Elfen Lied Review

Elfen Lied, the title derived from the German poem Elfenlied meaning Elf song, is a manga series written and illustrated by Lynn Okamoto about the story of Lucy, her past, present and the future to come. The anime adaptation aired from July 25, 2004 and ended October 17 of the same year.

Lucy is a Diclonius, they look like humans, with the exception of having horns, but in the story they are not considered as one. Diclonius' are known to be superior to mankind. They have invisible arms which are called Vectors. These arms are unique to each diclonius. Lucy has four or five vectors the others have more or are longer etc.. One common thing about Diclonius is that they live to destroy mankind, or that is what they were taught and believed to do which is why these Diclonius are kept locked in a facility which studies them.

On the first episode, the audience are immediately treated to a gory violence. Heads, legs, arms and even the whole upper body fly everywhere along with an indoor rain of blood creating puddles on the ground. This is where the story introduces us to Lucy. When she successfully escaped the facility, the story begins to advance.

Elfen Lied is very dramatic. From the opening theme song, a somnolent and sad tone, to a slightly more energetic closing theme song and everything in between, each episode gives the audience a topnotch display of artistic talent in both design, music and story.

The anime is not that perfect but it does provide us with a great harmony of all the elements displayed. The shifting of emotions, the balance of humor and drama, and the transition from a rainy mood to a sunny feeling are all executed properly and with great value to the story. There's also the value of love and kindness and the limit of a person to take in all the sadness in life.

Along with these, strong characters, whether human or diclonius, power the quality of the story to a maximum. It proves that a character, whether depicted as strong or weak, can be anything in between.

The humor in the story is also something to note. As in every anime/manga series, the humor is almost always focused in one character designed and destined to be the source of comic relief. And while Elfen Lied is mostly serious in the progression of the story, there are those golden moments in dramatic and serious scenarios that are perfect to set the mood for the next scene.

The later half of the series focused the humor on one character, though, and an unusual one at that.

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Its dramatic content didn't really build-up to some big splash of tears in the finale. The drama was there right from the beginning. It didn't need anything to build it up. The simple progression of the story was enough to power the emotions of the audience. Though, in my point of view, the ending was too vague. Whether this was intentional because the anime took a different route than the manga going into the finale, the hope was there. There was hope that would send the audience flying with euphoria but this hope, which only gave off a slight glimmer, only offered something that would make the audience feel itchy inside.

Of course, when something ends, we always ask for more. But after repeating the finale over and over again, I could say that the ending was less than satisfactory but still a great exit for the series.




Art: 9/10
Characters: 8/10
Music: 9/10
Story: 10/10