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.