CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

After months of anticipation, we finally have a great Elfen Lied review thanks to our friend, GrubbTheFragger! Thanks, Grubb!





Note: Thanks also to Radical Dreamer and UC for helping me with content checking this review!

There's a pretty glaring omission in this review. There is an event in episode 5 involving Mayu's backstory that seriously needs mentioning here.

You might also want to mention that portions of Lilium's lyrics are borrowed from Latin scripture -- Psalms 37:30 and James 1:12 specifically -- as it may offend some people.

I'm a pretty big fan of Elfen Lied because of the underlying thematic elements that present a wonderful plot -- however the graphic nature of the show leads me to agree fully with Grubb: I cannot recommend the series under any circumstances.

TriezGamer wrote:There's a pretty glaring omission in this review. There is an event in episode 5 involving Mayu's backstory that seriously needs mentioning here.

I'm somewhat to blame for missing that. I was trying to correct the review via what I remember from the manga, more or less. Can you be more specific via spoiler tags? I'll correct the review accordingly. Chances are it was something that I didn't think too much about but should still be in there (I'm somewhat jaded).

TriezGamer wrote:You might also want to mention that portions of Lilium's lyrics are borrowed from Latin scripture -- Psalms 37:30 and James 1:12 specifically -- as it may offend some people.

You can never tell with some, I suppose, so it might not hurt to mention that. I was assuming that the people likely to be offended in that regard wouldn't actually recognize the Latin.

What bothers (or scares) me the most about this series is the number of middle-aged men who have told me this is their favorite anime. I found the nudity to be excessive, gratuitous, and (given the characters) bordering on something your average pedophile might enjoy. Shakespeare it ain't. To be fair, given the spectrum of what comes out of Japan, there are no tentacles and it isn't hard-core pornography, so it's pretty mild in comparison. But... there's something there that is deeply disturbing ("this scene? oh, a helpless, naked girl is chained to a wall and tortured with energy blasts, but she accepts her fate..."). It's just... wrong.

uc pseudonym wrote:I'm somewhat to blame for missing that. I was trying to correct the review via what I remember from the manga, more or less. Can you be more specific via spoiler tags? I'll correct the review accordingly. Chances are it was something that I didn't think too much about but should still be in there (I'm somewhat jaded).

[spoiler=Elfen Lied Episode 5]
It is VERY heavily implied that Mayu is raped by her step-father. He gives her the command to take off her clothes, and she strips down naked, and ends up displaying her private parts to him while bent over like a dog. There isn't any explicit detail shown, but it disturbed me far more than any other scene in the entire anime.[/spoiler]

uc pseudonym wrote:You can never tell with some, I suppose, so it might not hurt to mention that. I was assuming that the people likely to be offended in that regard wouldn't actually recognize the Latin.

Well, the translation is right there on-screen, and it certainly sounds biblical even if you don't know the references.

I now remember someone telling me about that incident. It's been added to the review. Thanks for your help making the review complete!

TriezGamer: Ah, yes, that. I had forgotten it (the manga leaves even less doubt about things). Thanks for mentioning it.

TriezGamer wrote:[spoiler=Elfen Lied Episode 5]
It is VERY heavily implied that Mayu is raped by her step-father. He gives her the command to take off her clothes, and she strips down naked, and ends up displaying her private parts to him while bent over like a dog. There isn't any explicit detail shown, but it disturbed me far more than any other scene in the entire anime.[/spoiler]




Well, the translation is right there on-screen, and it certainly sounds biblical even if you don't know the references.

*Smacks forehead* Yeah i stupidly forgot that. I marathoned the series so i probably watched that episode late at night or something. Thanks for mentioning it though

Started watchin this one (Watched the first disc) but after words felt as though it was one I should avoid. Art was good (a little to good) but the content just made me feel it was the stuff I try to avoid.

This is by far one of my favorite shows of all time. The engrossing blend of innocence and depravity, wound in ways that reflect on humanity as a whole makes it for one of the most intricately disturbing takes on our society through some of the most cliched and predictable character archetypes imaginable to the harem genre.

If taken at face value, you're going to hate this. Once you start digging underneath the series for answers, you'll find a gold mine of a masterpiece.

Also, I'd like to comment that the majority of the nudity is not sexual at all. Most of it is done in childish innocence (tell me you've never seen a two-year-old run around butt-naked. Now see Nyuu, who has the mind of a two-year-old.) and out of lack of humanity (the test subjects at the facility are not regarded as being humans and are treated as animals. Naturally, they are not given clothing.). I will agree though that Mayu's backstory is horrifying. Very few sights in anime will shock you like that one does.

Regardless of being "unrecommendable", I advise everyone with a strong enough stomach and moral conscience to stare right into the heart of darkness with eyes wide open. What you find will not only shock you, but also give you an idea about how the world around you truly is. A poignant masterpiece for the ages. When you're mature enough to handle it, EVERYONE needs to see this show.

I agree with Splitter. The series is not for those with a weak stomach or the easily offended (not that it is a bad thing) but it is a really original work about innocence meeting depravity. Innocence sometimes fights back and prevails, sometimes is crushed and becomes part of the depravation, sometimes pays the highest cost and is even able to turn depravity's heart. It's beautiful and sad. However there IS a rather regrettable gratuitous use of nudity (only in a few cases is truly justifiable) but this is, I'd say, an artefact from the manga, which is one of the very few cases where I believe this, is vastly inferior to the anime. The manga tried too hard at times to inject some harem genre with h-game tones into the story, for the worse. The anime was rid of most of those overtones but kept the gratuitous nudity, obviously for marketing reasons. Graphical violence is abundant, though I wouldn't say gratuitous, it simply was part of the character of the series.

So, to join my voice to others, I wouldn't reccomend this anime, as the chances of offending a good percentage of the viewers is high. Still, it wasn't a bad series.

Two years later, and I remain unconvinced that Elfen Lied is somehow an anime masterpiece.

I don't think it is a question of 'maturity' or 'artistic taste'. I've feasted on non-anime offerings like A Clockwork Orange, Satyricon, Blue Velvet, and Angel Heart, to name a few. I may have been shocked by those in one way or another, but I still hold the utter conviction that Elfen Lied is a pedophile's treasure trove, little more. I can certainly imagine this series being done just as successfully without the nudity which, in combination with the violence, takes it from story telling to just a notch above child pornography.

I cannot recommend this series under any circumstances.