that she knows a bit about what happened.  With some confirmation, Kouta is annoyed that the police knew about the soldier on the beach.

Definitely Lucy.  Also: how to look scary in a silly hat.

It's now that Nyu finds a small music box that Yuka left sitting out in the hallway.  Looking at it, she slips and falls, and hits her head.  The music box opens, playing Lilium, though as the girl gets up, her mien indicates that she's definitely Lucy now, not Nyu.

Lucy is about to kill Kouta, but when she sees his face, she sees what looks like a younger version of him shouting "Stop!".  She walks out without incident, and it seems that she knows him, as she states his name under her breath before leaving.

The music box is apparently Kouta's, something he left behind, though he doesn't remember it at all.  They hear a noise as we see Lucy walk by the young girl's dog, tied up outside.  We see her vectors come down on it's location.  Unaware of anything wrong, they continue talking.  It turns out the young girl's name is Mayu.

She refuses to give them an address or phone number, and since we saw her before living in a box on the beach, she is most likely homeless.  She is upset when she comes out and finds her dog gone, though it's just a fake out.  Lucy apparently just cut the leash holding him to the gutter.  The puppy's a good friend, so he comes right back when Mayu calls for him.

Short time skip, and Kouta and Yuka are worried about Nyu.  Kouta decides that he wants to go looking for her, but Yuka surprises him by airing what's been bothering her.  She made promises back then, and everyone's forgotten.  She promised to bring him back his music box?  Forgotten.  Now there's just a music box he can't remember.  She promised to keep working on the festival game until she perfected it?  Forgotten.  Now she just has a box of past cutouts.  Finally, she brings out the question that really surprises Kouta.  "Do you want to grab my breasts?"

She's had feelings for him all this time, but he has been suffering from a bad case of Clueless Guy Syndrome*. Looking back, it's very visible.  The peevish way she reacts to the initial chemistry between Nyu and Kouta when they are eating, her overreacting both times she caught Kouta in an awkward position, her anger at him forgetting about the festival day...  And now, she just can't help wondering about the whole caught-groping-Nyu event earlier in the day.  Her consternation is expressed in this simple question:  does he have feelings for her, like she does for him?

We don't get to see any further reaction beyond Kouta being very confused for a split second.  We transition from this seeming non-sequitur to Nana.  We see now (via flashback), that the one request she had was to have Kurama's tie.  He gave it to her wordlessly.

It turns out that she's found Lucy, on some stair case (there appear to be a lot of them in this city).  Nana comes up behind her, comments that she probably already knew she was coming, and that it was "time to come home."

Roll end credits.







GLOSSARY
Clueless Guy Syndrome (CGS):  CGS is an entirely made-up condition.  Very often, guys have no idea when a girl is attracted to them, because women tend to analyze things much more than guys do.  It's true.  A girl can be practically throwing herself at a guy, and to the guy, it's so subtle as to be entirely overlooked.  This isn't true in all cases on either side of the gender line, but it's generally very accurate.

Subber:  Most anime subtitles are translated and edited into the video by fans.  These people who make these fan subtitles, or subs, are thus known as subbers.

Elfen Lied Summary (Episode 2)

As before, the opening leads into the anime.  It's also interesting to note the few other characters used in addition to Lucy in the opening, and their timing within the lyrics.

The anime proper opens by introducing a new character.  A young girl (much younger than Lucy, Kouta, or Yuka) is seen with a small dog.

From her, we transition back to Bando on the helicopter.  Bando once again proves to be a bad/jack-ass, and basically says "screw you other guys, I'm jumping in now", ignoring further precautions.

The not-Lucy girl is then seen digging through the sand on the beach.

Episode title, much faster now.

We head back to Kouta, as he reflects on what Yuka said last episode, and thinks about it why staring at the clock a little.  At a knock on the door, he's happy, expecting to see the girl and Yuka return, but is surprised to find the police.  The police are looking for Lucy, and although they state that she is simply missing, their initial reaction tells Kouta that they're lying, so he pretends not to know her.  After they leave, he grabs an umbrella and heads out to try to find her himself.

Now back to soldiers on the beach.  Soldiers prowl the beach, wandering amongst the litter.  Bando is among the first two to find not-Lucy on the beach.  Kouta finds her, though is knocked over by Bando, who is quick to hold a gun to his head.  After a threat, Kouta bats the gun away, and flees with not-Lucy, now knowing that they are trying to kill her.

Meanwhile, Yuka is talking to the police to try to help find not-Lucy.  She realizes where not-Lucy probably is at the last minute, and heads out to try to find her on the beach.  Yuka arrives to find an unconscious Kouta, not-Lucy already missing. 

It turns out that Bando's dragged off not-Lucy, though he knocks out the other person with him when he tries to report in.  He still wants to have a "Good Time".  He wants a fight, and so is trying to get her to fight.  He hits her.

Bad move.  A little bit of trauma brings the real Lucy back out.  After a brief fakeout of Lucy having been shot, the guy with Bando bites it.  And now the ass finds out that provoking Lucy is a BAD idea.  We also get the first good look at the telekinetic 'hands' that Lucy uses.  Also, she begins chucking objects him.  Including boats.

With the explosions, the little girl seen before is now wondering what's going on.  Meanwhile, Bando means to shoot a grenade on the ground near Lucy when she comes just slightly closer, but when he pops up from cover...  she's holding the other soldier's machine gun.  She shoots him, but badasses don't die that easily.

Lucy's left him alive, and is pissed off about the whole wanting-to-enjoy-this-fight thing.  When he tries to shoot her, she disarms him.  Literally.  She then pokes the fingers of her 'hand' into his forehead, and we hear plenty of squelching from off screen.  He doesn't appear to be dead, though, only blinded.  He barely survives due to Lucy transitioning back into not-Lucy before she finishes strangling him slowly.

The little girl finds the injured Bando, and she gives him a tourniquet and calls an ambulance for him.

We then find Kouta in the hospital with Yuka.  The police come to ask Kouta about his injuries, and he tells them that he was attacked by a soldier with a rifle.  He asks about a girl on the beach being alright, but given their immediate intensity, he pretends he just saw her there, and states he didn't see anything unusual about her.

Especially with them asking about "anything on her head", Kouta makes stuff up, about a college girl with short hair, just to throw the police off.  Their comments about it being best he forget about it all 'for his own good' worried him.

Kouta heads home, while Yuka leaves for her place, but Kouta finds not-Lucy with a new shell for him when he get's back.

Flashback:  Yuka asks Kouta to not forget her, and he assures her he'll be back the next year.

It's apparently been eight years now.

Back to Kouta and not-Lucy.  She can't understand him, and doesn't know the basics like putting on clothing.  Enter Kouta, trying to be a gentleman so badly, though it's really hard to change someone with your eyes closed.

And of course, right when he's taking her bottoms off is when Yuka walks in, realizing that she still had his key.

Back to Kurama.  He's afraid that Lucy will start acting more blatantly now that Bando's been wrecked by her, so he reveals another diclonius specimen.  Specimen #7.  She's bloody, chained to the wall, and nude, but when he enters, she addresses him as "Papa".


And roll end credits.

Elfen Lied Summary (Episode 1)

For most anime, this summary will be much shorter, though for some particularly complex anime (like Elfen Lied), I will be breaking the summary down into blocks of one or more episodes.  Elfen Lied in particular is extremely complex, with foreshadowing everywhere.  Well, with that, let us begin.

The anime begins with the title sequence, which is truly beautiful.  The artwork is based on the pictures of Gustav Klimt, who was a notable symbolist painter during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, though with the homogenous style broken up through the replacement of an anime-styled character (who we will learn later is Lucy) for one of the stylistic characters.

Art work of Gustav Klimt (Left) and the Elfen Lied Adaptation (Right)

The music is original to the anime, called "Lilium" but is based on both Biblical passages in Psalms and the Epistle of James, and on the hymn "Ave Mundi Spes Maria".  If you haven't heard Lilium, Google it.  It's really beautiful and haunting, and there are like a gajillion hits on youtube for it.

So, now we start into the anime proper, and the imagery jackknifes.  Instead of the semi-erotic, semi-abstract artwork, it moves to the image of a dismembered arm lying in a pool of blood, still twitching.  Some horrified guards stand around, staring at a figure in a full-body straight jacket, metal helmet, and strapped to a giant metal contraption.

The figure turns to look at one of the guards, and his head explodes.  The other guard can only look on in horror as the figure takes a key off the dead guard.  He shoots a handgun several times, but we see no effect come from it, as the figure drops from the structure, and the steel girders collapse and fold under some invisible force.  We don't see what happens to the man, but it isn't hard to guess.

Another man watches this happen on some security monitors.  A dead security guard on the floor suggests that, shall we say, the man isn't the proper individual to be watching for trouble.

The large doors keeping the room closed open slowly, revealing the figure, now totally nude except for the metal helmet, surrounded by twisted metal and the dismembered bodies of the two guards.  As the camera moves to front, it is obvious that the figure is female, and she drops a dismembered head she holds in her hand.

She begins walking forward, as the only sound is that of her footfalls, and her humming "Lilium", twisted and haunting through the iron mask.

My essay on nudity covers this further, but it's very symbolic that this unhindered monster, as far as the audience can tell, is entirely nude, except for the mask, which both hides her face, the last vestige of humanity, behind a mask that bears markings that appear to be like the jagged interlocking teeth of a wild beast.

And now it's an average day at the office, though in an office that bears a similar metal architecture to the interior we saw.  A bunch of secretaries are talking, and the one working for a 'Kurama' is being asked about her particular boss.  It appears that, (1) this Kurama guy is a hard ass, and (2) the secretary is a bit of a klutz.

We now flash back to an armory where guards are handing out fire arms, as emergency klaxons blare.  Assault rifles are locked and loaded, set to automatic fire, as we see klutz girl barely manage to not drop a cup of coffee.

In less well lit areas, guards are attempting to hold the line.  Either they're really bad shots, or the implacable figure appears to be immune to bullets.  One makes a comment that they should be fine as long as they're more than 2 meters away, but then she chucks a pen through his face just to make a point.  As she slowly advances, through hall and elevator, nothing can stop her, and all who she encounters die gruesomely.

As she rises from an elevator, it becomes apparent that she is stopping the bullets.  And we see a blood-soaked hand print pull a lever.  She shows no remorse, killing even those who don't shoot or try to flee.

As she moves through a door, this point is emphasized as an entire squad of soldiers and a man in a suit stand in her way.  Just then, klutz girl trips into the scene, spilling the coffee, and face planting in front of the figure.  The man in the suit is addressed as 'Director Kurama'.  The girl's name is Kisaragi, though this doesn't matter a lot as she has her head torn off a few seconds later, just to demonstrate how indiscriminately the figure, apparently called 'Lucy', kills.

Note Kurama being held in the background

Despite the attitudes of the secretaries before, we get a glimpse into Kurama here, having to be restrained bodily by guards to stop him from rushing futilely to Kisaragi's aid.  He also doesn't authorize the guards to fire until after Lucy kills the poor girl.

Lucy simply uses the dead girl's body as a shield, which does suggest a limit to her ability to block bullets, but the guards expend all their ammo before the corpse-shield fails.  Here she leaves Kurama alive, though, for an unknown reason, also leaving the majority of the guards (those not directly attacking her or in her way) alive.

After passing Kurama's position, she's trapped behind multiple bulkheads, but the figure in the control room/video feed room opens a door to the outside for her.

In a final bid to stop Lucy, they attempt to shoot her with a .50 caliber anti-tank rifle, delivered via sniper rifle to her head.  She turns at the last minute, and either the metal mask, her telekinetic abilities, or both, stop it from being a lethal shot.  The mask shatters, and blood is visible at her temple, as she falls off a cliff into the sea below.

We now transition to very Japanese scenery, including the cherry blossoms falling, as a girl waits at a train station for someone.  The setting is probably Japan, late spring or early summer, then.  Moving away from the station, she finds a young man.

Exposition time!  The exposition indicates that his name is Kouta, and she's his cousin, Yuka.  They're about to go to college, but they were apparently very close when they were younger.  There's some suggestion that Kouta's younger sister died at some point in the past while the two of them are reminiscing on the beach.

Suddenly, they see Lucy, entirely nude, right in front of them.  This is also the first time the audience sees her horns.  From her mien, it's obvious that she isn't the same Lucy from before.  She seems very scared, very confused, and no longer possesses the menace from before.  The head wound, hair color, and eye color (as well as story structure) all suggest that this is the same individual we just saw slaughtering guards, but it is apparent that some sort of amnesia has occurred.

At Yuka's urging, Kouta gives this not-Lucy his over shirt (which is plenty long enough to cover her completely.  I'll focus on these actions more in my essay on nudity, but here they find her, and one of the first actions they do is to acknowledge her as a person, and give her clothes.

It's now that they find out three important things.  They find that (1) she doesn't speak anything except for saying 'nyu', (2) she has horns (they think at first that they are some kind of hair decoration), and (3) she has a head injury.

The revelation that she has horns sends Kouta into some flashback, where he sees the outline of what looks like a young girl who acuses him of being a liar.  He kind of spazzes out for a minute, but Yuka brings him out of it.

They decide that the best thing to do is to take not-Lucy to Kouta's new home here.

Add some more peaceful Japanese imagery to emphasize that this is a peaceful time.

It turns out that the place he's been given is an old inn, with ten rooms in it.  Good news is that means there's plenty of room to keep not-Lucy for a while, though that also means that Kouta has that much more he has to clean.

The enter, and Kouta admires an old broken grandfather clock.  Not-Lucy is visibly distressed, though they can't figure out why.  Turns out she needed to pee.  And with amnesia of apparently even basic considerations, she pees right on the floor.

It comes down to Kouta to clean it, while Yuka bathes the girl.  And furthering the symbolism, they provide her with a full set of basic clothing, both a top and some shorts, showing how they are slowly working with her, and accepting her despite her oddities.

And flash now back to the facility where Lucy was kept, to remind us of what this now-innocent individual had just done.  The bent and broken metal, and blood spread out as if thrown by an explosion... 


It turns out Kurama and the other members of the organization have no idea why the security door opened, which means the audience actually likely has a better idea than they do.  Kurama, however, prioritizes finding and destroying Lucy.  He authorizes sending the "Special Division" after her, since he says that if they don't detain Lucy, it would be "the end of man kind".  Additional drips of blood from the twisted metal serve to illustrate the point.

Move now to follow a soldier of this "Special Division".  We learn quickly that his name is Bando.  It's up to personal opinion if he's a Badass or a Dumbass, but what is clear, is that he's definitely an ass.

Bando:  Bad- or Dumb-, he's definitely an ass

We meet him in a simulation, where he handily guns down targets while avoiding their 'hostages'.  Impressive speed and accuracy, though he quickly starts shooting the random 'civilians' around out of boredom, commenting to the effect that it isn't fun when they don't fight back.  He wants to shoot real people.  Again, Badass or Dumbass, you decide.

He's then given the task (with the rest of a squad) to take down Lucy, though he's simply told that she's an assassin.  He then slugs a secretary for 'sneaking up on him'.  Yup, he's an ass.  Though he shows some sign of being sorry.

Flipping back to Yuka, Kouta, and not-Lucy, the two cousins try to decide what to do with not-Lucy.  They decide that they're going to have to talk to the police (to see if there's a missing person's report out on her or whatever), though not-Lucy then finds a seashell given to Kouta by his sister.

It turns out that his sister, Kanae, died to a disease, likely shortly after that event.  Not-Lucy then proceeds to break the shell.  Needless to say, Kouta's pissed off at this.   He over-reacts a bit, but it's to be expected from someone who obviously still misses someone that was very close.

Despite Yuka, trying to calm him down, his yelling makes not-Lucy run out of the house.  Yuka points out that he looked sad looking at the shell, and that not-Lucy was probably just trying to get rid of something that appeared to be a bad thing.

Flip back to Bando, as he demonstrates once again that he's an ass, even among other people in his unit.

The episode closes out with not-Lucy crying on the beach in the rain.

Elfen Lied *Anime* Main Review

Elfen Lied is known to many be reputation, if not by content.  It holds the reputation of being one of the bloodier anime, and not without reason.  Nudity, gore, and violence is a constant throughout the series, demonstrated in the first 5 minutes as a nearly totally nude girl slaughters at least a dozen guards, usually through dismemberment, all while they are attempting to gun her down with assault rifles.  The series is very dark, and is not for the faint of heart (or the young).


This said, though, Elfen Lied is also one of the deepest and most poignant anime I have ever seen, and I am tempted to revise this anime's scores to better account for it being an outlier, rather than even a standard against which other anime should be judged.

I will note now that this review is regarding the anime.  I will discuss in future reviews/essays why I do not review the manga with the anime, but suffice it to say that many of the most poignant topics suggested by the anime are nullified, technobabbled, and twisted such that the manga ends up being far more average, and far less poignant, than the anime.

This series, to properly describe, must have some basic information presented.  In Elfen Lied, the premise is that there is essentially a divergent breed of humans, the "diclonius", or two-horned humans.  These humans are almost always female, possess two small horns on their head (which ironically look enough like cat-girl ears that I initially mistook them for such), and possess telekinetic 'hands' known as "vectors".  These "vectors" possess incredible strength and cutting power, and can reach much farther than normal arms (2-3 meters (6-10 feet) for most diclonius).  Further, if a male survives contact with one of these vectors, they will then father more diclonius rather than normal humans.

A half government/half private company runs research on the diclonius to determine the danger they pose, especially given their tendency towards mass homicide.  This group takes the worst aspects of both halves, presenting conspiracy-level power and lack of accountability, while running without any oversight as long as they get results.  To this end, the diclonius are treated abysmally, not even given the basic considerations due as rational beings.

I will elaborate on some of the material of the anime in this review, but for a more in depth look, I will be writing multiple essays on the topics of this anime.  And now, on to the scoring!

Scoring
Poignancy:  20 / 20
Character Depth and Development:  15 / 15
Enjoyability:  10 / 10
Filmography:  9 / 10
Comic Element:  10 / 10
Ending:  9 / 10
Badassery:  8 / 10
Nudity:  10 / 10
Violence:  5 / 5
Crying Bonus:  +5
Obsession Bonus:  +5

Total:  106 / 100, 5+ Stars

Poignancy
This anime is incredibly deep, investigating such topics as dehumanization, racism, child abuse, ostracism, and love.  It dances around these themes and interweaves them wonderfully, creating an anime that is both beautifully deep, and horribly poignant.

To save on length, I will only briefly summarize each of the points of this section.  Most will be addressed in more length in accompanying essays.

First, there is the look at the nature of racism, and how it leads to individuals being singled out and ostracized, or even leading to outright abuse.  More on this will come in one of the essays, though it is suggested throughout the anime that things would have turned out quite differently had the dicloni simply been treated with the love due a child.

Though as a counterpoint, there is also the character Mayu, who is completely human.  She stands in counterpoint to the dicloni, and is present to support the theme.  Mayu, to put it bluntly, was the victim of neglect on the side of her mother, and sexual abuse the side of her father-in-law.  She shows that abuse is not limited to the dicloni, but is a problem even without racial overtones, given that she is simply an undesirable to her family.  She runs away, and is later taken in by a more loving household in time.  It helps to support the overall themes, however, showing her fear as a different reaction to what she experienced, while also showing her attachment to her only initial source of unconditional love:  her dog, Wanta.

Further, there is the dehumanization that accompanies this racism.  I will address this more in a further essay as well, but it is worth noting here that the nudity at any given time in the anime is directly symbolic of how the character is being considered by others at that time.

As these stories of horrible abuse, dehumanization coming from the darker aspects of humanity as affected by racism and fear, and the redemption possible with love weave together, it makes for an anime that is incredibly powerful and deep.  The only proper score for something that sets the bar so high is a 20 out of 20.

Character Depth and Development
Every main character is relatable in their own ways, especially in being able to empathize with their emotions and back story.  The only characters who I, at least, felt nothing for were those meant specifically as foils, characters so repugnant as to embody all that is dark and dirty in humanity:  those who would lie, cheat, and steal to claw their way over others.

The main characters, including Kouta and Lucy especially, have elaborate pasts that are slowly revealed through flashbacks at a pace which is perfect for the anime.  Elfen Lied is truly a masterful character piece, and deserves a full score of 15 out of 15.

Enjoyability
Even more than most anime, this is a matter of opinion.  I personally love looking deep into psychological and philosophical matters, and so was enthralled with this anime.  These matters don't interest others as much as myself, and so for them, how enjoyable it is would fall to other factors.  The action scenes are short, but intense, but are also filled with gore.  Nudity is very frequent, but the actual sexual overtones are few and far between.  For me, this struck the perfect balance, though for those who are more squeamish, or those looking for more action, this one may not be for you.

Overall, these reviews come down to my opinion, though, and I myself couldn't stop watching until I'd finished the entire series.  It's also one of only two anime series I have gone back and rewatched all the way through multiple times (the other being Code Geass).  For one of my favorite anime, it scores nothing less than a 10 out of 10.

Filmography
Though there is little that is necessarily original about this filmography, per se, it did exactly what was needed to get the job done right.  The shots were all well executed, and the angles captured an amazing amount of power, shot for shot.

Further, the music is tied beautifully and powerfully into the work.  The song "Lilium" is the primary song used, though the variations used keep allow it to take on very different effects.  The so called "Saints Version" carries a creeping menace with it as it accompanies Lucy's slaughter of a small army, while the same song in music box form carries with it an immense sadness and loneliness, while simultaneously offering hope.  Even though "Lilium" has lyrics, the combination of them being spoken in Latin, and fitting  in so well with each scene, keeps them from getting in the way or distracting from the scene.

This anime's filmography did exactly what it needed to, but it's still missing a certain "wow factor", or original mechanic.  As such, I give it a 9 out of 10.

Comic Element
Very few comic elements exist in this series, though those that exist take place between blocks of drama, but are included to further develop characters and dynamics, not simply for their own sake.  This anime, though, would only suffer from an abundance of comic elements.  It's built on the emotional power of the slowly increasing weight of every decision, command, and quote.  In this anime, less is truly more.  I give this section a score of 10 out of 10.

Ending
The ending manages to both bring the anime to a resolution, and end in a flash of poignance.

First, there is the demonstration of self-sacrifice as Lucy gives her life to stop Mariko, a terrifying beast of a diclonius child of superb power, from hurting her friends/adoptive family.  In doing so, she shows the good in herself once again, and atones for her many crimes.
 
It is then revealed that Mariko is actually the biological daughter of the chief scientist.  He finally accepts her even as he accepts that he must destroy her to remove a massive threat to humanity.  He does both at once, embracing her even as he activates the bombs in her body, killing them both in his final act of atonement.

For actually making me cry, this ending had to be powerful, even if my words fail to bring forth the full weight of this ending.  I give it a 9 out of 10, falling short of a perfect score only because of Code Geass and similar anime providing endings even more powerful than this one.

Badassery
There are multiple badasses in this series.  Lucy is of course incredible, using the entire battlefield around her as a weapon.  Able to turn anything in her environment into a lethal projectile, there is even a scene where she kills a man with a ballpoint pen.  Additionally, there is even a 'normal human' badass who sets out on what amounts to a one-man war against Lucy after losing his arm to her.

Even with the anime being more focused on the people than the fighting, even during fights themselves, the level of awesome suffers surprisingly little.  I give it an 8 out of 10.

Nudity
Nudity is a constant in this anime, including full frontal nudity of several characters for prolonged periods of time.  Ironically, the nudity serves not as eroticism or "fan service", but as a visual metaphor for how they are being considered by others.

Although I will cover this in more detail in a future essay, the amount of clothing a character possesses is directly proportionate at any to how those around them consider them.  As the dicloni are dehumanized, held as experimental subjects, they are entirely nude.  Once they are around others, however, they are given clothing, and begin to wear the clothes more cleanly.

It's also convenient to note, that when a character is once again being dehumanized by those around her, the character's clothes are invariably removed, solidifying the metaphor.

As mentioned previously, this will be covered in more depth in a later essay, but suffice it to say, this anime earns a full score of 10 out of 10 for the nudity category.

Violence
Yes, this anime is brutal.  Pens become lethal weapons (and not as comic relief), hearts are ripped from people's chests, and entire bodies are cut to ribbons.  And that's just in the first five minutes.  As I said previously, this anime is not for the faint of heart.  That said, though, the violence works.  It sets the feel of the anime, makes it apparent why the dicloni are feared so, and contributes to the plot.  I personally do not feel that the violence was too much for the series, only too much for many viewers, which is fine.

My personal rating of the violence is 5 out of 5, not because in was minimalistic, but because the amount of violence was right for this particular anime.

Bonuses
The ending made me cry.  The self-sacrifice of the characters for the sake of love and redemption was very poignant.  Crying bonus awarded.

Yes, I obsessed over it.  I won't go into detail, but the fact that abuse and neglect was so rampant in the series caused me to wonder how the main characters, especially Lucy, could have turned out had they had a loving, supportive family rather than being abandoned or having an abusive one.  Obsession bonus awarded.

Essay - Racism, Ostracism, and Neglect (Elfen Lied)

The whole conflict of the anime of Elfen Lied stems from racism.  Though intensified by the nature of the differences (horns and telekinetic death as opposed to something as superficial as skin color), one can see over and over the potential for the dicloni to be good, loving people.  Nana is a sweet and loving person, despite being raised in a torture chamber.  Lucy is still able to have a normal friend despite what horrible experiences she had.  And yet, they are hunted, studied, and imprisoned because of the fear of what they *could* do.

This distrust and fear, though obviously taken to a much different level, is similar to any racism.  Some people distrust blacks because they *could* join/be part of a gang, even if their upbringing and residential location would render this idea unlikely.  Especially after the events of 9/11, Muslims and people of Middle Eastern decent were eyed with distrust out of fear that they may be terrorists, despite the fact that most such individuals had been hard-working Americans for as long as anyone else.  The fear that one could be in danger if a community isn't watched or guarded against has historically lead to greater fears.  And rounding up members of an ethnic group was even perpetrated by the United States already, in the form of the Japanese American internment camps during World War II.

Now, imagine, with all this racism due to simple fear of someone taking a more difficult action, what one would do if a certain race could kill with a mere thought.  All dicloni have vectors, which can let them easily kill with no more effort than a thought, and the ability to protect themselves from bullets.  This ability makes them a threat far more dangerous than any current minority, and the physical changes can make those around them justify that they "aren't even human".

Historically, many slave owners used the same excuse regarding their black slaves, as many people considered these black-skinned peoples to not be human, but instead some sort of nearly-human ape.  It is fortunate that this erroneous belief was corrected, but it the case of a person with skeletal protrusions and inhuman abilities, it is easy to see how the leap may be found again.  This is not made any less by the fact that the dicloni typically kill those around them, including their own families.

But why do they kill those around them, especially those who would typically be considered close to them?  And then you have individuals like Nana, who refuse to kill simply due to their own morals.  Why does she turn out so differently, when her life since birth has been a living hell?

Imagine that a child is born with horns, especially in a culture where such is seen as a sign of being tainted by demons (be they Judeo-Christian demons, or Japanese oni).  How many parents are going to treat the child normally?  How many children in school are going to treat them normally?  In many cases, if a child displays some perceived deficit, especially a physical one, the parents will ignore the child, or even direct ire towards them.  Children also tend towards cruelty towards those who are different.

In this case of either neglect or outright emotional abuse (or even physical abuse), there is often no outlet for the emotions of anger and sadness that build within.  Is it then surprising, that when the child suddenly has the power to kill with a thought, that their thoughts of anger and vengeance would emerge?  As it is, the vectors of a diclonius emerge around puberty.  During a time when the mind is troubled and confused anyway, the ability to suddenly act on all of the pain to do harm back to those that hurt them is in many ways very understandable.

Now, let us look at Lucy, the main diclonius in the series.  Her parents simply abandoned her at some random orphanage because they didn't want a kid with horns.  That in of itself has to leave her with a number of abandonment issues, not to mention a huge blow to her self-esteem.  Being different, she is picked on mercilessly by the other children, especially since it is human nature to want someone to suffer more than oneself:  to not be the person suffering the most.  And tying back into the racism, they often accuse her of not being human, of being some kind of animal with her horns.

She finds a small puppy, and the little creature's unconditional love gives her something to live for.  But what happens then?  Someone who pretends to be her friend betrays her, and hands the dog over to a bunch of the boys, who then proceed to beat the poor creature to death right in front of Lucy.  Who can blame Lucy for wishing them all dead?  Unfortunately, with her vectors beginning to manifest, that wish is all that's needed to actually cause them to all die.

They say that is becomes easier to kill another human each time you do it.  This definitely appears to be the case with Lucy.  Her conscience appears to object less and less each time she kills, gaining shelter and food by killing random people in their houses.  It is amazing, then, that she could still possess the ability to trust another person, then.  But not only does she do so, she is able to become good friends with the young boy Kouta.  This not only shows the horrors of what abuse can do to someone, transforming Lucy into a sociopathic killer, but also highlights the power of love.  The simple acceptance and platonic love of a friend is enough to pull Lucy back from the abyss.

And then there's Nana.  Nana has a horror story for a life.  She was raised for her whole life in a cell, stripped naked, and chained to a wall while horrific and excruciating experiments were performed on her.  Yet through it all, she is not only able to remain sane (no mean feat in its own right), but is able to actually become a beautiful person in mind and body despite it.  And how does she manage?  Simply by clinging to the unrequited love of her "father" (the chief research scientist who has filled the role for her).  She later loses most of her limbs in a battle with Lucy, but is able to not only forgive Lucy in time, but is also able to open up the chief scientist's heart as well.

And why do they lock up and torture such a kind soul?  Because she's a diclonius.  That's all the reason they need, despite that she refuses to kill, even when people want her to.  They continue to keep her locked up and experimented on, kept away from her actual family, simply because they are afraid that she could do something to harm others.


And then you have Mariko, the actual daughter of the chief scientist.  Because she was displaying extremely dangerously powerful vectors, she was placed in a cage since birth, unable to hear or see anything but the voice of a single individual who would talk to her.  In contrast to Nana, this girl experienced the expected result:  she turned into a monster.  The neglect, the lack of basic human companionship (even as little as was bestowed upon Nana), and the lack of even something as simple as a gentle touch caused her to be entirely unbalanced, even more sociopathic than Lucy had become.  Lucy may have felt no guilt about killing after a time, but Mariko outright enjoyed it.  In fact, she was only able to be kept in line by those who sought to control her by threatening to blow her up (using bombs implanted in her body) set to a dead-man's switch.

And yet, even with this sort of outlook, she still wished for her father's love.  In the end of Elfen Lied, her father hugs her, and you can see on her face that such a small gesture, that simple human affection, was something that she sought more than anything else.

If Mariko had been given the love she needed, would she have turned out so badly?  I find it doubtful.


If not for the racism, and the ostracism and neglect that it brought about, it is doubtful that any of the characters would have turned out as badly as they did.