Note: This review contains several spoilers.
Well, actually, Elfen Lied's main excitement does not come from the plot itself (hence, plot spoilers won't actually diminish your enjoyment) but from the intensity of the characters. I think, this is where the main strength of this anime lies.
Actually, plotwise, it is extremely weak (bordering on cliched). Mutant beings start wreaking havoc on humans in the most gruesome way possible, and the next 13 episodes depict that story. It is mainly tragic and its violence (and nudity) gratuitous.
But it can't be denied that both those elements contribute to the story well, and without them Elfen Lied would be practically nothing. Its greatest strength is its weakness.
What does it say about a show that needs to insert Happy Tree Friends style violence and lots of prepubescent nudity merely to gain such a reaction?
Desperate, surely. But again, it does help the story very well.
The main protagonist is (coincidence, coincidence) a person who had a terrible childhood thanks to a mutant (they're called Diclonius) and, a few years later, meets the very same person at a beach.
Lucy/Nyuu (referring to her split personalities- one evil, one innocent) is the main Diclonius here, where she meets Kohta (main protoganist). She loves him, apparently, but also was the cause of his father's and sister's demise. Kohta, of course, has repressed his memories of this, and not until the end does he find out.
Which is puzzling, because he also admits his love for the woman who killed his family. I scratching my head by then. But alas, for the sake of the story, this needed to happen.
While all this makes it one of the best anime I have ever watched, many elements (as I have noted earlier) weaken it. Some might say that they actually strengthen it.
Some aspects, yes. Elfen Lied would not be that good without that much fanservice, dismemberings and what have you, but that (as I pointed earlier) shows how much it lacks.
Well, actually, Elfen Lied's main excitement does not come from the plot itself (hence, plot spoilers won't actually diminish your enjoyment) but from the intensity of the characters. I think, this is where the main strength of this anime lies.
Actually, plotwise, it is extremely weak (bordering on cliched). Mutant beings start wreaking havoc on humans in the most gruesome way possible, and the next 13 episodes depict that story. It is mainly tragic and its violence (and nudity) gratuitous.
But it can't be denied that both those elements contribute to the story well, and without them Elfen Lied would be practically nothing. Its greatest strength is its weakness.
What does it say about a show that needs to insert Happy Tree Friends style violence and lots of prepubescent nudity merely to gain such a reaction?
Desperate, surely. But again, it does help the story very well.
The main protagonist is (coincidence, coincidence) a person who had a terrible childhood thanks to a mutant (they're called Diclonius) and, a few years later, meets the very same person at a beach.
Lucy/Nyuu (referring to her split personalities- one evil, one innocent) is the main Diclonius here, where she meets Kohta (main protoganist). She loves him, apparently, but also was the cause of his father's and sister's demise. Kohta, of course, has repressed his memories of this, and not until the end does he find out.
Which is puzzling, because he also admits his love for the woman who killed his family. I scratching my head by then. But alas, for the sake of the story, this needed to happen.
While all this makes it one of the best anime I have ever watched, many elements (as I have noted earlier) weaken it. Some might say that they actually strengthen it.
Some aspects, yes. Elfen Lied would not be that good without that much fanservice, dismemberings and what have you, but that (as I pointed earlier) shows how much it lacks.
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