(L) Elfen Lied

[Kristen]

Originally Posted by Elfgirlblood

I think certain people dont seem to understand excatly the point of this anime.
The fact the a pet dog was beaten to death, with blood splattering on young kids. A girl being sexually abused by her step father that kinda portrays the strong emotions that this anime holds. I believe that the point of this anime was to tell a strong,shocking,tragic story without nudity and voilence it would not be the anime it is. Elfien lied in its full unforgiving state is perfect.

Censor it and your lower its free unrelenting power. There are many many animes that you could censor but would it really make it better? The scene in 'arc the lad' where he strangles his best friend? The scene in 'Higurashi no naku koroni' when keichi beats some girls to death? etc. Take away those scenes or reconstruct them and what would you be left with? The same anime with half the emotion gone.

I would give elfien lied 10/10 because I cannot think of anyway I could improve this. It has style,depth,shock factor,deep love,imagnative deaths and all packed with those beautiful intros/endings. I am sure the directors and the writer lynn okamoto are happy with the final results.

Watch Higurashi again. When he beats the girls to death, they only show a shadow of it. When Rika stabs herself with that knife, they mostly only show the blood spattering on Mion (Not spoiling it.)

Spoiler for Minagoroshi-hen:

Even when Takano kills all of the people in Minagoroshi, they don't explicitly show it.

But my main issue isn't the violence. I understand that to be the premise of the show.

To be honest, the rape scenes I thought were done nicely. But things didn't have to be pornographic. Like, if you want Lucy to be naked in the first 9 minutes, fine. Film it from her back instead of her front, and when filming the front, don't film anything lower than her shoulders. And don't her randomly opening the door in that bath scene to show her breasts. That was nothing but fan service, and incredibly stupid in my opinion.
This show could have EASILY done without the nudity and gotten the same point across. When I say nudity, I mean things that would change it from PG-13 to R or X. Implied nudity is fine. Explicit was not needed.

[Reno]

Meh.... I agree with Elfgirlblood completely. It was excactly what I was trying to say. But it doesn't look we'll ever convince each other. So I suggest we drop this.

[Ledgem]

I didn't really think it was there for fanservice. At some points it may have been there for shock factor, but otherwise I felt that it may have had representations. Perhaps it was there to bring the viewer to consider humaneness, and to realize that even though they're being called a separate species, they're still ultimately human.

[vorpal83]

Just watched it in 2 days, and I think that much violence shown on screen is necessary. Subtlety's good most of the time, but for a series like this, the spectator's really 'there' in the picture, and the director forces you to see everything that's going on in the scene. It forces you to see exactly what Lucy does, and strips away a lot of the sympathy you would have for a tragic 'heroine' like her, cos you can't have any illusions about the monster she is.


As for the nudity, there was just so much of it that somehow, I felt almost nothing looking at it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a healthy male and all. If anything, it gave me a warped image of purity, like it was a human being stripped of all other pretences, a twisted virgin/beast.

[innominate]

Pink haired girls with horns ripping each other's limbs (and clothes) apart...

ahem;

But I do agree, with many others, that the violence and nudity was necessary to put forth the horror element in the horrifying way.

I know how video games portray violence in the adrenaline-inducing manner, or how some shows aim to evoke sexual feelings,

but I didn't think Elfen Lied set out to do the same.

To me, it's exactly because you don't want to see it that they push it into your face all the more. Fanservice, on the other hand, as service to the fans, does the converse: giving the audience what they want to see.

so nope, won't classify the scenes as fanservice. =/ In fact, implicit nudity might be worse- the directors aren't trying to hide anything. The fact that I felt heavily qualmed by such explicit and uneasy scenes probably meant the directors succeeded in that aspect.

vorpal83 spoke my mind, really. Welcome to the forums. =)

[Whitemoon648]

Well i watched the series few years ( was it 2 to 3 years ago). At the begining i was kinda disgusted with the viloence. So i was so disgusted that i didnt even realize how good of a story it had.


Now that 2 to 3 years has passed, i watched the series few days ago. Since i already knew what was coming and knew about the violence i wasnt shocked and was able to focus on the story and it was an awesome , tragic story.


So my point is if you dont like this anime, there can be few reason:


1) You have watched the anime at an age that isnt suited for you. This is a rated R show.

2) you were shocked with violence scenes ( as i was 2 to 3 years ago), so much that you couldnt even comprehend or pay attention to epicness of the series.

3) you hate tragic animes .


So I would have raten it a 7 back then, but Now i will rate it 10 easily.


As for lucy, i doubt she died or got herself killed. She did say something about in 5 years almost every one will be like her. My guess is she is going to try to stop that. Well if i would write a fan fiction about it , that is how i would write it.

[gaguri]

That looks like fun, let me list something too.

If you happen to think the violence and nudity was used in good taste in this anime, there can only be one reason:

1. You have no taste

I guess you need to be more creative then, if you can only think of those 3 reasons. I know way too many people who didn't like Elfen Lied for numerous reasons other than the three listed above. This is just one example, which I agree almost word by word. (apologies to the reviewer for linking it without permission).

[Whitemoon648]

Originally Posted by gaguri

That looks like fun, let me list something too.

If you happen to think the violence and nudity was used in good taste in this anime, there can only be one reason:

1. You have no taste

I guess you need to be more creative then, if you can only think of those 3 reasons. I know way too many people who didn't like Elfen Lied for numerous reasons other than the three listed above. This is just one example, which I agree almost word by word. (apologies to the reviewer for linking it without permission).

no i am not talking about having a taste for nudity and viloence ( which i dont). But because Elfen lied was made the way it was, it brought up its fullest potential as being tragic and sad.

Think about it this way. Which story will have more effect on you?
1) main character goes through 1 or 2 problems ( not that harsh eaither) in the story. And then at the end, main character achives happiness
2) main characters goes through many ( Lets say 5 to 6) problems during the story and all of them are heart breaking problems/harsh problems. and then at the end , main character achieves happiness.

Most people would agree the 2nd selection would have more effect on them.


Elfen lied follows the same concept . Although i Absolutely dont agree with violence ( the way it was) being the only factor in making Elfen lied as good as it is, i think that was one of the factors.

There were many things that made Elfen lied so great. And to say only violence and nudity made Elfen lied this great doesnt serve it justice.

[Reno]

Originally Posted by vorpal83

As for the nudity, there was just so much of it that somehow, I felt almost nothing looking at it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a healthy male and all. If anything, it gave me a warped image of purity, like it was a human being stripped of all other pretences, a twisted virgin/beast.

Yeah same here! It just seems so normal now.

Originally Posted by Whitemoon648

Well i watched the series few years ( was it 2 to 3 years ago). At the begining i was kinda disgusted with the viloence. So i was so disgusted that i didnt even realize how good of a story it had.


Now that 2 to 3 years has passed, i watched the series few days ago. Since i already knew what was coming and knew about the violence i wasnt shocked and was able to focus on the story and it was an awesome , tragic story.


So my point is if you dont like this anime, there can be few reason:


1) You have watched the anime at an age that isnt suited for you. This is a rated R show.

2) you were shocked with violence scenes ( as i was 2 to 3 years ago), so much that you couldnt even comprehend or pay attention to epicness of the series.

3) you hate tragic animes .


So I would have raten it a 7 back then, but Now i will rate it 10 easily.


As for lucy, i doubt she died or got herself killed. She did say something about in 5 years almost every one will be like her. My guess is she is going to try to stop that. Well if i would write a fan fiction about it , that is how i would write it.

How old WERE you when you first watched it? Cos I'm quite surprised. I mean I was 14 or 15 when I first saw it and, to be honest, I don't see HOW you can watch it without the story slapping you in the face.

[gaguri]

Originally Posted by Whitemoon648

no i am not talking about having a taste for nudity and viloence ( which i dont). But because Elfen lied was made the way it was, it brought up its fullest potential as being tragic and sad.

Think about it this way. Which story will have more effect on you?
1) main character goes through 1 or 2 problems ( not that harsh eaither) in the story. And then at the end, main character achives happiness
2) main characters goes through many ( Lets say 5 to 6) problems during the story and all of them are heart breaking problems/harsh problems. and then at the end , main character achieves happiness.

Most people would agree the 2nd selection would have more effect on them.

Actually I would strongly argue for 1). Looking back at all the memorable characters I can think of, they all had one major issue they had to deal with, and seeing them striving to deal with that issue was why they were so memorable. Sure, you can have several different issues going on at the same time, but a good development always have one major issue, where the rest of minor issues fall under that one big umbrella. It's hard enough trying to have an impact with just one issue, almost always the shows fail trying to do too much.

You can't just have a good drama by ramming everything you can think of because that's just stupid.

Elfen lied follows the same concept . Although i Absolutely dont agree with violence ( the way it was) being the only factor in making Elfen lied as good as it is, i think that was one of the factors.

There were many things that made Elfen lied so great. And to say only violence and nudity made Elfen lied this great doesnt serve it justice.

I don't know what you're trying to say here. Firstly, as far as I could see, Lucy had one major issue; conflict between his desire to kill every men based on their harsh treatment towards her, and his love for Kouta. All the little details concerning her killing people, crying, kissing Kouta, etc. fall under that category.

Secondly, I never attacked violence and nudity for being there, just its presentation, which I've gone into way too much details to repeat myself.

[changeup]

Seriously, whoever showed you this anime a few years back is a criminal!!!

Not sure even now it's a good idea for you to watch it...

Originally Posted by Reno

Yeah same here! It just seems so normal now.



How old WERE you when you first watched it? Cos I'm quite surprised. I mean I was 14 or 15 when I first saw it and, to be honest, I don't see HOW you can watch it without the story slapping you in the face.

[Reno]

Heyy that's my brother you're talking about there. And, yeah, maybe you're right... I was too young to cope with it. Maybe I am now.... it's only about a year and a half later- wait, are you talking to me or Whitemoon?

[CrazySunshine]

First time I saw the anime I was like "Holy shit, that's awsome!"

Now I watch it, and when the blood spills I'm almost like "meh, it could have been more gruesome... somehow..." which is wierd because I rarly rarely even watch gruesome things. Conditions for things like that is what creeps you out, just pure killing is quite easy to handle, IMO.

Nudity, it was realistic people. This is not a PG13 anime, it is an R. There is no point to give test subjects clothes when they are just going to be torn apart anyway. And Kouta and his cuz just have raging hormones, haha, but no seriously...

The manga's art is a bit different, and it's not as great but it continues, and is quite interesting. Also somewht more gruesome, though less detailed in the blood and all.

By the way, am the only one who thinks the blood often looks too red, and unfitting.

But still this is in my top 10 anime list easily.

[Arthas1011]

I concur with CrazySunchine... but I like it because there is so much blood and it is close to hentai

[Reno]

Originally Posted by CrazySunshine

There is no point to give test subjects clothes when they are just going to be torn apart anyway.

Yeah.... it explains why in episode 10. It's so they can see what powers the diclonius have as their body matures.

And there's also the fact it's impossible to make them wear clothes anyway.

[SubliminalCorruption]

I'm a recent fan of Anime, and was recently introduced to Elfen Lied, probably the beginning of this month, and i got hooked immediately. The first Anime series i saw and fell in love with was Dragonball Z, followed by Yu Yu Hakusho, and now Elfen Lied.

It's immediately interesting, and by the third episode i was hooked. The final two-three episodes are pretty much tear jerking. I had no idea the story behind the series was that deep.

[Fate lover]

I must say that Elfen Lied can be said one of the best anime I've ever seen besides Fate/stay night. Maybe my all time top-3 anime....hehe. The last few episodes are heart breaking and I can't bear to watch Lucy depart with Kouta. I surely hope that there will be a second season and a happy ending to the anime since the first season of Elfen Lied was published before the manga was drawn finished. Two thumbs up to the creator of Elfen Lied.

P/S I hope that Lucy and Kouta will marry in the end.><

[SubliminalCorruption]

Originally Posted by Fate lover

I must say that Elfen Lied can be said one of the best anime I've ever seen besides Fate/stay night. Maybe my all time top-3 anime....hehe. The last few episodes are heart breaking and I can't bear to watch Lucy depart with Kouta. I surely hope that there will be a second season and a happy ending to the anime since the first season of Elfen Lied was published before the manga was drawn finished. Two thumbs up to the creator of Elfen Lied.

P/S I hope that Lucy and Kouta will marry in the end.><

I'll have to agree with some of what you said. When Lucy turned into Nyu she was the sweetest thing you just grow attatched which makes the end of the series even harder to watch.

The voice acting is phenomenal as well.

I agree thoroughly i truly hope there's a Season 2 of Elfen Lied

[Fate lover]

Originally Posted by SubliminalCorruption

I'll have to agree with some of what you said. When Lucy turned into Nyu she was the sweetest thing you just grow attatched which makes the end of the series even harder to watch.

The voice acting is phenomenal as well.

I agree thoroughly i truly hope there's a Season 2 of Elfen Lied

Yes indeed, I just watch Elfen Lied for the 10th time and I am always wondering is it Lucy that show up at the door of the inn at the final episode....No matter how many times I watch it, tears always flows down my cheeks...*sob**sob*. Man, I sure hope season 2 will come out soon. I want to search the site of the company that made Elfen Lied and send them my regards and request.

[bongky]

Elfen Lied is by far the most exciting and most touching anime I have ever seen. The story line was excellent and I was hooked the second I lay my eyes on it. The scene was bloody good and the end of the episode was the most touching. Finally I was able to see Lucy and Kouta talking face to face and the reason why Lucy was able to endure the hardship at the institution. The whole series was extremely heart catching. By the end of the anime, there was a person standing outside of Kouta house and I bet that was Lucy...hehe^^ Elfen Lied without a doubt is much better than the childish Naruto.

I do hope that there would be a continuation of the anime or a season 2....It's just too nice to watch...Damn it^^