Elfen Lied – Anime Review

A lot of the reviews for the anime series Elfen Lied on the Internet would have you believe that the series is nothing but senseless violence and nudity just for the sake of creating shock value, but that is not the case. Elfen Lied is an excellent anime series about the darker, and often inhumane and inhuman, side of humanity.

Elfen lied is a short anime series (only 13 episodes) about a race of mutants, called diclonius, who’s entire existence is seemingly to kill humans and destroy mankind. The plot centers around Lucy, a diclonius who escapes from a research facility and develops a split personality (named Nyu) as a result of being shot in the head as she made her escape. I’m going to try to keep this review spoiler-free.

If you only read the reviews and don’t bother to watch past the first episode, you may think that Elfen Lied is simply an excuse to show mass amounts of violence and female nudity, but the plot does go a lot deeper than that.

There are reasons as to why Lucy is as violent as she is, beyond the simple fact that she was born a diclonius. As the series progresses, you have to wonder if it is really the diclonius’ who are monsters, or if the real monsters are the humans. The horrible things that Lucy had endured in her past play a greater role into what she has become than any natural diclonius instincts. The series offers great commentary on how childhood experiences and trauma shape the person we become.

As far as the nudity goes, yes there is quite a bit, but for the most part, not of an overtly sexual nature. The diclonius’ are not treated as human in the research facility, and so do not warrant being clothed. There is a fair share of fanservice, but what anime doesn’t have that?

Elfen Lied does contain some romantic elements, which center mostly around jealousy and heartache. Some of the romantic scenes are integral to the plot, whereas others are simply for comedic effect. I would not consider this series to be a “romance” in any way, however.

I expected this series to be a lot more disturbing than it was. Perhaps I’m just desensitized to this sort of thing. There was only really one thing that I was particularly disturbed by (I’m not going to give it away since I think it’s an important plot point, but it’s near the end of episode 8). This isn’t the type of anime that you would want to show to children, however.

This anime is based on a manga series, though the manga hasn’t been officially translated into English (there are fan translations out there, however). The manga does differ from the anime, especially at the end, but, as with all books that have been adapted into television series or movies, the manga does help to clarify some aspects of the anime (you can only fit so much into 13 episodes!) that weren’t explained in-depth.

This is an amazing series overall and I recommend it to any anime fan who isn’t overly sensitive to graphic imagery.