Mayu's mother and young Kouta are both played by Christine Auten.
Ditto for the same characters in the Latin American Spanish dub, who are voiced by Isabel Martiñón.
Banned in China: The series was banned in Mainland China for extensive graphic violence.
Bonus Episode: The anime has 13 episodes plus one on the DVD.
Creator Backlash: Mamoru Kanbe admitted his distress on condensing the manga series into a thirteen-episode anime series.
Creator's Pest: Kanbe was dissatisfied with Nozomi and had to adapt the character out when he produced the anime, despite her being one of the manga's main characters and singing the titular song.
While the anime was licensed by ADV Films in North America not long after it first aired, the original manga wasn't released stateside or in any English speaking country for a very long time. Eventually, Dark Horse Comics finally stepped up and attained the rights for American release in 2019, 17 years after the manga first came out in Japan.
The anime wasn't released in Latin America until the year 2016, 12 years after its initial premiere in Japan.
The Other Darrin: The OVA wasn't dubbed into English until 2013, several years after the TV series, and some of the main voice cast was different. Lucy/Nyu was voiced by Carli Mosier instead of Kira Vincent-Davis, Kouta was voiced by Blake Shepard instead of Adam Conlon, and Bando was voiced by David Wald instead of Jason Douglas.
Real-Life Relative: Susana Moreno (Yuka's Latin American Spanish VA) and Eduardo Garza (the Latin American Spanish ADR Director and Narrator) are niece and uncle respectively.
Sleeper Hit: Elfen Lied may be the pinnacle of a slow and continuous success. The anime was so extreme that it could only be aired in Japan via satellite which was done to advertise the DVD set. In 2005, the anime was released in the U.S. and many other western countries to practically no fanfare — initially, but through sheer word of mouth from one anime club to another, and spreading across the internet, the series gained a massive amount of attention in part because of just how hardcore it was that some didn't think it could be possible, and was stated to be one of the bestselling and most notorious anime releases of that year. As time went by, more and more began discovering the series, and over the course of a decade, Elfen Lied may be one of the best-known anime in the west to the point of being seen as a classic and being well-known throughout the internet generation (many famous Youtubers have covered it, even DEATH BATTLE!). This despite the manga not seeing an English release because no company wanted anything to do with it. The status reached a point where Dark Horse Comics finally stepped up and licensed the series in English for the first time with a 2019 release, 17 years after the debut of the manga.
Stillborn Franchise: There were plans for a second series, but they never came to fruition owing to the anime's failure in Japan.
Uncredited Role: The Japanese voice actress for Mayu's abusive mother is uncredited.
The "stone stairs", where some of the most emotional scenes take place, lead to the Buddhist Gokurakuji temple in Kamakura. The upper parts of the stairs are part of the temple itself and get closed off at 5 pm every day, so it would not be that easy for the characters to enjoy the view after sunset. In both the manga and anime the gates that block access to the upper part of the stairs are conveniently left out.
Actually, the whole series is set in a real life location, Kamakura. It's very eerie to see the same locations (the dirty beach, the stone stairs, the various shrines and the island with the tower).
Kaede means Maple. Guess where the main character lives...
The entire series makes reference to El Greco's paintings. In almost every episode, characters make a hand sign, which is repeated also in El Greco's paintings.
The handsign mentioned above is a variation on a Hebrew handsign. The whole story is played out like a holocaust as well, with the scientists (nazi-like figures) not only exterminating Diclonii, but also doing cruel tests on them
Lucy is the "mother of all diclonius" according to many characters in the series. She is the only one anyone can find that can breed, and therefore she is the first known ancestor of all of the next generations. She is named after the Australopithecus fossil, Lucy, who at the time was the oldest known human ancestor.
Nana is 7 in Japanese, which was her room number in the labs and her age at the start of the series.
The anime inspired several aspects of the Netflix show Stranger Things. The character of Eleven in particular has many traits similar to that of Nana, like having numbers as names and a surrogate parental relationship with the head of their respective facilities, whom they both refer to as "Papa".
, but chose not to because it would have been "cut to shreds" by their Standards department to the detriment of the story.