Does Elfin Lied get better? *no spoilers, please*

[mooncalf]

There are people who enjoy it, I did not. For me the flaws (which have been discussed here) are overriding and I think there's a lot of better shows you could be spending your time watching.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

The only animes I like are action power shit like DBZ and Gurren Lagan.. I guess I should avoid this then

 

[manic_depressive13]

Elfen Lied pissed me off so fucking much because they took what could have been a great show and shafted it with really shitty and disturbing fan service. Why couldn't they make Lucy's split personality child-like and innocent without making her full fucking retard? Sure, it ends up exploring some pretty dark themes and does it reasonably well, but fucking hell, I could never get past the sexualisation of someone who was depicted as having the mental age of a one year old.

 

[The Ubermensch]

In a word, yes.

Yes it does.

Elfen Lied is one of the few animes I did not wait for a box set for.

Seconded,and stole the words from my mouth before I thought to think them together. Lucy is one the greatest characters that have ever been, near impossibly heart-wrenching, tragic and hopeful at the same time. Ignore the cousin and Nyu, though, they're just nuisances that take away from the emotional and psychological depth of the interaction between two characters--namely, Kota and Lucy.

But yes, it does get better. So much better. Yes, it would have been even better without the needless violence, the ridiculous pseudo-porn and the characters related to it, but beyond that the show is amazing.

thrided.

The first few episodes are terribly paced, but once you get past that I was on the edge of my seat going "Fuck Yeah Lucy, Fuck that mother fucker up".

I don't yell at my anime often.

But as to Nyu detracting from the emotional impact...

Spoiler

which I suppose is kind of true if you consider her supplemental to Lucy. I considered her another entity sharing the same head space as Lucy, and as the story progressed you see Nyu gain her own personality (I think of her akin to Yuki Nagato's emotional development only 3 times as fast and with different traits) but she also diminished as Lucy became more dominant.

I found it incredibly sad to think that this pure spirit was going to get swallowed up by Lucy, and thus made me really pissed off at the organisation

...In short, if you think of Nyu the right way she is quite an interesting and emotionally driven character, but I guess she's not for everyone.

But the thing with the cousin... I never ended up checking it out, and I'm inclined not to think that its true as I pass the Otakus test and I've never heard of it but... Is that cool in Japan? 'Cause um, yeah... that was... weird

and... Cosplay, DUDE SERIOUSLY ELFEN LIED COSPLAY. hell yes

 

[3quency]

There's puppies in it, too.

You monster.

Yeah, I thought it got better.

 

[The Ubermensch]

Elfen Lied pissed me off so fucking much because they took what could have been a great show and shafted it with really shitty and disturbing fan service. Why couldn't they make Lucy's split personality child-like and innocent without making her full fucking retard? Sure, it ends up exploring some pretty dark themes and does it reasonably well, but fucking hell, I could never get past the sexualisation of someone who was depicted as having the mental age of a one year old.

There's puppies in it, too.

That's cold man. Why you gotta bring up the puppies xD.

Oh come on, "that" scene is so overly evil it just becomes ridiculous.

"Oh look, it's still alive. Muhahahaha!"

Not that the show didn't have an impact on me, but it is basically emotional porn.

((and any one else who called it porn))

Us all here... we're all familiar with the anime genera right?

We're gonna call this porn are we?

Ok, well if you ever want to re-evaluate that I have some links...

On a scale of one to ten, with eight being what we've seen enough of to know what eight is, and ten being the shit on /b/ that you hope to never see, Elfen Lied is a 1.1 at the most.

Not saying that Nyu's sexualisation didn't put me off a bit, but just, you know, contextually sensitive guys

 

[Matt King]

i was the same as you when i first watched it, i watched the first episode disliked it and gave up but i cam back and watched it a while later and it does get amazing

 

[Ragsnstitches]

I just thought it was gratuitous violence against under aged girls.

Honestly, the plot is mostly forgettable, what being the only striking imagery is young looking people being eviscerated. There ARE some memorable moments, but it falls into a well of anime tropes that just hinder it.

I mean, at one point it essentially becomes a Harem. It tries it hand at levity which falls flat on its face.

You know, come to think of it, I can't remember why anything happened at all in that series...

EDIT: People will likely think I'm being overtly harsh. I watched it to the end (though morbid curiosity was the biggest drive). But if you don't like how its shaping up now, it doesn't really get beyond that... it just gets more convoluted.

 

[somonels]

]I'm not a fan of Elfen Lied. I use to love it when I first saw it a few years ago, but as time went by it seems really dated and flawed to me. It's trying to tell a dark, adult, and mature storyline, but it's more childish if anything. The violence is so cartoonish and mindless that it takes all the seriousness out of it and cease to be disturbing. If anything it's on the same level as Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan. Not to mention you have some bullshit ecchi/ harem moments that really grates on me, like the wimpy male lead somehow living in a house filled with women, or when he gets caught in an embarrassing position with another girl, etc. which seems very out of place in a show that's as supposedly "dark" as this. Other than that, the animation is terrible, there's a number of useless characters, some dialogue is a bit awkward, voice work in both English and Japanese isn't very good, and the writing gets pretty bad, too. Also, the ending to me just seems like blatant fanservice, and in context, makes no sense...

Spoiler

"Lucy, you killed my sister and father in cold blood right in front of me, and traumatized me for the rest of my life... I LOVE YOU!"
*smooch*

The manga is better, but it still has it flaws.

To me, it just seems like a really childish anime, instead of a show for "adults." But then again I don't hate the show, I just don't see it as an anime classic.

Give this man a medal for his name and cookie for the post.'
I saw the anime early on and while I do remember it a little i didn't think the extremes it showed made it a noteworthy anime.

 

[manic_depressive13]

Elfen Lied pissed me off so fucking much because they took what could have been a great show and shafted it with really shitty and disturbing fan service. Why couldn't they make Lucy's split personality child-like and innocent without making her full fucking retard? Sure, it ends up exploring some pretty dark themes and does it reasonably well, but fucking hell, I could never get past the sexualisation of someone who was depicted as having the mental age of a one year old.

((and any one else who called it porn))

Us all here... we're all familiar with the anime genera right?

We're gonna call this porn are we?

Ok, well if you ever want to re-evaluate that I have some links...

On a scale of one to ten, with eight being what we've seen enough of to know what eight is, and ten being the shit on /b/ that you hope to never see, Elfen Lied is a 1.1 at the most.

Not saying that Nyu's sexualisation didn't put me off a bit, but just, you know, contextually sensitive guys

What? I explain that my issue with Elfen Lied was the gratuitous sexualisation and objectification of a mentally handicapped individual, and you manage to interpret that as "I don't like it because it's pornographic"? What? I never even called it porn. I just said that there was inappropriate sexualisation. Something doesn't need to be full cock-in-face action to be fucking disturbing.

 

[Scorched_Cascade]

Personally I love the show. It's a show of juxtaposition and contrast. The hyper cuteness is juxtaposed with the dark themes to make both seem more extreme.

It'll bounce from "D'aww" to "omfg, brutal!" in order to heighten the feeling of both.

It's a show entirely about nature versus nurture. Lucy is a merciless killer, most Diclonii are but the issue is more complex than that. I'll try not to spoil things but for starters there's how the human race treats them (lucy's backstory and prequel OVA paticularly), then there's the fact that due to this treatment they develop sociopathic complexes. One of the Diclonii (Lucy?) says she's never killed any "people". She's killed hundreds of humans but does not consider them people becuase people wouldn't treat others the way they do. Then there's the fact that Diclonii are an entirely different species so out competing the other species is kind of their job.

Spoiler: spoilers on nature versus nurture for the series

The Lucy personality is heavily influenced by that voice in her head (dubbed "eve") visible when she's a child who tells her that she was born to kill humans. Then there's how the children treat her.

But then there's Nana who has been treated like shit since she was born and if it was in their nature should be a killer and yet she's not.

I could have done without the nudity but I'm sure there was a deeper theme there that I'm missing....I think

Also whoever mentioned puppies is a monster. XD

 

[Casual Shinji]

There's puppies in it, too.

That's cold man. Why you gotta bring up the puppies xD.

Oh come on, "that" scene is so overly evil it just becomes ridiculous.

"Oh look, it's still alive. Muhahahaha!"

Not that the show didn't have an impact on me, but it is basically emotional porn.

((and any one else who called it porn))

Us all here... we're all familiar with the anime genera right?

We're gonna call this porn are we?

Ok, well if you ever want to re-evaluate that I have some links...

On a scale of one to ten, with eight being what we've seen enough of to know what eight is, and ten being the shit on /b/ that you hope to never see, Elfen Lied is a 1.1 at the most.

Not saying that Nyu's sexualisation didn't put me off a bit, but just, you know, contextually sensitive guys

I think you're misunderstanding me.

I had no problem with the nudity whatsoever. What I meant when I said emotional porn is that it has this mentality of "Awww, look how sad this is! Look, look, see? Oh it's so sad, so devastatingly sad!!!"

In the same way that the Transformers movies are car and military porn, Elfen Lied is emotional porn. It's very effective, but beyond that there isn't much else.

 

[The Ubermensch]

What? I explain that my issue with Elfen Lied was the gratuitous sexualisation and objectification of a mentally handicapped individual, and you manage to interpret that as "I don't like it because it's pornographic"? What? I never even called it porn. I just said that there was inappropriate sexualisation. Something doesn't need to be full cock-in-face action to be fucking disturbing.

Manic_depressive13... I wonder how manic you get *Insane maniacal twitch*

I think Nyu was supposed to make you feel fucking disturbed... I mean I'm not the only one who wants to be disturbed to my very core right?

She developed and did become an interesting character, to say more would spoil

I think you're misunderstanding me.

I had no problem with the nudity whatsoever. What I meant when I said emotional porn is that it has this mentality of "Awww, look how sad this is! Look, look, see? Oh it's so sad, so devastatingly sad!!!"

In the same way that the Transformers movies are car and military porn, Elfen Lied is emotional porn. It's very effective, but beyond that there isn't much else.

How CAN I understand you? I am only able to comprehend one consciousness!!!

Maniacal trolling aside, yes, I see your point. I think its a bit hyperbolic but I see your point.

 

[Lev The Red]

yes, but only once you get about half-way through.

in my opinion, the whole series is longer than it should have been. that's not to say it isn't good; it is. it is one of my favorite animes and has a pretty great ending.

my advice would be to just power through it. it's longer than it should be, but it isn't too long and the ending is worth it.

 

[TwiZtah]

Uhh... it has its moments I guess. That "I've fought entire armies just to apologise to you" scene still sticks in my memory.

However, it also has this decidedly creepy obsession with tearing the clothes off pre-pubesent girls.

Think you just spoiled abit, and really, is Lucy pre-pubescent? Do you know what that word means?

Anyway, OT: yes, yes it does big time.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Uhh... it has its moments I guess. That "I've fought entire armies just to apologise to you" scene still sticks in my memory.

However, it also has this decidedly creepy obsession with tearing the clothes off pre-pubesent girls.

Think you just spoiled abit, and really, is Lucy pre-pubescent? Do you know what that word means?

Anyway, OT: yes, yes it does big time.

Mentally, Nyu is. I think that's what drives me so nuts. It's not just that she's child-like and innocent in her split personality. That would be a bit more understandable. But they went from emotionless killer to "mentally two years old". The gap there is just too large for me, I guess.

 

[rvbnut]

It does, but it doesn't leave you with a better feeling about the whole series.

 

[Zhukov]

Uhh... it has its moments I guess. That "I've fought entire armies just to apologise to you" scene still sticks in my memory.

However, it also has this decidedly creepy obsession with tearing the clothes off pre-pubesent girls.

Think you just spoiled abit, and really, is Lucy pre-pubescent? Do you know what that word means?

Anyway, OT: yes, yes it does big time.

Not Lucy, the other one. The younger one that was sent to bring her back. I don't remember her name.

Damn near every fight she was in, and she was in quite a few, involved her clothes being torn off. The first time I just shrugged 'cause hey, it could happen. By the fourth such incident my supply of shrugs was running low.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

There's puppies in it, too.

You fucking monster

Spoiler

I had forgotten all about that scene.

Yes, it gets better, trust me. The beginning is kind of disconnected from the plot of the rest of the story. The entire escape could have taken five minutes, but they had to use most of an episode for it - see that moment where Lucy kills the guard and walks for around a full minute and nothing happens.