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Pod's Elfen Lied Tv Review

Elfen Lied tv Review

The Diclonius, a mutated homo sapien that is said to be selected by God and will eventually become the destruction of mankind, possesses two horns in their heads, and has a "sixth sense" which gives it telekinetic abilities. Due to this dangerous power, they have been captured and isolated in laboratories by the government. Lucy, a young and psychotic Diclonius, manages to break free of her confines and brutally murder most of the guards in the laboratory, only to get shot in the head as she makes her escape. She survives and manages to drift along to a beach, where two teenagers named Kouta and Yuka discovers her. Having lost her memories, she was named after the only thing that she can now say, "Nyuu," and the two allow her to stay at Kouta's home. However, it appears that the evil "Lucy" is not dead just yet...

Story & Characters

The story revolves around a dangerous mutated human escaping from isolation, and moving in with two young people, who are dragged into a mess when authorities wish to reclaim the mutant. Telling more would be chipping away at the only bit of surprise.

I actually don't really like this series much at all. All the characters are extremely two-dimensional, and feel like empty shells to a particularly annoying degree. Kouta and his cousin are prime examples of soulless anime-dummies, that you constantly wish would be killed off, instead of the poor guards doing their job.

The rest are pitiful anime cliche characters. Take for instance Lucy, who's only original feat is that she is in fact two pitiful anime cliche characters; a dark moody girl-you-don't-mess-with and an infantile grab-me-all-over airhead, who communicates in single syllable words. She switches between the two. The only person acting somewhat human is hardly seen. You don't feel for anyone in this series.

To make matters worse, everything happening feels like it's only happening to satisfy some sick little Japanese subculture demographic. A good example is the character Anna getting her arms and legs torn off, but living on with detachable artificial limbs. Great stuff for amputation fetishists. There is also the utterly irrelevant side story being told of a little girl being abused by her mother's new lover. I know an old guy who'll be drooling tonight.


Rating: 2

Art

While everything is nicely drawn, and better animated than most anime these days, the series does an appalling job at graphic violence. People pop open and jam comes out. The violence in early Peter Jackson movies feels more painful to the viewer than this blood ordeal. Furthermore, there is a tendency to show naked girls, often in suggestive positions, but of course never with any details whatsoever added to their lower regions.

In all, the series is just not very explicit, though it tries heartily, and has no proper use for being it anyway. The lovely pictures during the opening are mostly rip-offs of classic art pieces, edited to include Lucy and some freaky blue guy.

Rating: 4

Sound

The appraised soundtrack is actually just variations of the same melody, over and over again, like in cheap sit-coms. It's a good song the first time you hear it, especially with the Latin lyrics it sports in the opening, but you'll be wishing to pound the teeth of Kouta and Lucy deep into their throats, when they hum it continuously for an entire episode during some particularly boring flashbacks.
The song during the credits is a complete piece of crap.

The voice work in the series is admirable. The studio has apparently managed to gather a crowd with each person being precisely as boring as the characters he/she is voicing. Some guy poured his soul out so you can hate Kouta.

Rating: 3

Presentation

I dunno where to go with this. This series reeks of production quality from the get go, but that conception will soon fade. The only thing vaguely interesting about this series is pondering the meaning of a grandfather clock that Lucy has a hang of tinkering with during her "infantile" periods. It makes sense later on in the series, trust me.
Sadly, it's just not reason enough to watch this miserable waste of animation talent for the five hours of your life it will consume, unless you are below 13 years of age, so you won't mind the tedious babbling, or belong to one of the earlier mentioned target demographics.

Seriously though, it can be watched by anyone, provided they are not expecting any interesting locations, clever payoffs, human emotions or difference in the appearance of the main characters. It looks, feels, and tastes like simply a vessel for displaying sad attempts at doing cartoon obscenities.
Some people might fall for the charm of the series’ very immature sense of humor, and some might like the blood splatter just for what is it. Some might even enjoy gawking at the featureless naked teenage girls. If you dig deeply melodramatic sob stories about cardboard cut-out people, however, then this is definitely the anime for you.

Rating: 3

Final Verdict

2.8333 (poor)

Reviewed by Pod, Jan 01, 2005

Comments

  1. kuclo Jan 02, 2005

    i not agree with the rating,i started to watch this anime ,is pretty cool,is a little strong but for my this is a low rating,i will give 8 ,but not every one think the same,what a shame :\ :\

  2. GamabuntaOyabun Jan 02, 2005

    "Take for instance Lucy, who's only original feat is that she is in fact two pitiful anime cliche characters; a dark moody girl-you-don't-mess-with and an infantile grab-me-all-over airhead, who communicates in single syllable words. She switches between the two."

    The creators did provide a reason for her switchback personalities. A bullet to the head can do plenty of things beyond amnesia.

    I completely agree about what you have to say for Kouta and his cousin. They appealed to me as flat characters throughout the entire story.

    The violence was off the hook, but it did add a tremendous kick.

  3. Drakonshie May 18, 2005

    Of all the animes that I have seen (which are mostly shounen genre), this is the first mature anime that i've been exposed to. So...based on that, I think that this anime was interesting...because the story was just 'new' to me.

    Well...I can understand the annoyance of the 'fan service' presented in the story. Some 'incidents' are not necessary to the show.

    I probably would have given it a higher rating. But the rating just relects the reviewer's preferences.

  4. kaihaider Oct 29, 2005

    pod...i hate you...

  5. Xaki-the-forbidden-one Dec 19, 2005

    i liked it alot, so i would have to disagree with you. this is one of the best ive seen, so i would have to give it around an 8.6. The style is new to me, but i think that i will get used to it.

  6. DSNecro Mar 21, 2006

    BUAHAHAHA! Soundtrack poor!?!? You are so deaf or you only cheating us? And story it's almost epic - showing the dark sides of our times. You are soo narrow-minded. I think that you haven't understand this anime at all!

  7. nedved11 Apr 08, 2006

    Yeah sure go watch some Pokemon!Pikachu go!

  8. Kienzan Apr 30, 2006

    Actualy Pod is talking the truth!(Except the art review which is bull)
    But if you concetrate on the strong points of this anime
    Gore, Fan_service, melodrama, romance it becomes EXTREAMLY enjoyable!
    This is a must see anime!

  9. wald89 May 14, 2006

    How dare you, you must be one cold blooded fiend. And the intro whit latin vocals and beautifully drawn pictures wahts wrong whit that? And the characters ARE really deep. but i respect you opinion, even though I think it´s wierd

  10. Arrowny Jun 11, 2006

    geez, it sounds like youre forcing yourself to hate this anime. i find this series very enjoyable and deep, and one of my favorites. id give it a 9.

  11. MyntShardXIII Jul 05, 2006

    I would come up with a carefully crafted and well thought out response, but I'm afraid it would waste time and wear on my keyboard. I give this review a -56.31 (eye-gougingly ignorant crap among craps)

  12. lillium1 Jul 27, 2006

    to those who haven't seen elfen lied and are thinking of reading a review from "the people who know", please, read all the replies given to this jerk, and understand that reviews given by someone that is not yourself are shallow and stupid... just watch it, enjoy it and let it speak for itself

  13. nedved11 Sep 24, 2006

    if that be what you be thinking mon, then couldja pleez defend me eyeball?! No...seriously...this review is crap.Dont listen to him.

  14. Naruth Oct 21, 2006

    Well, I was gonna thrash this review but I suppose the people have already spoken. How does one review Elfen Lied anyway? Tell the people what they need to know...it's f'in kickass and if you don't watch it and like it then explode. That's right, just explode.

  15. Northy Dec 17, 2006

    A little factual error; the girl who gets her limbs removed is named Nana, not Anna.

    And to the people replying to this review, stop bitching about a review just because you don't agree with it. I don't either -- in fact, I like this show quite much -- but I can understand how this is a love or hate show, and this would be an instance of someone who hates it.

    I said this on another review which panned this show, and I'll mention it here as well; be careful with making personal attacks when writing a review. The ones in the last paragraph of the first section, for instance, where you mentioned that pedophile old grandfathers or people who like their women without appendages might be the only ones enjoying this show.

    You hate this show, and you have every right to do so, as well as express your reasoning why. Just don't make assumptions about the audience who might view it favourably. That's all I ask. Put your hate on the show, not the audience.

  16. TEKcamoKEN Jan 07, 2007

    irrelevant side story?it is actually the opposite,kouta took in how many people in to live with him?each character he took in had a their own side stories or an explanation to why they came.if that scene never took place, then it wouldn't make sense for that homeless girl to even exist.your review is um, i don't know...well northy said it all, so that's all imma say...

    merged: 01-08-2007 ~ 05:06am
    irrelevant side story?it is actually the opposite,kouta took in how many people in to live with him?each character he took in had a their own side stories or an explanation to why they came.if that scene never took place, then it wouldn't make sense for that homeless girl to even exist.your review is um, i don't know...well northy said it all, so that's all imma say...

  17. TwilightObsessions Jan 16, 2007

    Most awesome review of Elfen Lied I have read. Everybody is arguing with you, but I think you're completely right, although granted I didn't read it, I just like the score you gave it

  18. RavenPotter91 Jan 21, 2007

    OMG, it wasn't THAT bad. Okay, it had a ton of abuse and angst that seemed very unreal, but it was different from your usual anime. The story caught the attention of many its viewers and your score is way too low for what it really should have deserve...let me not go overboard since it's merely an opinion, but HOW DARE YOU!

  19. littlemitsukichan Jun 19, 2007

    I agree with you. At first it does seems kind of interesting, and I haven't seen very much anime with so much blood in it, but after a while it gets extremely tedius. Characters are annoying, _especially_ Kouta's cousin. Watching it the second time through was almost impossible.

  20. twindragon Jun 27, 2007

    I dont really get why you bother watching this anime.If u depise the fact of this genre of animie simply DONT WATCH IT.As for the music it isnt crap...btw...its nana not anna -__-''art.its not some edited piture with lucy.well it sorta is but that how it matched the opening song.Lucy isnt just a violince girl.the animie is more that just gore and nude u know.For the fact in what you said for Presentation....it isnt for the the people wanting to see naed girls.stop and think a little before you mess up your life in the future.

  21. Sakura-Dust Sep 10, 2007

    First of all the girl with the torn off limbs is Nana not Anna.
    Next, I'd like to kill off Yuka, that's for sure, incest freak.
    The soundtrack is simply gorgeous!
    I like the idea with the vectors and the Diclonius stuff, finally an anime where it isn't all about a spiky haired kid which has to save the world!
    The fact that she has two personalities is interesting, since they're total opposites.
    In conclusion, the anime worths over 7,5 for sure!
    This is just a silly rant!

  22. blackchii Dec 23, 2007

    this review is rubbish

  23. beyondmeasure Mar 02, 2008

    Downgrading this anime, mio, is like grading Evangelion or Lain or Bebop as rubbish.

    Which is, in turn, committing a weird hara-kiri.

    And you, dear Pod, did just that.

    Thy condolences.

  24. vangjlee Oct 14, 2009

    good anime. ok plot.

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