Thread: Elfen Lied

For those who don’t know about this anime, it’s a great horror/romance anime that still gives me the creeps watching it over again and again. The story is very morbid and depressing; it can represent the cruel nature of the world. The theme has a lot to do with going beyond how we consider the consequences of using people towards our own selfish goals. Alienation from the society and love against the odds of fate are incorporated with encompassing these aspects in the story.

The story is mainly about the existence of Diclonius, which are a special breed of human which have multiple other than the main two. The only difference is that they are unseen by the naked eyes, which of course. They also are distinguished by the horns protruding from their head. For me, they kind of look like tiny cat ears.

It begins with the setting of a prisoner being held in an isolated facility who we later find out is a Diclonius named Lucy. She successfully escapes the island only to find herself suffering from a split personality disorder after luckily surviving a gun shot to the head. However, while she is still unconscious, she awakes only to find herself on the shores of a beach. At the same moment, the characters, Kouta and Yuka are within the same vicinity. The two characters meet her only to realize she can only say “nyu,” which then at the point decide to name her. After taking Nyu into their residence, weird things begin to arise.

Overall, through the progression of the story, it does becoming very touching and almost dramatic at some moments. The anime provides gore, nudity, and questions the value of human life. I would recommend this to anyone that appreciates anime that consists of romance and doesn't get squeamish in seeing blood.