Elfen Lied came highly recommended to me, and with it at £17.98 from the folks at Amazon it was pretty much an instant buy.

The Basics

Elfen Lied is a 13-episode anime adaptation of the same-named manga, the latter of which at the time of writing is only available in it’s native Japanese language. It focuses around Lucy, a Diclonius. A Diclonius is a human-like being with two horns that appear to be just above the temples, and has at least four invisible arms called ‘vectors’, limbs that are extremely quick and strong, able to slice through human flesh like a hot knife through butter. They appear to be all female, with pink hair, however in the anime there are two male Diclonius, but they appear to be without vectors, and bald.

The Story

This anime isn’t one for the faint of heart, nor the young. The opening episode starts with Lucy being kept in a cell at a Research Institute, where they keep her in something similar to stasis. She manages to escape, but just when she is at the cusp of freedom a sniper bullet goes through her helmet (the only piece of clothing she is wearing at this stage) and ricochets off it, burying into her brain. This creates a split personality.

The killer known as Lucy is kept in the recesses of her mind, and the dominant personality is Nyu, essentially an infant with very little grasp of the world or language. The name ‘Nyu’ is given to her by a pair of cousins, Kohta, the male lead of the series and as equally a pivotal character as Lucy, and Yuka, who has somewhat incestuous feelings towards Kohta (however, this distant relatives complication is rarely mentioned after they are introduced). Nyu has no knowledge of her body’s powers, and is therefore essentially a human with horns, incapable of doing anything truly bad. However, when confronted with violence or having received a blow to the head, she reverts back to Lucy.

Of course, this just will not do. First the research facility dispatches a team of military specialists, but that doesn’t work. Then they released a somewhat trained Diclonius after Lucy.

The themes explored in the anime aren’t anything that I would want to see on television; they are extremely dark and border on the distasteful at times. Social alienation is the main antagonistic theme, as it’s the fulcrum on which Lucy turns from being a normal child (albeit with horns) to a killer, despite how it is often mentioned that she was born to kill, rather than urged along that path by bullies and psycholigical torment. The theme that hit closest to the edge for me was child abuse, as the anime explained why Mayu, a supplementary female character, ran away from home.

The anime does assume that you are willing to just accept and fill in the gaps yourself. Things such as how Lucy came to be in captivity, how Lucy was actually born (as she is assumed to be the first of her species, or “The Queen Bee” as she is referred to), and the large timespans between present day and the flashbacks are such examples. If you’re not one to think too much of this, then this will not bother you, but if you’re one for completeness, this might detract from the series. The anime only goes up to roughly halfway through the manga’s storyline, and this would be the logical explanation.

There is a lot in the 13 episodes, so it is without doubt that had they wanted to encompass the entire manga series, the anime would’ve had to be extended to 26 episodes, a length that some see as too long for a relatively intense story.

The Anime

One thing became immediately apparent when I watched the first episode; Elfen Lied is an anime that refuses to pull any punches. The violence is gory to say the least, and outdoes the infamous Gantz at gore, and the degree of violence shown. What I did like was that the illustrators didn’t cut any corners; they actually drew the bloodspatter in, instead of relying on less-involving CG. Same with the explosions too; all done on the drawing board instead of simply added in. The only CG that was allowed was when vectors were extended, but since they were technically invisible and looked different when compared to everything else, it made sense and didn’t seem out of place.

The nudity in the anime was handled tastefully, with the angles used as such to simply avoid anything other than breasts.

In terms of the actual quality of the anime, it’s pretty high quality. When viewed on my Xbox 360 through standard component connection, the lines were crisp and the colours were clean and without any artifacts from the scaling down from NTSC to PAL, nor any blurring when diplayed in HD. On the DVD Player, connected via Scart, the quality was much the same although, understandably, there was a slight bleed from the connection method.

The sound was solid on both counts, and the use of stereo had me looking behind me at one point and having to rewind to make sure what I heard was on the anime itself rather than an open window. So pretty much regardless of your sound setup, it’ll be an enjoyable experience.

The Presentation

The presentation of the collection itself is the only downside, if you live in the UK. The UK version is a cardboard and plastic affair, with 4 DVDs. However, there is no protective sleeve to help it keep shape, and the only upside to this is a postcard. The US version contains 4 separately cased DVDs in slim cases, contained in a stiff, thick card outer. I have no idea as to why there is this change, but I recommend the US version. Another problem with the UK version, is that the discs have a habit of rubbing together. This is once again due to the lack of support in the case.

The menus are as equally macabre as the anime itself; they do the job, but if you leave them for too long, the ‘buttons’ get surrounded by bloodspray. There are a few extra features, but nothing groundbreaking.

Conclusion

This is not a child’s anime; this is an adult anime in every way. It’s worth buying, mind you, as it’s one you can revisit several times without feeling like you’ve seen it all. The violence is gory, but fits the tone that the series has, and the storyline itself paints a dark picture of what Lucy’s existence is. There is a cruel twist at the end of the anime, but I will not divulge it; watching it will piece Kohta’s character together completely, and put a spin on it that I honestly didn’t expect.

However, the physical presentation lets it down for me, as I know have to put it somewhere I know pets won’t be able to reach, and where there is little direct light, as unprotected cardboard will bleach much easier. For the price though, I can’t not recommend it, unless you’re in the camp of not liking violence and gore.

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4/5