In 2005, an edgy anime called Elfen Lied came out and blew up in popularity. Anime fans during this era were categorized as fans of more family-friendly series, such as Yu-Gi-Oh! orDragon Ball Z. But Elfen Lied was another beast, one of the wildly dark and violent anime that fell in the same vein asBerserk orX. When the series opens up with a naked woman ripping limbs off her foes, you know right off the bat you're not watching Toonami anymore.

For many anime fans, Elfen Lied became a controversial rallying cry for those seeking edgy, too-violent-for-television anime. However, as fans matured and approached shows with a critical eye, Elfen Lied became kind of a joke, and now stands mostly forgotten. Fifteen years later, with the exception of one particular scene, nothing in Elfen Lied makes it stand out as anything more than a reminder of the past. Or, arguably, as a so-bad-it's-hilarious example of anime edge-lord nonsense.

The Unfinished Plot

Elfen Lied is based on a manga of the same name -- or, at least, partially based on it. The anime ended before the manga did, lasting only thirteen episodes. The manga, on the other hand, is twelve volumes long, meaning that the anime only adapted the earliest parts of the Elfen Lied story, cutting out huge chunks of it along the way, only to make up its own, unsatisfying cliff hanger of an ending. While it might seem odd Elfen Lied never received a second season, it's also not an uncommon occurrence for an anime to never fully adapt the manga's story. The anime, no doubt, served as a terrific advertisement for the then-ongoing manga.

Though the anime ended in Japan in 2004, it didn't blow up in popularity until it reached the States in 2005, ironically the same year the manga ended. While the anime was popular enough in Japan, it received a far bigger reaction overseas. It's crept into modern pop culture, with The Duffer Brothers citing both Akira and Elfen Lied as an inspiration behind Stranger Things, very directly indicating that Eleven is highly influenced by the character Lucy. They called it an "ultra-violent E.T." And they aren't wrong.

Lucy is the Queen of the Diclonius, a race of human mutations who are identifiable by horns that protrude from their heads. They create supersonic limbs that can interact with the world, often violently. She's kept in a Government facility until, one night, she breaks free. But in the process, she's shot in the head, scrambling her memory, creating a secondary personality named Nyu. Unlike the overtly malevolent Lucy, Nyu is a childlike innocent. Two cousins, one of whom may have known Lucy in the past, end up finding Nyu and taking care of her, all while the government sends assassins and other Diclonius after Lucy.

Controversy Over Plot

Elfen Lied is more remembered for its explicit content than its plot. There is so much gore and violence in this anime that it borders on hilarious. People's limbs are ripped out, heads are peeled off, others are just plain ripped open. One memorable scene features Lucy ripping the head off a passing secretary and using her body as a shield, then throwing a pencil through another guy's head before ripping into his cohorts. It's telling that the most disturbing act of violence in the whole series is also the least visually explicit.

But what makes the violence feel toothless is how little impact it seems to have on people. One Diclonius, Nana, gets her limbs ripped out by Lucy, only to just get new plastic limbs to replace her old ones. A mercenary, Bando, gets similarly maimed and blinded, only to get cybernetics to fix up all those injuries. None of the violence means anything to the characters, so why should it mean anything to us?

But on top of the violence, there's the nudity, much of it involving under-aged characters. There's a ton of sexual situations that push the envelope, including a possibly incestual relationship between the cousins. One character, Maya, is repeatedly raped by her father, and none of it ever is brought up following the initial moment it's mentioned. These genuinely disturbing topics feel exploitative, brought up only to shock you for a moment without ever going into how these events affect people.

Easy Redemption

Elfen Lied Lucy And Kouta

Elfen Lied director Mamoru Kanbe claims he tried to present Elfen Lied as a love story. Because of this, he created a world of heightened emotions, intended to make people cry. This leads to one of the anime's biggest problems looking back is how it frames the frankly horrendous things Lucy does over the course of her life as justified because "she feels bad about it."

It turns out that Lucy did know Kouta as a child. He proved to be the only good person she ever met in her hellish childhood, and, thus, they become friends. However, the moment Lucy realizes Kouta has a life outside of his friendship with her, she goes mental and starts killing tons and tons of people, including Kouta's father and sister in front of his eyes, forever traumatizing him. In the manga, Kouta, understandably, never forgives Lucy. But also in the manga, it turns out that rather than having two personalities, Lucy actually has three, with Lucy serving as a pure-evil side of the girl he used to know, Kaede. This is not to be confused with Kouta's similarly named sister, Kanae. However, Lucy is actively fought and suppressed for much of the manga going onward.

In the anime, though, there is no distinction between Kaede and Lucy. It is implied Diclonius are just instinctively predatory. Lucy is a terrible person who feels bad about killing all those people not because she's genuinely guilty, but rather because it damaged her relationship with Kouta. At no point does she really demonstrate any measurable guilt for any of the people she kills. And Kouta just forgives her, even kissing her. This scene is so absurd it retroactively ruins everything that came before it.

The Two Things that Hold Up

In the whole series, however, two things do hold up. One of them is the beautiful opening sequence. Lilium remains one of the most haunting opening songs for any series, accompanied by an artistic, beautiful sequence. It is better than the content that follows.

The other thing that holds up is the single scene in Elfen Lied that, upon revisiting, is still profoundly disturbing. It's a flashback to Lucy's childhood, where we see the awful orphanage she grew up in. Lucy's bullied all the time, finding comfort in raising a small puppy. She tells a girl she thinks is her friend about the puppy, only for the little brat to tell the bullies about the dog, and all of them engage in brutally beating the puppy to death with a vase. And while all of them think this is hilarious, Lucy (and in turn the audience) are profoundly disturbed. Lucy's powers awaken in a moment of rage, and she paints the walls with the kids' blood. The scene demonstrates gradual build-up, racking up genuine tension, only to release it in a way that fits what's come before, using restraint when needed, and we actually see how this act of violence has an impact on everyone. It's proof Elfen Lied could have been a great anime, but it was instead mired in trying too hard to be violent and edgy.

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