Elfen Lied

OK, I'm sorry, but...please tell me the depth in a message like that. It takes hardly any thought or creativity to write a story where humanity abuses another species; nor does it take much to write about humans causing their own downfall through their own cruelty/stupidity/instincts. Both are common tropes and can be written by anyone with enough cynicism.

The message is, as that nice Jewish boy around 2/3 of the world worship and at least 90% of the rest respects a lot, put it: Love thy Neighboor as thyself. (Ok, it's not that deep, but it's sure as hell meaningful)

I can actually name quite a few non-bastard Humans (outside of Maple House)in the series : Kurama's original assistant Oomori, who didn't want to let his daughter be killed for her horns; The poor woman at the festival who Kaede killed *because* she showed concern for her; The Bakery Lady; at times, Isobe, Shirakawa, and even Kurama, when they weren't in their 'it has to be done' mode; whole families killed by Kaede to have a place to live, whose views we will never learn; Families of Diclonius who turned three and then took a toy away from her at the wrong time; JSDF personnel who, as depicted, were mostly not Claremontian 'Kill The Mutie' types, just doing their job. The woman or women Kaede killed while walking down the street! Just because we see Kaede's start of darkness doesn't mean she's justified— far from it. She's five years killing women and infecting men after belatedly realizing she'd wrongly killed her only friend's family in a jealous snit.

Indeed, there's quite a lot of humans that aren't Pure Evil. And Kouta and Nana (Nozomi and Mayu too, to a certain degree. And also Yuka, though by a lesser degree) truly show that there can be genuine goodness (as in Goku-level goodness) in both species, but the fact that the rest of both species can be overridden by anger, fear and selfishness so easily shows that generally, Humans (both Homo diclonius and Homo sapiens, probably going back as far as Homo erectus and all species in-between) are bastards, or at the very least a combination of Humans Are Flawed and Humans Are Morons (quite a lot of the last one...).

By the way, I wouldn't call Kaede snapping and embracing her duty as destroyer of humanity upon discover that Kouta, seemingly, betrayed her in the worst way possible just a jealousy snitch, it looked to me like a full blown crossing of the Despair Event Horizon followed by a partial Sanity Slippage and the voice doing More than Mind Control plus Mind Rape in her to carry out her will. As for the other killings, it's not justifiable, but I can understand that she by that point felt it was too late to stop and viewed not-horned humans as enemies.

Note: I think Lucy's feelings for humanity (baring Kouta) could be resumed in the Thrash Metal song Violent revolution by Kreator

edited 30th Jan '11 7:47:13 PM by LSSJ2Gohan

So... Does anyone here has any favourite pairings?

Mines are Kaede/NyuuxKouta and NanaxMayu.

edited 4th Feb '11 8:38:36 PM by LSSJ2Gohan

I loved Elfen Lied. I found it by accident from an AMV I saw back in 2004 (i think) and only remembered it's name. I was in the middle of my transition from Blues Clues/Little Bear, to Ed Eddand Eddy/Sailor Moon to Black Lagoon, Elfen Lied and Higurashi.

Not sure how the fuck that happened, but regardless.

After I first discovered anime, my roomate leon linked me up with his Hard Drive and told me to watch whatever I wanted. Since Black Lagoon was first in alphabetical order, I was like O,o and it fucked with my head a bit on how dark animation got.

I never even knew that cartoons could get that gory or have that much sleaze and cussing.

After that I worked my way down the list and came across Elfen Lied. I loved it to death, and wanted to let people know I was a fan, but knew (I can't let anyone know I watch this) because of how fucking irritating and vocal most people were about it. They were all like "Fuck shitty guromoe bullshit" and insulting the fandom to no end. I felt ashamed for being a fan of it.

Then eventually, after coming here, and meeting the same exact people, I just came to a discussion on anime back on IJBM and got interested enough to say "I should just buy the DVD series". T Here were 3 or so people questioning my intelligence and downtalking me about it.

I just said "It's my money, i'll buy whatever the fuck I want."

I like it for the blatant gore. I like it for the cuteness. I like it for the punishment of cartoony asshole victims. I like it for their play on Humans Are Bastards. So what if other people think it's badly done? That's their problem.

edited 5th Feb '11 1:32:27 AM by Vorpy

Have you read the Manga? It's Bloodier and Gorier, and much more tragic.

edited 5th Feb '11 1:46:30 PM by LSSJ2Gohan

All of that, and a lot better overall.

I am reading it as we speak.

That's true, but there were two things I liked better in the Anime:

1) The final Lucy/Kouta kiss was one of the greatest kissing scenes in anime.

2) The artwork: Compared to the Manga (especially the early chapters), Mamoru Kanbe's style is vastly superior.

lucyXkunta I love this manga have read it 3 times

I like Lucy and Kouta, that is all, even if Lucy acts like a Homomaniac Maniac

Lucy/Kouta is my favourite pairing of all time (Only second to GohanxNana, but that's just me...). I love the pairing, especially the Love Redeems theme.

I think one of the only subjects with more varying opinions on it than Elfen Lied is socialism. Seriously, there are incredibly few people who have read/watched Elfen Lied that share the same opinion. It's kind of a hard thing to talk about.

I guess that's why this thread exists in the first place. But yeah, Elfen Lied is one hell of a base breaker...

I can't believe I finally found it.

Thank you Dagobah.net ^^

One of the best AM Vs I found by far.

edited 26th Feb '11 7:43:23 PM by Vorpy

Curiosity : At the end of the final anime episode, after she leaves Lucy and is staggered by the loss of Kurama and Mariko, Nana, wearing only an overcoat, staggers up the steps to Maple House/Kaede-Sou. In the sub, she says, 'I have to get back to where everyone is', whereas in the dub, she says, 'I have to get back home. My family is waiting for me.'

Now, would 'where everyone is' be a good cultural translation/transliteration for 'home' and 'family', or was this just a case of fitting dialogue to the mouth? The sub seems to otherwise say that she has lost her family and must get back to these people she knows. The dub says that she has accepted them already as her family. Anyone know enough to be of help?

manga makes it more clear..trust me...damn cliffhanger ending

Trust me, I've read the manga (see my sigline).And I agree. It's just that this one instance of translation seems off. The rest more or less match up, AFAIK.

I just think of the Anime as an "arc" rather than a dismissable era of Elfen Lied in general.

I've decided to put up an FAQ page on the Wiki, hoping to draw in those fans who don't yet want the more comprehensive parts of the site. But I want the real, meaty, 'WTF?' grand-glorious teeth-grinding ones, not just every rinky-dink bit of trivia. Ones I have thus far :

1 - How can Yuka be a love interest for Kouta when they are cousins?

A : There's a lot to say about this, including questioning their degree of blood relation. But the bottom line is, in Japan, where the story is set, there is no legal or custom-driven prohibition against cousins marrying.

2 - What is the ultimate fate of Kurama?

A : That depends on whether you watch the anime or read the manga. In short, the anime has him die along with his true daughter Mariko, to atone both for his treatment of her and his euthanizing of many Diclonius infants. The manga makes this more complex, with Kurama at first wishing to die but then realizing he should atone by living and making up for his sins as a living man.

3 - Are Diclonius naturally violent?

A : Both the anime and the manga are perhaps deliberately unclear on this subject. There is evidence on every front with which to make the nature versus nurture argument. One of the major problems in making this determination is the way Humans do discriminate, even against each other, and the young age most of these girls are at when their powers awaken.

I would love to have, and be honored to see, any of yours.

Q: why is this anime so voilent

A: -someones else answer, I cant think up anything besides "if you have to ask your too young"-

Q: Who are the official main couple?

A: It's not actually clear, but in the Manga, it's strongly implied to be Yuka/Kouta (As much as I hate to admit it). The Anime however, toys with the idea of Lucy/Kouta, seeing how, he, while still can't forgive her horrible crimes against him, openly admits that he still loves her.

http://elfen-lied.wikia.com/wiki/Project_S2R

Someone might want to check it out...

Many thanks, LSSJ 2 Gohan. Might I also mention that, also at the Wiki, we now have pages users can create and list their own fanworks, be they fic or art or AMV's. http://elfen-lied.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Fanworks

Any other ideas to revive this thread?

I have one: Is Kakuzawa senior a Complete Monster, or does he manages, if just barely, to avoid that position.

How about this: Can we consider Kouta The Messiah, or at least the closest thing this series has to one?

I take a cynical view on this one : Even the revelation with Anna at the end does not keep him out of this territory, because an easy alternate explanation is that he wanted his 'goddess' to have a Human base so he could control her, in case she betrayed him as did her older brother. With that taken out of play, he is no doubt a complete monster.

Kouta has messianic overtones, but in his refusal to forgive Lucy, he is also wonderfully Human. That said, I wonder what might have happened if her asking for forgiveness didn't come so soon after his memories came back (Hey, you've been cuddling with your family's killer) and been so quickly followed by Lucy's death. I would call Kouta more of a champion than a messiah.

I guess we can say that is a possibility...

A variation of that is actually something I'm planning to explore in Children Of Destruction, stay tuned!