Elfen Lied

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Overview:

I have written many anime reviews, but this is my first time writing a manga review. Please be gentle critics! Usually the manga is better than the anime...unfortunately, today we will be looking at an exception to that rule of thumb.

SPOILERS! This is a compare/contrast with the anime. If you haven't read the manga yet, skip this review!!!

Elfen Lied (despite the bashing it gets on MAL and 4chan) is actually my favorite anime of all time. I'm not even being ironic, I'm dead serious! However, the manga... kind of sucks ass. I personally preferred the anime for quite a number of reasons.

Firstly, Lucy's character ... was more interesting with 2 personalities: 1 good (Nyuu) and 1 morally complex and greyish (Lucy), whereas the manga had 3 personalities with good (kaede) good (nyuu) pure evil (literal voice of DNA). This 3 personality path divided the character into clearly good and evil parts and robbed the primary character of much of her complexity. This also brings me to the next HUGE problem with the manga: DNA taking over and forcing people to be evil. The anime was much more ambiguous on the nature vs. nurture side of the diclonius killing instict, but leaned towards nurture since the only time we see a diclonius kill without prior heavy abuse is in Kakuzawa Jr's stories he told Kurama. Not exactly someone who can be trusted since nearly everything he says in the series is a lie. Although still debatable, the manga leans heavily towards nature and the diclonius simply being evil. This totally undermines the anti-discrimination theme that is a key part of the story, since it makes the discrimination and inhumane treatment seem justified. The Diclonius are wiped out in the manga, and we the reader are supposed to cheer this on! An entire human sub- race is simply evil at the genetic level and must be wiped out rather than learning to coexist with the rest of humanity. If the anime Elfen Lied was like X-men, the manga is basically "The Ugly Mushroom", a Nazi children book explaining to kids why Jews must be exterminated. Besides arguably having the worst moral of any manga EVER, it is also complete bullshit since DNA does NOT work that way! You can be genetically pre-disposed towards sociopathy and limited empathy, but DNA does not grab hold of your body and force you to be evil like Lucy's did when she sliced Kurama rather than allow herself to be shot.

Now we move on to Kouta, who is very average in the manga, whereas in the anime he just about the nicest guy ever. He is like Keitaro from Love hina, DBZ fused with Mohatma Gandhi. Although not the most realistic, I actually prefer this version of the character. At least he's memorable and interesting unlike manga Kouta who is just bland and forgettable. Another reason I like the anime is that I vastly prefer Kouta/Lucy to Kouta/Yuka. Lucy may have murdered Kouta's family, but the amount of remorse she feels and her desire to repent and become reborn (via Nyuu) coupled with Kouta's extreme kindness and forgiveness make them an interesting couple. They seem similar to Rodion and Sonya from Crime and Punishment. Rodion murders her best friend, but in the end she still loves him and forgives him following his extreme remorse and repentance. He goes through a Christian rebirth rather than an amnesia from bullet rebirth though. Kouta/Yuka is not only a rather dull couple, but Yuka is a truly irritating and unlikeable character. She whines more than any other character despite having had by FAR the best lot in life. She lashes out with violence every 5 minutes for minor shit ( Thank GOD she wasn't the one born with vectors). I also think Kouta/Lucy pairing is a far better reflection of the themes of repentance, love, and forgiveness, so it even adds better artistic aesthetics along with being more interesting and enjoyable.

Another thing is the tone of the anime under Kanbe's direction vs. Okamoto's tone and writing in the original manga. The anime has some silly ecchi moments, but the fucking manga goes so overboard, it REALLY makes the series difficult to take remotely seriously. Hell, there is an entirely wasted character who's only point of existence seems to be that her incontinence satisfies one of Okamoto's many fetishes. Kanbe stated he wanted to make an anime that could make 18 ups cry and challenge our assumptions on things like the limits of love, repentance, forgiveness, etc. Okamoto never took himself so seriously or had such a strong artistic vision. As proof, he personally made the first hentai doujin of elfen lied. I'm not fucking kidding, look it up! Kanbe has a strong resume in directing great anime and even made shoujo like card captors far better than they needed to be. He worked under Miyazaki himself on Nausicca for crying out loud! Okamoto has some good ideas, but is a writer with a bad need for an editor and has never written anything else of note.

Finally, as the plot in the manga went on we saw more and more silly shit that I could have gone without. If Kakuzawa had a whole clone army of totally controllable Marikos, why did he send the wild and uncontrollable original? The answer is that Okamoto clearly had the idea for babara and the other Mariko clones after the fact, and it creates a massive plot hole that makes Kakuzawa look even dumber than he already is. Did anyone think the Unknown man added anything other than a hilariously un-aerodynamic weapon? He got to make Bando a hero at least, which no one even wanted. Even Bando gets a second chance in this life, but not fucking Kaede? WTF?! We also get that admiral that looks like Itachi Uchiha and that god damned ridiculous vector tank! Overall, I will take an open ending over a bad closed ending any day! Why do people think having a closed ending makes something better? Brothers Karamazov: open ending. Birdemic: neatly wrapped ending.

PS. although minor compared to some of the manga's more grievous sins, the artwork in the manga is TERRIBLE! It sort of improves halfway through, but my god is it bad!

Oh how the times have changed. At a point earlier in my life, before I reached what was probably the half-way point of Elfen Lied, I would have given this an overall better score, but I'm afraid things did not allow that. If anything, elfen lied is a testament to having to finish a series before you have a good idea of how you're going to address it, and for that reason before I go on I want to bring something up. Elfen Lied might tempt you with scenes of gorn, but it takes a lot more than that before a series can be called ... mature. Yes, you'd be right to say that it's not for the screamish, but the only thing that keeps it from being a shonen is the aforementioned trope. That aside, let us begin.

Story:
On the very cliche side of things, Elfen Lied follows an amnesiac protagonist, as the story progresses and they slowly regain their memories. What makes Elfen Lied stand out, is just how they lost their memory and what led to this eventual loss. For anti-spoiler reasons, a lot can not be said about what you'd see in the story, but what can be said is that it manages to stay to the end. Even though there are some very glaring issues that take away from the enjoyment, Elfen Lied remembers what its about to the very end, and if you can ignore it's other faults you will not be let down, the problem however, is that these faults can't go ignored.

Art:
Character design is very generic. It is of the variety where ever character that shares a gender has the same face with varying sizes, hair and eye color. What stands out in this series is how the mangaka draws the surroundings, and the military equipment that you'll see a lot. While I can't call myself a military nut, and it'd be wrong to say that they aren't generic, Okamoto puts enough detail into the weapon, but that's not really saying much. Of all of its traits, Elfen Lied's art is the second best, but that's not a hard accomplishment in the presence of its other scores.

Characters:
There are a lot of problems I had with Elfen Lied when I originally read it, but ultimately they could be ignored when there was actually a good character about. Elfen Lied is done pretty well in the moral ambiguity department early on, so much so that at points I could be rooting for one character one moment, then completely root for their opponent the next. This excelled best with the character Lucy, who's split personalities provided a perfect parallel that made you like them both. Unfortunately however, this is completely thrown away. There are a lot of despicable bastards in Elfen lied, and at the half way point the more likable ones join them. This gets every bit worse, when the characterization is thrown out by the series end.

Enjoyment:
When I first started Elfen Lied, I did like it a lot. It was the first seinen manga I read, that actually made me care about the characters. There are a lot of issues however, that you'll see in a lot of seinen, namely the fact that people often don't know the meaning of mature. A lot of the "mature" content in this series could have been left out, and had it been, it would be been a much easier read. Another thing that would have made it easier would have been better handling of its end. If it didn't try so desperately to prove that it was a seinen, and it didn't suffer the fault that a lot of anime and manga fall for, Elfen Lied could have been great but sadly that's not the case.

Overall:
I'd like to say "if you want a good sci-fi story, then Elfen Lied could easily be this for you." but such words can not be spoken in truth. While the story isn't trash, the art is unimpressive, the characters start overall good but quickly join the heap of other bad characters, and you'd have to be a very apathetic or depraved person, to say that your enjoyment of elfen lied is high. This very raunchy series has a lot of potential, but I do not judge on potential so thusly give it a 3 out of 10.

Time to get really controversial. *Rubs hands together* Lets go.

Since Elfen Lied is a very popular anime with a bit of a cult following to back it up, I found myself very interested in giving it a shot. Not to mention, it had some things that I really appreciate in my anime, like cute pink haired killer girls, gore, and an amazing theme song. Seriously though, I love the Elfen Lied opening, I listened to it even before I learned about the show. Go check it out, its very beautiful.

Now, most Elfen Lied fans suggest the manga above the anime. Since the manga has over ... 100 chapters compared to a 12 episode show, I figured that the manga might truly be the superior one of the two, considering it would have more depth, character study, etc etc. So I downloaded the story and read most of it at school within a week or so.

I really wanted to enjoy this story. But I will go in to detail now as to why I could not stand so many important aspects of this manga, much to my dismay. I will try to be as specific as possible.


Story-
My score: 3

Elfen Lied has a very generic story that could have been developed into an interesting one. For the two people that have not heard of it, the story focuses on Lucy, (who I will be delving into shortly) a young woman who was born from test experiments to be a killer. She is referred to as a Diclonius, a breed of dangerous humans with cat like horns coming out of their heads. But what is so dangerous about Diclonius girls like Lucy, you ask? Well, they can use their anger towards others to produce invisible ligaments that can tear apart men. Lucy went through intense torture as a child, so she used her dangerous powers to leave the lab at an early age and hid from the government, killing those who she needed to kill as she was on the run. However, Lucy got a concussion during her escape, meaning that her killer tendencies are bipolar. She can be an innocent, kind girl at times, and then resort back to a stone-cold killer with little knowledge of the switch.

Elfen Lied focuses on Lucy and a few other Diclonius girls, such as Nana and Mariko, seeking refuge out of fear of further violation from the government. One by one, each of the girls cross paths with one another, and end up all confiding in Kouka, a young boy that is the son of an inn keeper. I think you know where this is going.

Now, I would like to explain that I do not hate harems. And Elfen Lied did actually have a decent set up for one. I mean, a boy taking care of wounded monster girls, teaching them social skills? That actually sounds kind of cute! But even with the occasional fluffy or endearing moment, this harem was absolutely ridiculous.

For starters, the girls in Elfen Lied just got naked a lot. For literally no reason either. The fanservice in this manga feels so unearned and cheap. I just wanted the plot to progress, not to see a bunch of girls getting groped.

Everything about the scientists trying to find Lucy was ridiculous and almost felt comical. They would assault and harm children for literally no reason, and had no motives. The story never delved in to why the diclonius existed, either. So I was confused almost the entire time reading it, curious as to why these scientists had even made Lucy in the first place.

The gore in this story was literally only there for shock. I did not want to see children get their bodies scissored and see a dog get beaten to death. This gore made no sense to the narrative and felt so childish to watch. I enjoy gore if it fits the story to have it, but this story's shock scenes were only there to scare the viewer. They felt so unnecessary.

Every single woman in this story was sexualized, and every single man was an evil douche with no personality. This story had themes of "the world is cruel" in every corner, but it was so exaggerated that I could not take one bit of its message seriously. None of the characters felt relatable, so the message did not fit this story one bit.

Elfen Lied also felt so flimsy and choppy. Sometimes the story would focus too long on boring aspects, and sometimes it moved far too fast. The ending was too rushed and by the final volume, I was scratching my head and wondering what the hell was even going on.

The story was edgy, full of unearned gore and fanservice, and had a jumbled, dumb plot and message. I almost chuckled at times over how ridiculous it could get.


Art-
My score: 6

Decent backgrounds, especially the lab shots. Lucy's kill scenes were well drawn too.

However, for a seinen manga, the characters looked too shoujo. Big eyed pink haired girls makes no sense for a story like this, and it almost felt laughable.

Nana, Mayu and Lucy have nice designs though. Still, they looked completely out of place in a violent manga like this one.

The scientists had some of the least unique character designs I've ever seen. I could not even tell them apart.


Characters-
My score: 3

Lets start with the elephant in the room, Lucy.
Lucy's killer form was badass and actually pretty cool to watch it action. I found the best parts of Elfen Lied to be when Lucy was a stone cold killer.
However, Lucy's "cute" (if you can even call it that)'s form was UNBEARABLE. I get that the "nyu" thing was for moe appeal but good lord it was annoying. And Lucy's cute form would often molest and strip the other girls at the inn, but she got away with it because she "did not know any better." A little character development towards the end did make her soft side a little better, but I personally found the bipolar thing with her really wishy-washy and dumb. Her killer side was too brutal and her sweet side was too saccharine and cheesy. This is not even mentioning that she has absolutely no character development. She just went on killing people the entire story with no progression or morals whatsoever. What a shame. Lucy had the potential to be a cool character, she even has a great design. But she felt so unrelatable, unrealistic and unlikable.

Nana and Mayu were fine. While not developed nearly enough, they were both sweet and were by far the most likeable of this bunch. I felt legitimate sympathy for both of them, such as Nana's terror in Lucy and Mayu's cliche, but still sad backstory. A little more development would have made them so much better.

Kouka was absolutely generic with no personality outside of his interactions with the girls. By the end of the story, I knew nothing about him. It never showed him on his own, never showed his motivations, never showed his hobbies, nothing. Such a bland plot device. He seemed to only be in the story so that Lucy would have someone showing sympathy for her. While his sister's death was sad and he did have the occasional moment that made me feel for him, he was really only there for Lucy's development. He could not have been any other character archetype besides a bland harem MC.

Yuka was very annoying. At least Kouka was generic but still a nice guy. Yuka was honestly just a generic, mean girl with a brother complex. She served no purpose other than fanservice and to be Lucy's competition in the harem, even though her and Kouka are related. Seriously, if you had taken her out of Elfen Lied the story would have had no changes.

All of the scientists were stereotypical, "evil" villains that just wanted to hurt Lucy with no reason to root for them. God, they were so annoying. None of them had any personality or backstory, and they were so damn interchangeable. Why even bother with them. Horrible, one dimensional villains that had nothing interesting about them.

Arakawa, the only female scientist, was okay but had no development outside of fanservice. She just walked around with panties on in a lab that did human testing. Because, you know, that's realistic. Could have been cool, but just a boring fanservice device.

Overall, Elfen Lied had a boring cast of characters, with all of them besides Lucy and Nana feeling like plot devices.


Enjoyment-
My score: 5

Here is where it gets weird.

Why such a high score if I had so many issues with this story?

Honestly, as dumb, over-the-top, and down-right aggravating that Elfen Lied was in almost every category, it was so damn entertaining.

Reading this manga was pretty fun, and I'll admit, the story was investing. That could likely be because I just wanted the story to finally get good, but it was a quick binge for me. I had fun reading it, as groan worthy as it was. Straight up horribly written pop-corn entertainment, like a Micheal Bay movie.


Overall-
My score: 3.5

Elfen Lied could have been better. So much better.

It was super generic and over the top with its story and gore. The characters were mostly cheesy and annoying with little development. And while the art was decent, the character designs looked so out of place. The story felt so flimsy and rushed, especially towards the end.

Still, give Elfen Lied a shot. I can understand why some would like it, pink haired girls killing people violently is pretty cool. Reading it was a ride, for sure.

Story: the story really isn't too bad, but there's like such an unnecessary amount of nudity for the tone of the manga it feels forced and weird. Also I feel like there story should have ended way earlier than it did, near chapter 65. I felt like this dragged. I'm giving it a 3 for story.
Art: it had moments of awesome art, but man drawing faces is rough for the artist... 3.
Character: predictable side characters, just too plain for me. Not enough depth. 3.
Enjoyment: the only great thing about this manga is its pacing. Really great chapter writing in terms of how chapters end, and ... making you need to feel like you have to read what's going to happen next, even though the plot feels stretched out.

This review will contain spoilers. Elfen Lied is an manga that tries to be deep, but in the end, because of the horrible storyline, it fails to. Elfen Lied is a mangq merely composed of blood, pointless ecchi, and annoying characters.

Storyline:

Now, the storyline is dark, however it isn't deep like people say it is. Lucy and other dicloni were abused in some psycho ward place. So what? Lucy got bullied by some kids and they even killed her puppy. That's so not ... sad. You know why? She killed innocent people who did nothing to her. Why couldn't she just kill the bullies? It's because this storyline's true purpose is to just add blood everywhere. "Well, it's Elfen Lied! What did you expect?" I expected it to get deep, not to see some poor excuses to kill everyone on sight. That's not all, the excuses are useless anyway since she is a dinclonus, an alien species that kills humans instinctively. You call those people in those laboratories bad, but is the Dicloni any better? Seeing them chop off heads, arms, and pulling hearts from peoples' chest, I think not. This storyline uses these excuses to make it look deep, but I'm no fool. All this manga really is is some bloody manga you saw right at the beginning. It's also full of ecchi, for the teenage pervs that watch this crap. The romance is pointless, because in reality, nobody could love someone who's killed their family. Why add romance in the first place anyway. You guessed it! For the pervs and that self insert dude who can't live a real life. This storyline is disgusting.

Characters:

Kouta:

He's a bland, self insert character. There's not much to say about him. I will say that he is very annoying for some reason.

Lucy/Nyuu:

Lucy is an diclonius. She is the true main character of this series, not (Wait. What's his name again? Kouta! That's right!) Kouta. Her background is pointless. No, her background is only there to make the story look deep. Her puppy getting killed has nothing to do with killing someone just because they bumped into you on accident. If your grandmother died in your childhood, does that give you an excuse to run around killing people like a loser playing Grand Theft Auto? No! Lucy is an alien that kills humans anyway, making anything in her background pointless. Nyuu is Lucy's other form that makes her innocent like a baby. Literally! She can't even change her own clothes. Her only purpose is to satisfy the pervy dudes watching the show, which is very sad because she is innocent. Maybe that's why she's killing people. Certainly makes more sense then her true reasons.




Yuka:

She is Kouta's cousin who is also in love with him. She is below pointless. She's one of those useless crybabies who should be completely removed from the show. She doesn't even have a known background. That's all there is to say about her.





Art:

Whoever drew horns so badly, that they made them look visually identical to cat ears should go back to art school. A first grader could draw better. Then again, it could've been to make them look better for those pervy otaku.


Enjoyment:

I had a hard time watching reading this manga for two reasons. 1. I couldn't stay hooked on and had to force myself to watch it. 2. I couldn't just read this anywhere because people could peer at the pages and think I'm some pedophile reading pervy, bloody comics. I did not enjoy this at all.

Conclusion: This manga is horrible. I said it. HORRIBLE! I suggest you don't watch this if A. You are intelligent enough to notice these errors B. You don't like a pointless anime that only shows blood and nude girls. If you like what you saw at the beginning, enjoy! Just know that it isn't deep, and definitely away from being a masterpiece.

*[I rewrote this review because I feel it wasn't detailed enough.]

I owe an apology to VAP and Arms. After completing the anime, I blamed them for Elfen Lied’s mediocrity. In actuality, it's the fault of the mangaka Lynn Okamoto for its creation. Elfen Lied resembles a puzzle with missing pieces and pieces that don't belong. Although the concept is uniquely complex, some parts were unexplained or just plain ridiculous.

The story wasn't entirely bad, just a bit dramatic. The characters were distinguishable in personalities. As a harem, every girl that entered Kouta’s life had a tragic past. The best part were the backstories, even illustrated in extra chapters. It tells the story from the character's ... point of view and displays their emotions. It's understandable about their situation of not having anywhere else to go. Thankfully, not every single character is infatuated with Kouta (the male protagonist). Three girls have feelings for Kouta, but he never showed favoritism for one or the other. There's also character development in Nyu, who matures from the girl who only uses one word and enjoys groping other girls after a time skip in the story.

The idea of a mutant called Diclonii was good at first, until Lynn decided to vastly vary them from humans without an explanation. First, it's gory with the Diclonii’s ability to kill humans with telekinesis, their invisible vector arms. The amputated heads and bodies ripped apart grab your attention. Then it turns comical. Their bodies appear humanlike. They even die like humans. However, their bodies are apparently made of plastic, as they receive plastic body parts instead of bionic parts like regular humans. This makes them appear as your typical Barbie doll. It makes no sense, because Kouta squeezed Nyu’s non-plastic boobs plenty of times. At the very last minute, Lynn decides to give one specific Diclonii the unfortunate ability to melt for overusing her power, when this was never mentioned throughout the story. Then I questioned why can't she die normally. Also, Lucy is the original Diclonius from a virus that spread during the time she was born. The manga failed to mention how this virus originated. The lab named Lebensborn was apparently using young Diclonii as test subjects to discover what's unknown about them, but those flaws, among others, were never explained.

Apart from the flaws with the Diclonii concept, there are major things that ticked me off about Elfen Lied. As the story progresses, it became clear that Lynn couldn't make up his mind about what he wants to do. A scene would become a teaser with the character being backed into a corner, on the brink of death, or going through a psychological state. Then things suddenly brightened with the character surviving a near-death experience or turning back to normal. For example, a character had a gun to his head, and the scene cuts to a scene of blood splatters. Then the character later appears with an excuse of someone saving him. If foreshadowing took place, I'd excuse this. The most ridiculous thing is how you witness a character taking his/her last breath from having his/her guts spilled out, body split in half. Then they appear chapters later completely unharmed. There's also a lot of pointless tears, especially from Yuka, who disliked Kouta not showing her enough affection or not remembering their childhood.

The ending didn't make sense at all, and Lynn threw anything together just to end it all. Sad scenes occurred, and they weren't realistic. They'd cry one minute, perk up the next, and then go back to bawling. Characters that died suddenly come back to life. Then new information was introduced at the last minute just to hurry and end the story. Reminds me a lot like Lynn’s other work “Gokukoku no Brynhildr.”

The character design was average. It's just your typical big-eyed characters. The background design is what really stands out. It was moderately detailed from the cracks in the wood floors to the swirly clouds in the sky. The gradient colors were good, too, especially in the streets at night and dark hallways. I don't invest my time much into ecchi, but it's fanservice galore of course. I think it was done well, just wish it was done at appropriate times.

The meaning behind “Elfenlied” (“Elf Song,” a poem in German) is creative in terms of the title. Behind all of the amputated heads and chopped bodies lie a mediocre story. There are several other minor flaws in Elfen Lied, such as a character who wears a diaper and characters with family complexes. If the puzzle was completed with all of the right pieces, I would've enjoyed it more. Overall, I thought Elfen Lied had the right idea, but it wasn't drawn correctly.

You're probably wondering what I'm doing writing a review about a manga that ran from 2002-2005 in 2019. With my patience for sitting down and watching an anime dwindling, I've been attempt to explore manga and LN's more and more, and Elfen Lied was perhaps the first anime I had ever watched, so it felt natural to try and visit the original manga. Boy was this a mistake.

(Spoilers will be included in this review!)
The manga and anime do not start straying apart by any significant means until volume 5, chapter 43. This chapter introduces a character who's sole purpose is to add in a diaper ... fetish, and to tie in the iconic song "Lilium," which in the manga is "Elfenlied." Her role is so insignificant that she was easily replaced by a music box in the anime. This is about the point where I knew I was in for a ride that would probably only be going downhill.
Next comes convoluted "this character hasn't died yet" convenience one after another. Remember how in the anime, Kurama comes to understand his sins and his failure as a father to Mariko, and with this he accepts their deaths as he embraces her in his arms? Well... this comes close I guess? They embrace, and a giant non-explosive warhead then comically crushes only Mariko despite them being embraced, before another is fired and crushes Kurama. They're dead, right? Nope! Mariko has somehow saved them both, and is now docile in a "Nyu" like state. Shortly after this, she dies anyways when facing off Lucy, just to have Kurama live in comatose grief for the next 2 years until he gets the perfect conditions to have a happy ending with Nana, which also tries to bait that she's his lover now! Real sweet.. I guess? The count for these ridiculous encounters only increases as the manga goes on, and they're ridiculously predictable, as well as frustrating. Maybe just don't put characters in situations where they should by no means survive if you're not ready to kill them off yet?

The contrived conveniences aren't the end of my frustration with this manga. I guess at some point or another I should address the characters that actually had some purpose.
- Kouta is Kouta, there's nothing to say on him. He's bland, he gets a backbone occasionally, but he doesn't really offer much outside of caring about and protecting his family.
- Yuka is... Yuka. She's basically obsessed with Kouta, can't properly express her feelings, and classic tsundere style punches or kicks Kouta anytime something embarrassing happens. I tried to sympathize with her character more than I have in my previous watchings of Elfen Lied, but I just couldn't. She cares about Kouta remembering her more than she cares about Kouta remembering and coming to terms with the deaths of his father and sister, and sobs about it in every other scene.
- Mayu doesn't really get much further development in the manga, she's probably one of the most stable characters next to Kouta. She's sweet, she cares about her new family, and wants to keep them together and safe. She also... ends up with a crush on Bandou. And kisses him. About 30 minutes after he just got done calling someone else a pedo for nearly raping her.
- Nana is probably one of the most frustrating characters for me. She's adorable, well intentioned, and despite her lack of knowledge does her best to contribute to the Kaede residence. Right up until Kurama disappears after promising her he'd return. Remember how in the anime, Nana learned to live with the grief and move on? In this she becomes borderline obsessed with Kurama, to a point where it seems like she's ready to ditch her closest friends over him without a 2nd thought. It reaches a point where it's all she seems to think or talk about.
- Lucy/Nyu is probably the strongest character of the series much like the anime. She's still intricate, deeply scarred, and ultimately tragic. She is however, robbed of her complexity, and to explain that gripe we're going to move on to the next topic.

The Diclonious virus, the biggest threat of this world and what ties this whole story together. We're often lead to believe in the anime that it is normally not the diclonius children themselves that leads to mass killing and destruction that occurs around them. They have a "killing instinct" of sorts embedded into their DNA, that's often awakened by cruel treatment or the enforced message that there's no possible way diclonii and humans can co-exist, that they are freaks that must be exterminated. Up until the point where it straight up takes control like another personality and forces that character to do harm. Isn't there supposed to be some moral gray in this series? How does this voice become so prominent that it can completely take control of a "host" and force them to be violent and destructive. Diclonii become exactly what the anime seemingly tries to fight the message of: a race that could never co-exist with humans, that will only bring ruin, that is to face genocide. Despite this manga trying desperately to tie the end of every character's story in a pretty bow, this is the fate of the diclonii race.

I could honestly continue ranting for quite some time, so let's try to wrap this up. Elfen Lied is a story with a lot of potential that ends up wasted trying to prove just how """mature""" this series is. I can deal with ecchi, it's not my cup of tea but I can tolerate it. This manga pushes it too far on more than one occasion purely for the sake of it, down to our previously mentioned diaper fetish character. Any mature themes feel like they're muddied down to "this guy good, this guy bad," and despite handling these themes, somehow nearly every character you may root for ends up with a happy ending now matter how contrived the plot got to place them there. The diclonii are now nearly extinct, humanity does not have to answer for it's crimes of mistreatment and experimentation against an entire race, and everyone's happy, yaaay! This manga left me with a bitter taste in my mouth, and I wish the ugly art had been enough to steer me away from it in time.
If you're looking to experience nudity, blood, gore, and darker themes but don't mind them being toned down, just watch the anime. It's better in practically every regard down to the resolution, and while many questions get left unanswered in the anime, it does not create nearly as many that are quite as ridiculous as the manga does.

Elfen Lied

This proves once again that the manga is not always better than the anime. The anime adaptation actually showed more quality and censored many of the unnecessary perverted scenes from the manga. Of course, it fell short in terms of the story because the anime didn't cover the entire manga.


The Elfenlied manga has an at least subtle main plot right up to the end. But all of this failed because of the Creator's lack of talent. The story was done immensely, the characters were almost catastrophic and this work had almost no detail.

A particularly negative point about the work is the writer's massively sick ... and perverse predilection. It was not just about breasts and genitals, but also tremendously about sexual arousal and female orgasms.


And in the end we were presented with an enormous pile of plot armor without any explanation, so that it just looks like a happy ending.

Story

The actual basic idea of ​​the main story was not bad, as was the approach with the research facility and its background. However, the implementation of all of this has been an absolute disappointment.

Up to Chapter 60 everything revolves around some sexual content and enormously monotonous slice of life elements.

As expected, the whole finale towards the end also felt very badly implemented. With the difference that at least something happened.

Representation / drawing

The drawings are enormously below average. In some approaches even on the level of a complete amateur. Especially in the area of ​​physique, face and generally the entire anatomy of the characters.

Backgrounds were average, nothing to speak of.


Characters

The worst point in the entire manga. What happens when you put a bunch of unsympathetic, flat and boring characters under one roof. Certainly nothing good.

We have by far one of the worst protagonists in the entire anime / manga scene. Bunch of female protagonists who are only conditional on fan service. Especially since none of the characters has any personality. Everyone just felt forced and artificial. Especially Lucy / Nyu.

The top three characters by far were Nana / your father and the military killer.


Conclusion

By and large, this is a hugely poor manga in every way. The potential for the story was there, but not much was done with it in the end.

Basically, his next work, Brynhildr in the Darkness, is a much better title than this one.

Reading Elfen Lied is like getting a mind rape. Even though there are interesting ideas and concepts in it, The story is so horribly executed and most characters will annoy the hell out of you. So many pointless deaths that feel cheap that I became numb with any major character death halfway through the manga. The protagonist is bland, and Lucy/Nyu could've been an interesting character if it weren't for her absolutely inconsistent character portrayal. The only somewhat bare able characters are Nana and Bandou. And don't get me started with the fan-service. It becomes so out of place and annoying, and it's done in ... poor taste.

A much better executed manga with similar themes to this is Deadman Wonderland. Go read that instead.

"Pathetic" sums it up.

It's a grade schooler's fantasy world. It's honestly really baffling how people can consider this manga "deep".

No character is believable, everyone acts as if in a 4th grader's tried desperately to write meaningful characters.

Art's terrible.

Only "good" thing it that's it's easily readable. No one thinks in here, everyone just acts in accordance to idiotic character archetypes that luckily aren't anywhere near believable nor hold any substance.

Ugh. And the forced nakedness and ecchi of underage girls here for the "enjoyment" of the dull but apparently super-attractive main character... the book's rather fascinating in its vulgar simplemindedness.