What is it?
The 2004 anime television show Elfen Lied.
What is it about?
This is how MyAnimeList describes this anime television show:
Lucy is a special breed of human referred to as “Diclonius,” born with a short pair of horns and invisible telekinetic hands that lands her as a victim of inhumane scientific experimentation by the government. However, once circumstances present her an opportunity to escape, Lucy, corrupted by the confinement and torture, unleashes a torrent of bloodshed as she escapes her captors.
During her breakout, she receives a crippling head injury that leaves her with a split personality: someone with the mentality of a harmless child possessing limited speech capacity. In this state of instability, she stumbles upon two college students, Kouta and his cousin Yuka, who unknowingly take an injured fugitive into their care, unaware of her murderous tendencies. This act of kindness will change their lives, as they soon find themselves dragged into the shadowy world of government secrecy and conspiracy.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
What do I like about it and what might other people like about it?
I like how it managed to combine several things that you would not expect to work together, and they somehow made it still work even if you hate some of those things, also the beginning credits song sets an interesting mood, and I think that other people might like this as well if they can survive the unnecessary stuff.
My Thoughts
This anime needs to be remade and / or reedited / censored of the unnecessary nudity of minors and continued until they finish the actual story because I am surprised that this even exists in its current form, I have never seen anything like this show before, and I am surprised that they got away with some of this; and I almost did not even make a post about this because of the unnecessary parts of this show make you wonder if this is even legal to watch or review.
I had no idea what this anime television show was about other than a Death Battle video about one of the characters (I did not watch the actual Death Battle until after we finished watching the anime), and I only got to see it because someone else wanted to watch it before watching the Death Battle.
From that video I knew to expect some graphic violence and gore, but I was not expecting there to be unnecessary nudity and for that nudity to be of mostly minors in every episode, Japan, why?
Also, they threw in a cousin being in love with another cousin (oddly, no one seemed to have any problems with this in the show), cruelty to minors, and haremish elements.
There is a shadowy scientific / paramilitary organization with its own agenda, and all of these things are combined with some young people living together and helping each other while doing normal things.
If you were to hear a more detailed description of this anime your reaction would probably not be so good, and you would probably not watch it, I probably would not have watched it and wonder how this even exists, but I managed to survive to the end, but somehow even with the things that I hated and that I did not think should be shown they managed to combine these things together in a way that somehow worked without clashing enough to destroy the show completely and there were even some emotional moments and examples of people helping each other and basically forming a family or sorts.
This show did not really finish the story or explain some major details, and it seriously needs some censoring of the nudity (even the beginning and ending credits has nudity for no reason), but I did not hate it overall even though I hated some things, but I definitely would not recommend watching this uncensored or in its current form because some of that stuff is uncalled-for and unacceptable in my opinion.
The end,
- John Jr
John Jr's Blog 
4 replies on “Elfen Lied (TV Series 2004)”
There seem to be quite a few anime shows were cousins potentially dating isn’t treated as a big deal. Maybe it’s a societal thing between what Japan and US consider acceptable. People have different standards. For example I find it weird how people get worked up over nudity, whilst having no problem with characters getting ripped apart in a gruesome manner.
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Hello The Otaku Judge,
Yeah, It is definitely a cultural / societal / legal / personal thing, which can be said about most human things.
I just thought the cousin thing would get at least some reaction, and more than one; especially for a more traditional culture like in Japan, but I am not sure how mainstream Japanese culture and law views this exactly.
The nudity and violence thing is an interesting and weird one, even I recognize it, and I am someone who had the misfortune of being raised in more of culture like you described so unfortunately I have that same problem that was brainwashed into me; but at least I recognize it and admit it, but my main problem with this show is that it was nudity of minors and unnecessary nudity at that (at least violence often has at least some purpose, though some violence is also clearly unnecessary and just put in media just because, but to me nudity often seems to be less justified than violence in media with it just often being thrown in; not all the time of course.) which is a legal and cultural and ethical issue where I am from.
This was not a bad show, but I just can not recommend it to people because of this.
Thank you for commenting,
-John Jr
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Iv’e watched this anime twice now and have to say it’s a solid story., In Japanese culture the cousin term can be used for close friends and doesnt always literally mean cousin. An example of this in west would be calling someone uncle who has no relation to you but is a good friend of the family. The nudity, while sometimes not needed doesn’t ruin the anime in any way, if your offended easily by two pink dots then heads sliding off of peoples shoulders should have had more of an effect on you. The ending does feel incomplete..however there are multiple books and interviews that go into detail about what was intended for the show.
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Hello Sandstorm,
Thank you for sharing that, I did not know that.
Justification and reason was usually given for the violence and for why it was so graphic, but not for the nudity most of the time; and the nudity was of children, which is not the same as nudity of adults, at least where I am from so this is a legal issue as well that could get you locked up if this gets counted as child pornography, that is the difference.
I actually do not hate this anime and liked parts of it even though my post might not seem like it, I just can not recommend it because of that (if I were to recommend this to someone where I live they might call the police 😀 ), while I was raised in a culture where violence in media is more accepted than nudity I am not trying to go around an censor all nudity in media like some people; but it can make me uncomfortable depending on the circumstances but it helps when it at least has some reason / justification other than just because, and child nudity in media crosses the line usually in the culture that I was raised in.
It is cool to get a comment from someone new, I am surprised that this show managed to bring in a new commenter, I would have never seen it if it were not for someone else.
-John Jr
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