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Elfen Lied

Reviewed by TheCritic

Submitted December 28, 2012 • 194 views

Story
10/10

For all of you may know, Elfen Lied is gorey and full of nudity. Those are what other critics say but that is not the case. Inside the story, is an alternate storyline that revolves around a girl named Kaede(Lucy.) The story takes place in Kamakura, Japan where a young boy named Kouta/Kohta returns to start college. He is unaware that fate has a nasty thing resurfacing from the past to meet him. 

Lucy is an escaped Diclonious, a mutated human who has the purpose to wipe out all of mankind. However, when she runs into Kouta, the two remember their past from eight years ago and how they can never be together despite their love for one another. 

The story itself is dark but very emotional because not only does it follow Lucy, the story also shows meaning on other characters such as Mayu, Nana, Mariko, Kurama and Kouta. Very touching and heart breaking with the emotion.

Animation
10/10

The animation is superb. However, in most aspects, the animation can be rather imaginative such as the Diclonii hair color but in short, the art is gorgeous.


Sound
9/10

The opening theme "Lilium" is a powerful and beautiful song. The song itself is Latin and contains biblical meanings. Based on my assessment, I think the song is to represent Lucy's "duty" to wipe out humanity. The instrumental version of "Lilium" can also be heard throughout the series. It might be a bit overused but I would never change the theme for the song itself, makes me think of Elfen Lied. 

The ending theme "Be Your Girl" was quite a shocker. Normally, you wouldn't expect a pop song to be the ending to an anime like Elfen Lied. I would assume that the ending relates to the love triangle between Lucy, Kouta and Yuka. 

Voice acting isn't bad either. The English adaption showed more emotion, in my opinion, than the original Japanese. However, there were some characters that sounded better in Japanese than their English counterparts.

Characters
8/10

Character development was rather slow. In the beginning, we are introduced to Lucy, the anti-hero and protagonist. Most people would think Lucy is nothing but a heartless monster but as the story continues, we are giving a more emotional and psychological view on what happened to Lucy. 

Supporting characters such as Nana, Bando, Mayu, Mariko and Kurama have also little development and they are not as deeply developed as the main characters. Other characters such as the scientists, Director and Professor Kakuzawa, were uninteresting and bland but in most points, helped move the storyline somewhat.

Overall
10/10

In conclusion, Elfen Lied was a beautiful anime. The storyline was beautiful with many graphic and visual images which leads to the beauty of this dark tale. Characters were interesting but most of them were slightly developed. The music and soundtrack is very deep as the song "Lilium" can also be interpreted as a telling of all the main character cast's suffering. Voices were alright and showed emotion. 

Overall, Elfen Lied is a beautiful and emotional dark anime that will pull at your heart strings. The ending is a shocker and will want you begging for a second season but alas, there is none. I suggest that if you wish to know the full story, that you should continue the manga. I highly recommend it for it is one of my favorite anime series of all time.

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