Lynn Okamoto is a Tokyo-based Seinen mangaka affiliated with Weekly Young Jump, and is known to be an intensely private individual. He is best known for his famous work Elfen Lied. His works are famous for their Gorn and Fanservice content. He has drawn many one-shots, that are eventually released in a bundle of two collection books in 2008, and five series, with two of them having anime adaptations, both being made by the studio ARMS Corporation.
List of Lynn Okamoto's works
- Flip Flap (his very first manga in his life, published in 2008)
- Lime Yellow (his first manga after quiting his job to become mangaka, published in 2008)
- Elfenlied (2000, his debut manga; not to be confused with the series Elfen Lied)
- Digitopolis (2000)
- MOL (2000)
- Memoria (2002) (his debut in Weekly Young Jump)
- Elfen Lied (2002 - 2005, Breakthrough Hit)
- Carrera (2005)
- Registrar (2006)note
- Allumage (2006)
- EXEXE (rough sketch for a next series after Elfen Lied)
- Nononono (2007 - 2011)
- Brynhildr in the Darkness (2012 - 2016)
- Kimi wa Midara na Boku no Joōnote (2012, art by Mengo Yokoyari)
- Parallel Paradise (2017 - present)
Tropes common in his works:
- Adapted Out: In the anime adaptations of Elfen Lied and Brynhildr in the Darkness, Nozomi (a main character) and Skadi (an Arc Villain) are excluded, respectively.
- Endearingly Dorky: Most of his characters. His male leads are often socially-awkward guys who have problems with women, while many of his female leads being Cloudcuckoolanders.
- Art Evolution: An extreme case of evolution. His art style has changed drastically during the years. This is especially blatant if you read his Short Story Collection or Elfen Lied. He seems to have found a solid art style since 2005.
- The Lynn Okamoto Short Story Collection features a panel and a commentary of the author after every one-shot. Those panels show characters from the respective short story, but in Okamoto's recent art style.
- Author Appeal: Basically every trope listed here. Some of his Fanservice include foot fetish (very blatant in Brynhildr in the Darkness). He also seems to be inspired by German and Northern mythologies (as shown in Brynhildr in the Darkness). Additionally, MP5s are typically shown at least once.
- Bittersweet Ending: Some of his works. They often border on Downer Endings.
- Body Horror: He seems to like drawing people melting to death. Elfen Lied, Brynhildr in the Darkness, and Parallel Paradise all feature it.
- Break the Cutie: A staple. In almost every work, a single or several characters are tortured, traumatized, Mind Raped or etc.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Many of the romances began in childhood.
- Classical Anti-Hero: Many of his male heroes.
- Crapsack World: Both, Elfen Lied and Brynhildr in the Darkness, are featured in such settings.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Many of his female characters.
- Dynamic Entry: In all three series a characters enters in to save another character. The entries are shown in full double pages.
- Ecchi: And how! His works are famous for having Nipple and Dimed. Brynhildr in the Darkness seems to avert the latter (though the uncensored anime doesn't). Parallel Paradise takes this up to eleven, with explicit sex scenes making the manga short of being labelled Hentai.
- Fanservice: Aside from the ecchi content, he uses many other tropes of fanservice.
- Gecko Ending: Both of his anime adaptations.
- Gorn: Not only Elfen Lied and Brynhildr in the Darkness are famous for this, some of his other works work that way.
- Gratuitous German: Elfen Lied and Brynhildr in the Darkness have some German phrases.
- Fan Disservice: Many of his works feature barely-clothed females in disturbing situations.
- Interspecies Romance: Some of his works have romances between an Unlucky Everydude and an unhuman girl. They usually end up tragically.
- Moodwhip Lash: His works are famous for switching from extremely brutal scenes to very adorable scenes and back and forth.
- Mysterious Waif: The female leads are often this type.
- No Name Given: Many characters in his work do not have names, even protagonists, main antagonists, major characters or characters with a distinctpersonality or some role. This is also the reason why fans agree to call one specific unnamed character "The Unknown Man".
- Production Posse: Both Elfen Lied and Brynhildr in the Darkness were animated by ARMS Corporation and produced by VAP and Genco.
- Reused Character Design: Even with his Art Evolution, many of his characters from different and the same works look similar to each other. In a nutshell, many characters from his different works look like Lucy, Kohta, Yuka, Kurama and Director Kakuzawa.
- Slasher Smile: There is at least one character who smiles like that, even in his not brutal works.
- Unlucky Everydude: Many of his male heroes.
- Registrar averts this; the male hero has not only supernatural powers, he's a Cool Old Guy.
- Where It All Began: A meta-example with the Lynn Okamoto Short Story Collection. The first short story of the collection was Okamoto's most recent one-shot and it went on backwards to the last short story which was his first manga of his life.
