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.