Elfen Lied - RePost

Elfen Lied is a graphic supernatural action series that aired on TV in Japan in 2004 and is available on DVD in America.

    The story is about mutants, called 'Diclonius', who are being held by the Japanese government in hopes of using them as weapons. Due to the secret facilities harsh experiments on them, these powerful beings end up becoming sociopathic killing machines. In the facility the different subjects are kept under extreme security. One of them, Lucy, manages to escape from the compound, leaving a swath of dismemberment and destruction. As she escapes a sniper, trying to kill her, hits the protective helmet she is wearing. This causes her to fall into the ocean and loose her memory. She washes up on a beach only to be discovered by two characters, Kota and Yuka, who decide to take the childish, naked 'Nyu' (they name Lucy this because that's all she can say after she looses her memories) back to Kota's rental house.

    Kota and Yuka are childhood friends who have not seen each other since a horrific accident killed Kota's father and sister. Koto has returned to the town to attend college and Tuka hopes to ignite a relationship between them. Her plans are disrupted with the arrival of Lucy/Nyu and Kota's actions in trying to protect this lost mysterious girl. Quickly, Kota discovers that the government is looking for Nyu and does everything he can to save her from them. Lucy eventually regains her memories and turns towards a vendetta against humanity as a whole. Her motivations are linked to her childhood and dealing with people around her. The Diclonius are a mutation of humans that grow horns on their head and near invisible arms called Vectors from their body. The vectors are super fast and super strong allowing the Diclonius to kill anyone anyway they want to. As the government fights to capture or kill Lucy, her intertwined past and future with Kota begins to emerge.
 

    This series is only 13 episodes with an OAV that came as a bonus on the Japanese DVD. The OAV turns the series into a tongue in cheek harem anime. I’m not sure if the OAV was released in America or not. The series is graphically violent, with lots of severed appendages, mature themes and a fair amount of nudity. I enjoyed the story but I was really hooked on the ultra-violence. It is a fun worth picking up if you like blood and gore, just don't watch it around children…it would probably really mess them up. The artwork is decent, a little outdated for the current standards. The twists in the story are pretty predictable but the concept behind the Diclonius is interesting. It is easy to get attached to the main characters and the writers tug at the heart strings ever so often, yet at the same time you want to smack around the characters and make them come to their senses.