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

[RJ 17]

Pretty sure that 50-something responses in, you've already been told everything you need to know. But in case you haven't....

-Yes, it does get better...funny thing about plots is that you have to give them time to develope.
-It's pretty damn brutal in just about every aspect...later on in the series you get to see the backstory for the chick that escapes from the facility in the beginning. Yeah, there's very few "holy shit wtf?!" moments in anime that are as "wtf?!" inducing as the moment when her powers manifest.
-Be forewarned: the manga version features loli-rape. Though the anime doesn't finish the whole story.

 

[manic_depressive13]

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

That wasn't the point of Nyu. Her purpose was to serve as a foil to Lucy's vengeful and violent personality. The creepy sexualisation served no purpose except fan service. You could tell from the way it was portrayed that it was meant to serve as comic relief but it just ended up being a combination of annoying and disturbing. Stop trying to banter and learn to critically analyse.

 

[Crenelate]

I watched the whole thing out of interest - didn't find it particularly compelling, mostly just gratuitous. Maybe watch a few more episodes to see if you like it more but don't feel like you're missing out.

I would say Higurashi no naku koro ni is a far better take on that kind of show. It has far more to say about love, loyalty and friendship while contrasting it with paranoia and horrific violence.

 

[Lunatic High]

Its defenitly one of the unique ones, for better or worse, has good characters Lucy has got to be one of my top 3 favorites, right behind Black Gold Saw, to answer your question it does get better.

Some of the best ones start out slow, I was in the same boat but figured fuck it since I DL'd it might as well watch it

 

[The Ubermensch]

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

That wasn't the point of Nyu. Her purpose was to serve as a foil to Lucy's vengeful and violent personality. The creepy sexualisation served no purpose except fan service. You could tell from the way it was portrayed that it was meant to serve as comic relief but it just ended up being a combination of annoying and disturbing. Stop trying to banter and learn to critically analyse.

First of all A, dude calm down. I'm an actual type one manic depressive, and right now I'm going through a manic phase. I do tend to troll a bit as right now I think I'm God, and Haruhi is a pretty big troll. You are literally walking into the troll trap and is taking all self control not to rip into you.

Secondly, some of us who are used to fan service and frankly get sick of it, kinda compartmentalise and tune it out, and frankly the whole cousin thing weirder me out more.

There were some interesting facets of the character.

Spoiler

Like the fact that she shared head space with Lucy, and as the show went on Nyu gained her own personality but waned as Lucy became more dominant. It was an incredibly sad (Like My Little Dashie sad) hook to the character

People have different context and focus on different things dude, the universe doesn't revolve around you, especially since clearly it revolves around me. :3

 

[BehattedWanderer]

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

See, I want to believe that, but Nyu's personality develops as a result of her being the fanservice character--she's literally designed to be a character so naive and uninformed that flopping her breasts out or stripping naked couldn't be a bad thing, so away she goes. Even when she does grow some real character

Spoiler: fairly important spoilers to the show inside

(as the remnant of Lucy that liked/loved Kota in her youth)

, it's contingent on Kota playing responsible to her naked-prone innocence, and him showing affection towards her in a non-sexual way (remaining true to his character, at least). She has significantly more character towards the end, before Lucy really takes over, when the fanservice and random, nonsequitur nakedness more or less cease. I like Nyu, but she would be much improved without the "she's innocent and naive, so she should get naked!" parts.

I could honestly care less about Yuki, however.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Elfen Lied has... something about it, but I wouldn't call it actually good. Honestly, the best thing about it is the opening and the music.

If you don't like emotional manipulation you should probably stop watching right now though, because Elfen Lied doesn't simply tug at your heart strings it jerks them off.

There's puppies in it, too.

Pretty much this. I don't like the anime version; it feels incomplete (and not just due to the lack of the second half of the story). also, It has shitty voice acting. The Manga version has better character development, which makes the character deaths more meaningful, which is why you'd view this in the first place.

 

[NiPah]

After hearing about it as a bit of a cult show, I decided to check out Elfin Lied. Honestly, I got a bit bored with it about 18 minutes into the first episode. It just really doesn't seem to have anything going plotwise. I mean, this girl breaks out of a place where she's apparently held prisoner, gets nearly killed, and turns up on a beach in front of a guy and his cousin, who take her in.

There just seems to be no connection to the plot points at all. I mean, she seems child-like when the two take her in, but the intro seems to show she's anything but innocent.

I suppose what I'm asking is, for anyone who has seen it, is this one of the shows that is actually really good later on, or is it just one of those shows that got popular for being "mature" and "adult"?

Edit: Also, I'm a pretty big anime fan, so nothing about the superpowers or anything like that is turning me off. I'm just finding it a bit dull and plotless.

I'm just going to point out that if you watch the first 18 minutes of most anime the plot will not make sense. If you can make sense of the plot of Higurashi, Shiki, Ga-Rei Zero, Eureka7, Akira, or even Ghost in the Shell after the first episode or 18 minutes, then you have godlike powers. Just stick with it, I won't say it's the best anime out there but there is certainly more to it then the first 18 minutes.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

I've decided to give Elfen Lied another shot. As pointed out, just because the plot isn't totally spelled out in the first 18 minutes doesn't mean that it is plotless. I'm just used to the characters being shown a bit more fast-paced, as in Trigun, Death Note, and Code Geass.

I'll watch the first three episodes before making a for-good call. For a show as short as EL, that seems fair.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

On Episode 4 now. Thank you to those who convinced me to give it a second try.

 

[manic_depressive13]

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

That wasn't the point of Nyu. Her purpose was to serve as a foil to Lucy's vengeful and violent personality. The creepy sexualisation served no purpose except fan service. You could tell from the way it was portrayed that it was meant to serve as comic relief but it just ended up being a combination of annoying and disturbing. Stop trying to banter and learn to critically analyse.

First of all A, dude calm down. I'm an actual type one manic depressive, and right now I'm going through a manic phase. I do tend to troll a bit as right now I think I'm God, and Haruhi is a pretty big troll. You are literally walking into the troll trap and is taking all self control not to rip into you.

Dude, being wrong is not in and of itself trolling. You're not trolling me, hard as you might like to believe you are. You just have no idea what you're on about and I'm coming across as angry because I'm in a terrible mood for reasons unrelated to how embarrassingly wrong you are.

 

[Flamezdudes]

Eh, I tried watching it recently but I just couldn't get into it and stopped watching after 4 episodes. The moe bullshit really annoyed me and there just wasn't anything there that interested me at all. Too many anime cliches.

The violence is just needless and over the top... and it's not me being a prude since I like gore and violence in media but it just aggravates me that there is so much of it and yet its pointless.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

I finished Episode 8. I'm done with the series. It's well made, don't get me wrong. But there is nothing to the series but traumatizing characters, violence and gore, and boobies. I need more reasons to watch a series, other than to be told "Humans suck, and even when they don't, they have to suffer because other humans suck, or because a Diclon was around."

That fucking puppy...

 

[The Ubermensch]

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

That wasn't the point of Nyu. Her purpose was to serve as a foil to Lucy's vengeful and violent personality. The creepy sexualisation served no purpose except fan service. You could tell from the way it was portrayed that it was meant to serve as comic relief but it just ended up being a combination of annoying and disturbing. Stop trying to banter and learn to critically analyse.

First of all A, dude calm down. I'm an actual type one manic depressive, and right now I'm going through a manic phase. I do tend to troll a bit as right now I think I'm God, and Haruhi is a pretty big troll. You are literally walking into the troll trap and is taking all self control not to rip into you.

Dude, being wrong is not in and of itself trolling. You're not trolling me, hard as you might like to believe you are. You just have no idea what you're on about and I'm coming across as angry because I'm in a terrible mood for reasons unrelated to how embarrassingly wrong you are.

What I'm hearing is my SUBJECTIVE interpretation based on my personal life experience and context is wrong. Where as your SUBJECTIVE interpretation based on your own PERSONAL context which NO ONE ELSE shares (they may share your interpretation, but its impossible to share some one's context... unless they are a mind reader and even then they have their own context getting in the way).

OT and some what spoilery, although I guess not, as I watched the dynamic between Nyu and Lucy, one who wants to help everyone and the other who is basically Cthuhlu is a sexy body, I found it paralleled my own internal struggle between my own niaveity and morality trying to get me to save humanity and my own despair and desire to destroy humanity because we were beyond saving. Needless to say, I watched this before I knew I was... well insane.

I went on a journey with Nyu and Lucy, the OP might go on one too. I'm not going to let you diminish my or anyone else's personal growth simply because you're a contextually intensive bastard who's in a bad mood.

OP; I'm really sorry about this

 

[Boogie Knight]

"Does Elfen Lied get better?"

NO! It gets worse. The series seems hell bent on senselessly pushing all the buttons that will make the viewer wince. And there's this "big reveal" about the past that takes forever to be revealed, when it would have been more interesting to have started off from there. It's been a long time since I saw anything so soul crushing.

 

[Waffle_Man]

I'd be hesitate to say that Elfen Lied is good. It's certainly worth watching, but more for what it tries to do than what it is. Specifically, it has some of the worst mood whiplash that I've ever seen, being thoughtful and heartfelt one moment, but juvenile and hammy the next.

Sadly however, a disproportionate number of the really good parts, as well as the conclusion to almost all of the character arcs, are in the manga, but not the anime, as it ends about halfway through the series. Thus, if you just watch the anime, you might feel like you've been left hanging.

 

[Zoe Castillo]

--

 

[Ignatz_Zwakh]

It's pretty much entertaining exploitation with an artsy bent. Well made exploitation, but exploitation nonetheless. If that ain't really your scene, you may wanna turn away.