DVD Review: Elfen Lied: The Complete Collection: Artist Not Provided: Movies & TV

Jun22

DVD Review: Elfen Lied: The Complete Collection: Artist Not Provided: Movies & TV

Posted by admin | on 22 June, 12:26 AM

Product Description
Studio: Adv Films Release Date: 06/16/2009 Run time: 325 minutes

Offensive to every sensibility imaginable. 0%,

By Duckman “Morbid Cynic” (Drifting in the Cosmic Sea) -

If you’re familiar with me and my reviews, chances are you know darn well that I loathe Elfen Lied more than anything on this planet, scratch that, this whole universe. However, since this putrid immulsion of vomit and feces passing off as an animated series is being re-released (I don’t know why) and since this is being showered with unanimous praise, it’s time to bring some sense to the party.

Lots of people will tell you this is a masterpiece in anime but they’re DEAD WRONG. When I mean this is offensive to every sensibility, I’m not focusing on the well known over abundance of violence and nudity, I’m focusing on how everything is contrived beyond the point of there being any shred of plausibility or coherency. I will provide examples as of why.

CHARACTERS:

As stated in my last review, the characters have no semblance to reality whatsoever. Aside from the fact that Kohta and Yuka take in a naked mentally ill girl without telling anyone, there’s other examples of this problem. Why is it that when Kohta finds out that Lucy killed his little sister and dad, he doesn’t show any resentment towards Lucy? I’m not expecting Kohta to go all “Rambo” on Lucy (thought that could have been a little satisfying), but wouldn’t be a little more realistic if he at least verbally blasted her in a relatively passionate manner? Also, why is it that Mayu doesn’t become a severe pessimist after being molested by her stepdad and having to live off her pet dog’s food? The characters aren’t deep, either; they’re all shallow stereotypes. Kohta is the cliché mousy male character who finds himself surrounded by women, Yuka and Lucy/Nuy are among the several women feuding each other for Kohta’s attention, and Lucy has a split personality; when haven’t we seen this stuff before? Lucy’s backstory about how she became a naked meatgrinder isn’t the least bit impressive. Oh look, she was bullied as a kid and they even killed her dog, how sad!! Didn’t every nu-metal band in existence abuse the whole “I’m a victim, I hate the world!!” theme to death in their faux-aggressive music? Another thing is that we’re supposed to see Nana as some sort of tragic figure since she’s constantly getting torn up and pummeled but I think it’s just her fault since she’s so unbelievably passive.

CARELESS MIXING OF GENRES:

Elfen Lied carelessly mixes genres of anime and while the legions of shallow people hailing this as the greatest thing ever see that as original, rational people like myself are absolutely disgusted by it. Look, certain genres don’t go together. Seeing cheap pornographic grindhouse action in one moment and seeing sappy harem comedy the next just doesn’t work.

PLOT-HOLES, CONTRADICTING THEMES, BAD ENDING, AND BAD CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT:

Right from the beginning, Elfen Lied is asking you to leave your brain at the door prior to watching it. Lucy escapes the research facility as is knocked unconscious by a sniper’s bullet striking her helmet and forcing her to fall into the ocean. Aside from not dying on impact from the water (she fell hundreds of feet), how does she not break any bones and not drown? She’s unconscious, she can’t swim, so how does she survive being in the water?!! Apparently, EL’s theme is that humanity is monstrous to beings it sees as “inhuman,” which is supposed to explain the scientists torturing and killing the Dicloniuses. I wouldn’t have a problem with that if the people who made this didn’t pee on their own feet. The Diconiuses kill people on instinct and the head of the company doing these experiments, who turns out to be a Diclonius, WANTS them to kill of humanity. Also, the fact that this guy is a Diclonius doesn’t make sense since he’s in charge of this company and therefore in charge of the torturing and killing of his own species. If I cared about anyone in EL (I don’t), I’d want to see the Diclonius race get wiped out with napalm because the writers screwed up their “message” that badly. EL leaves a lot of things unexplained since it not only reveals that the company head is a Diclonius towards the end, nothing is fleshed out about that afterwards. It also has the worst ending I’ve ever seen in film since NOTHING is explained. I don’t mind “spoiling” it for those who haven’t seen this abomination since it leaves you thinking that Lucy MIGHT have been killed (of course, they take the pretentious route by not showing it to leave you guessing) but Kohta comes to open the front gate of his house with a shadow on it and once he reaches for the handle, it ends. WORST ENDING EVER. We’re introduced to Lucy as seeing her as a beast, but they later change her a little to make her sympathetic to audiences. Apparently, seeing Lucy as Nyu is supposed to make me like her, they failed miserably. All Nyu does is shamble around naked and say “Nyu” as she breaks things, this is supposed to make me overlook her insatiable blood thirst?!! It’s like they can’t decide if they want me to see Lucy as a monster or an infantile bimbo; either way, she’s a lamentable character.

APPEARANCE:

I hate the way everything looks in Elfen Lied, especially the character designs. Since EL is extremely violent and pornographic, the fact that the characters look like they were plucked right out of Love Hina or Chobits (they have a “cute” look) will make any rational person grasp their skulls with both hands and groan continuously out of anger. Mixing “cute” with gratuitous violence and nudity is like using battery acid as a condiment for the Classic Italian sandwich at Quiznos. Yeah, it’s different, but it doesn’t mean it’s good. The animation and artwork looks like it was made with digital imaging and animation programs, giving it a really stale look (like all other anime nowadays). So not even the artwork and animation has any charm to it. I really hate the Diclonius designs since they’re basically the stereotypical “catgirl” thing infesting anime nowadays.

VIOLENCE, NUDITY, AND INCEST:

None of the above things offend me whatsoever since I’m not a stranger to either. However, these things look like they were shoved in EL to attract fickle anime fans (which it unfortunately has) and to offend anyone who is a “prude.” These also aren’t really that offensive taken by themselves since they’re used so numerously that they no longer have any provocative value to them after about 20 minutes of exposure. For those of you who are claiming that the constant use of these three things is somehow “extreme,” remember in 1992 when Doomed Megalopolis utilized all three of these qualities to actually unnerve audiences rather than bore them?

SOUNDTRACK:

I commented before how much I hated that J-pop song at the end of each episode of Elfen Lied but I think it’s now time to focus on the most overrated anime song ever, “Lilium.” Everyone thinks this is such a strong and emotional song, but it’s a joke. It’s nothing more than extremely boring symphonic music with female vocals and Latin lyrics to make Elfen Lied look “deep” and “artistic.” Also, this type of music fits NOWHERE in this Love Hina-style dramedy guised as Hostel. I want to find the music crew responsible for composing this junk and fighting them with a sledgehammer for creating such a loathsome song that every anime n00b is praising to death.

SYMBOLISM:

I focused on how empty that clock symbol was for Elfen Lied in my last review, now time to focus on the nudity which believe it or not, is supposed to be symbolism in the eyes of most fans. They say it’s supposed to make the female Dicloniuses look “innocent” despite the fact that they constantly kill and it supposed to show them how they’re deemed as “inhuman” since they’re naked and hosed off like animals, how tragic!! Admit it, the gratuitous nudity was used to draw in the typical male teenager and “dirty old man” demographic. While not really symbolism, I find the use of German names in the series’s name and of the names of the episodes to be lamentably pretentious, and I don’t care that this is named after a German poem.

SUMMARY:

Elfen Lied can be seen in several lamentable ways. It can be seen as an anime that wants to have its cake and eat it too. It wants to be seen as “deep” and “smart” but at the same time wants to appeal to a bunch of hair-brained anime fans who can’t get enough of harem comedy anime. It also somehow achieved the impossible by appealing to every anime-interested demographic out there, which wouldn’t happen in a rational-thinking world. It’s like the writers said to their staff “Hey, let’s make an anime that absolutely loathsome but will include every anime cliché and fetish that will draw in the furries, perverts, action fans, slasher fans, and harem fans!! This will catch like wildfire!!” Sadly, it has done just that. I can’t find any newer anime fan who hasn’t heard of this abomination.

FINAL WORD:

For those of you who still have misguided affection for Elfen Lied after reading my review, I really pity you. For those who haven’t seen it and will heed my advice and those who previously liked it and had “second thoughts” after reading my review, kudos to you; it shows that people can still think with basic logic. As for me, I’ll be watching MUCH, MUCH superior anime like Neo Tokyo, Doomed Megalopolis, Akira, and AD Police (original OVA). Finally, if I get a terminal disease, I’ll spend my remaining days on Earth finding Lynn Okamoto (original author of EL) and Mamoru Kanbe (made the EL anime) and horribly ending their lives with a variety of heavy mining equipment and heavy duty power tools which would make the death of DJ in Event Horizon look like child’s play in comparison.

DVD Information,

By Roberta Wright (Benton, AR.) -

I love this anime! I have a question though. Can anyone tell me about the re-release of this DVD? Is there an extra episode or any special features?

A Brilliant Haunting Psychological Anime Masterpiece!,

By Always Samsung “ravereviews” (New York, NY) -

I brought this box set at Best Buy when they had a special buy one get one half off anime sale, so i got this and a Dragon Ball Z box set. EL ended up being fifteen bucks. I actually didn’t even want this title, but I couldn’t let this deal pass me by.

I saw episode one once on the anime network & don’t recall anything except that the beginning contained an ultra violent scene with blood everywhere and I just didn’t care enough to be interested. I’ve brought many anime titles in the past few months & non have the x-factor to keep interested or hooked in the way Sailor Moon does.

I couldn’t sleep last night and all i wanted to do was watch some anime before i finally got tired enough to go back to sleep. So i decided to finally give this series a second chance. I unwrapped this set since it was gathering dust on my DVD shelf, popped it in and from the immediate opening song i felt i was in for a good show. I’ve noticed that most series that have awesome opening songs tend to be good shows. Elfen Lied was no exception. To my surprise, i was hooked from the first episode and was doing my best to cram in as many episodes as possible before 3AM.

This is a great series and is only thirteen episodes. I’ll provide a quick recap since everyone has already gone into full details in their reviews. The story is about a girl named Nyu/Lucy who escapes from some facility where she was held captive & under lock down. She has extraordinary powers and in one last attempt to capture her, a shot was taken to her helmet which skewed her memory somehow and has created a temporary memory loss or dual personality. Nyu/Lucy wakes up on the beach the next day completely unaware of what happened the night before. She meets 2 people on her journey to finding out what’s going on. The show does have a sheer amount of violence, but at the same time balances the comedy, and light hearted areas really well. It wasn’t non-stop violence. There were actually many moments of intimate friendship.

Anyways, this is a great series and ranks up there with some of the best anime titles in film history. Buy it and you will enjoy it. The price tag is a bit over the top on AMZ but it does occasionally go on sale so pick it up. But for thirteen episodes, try not to get this item at full price. I’ll be spending the day copying the DVD onto my iPod Touch, so i can enjoy this on the way to work. I’m in shock i enjoyed this so much because it is an addictive series and i really liked that this wasn’t as dull as all the other titles I’ve been watching recently. This coming from a fan of Sailor Moon only who isn’t into gore, violence, or guns.
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