Elfen Lied (????????, Erufen Rito?

) is a Japanese manga series written and

illustrated by Lynn Okamoto. A thirteen-episode anime television series adaptation
was produced by the studio ARMS and broadcast on TV Tokyo from July to October
2004. The anime was later licensed in North America on DVD by ADV Films.[2] The
anime began airing before the manga was complete; as a result, the plot differed
between the two, especially the ending. The title is German for "Elf Song" and
takes its name from the poem "Elfenlied".[clarification needed]

Elfen Lied revolves around the interactions, views, emotions, and differences
between human beings and the Diclonii, a mutant species similar to humans in build
but distinguishable by two horns on their heads and "vectors," transparent
telekinetically controlled arms that have the power to manipulate and cut objects
within their reach. The series is centered on the teenage Diclonius girl "Lucy" who
was rejected by human beings and subsequently wants revenge.

Elfen Lied involves themes of social alienation, identity, prejudice, revenge,

abuse, jealousy, regret and the value of humanity.[3] The series employs graphic
violence. So far, only the thirteen-episode anime series has been licensed in the
US, by ADV Films and in Australia, by Madman Entertainment. ADV Films said the
series was one of their bestselling and "most notorious" releases of 2005.[4][5]

Contents [hide]
1 Plot
2 Characters
2.1 Diclonius
3 Production
3.1 Style and themes
3.2 Cultural references
4 Media
4.1 Manga
4.2 Anime
4.3 Differences between media
5 Reception
6 References
7 External links

[edit] PlotElfen Lied takes place in Kamakura, Japan, focusing on a new strain of
the human race - Diclonius, similar to human beings but different at the genetic
level and notable due to physical abnormalities, particularly a pair of short horn-
like protrusions. One such Diclonius, Lucy, is the main character of the series:
Initially held in a facility built for experimentation, located off the coast of
Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, she manages to escape and wreak havoc, but is
injured in the process, an event which causes her to develop a secondary, child-
like personality known as Nyu.

Lucy is found by two locals, Kohta, who studies at the local university, and his
cousin Yuka. They take her in, and become involved with the numerous, often brutal,
attempts to recapture her by a Special Assault Team and a number of other
Diclonius, who shift from oblivious to murderous frequently. Other characters
include Bando, an SAT trooper mauled by Lucy and infected with a virus, and Kurama,
a carrier of the virus.

While the animated series ends with Lucy confronting a large team of SAT members,
after which she disappears, the manga continues by showing the mad plans of
Kakuzawa, leader of Diclonii research, and his ultimate failure. The world itself
is endangered.

[edit] CharactersMain article: List of Elfen Lied characters

Lucy (???? , Rushi?) is a Diclonius girl around eighteen. Lucy has developed strong
emotions of hatred and vengeance towards human beings mainly because of how she was
treated by the majority of them as a child; they made fun of her horns and gave her
insulting nicknames such as "Freak." As a child, she bonded with a dog which was
killed right in front of her by classmates, which triggered her first killing. She
seems to lack empathy, kills without much concern, and acts somewhat sadistically,
often torturing victims before killing (such as Bandou and Nana, although she did
not actually kill them); however, towards the end of the series, she begins to show
remorse for her actions, especially towards Kohta, whose father and sister she
killed. She is aware of her "Nyu" state as revealed in the manga by her worries
just before she reverts. Lucy is not her real name; it is revealed in the manga
that her real name is Kaede. Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi (Japanese), Kira Vincent-
Davis (English)
Nyu (???, Nyu?) is Lucy's split personality that developed after a .50 BMG round
ricocheted off the metallic helmet encasing her head.[6] Nyu has a childlike
personality and infantile knowledge of the world, forgetting even that she is a
Diclonius and how to use or manifest her vectors, leaving her the equivalent to a
human being with horns. She initially lacks language skills; however, she
eventually learns a handful of words and phrases until (in the manga) she can
finally speak properly despite the fact she still uses the nonsensical phrase nyu
as her catchphrase. Nyu is innocent and incapable of violent acts, a foil to the
normally cold and sadistic Lucy; she is the manifestation of her "good side."
Whenever Nyu hits her head or is confronted with violence, she reverts to her
sadistic side, Lucy, although is unaware of her actions while in her "Lucy" state.
Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi (Japanese), Kira Vincent-Davis (English)
Kohta (???, Kota?) is around nineteen and enters the story when his cousin's family
allows him to move in to their closed-down restaurant in exchange for maintaining
it while he goes to a local university. Kohta has repressed traumatic memories of
his father's and sister's deaths during his childhood. Because of his repressing
his memories, Kohta does not remember Lucy from when he met her earlier as a child,
nor does he remember the child Yuka (which causes problems for him and Yuka due to
Yuka's feelings for him; she is hurt at being forgotten). Due in part to his loss,
he has a soft spot for girls in trouble and is extremely generous and protective of
the girls around him. He constantly has flash backs, like many other characters,
that do not make any sense to us. He is more forgiving in the anime, but when he
gets his memories back in the manga, he is unforgiving towards Lucy for killing his
father and sister. Even so, he also remembers the happy memories that he shared
with Lucy and loves her despite the horrible things she's done. Voiced by: Chihiro
Suzuki (Japanese), Adam Conlon (English)
Yuka (???) is Kohta's cousin. She is around nineteen and last saw Kohta when they
were ten, during the summer when Kohta's family visited (just before Kohta's father
and sister were murdered). When Kohta moves to Kamakura to attend the same
university as her, she moves in with him at the Kaeda House Inn. She has had a
crush on Kohta since childhood, and secretly hopes that they will finally be
together. She is uncomfortable with Nyu's attachment to him, and often feels anger
at Kohta for not understanding her feelings toward him. Voiced by: Mamiko Noto
(Japanese), Nancy Novotny (English)
[edit] Diclonius This section may contain original research. Please improve it by
verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of
original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page.
(April 2009)

Much of the plot of Elfen Lied revolves around the Diclonii species, as explained
in the original manga,[citation needed] are an evolutionary development from
humans. Their bodies are very similar, the only obvious difference being the two
horn-like protrusions extending from the temporal and parietal regions of the
skull, which are said to relate to their telekinetic powers. In the manga, it is
mentioned that a Diclonius would fall into a coma if it lost one of its horns and
could never return from their lethargic state if they lose both horns. However,
Lucy manages to recover from this twice. In the anime, Lucy goes into shock from
losing one of her horns, and was temporarily rendered catatonic for a very brief
period before recovering in time to save Nana.

Diclonii powers involve the use of invisible arms, known as "vectors" that can
grasp and impact things as if they are solid, but also become insubstantial and
pass through objects. They can slice objects as well, which is how Diclonii kill
their victims. Vectors usually have a limited range of a few meters, but the length
varies among Diclonii; Lucy's vectors are able to extend to two meters; Nana's can
reach five meters, and Mariko's are the longest, with a range of eleven meters.
Diclonii also have the ability to detect the location of others of their kind, such
as when Kurama releases Nana from the laboratory to search for and retrieve Lucy.
However, when Lucy reverts to her "Nyu" state, Nana is unable to sense her; in the
manga, Nana is also unable to sense Mariko when she is injured and reverts to a
personality similar to Nyu.

A key point of debate throughout the series is the Diclonii propensity towards
violence. Many have a vendetta against humans, and have ambitions to wipe out the
human race and populate the world with their own species. If a Diclonius vector
penetrates a human body, the "vector virus" is transferred to the human, causing
their children to be born as Diclonius. An incident involving the escape of a child
Diclonius during Kurama's early years where the Diclonius' vectors penetrated him
resulted in Mariko being born a Diclonius, and Kurama takes precautions against a
recurrence by attempting to sterilize Bando.[7]

According to the manga, all Diclonius ("Silpelits") born from human parents are
sterile and female (there were a few in the anime that were male), resulting in a
structure resembling a beehive. There is only one Diclonius that is actually
capable of reproducing: Lucy, the "queen".

It is disputed and contradicted during the series as to how Diclonius develop their
violent behavior, whether it is part of their personality or whether it stems from
abuse by human beings, and both conclusions are supported by evidence. Kurama
explains to Bandou that Diclonius are born with the intention of populating the
world, and it is implied that Lucy is directed by her Diclonius instincts when she
kills human beings as a child.[citation needed] In the anime's final episode Lucy
tells Kohta that "I was born to destroy humans." However, it is also shown that the
Diclonius have usually been subjected to some type of severe psychological trauma;
for example, Lucy was tormented by her human peers and witnessed the killing of her
pet as a child, while Mariko was raised in neglect since her birth. They could
therefore have developed their homicidal tendencies from abuse. Further supporting
this view is the evidence of Nana's character. Unlike other Diclonius, Nana is
good-natured and refuses to kill humans in order to please Kurama. Kurama implies
Nana's nature is a direct result of his caring for her and treating her as a
daughter while she endured horrific experiments at the Diclonius research facility.

Nevertheless, the researchers at the facility believe the Diclonius to be nothing

less than an existential threat. The Diclonius there are kept in isolation, where
they are heavily restrained to the point of being unable to move and fed through
tubes. Lucy mentions the danger to the human race to Kohta in the final episode of
the anime: "Given just five years, I can ensure that there are more babies of our
kind born in the world than there are normal humans."

[edit] ProductionWhen work began on adapting Elfen Lied into an anime series,
director Mamoru Kanbe was recommended to work on the series by the series composer,
Takao Yoshioka. Yoshioka believed that Kanbe's general moe[clarification needed]
drawing style and composition would be ideal to adapt the manga, still in
publication at the time, into an anime series. Kanbe himself, originally reluctant
about joining the production, gained interest in it upon reading the manga.
Despite the manga having 107 chapters, Kanbe and the production team were forced to
condense the plot of the series into thirteen episodes, even though they felt it
was necessary to make more as several significant plot details in the manga which
Kanbe felt he could have used to make the series more emotive were left out.[8]

Kanbe originally thought that Elfen Lied "was a love story, and I could make it so
that it would bring viewers to tears."[8] Thus, he made attempts throughout the
series to provide a contrast of emotions, commenting that he could make the
violence exemplify this throughout the series. The production team were originally
surprised by Okamoto's choice of Kamakura as a setting for the series; however,
after several visits to the area, Kanbe commented that the setting in Kamakura was,
according to the production team, ideal for the poignant and reflective drama in
the series to unfold, as its general tranquility and geography made for a
reflective and yet eerie, deep-meaning backdrop to the series.[9] This can be seen
in several examples, such as on top of a set of steps overlooking the coastline,
where many of the interactions between characters take place. This is used as an
important device in conveying the ideas of memory and emotional association, such
as the contrast between Kohta and Lucy's conversation when they were ten years old
in comparison with their conversation in the final episode.

[edit] Style and themes

A segment from the first episode of the anime, which is notorious for featuring
nudity and strong graphic violence for the major duration of its run. Here, Lucy is
using the beheaded body of a secretary as a shield.In comments made by director
Mamoru Kanbe on the Elfen Lied website, he stated that he intended for the anime to
question and discuss values relating to the way in which humans divide each other
by difference, as well as the belief that atrocities such as those committed by
Lucy in the series are strongly influenced by the way in which people are treated
by their fellow beings. The series frequently discusses the events and treatment
which define the human character in such a way, and the problems which arise from
discrimination, as well as the wild contrasts between compassion and vengeance
between fellow humans, through the strong vengeance of Lucy compared with her past
memory of Kohta. Many of the themes are mentioned at the teasers at the ends of
episodes.

Themes such as genocide and the attempts to "purify" the earth from each other also
appear in the anime. Both Diclonius and the human species feel the need to populate
the earth with their own and wipe the other out. Kanbe quoted this in relation to
the desire of humans to cast each other out and segregate one another.[3]

Throughout the series, there is a great deal of blood and gore, graphic violence as
well as psychological violence. One of the most prevalent motifs of the series is
the humanity of the Diclonius, especially contrasted against the inhumanity of
ordinary people. One reviewer described the series as "devoted to quite a few of
the darker, more callous factors of human nature."[10] Throughout the series there
are various incidences of casual beatings, cruel experimentation, and outright
killing. Also, animal cruelty is present when two young boys mercilessly beat a
puppy until it dies; though the act is off-screen, a copious amount of blood is
shown.

The introduction scenes of Elfen Lied are a reference to Gustav Klimt's artwork
such as The Kiss.A majority of the episodes contain graphic amounts of violence,
including instances of torture, and at one point the series addresses consequences
of the rape of a child. The series also includes scenes that present female nudity
and strong language. The series juxtaposes many different tones and genres and was
described by Anime News Network as "mixing insane amounts of violence with a heavy
dose of 'ultra-cuteness.'"[11] The series balances its darker themes with romantic
sub-plots as well as many comic moments. Elfen Lied has been described as similar
to, or borrowing elements from Chobits, 3x3 Eyes[12] and Gunslinger Girl.[11]

[edit] Cultural referencesThe opening and ending sequences feature artistic

drawings of the principal characters. These characters are drawn in a style based
on Gustav Klimt's paintings, including The Kiss, Adele Bloch-Bauer I, and others
with similar imitating poses, colors, and patterns.[12] The song Elfenlied ("Elf
Song") appears in the manga[13] and is credited to the composer Hugo Wolf. A poem
by Eduard M�rike is the basis for Wolf's version. The song appears in the manga. It
is taught to Nyu by the manga-only protagonist Nozomi.

[edit] Media[edit] MangaMain article: List of Elfen Lied chapters

Written by Lynn Okamoto, Elfen Lied premiered in Japan in Weekly Young Jump
magazine in June 2002. New chapters continued to appear in the magazine until
August 2005, when the final chapter was published. The series's 107 chapters were
also published in twelve collected volumes by Shueisha from October 2002 through
November 2005.

[edit] AnimeMain article: List of Elfen Lied episodes

A 13-episode anime television series was directed by Mamoru Kanbe, animated by ARMS
and produced by GENCO and VAP. The series' author, Lynn Okamoto, has a brief cameo
appearance as a guest in episode 12. Elfen Lied first aired on TV Tokyo's AT-X
satellite channel from July 25 to October 17, 2004 and was broadcast again in 2005.
A single twenty-four minute original video animation (OVA) episode was released by
VAP on April 21, 2005. It takes place somewhere within the timespan of episode
eleven of the original TV series. The anime's opening theme song is "Lilium" by
Noma Kumiko and is sung in Latin. The ending theme song is "Be Your Girl" by Chieko
Kawabe.

The anime was licensed by ADV Films in the US in 2004 and was released on DVD in
2005. During the Anime Boston 2006[14] (May 26�28) convention, ADV Films acquired
the distribution rights of the OVA for release in the United States. However, the
OVA was never released on television and was not included with the box set released
by ADV Films in November 2006 or in the "Complete Collection" DVD released in June
2009. As of September 1, 2009, all of ADV Films' former catalog was transferred to
AEsir Holdings, with distribution from Section23 Films[who?] .[15]

The series was aired in the United Kingdom on Propeller TV (Sky Digital) as part of
Anime Network's short-lived launch in the United Kingdom. The series was aired
uncut. While it has yet to appear on television in the United States, other than on
Anime Network's "On Demand" channel, the DVD box set released by ADV Films confirms
that the series has a rating of TV-MAVSL[clarification needed] ; the Canadian
rating is 18A. In a posting on the official Adult Swim message board in April 2006,
Adult Swim programming director Kim Manning revealed that despite the series' high
level of controversial content, Adult Swim actually inquired into possibly airing
the series, as Manning was an avid fan herself and watched the entire series in one
sitting. However, the censorship board revealed that the series would have to be so
heavily edited ("it would have been cut to shreds") in order to air that it would
have been "unintelligible", and it does not appear that it will air on the channel
at any time in the foreseeable future.[16]

[edit] Differences between mediaDue to the fact that the manga was not finished by
the time the TV series started airing, the manga and anime have several significant
plot differences. While the manga covers 107 chapters, the anime was condensed into
thirteen episodes, and director Mamoru Kanbe mentioned that he wanted to feature
much more of the original story. The anime series only follows events roughly up to
about halfway through the manga series, and it has its own original ending. As a
result, much of the characters' pasts and many details of their pasts and of the
Diclonius that were in the manga do not appear in the anime.
Also, in 2005, a special original video animation, written to occur between the
tenth and eleventh episodes of the series, was released.

Several of the characters in the manga also do not appear in the anime, such as
Aiko, who Lucy encounters prior to her capture (although she briefly appears in the
OVA) and the characters of Silpelit Number 28, the Mariko clones, Lucy's younger
half-brother, and Anna Kakuzawa and Nozomi, Yuka's friend, who wants to be a singer
but cannot be because of an abusive father. There is also a difference in the
characters' personalities in the manga; Kohta is much less forgiving upon finding
out that Lucy was the one who killed his family.

Lucy's vectors penetrating the atmosphere into spaceSeveral properties of the

Diclonii change between the anime and the manga; Lucy has many more vectors in the
manga and her destructive power is far more powerful at the point she can destroy
buildings and sink an island, and there is greater variation in hair and eye color.
In the anime the female Diclonius have a uniform red or pink hair and eye color; in
the manga their hair color can be as diverse as a human being's (e.g. in the manga,
Nana and Mariko have purple and blond hair, respectively). Diclonii genetics are
also explained in greater detail in the manga: For example, Kurama explains the
purpose of the Silpelits and that the Diclonius virus can only be passed into the
human male to produce Diclonius offspring). Small differences in the details of the
plot and characters also exist: Kurama does not die at the end of the manga and
Bandou does not lose the lower half of his body.

[edit] ReceptionReception for the Elfen Lied anime series was generally mixed. It
has received praise for its story and technical excellence in production quality,
animation and color.[12][17][18][19] Due to the many scenes of nudity and gore in
the series, it has drawn criticism as being "overly blatant"[20] or "sad and
forced".[21] The overt graphicness of the first nine minutes of the first episode
has deterred some viewers and caused controversy upon its release.

The series drew criticism for having "sub-par voice acting," in both the original
Japanese audio track and the English dub of the series.[17] Another criticism is
that "the series ends abruptly with some loose ends to the story that could leave
viewers unsatisfied."[22] Despite these criticisms, Western reviewers also describe
the series as "really a genuinely good watch,"[who?][20] "a horror series of
exceptional merit,"[who?][22] "certainly memorable"[12] and "a very special show,
good and bad parts taken into consideration".[who?][10]

http://www.vap.co.jp/elfenlied/top.html. Retrieved 2008-03-20.

^ a b H�gset, Stig. "Elfen Lied review". THEM Anime Reviews 4.0.
http://www.themanime.org/viewreview.php?id=770. Retrieved 2006-08-21.
^ a b Dong, Bamboo (June 29, 2005). "Shelf Life � Sound of Bounce