This Anime is very short lived but the story is quite intense. If you are one of those persons who never watch the introduction you’ll probably be disappointed with the story after watching the first episode, because the introduction it gives is “bloodier” than the story in it’s whole.
Mind you, this Anime is still very violent, I don’t recommend it to anyone under 16, not because of the violence and nudity, but also because you might not fully comprehend the meaning of the story if you’re too young.
The first episode is probably the bloodiest and most violent one that I’ve ever seen on any Anime. It starts off with blood, and through the first 10 minutes or so that is all that you see, that and people being torn apart. If the cute scenes at the end of the episode suddenly turn you off after all the violence, then you’re missing out on a great story and a great lesson of what it means to be a human.
The story follows a young girl named Lucy that happens to be a bit different from others. She possesses telekinetic powers which allow her to create invisible “arms”. Since she is a bit different, from when she was very young she was caught and kept in a research facility. Due to that, and some memories from her past, she grew a hate for humans, therefore explaining her outburst in the beginning.
From a technical perspective, the artwork in Elfen Lied falls nothing sort of stunning. The drawings are very detail and vivid, the backgrounds are beautifully drawn and even though the soundtrack isn’t at the same level (with most tracks), it helps keep the mood straight. The focus of Elfen Lied is the story itself, not the music.
After the initial blood bath, the story takes a more familiar turn towards “shounen’ness” for a little while, and for a few episodes it even reminded me of Love Hina a bit, although it’s more serious and Ecchi than Love Hina ever was.
After the initial and typical character-introduction-episodes, with a few battles here and there, we are taken into a journey of human introspection and faced with different problems that humans have like sadism, pedophilia, violence and immaturity. And those lead me to comprehend better why Lucy, and all the other Diclonius seem violent towards humans.
After the last battle, Lucy loses the last of her horns and disappears from Kouta’s life, not only because of regret, but also because she probably realized that she could never make him happy. Even thought the story diverges from the original one (the Manga’s) from a certain point, I personally felt that the ending was very well achieved. It wasn’t exaggerated, nor cliché and it fit the story.
This is one of those Animes that make you think about it more after you finish it, and makes you want to watch it again, just to digest the story a little better, like Evangelion did (at least to me). If you want to watch a different type of Anime, and you don’t have time to watch a very long Anime, then this one is certainly one of the best choices.