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Elfen Lied, eps 1-4
The series Elfen Lied is rather notorious for being one of the most....offensive? extreme? anime series in existence. This is one of the reasons why I'm choosing not to include screencaps in my review. That, and because few anime bloggers have written about the series.
I've learned over the course of time not to pay much attention to people who try to discourage me from watching series. I tend to usually disagree with just about everyone, and if I also dislike it, it's for different reasons. Thus, when we watched the first four episodes of this series in Anime Club last Saturday, many members were almost gleeful at the prospect of my "innocence being taken away." (I'm not really sure why people feel this way, except that people know I enjoy things like Sailor Moon and Princess Tutu. Hi, I'm also a fan of Hellsing manga (more gory than the series) and Priest manga (in which rib cages burst through flesh, etc.). But anyway.) The series is noted for its excessive, horrific violence, as well as its nudity.
I should say that the nudity does have a context. The main character is Lucy, a diclonius who has small horns on her head. She also has invisible "vectors," or 2-meter long arms that she uses to brutally murder people with. And when I say brutally murder, I mean ripping limbs completely off while blood pumps profusely from the body to the floor. Having spent her entire life being experimented upon in a sadistic manner, Lucy is literally a lethal weapon. However, because she's lived in isolation, she has absolutely no grounding in reality. Thus, in the beginning she happens to be naked while killing people because she has no clothing. She does not understand the concept of clothing.
Additionally, while escaping from the testing facility (it remains to be revealed why she was tested in this way at all), a bullet seems to have triggered a complete split in her personality. When she encounters physical harm, she reverts to Lucy, and is content to violently kill anyone in the vicinity. However, when she is "normal," she is capable of absolutely nothing, except being an idiot.
Which brings me to what disgusts me about this series. It is not the millions of still female nudes in the opening sequence. It is not the naked girl who happens to be a tool. It is not the sprays of blood or the ripped limbs or the rampant nudity. It's the role of the female characters in the storyline. Because, you see, nobody told me that this was a harem anime.
The term "harem anime" does not refer to a series about a brothel, but rather a series in which the male protagonist is devoid of personality, and is therefore relatable to all men ever. The male protagonist invariably gets himself into a situation in which he must live with at least 3 other women (possibly more!), all of whom have a romantic interest of some kind with him. HIJINKS ENSUE. This is the premise of a "harem anime."
A boy named Kouta is the one who finds Lucy (although, now she is Nyuu) on the beach. He and his cousin Yuka bring Lucy into their home.
Lucy/Nyuu
I would much rather watch Lucy being naked and killing people than watch her as "Nyuu." When she is Nyuu, she is incapable of formulating words, aside from "Nyuu." She does not understand her breasts, does not understand clothing, friendship, or sadness. Thus, all she is capable of doing is being an idiot and saying "nyuu." She is infantile, or maybe closer to a pet. A puppy, whose only purpose is to be cute and to make another girl jealous of the attention she receives. And I am disgusted.
When she is Lucy, she speaks in complete sentences, even if it's only to tell someone why she's about to kill them, or to get out of the way. There is sentience here. I'd much rather watch brutality and learn about her motivations and beliefs than watch her vapid, silly side-personality.
Yuka
She is in love with her cousin Kouta. I understand that being in love with your cousin is not taboo in every society, but it is in mine, and it's not something I can move past. I'm a generation older than my age (as in, my parents had me later in life; I wasn't planned), and I went through 12 years of school with my cousin's son. And just....romantic liaisons between cousins is something I can't wrap my mind around, for all the Melanie and Ashley Wilkes there are in literature.
Anyway, she is in love with Kouta, and has been since they were children. She constantly has flashbacks about meaningless childhood promises and yells at Kouta and cries when he doesn't remember what she's talking about. She gets jealous of Nyuu and Kouta's seeming infatuation with her. The love-obsessed woe-is-me, heartbroken girl.
Mayu
This girl is homeless. She walks around with a cute puppy. She sees brutal violence committed by Lucy, but because Nyuu is nice, SHE DOESN'T TELL KOUTA AND YUKA THAT THEY'RE LIVING WITH A PSYCHOTIC SADIST. In fact, she decides to move in. She is constantly apologizing for everything, including her own existence. The passive, easily pitied girl.
Nana
Nana is a diclonius, like Lucy. However, Nana's sole purpose in life is to please the man who's in charge of her sadistic experiments. She supposedly has stayed sane throughout her life of tests and violence by calling him "Papa" and having absolutely no desires except to perform the tasks he gives her, and receive praise. Her "Papa" kills her by lethal injection after she literally has every limb cut off by Lucy in battle. Girl who exists only to please a father-figure who has spent her entire life putting her through brutal torture.
Extras who exist to be "funny" when treated violently
Yes, there are also men whose only role as extras is to be murdered by a diclonius. But with the women, it's just....different. One woman is brutally knocked to the ground by a man who tells her, "Don't stand behind me, you stupid bitch." I think it's supposed to be funny. She lies on the ground, and says nothing.
I've been assured by many people whose opinions I respect that in the end, Elfen Lied is a good series. Since I'm already 1/3 of the way way through (it is 13 episodes long), I intend to keep watching. If nothing else, I can continue to blog about why I hate it.
I've learned over the course of time not to pay much attention to people who try to discourage me from watching series. I tend to usually disagree with just about everyone, and if I also dislike it, it's for different reasons. Thus, when we watched the first four episodes of this series in Anime Club last Saturday, many members were almost gleeful at the prospect of my "innocence being taken away." (I'm not really sure why people feel this way, except that people know I enjoy things like Sailor Moon and Princess Tutu. Hi, I'm also a fan of Hellsing manga (more gory than the series) and Priest manga (in which rib cages burst through flesh, etc.). But anyway.) The series is noted for its excessive, horrific violence, as well as its nudity.
I should say that the nudity does have a context. The main character is Lucy, a diclonius who has small horns on her head. She also has invisible "vectors," or 2-meter long arms that she uses to brutally murder people with. And when I say brutally murder, I mean ripping limbs completely off while blood pumps profusely from the body to the floor. Having spent her entire life being experimented upon in a sadistic manner, Lucy is literally a lethal weapon. However, because she's lived in isolation, she has absolutely no grounding in reality. Thus, in the beginning she happens to be naked while killing people because she has no clothing. She does not understand the concept of clothing.
Additionally, while escaping from the testing facility (it remains to be revealed why she was tested in this way at all), a bullet seems to have triggered a complete split in her personality. When she encounters physical harm, she reverts to Lucy, and is content to violently kill anyone in the vicinity. However, when she is "normal," she is capable of absolutely nothing, except being an idiot.
Which brings me to what disgusts me about this series. It is not the millions of still female nudes in the opening sequence. It is not the naked girl who happens to be a tool. It is not the sprays of blood or the ripped limbs or the rampant nudity. It's the role of the female characters in the storyline. Because, you see, nobody told me that this was a harem anime.
The term "harem anime" does not refer to a series about a brothel, but rather a series in which the male protagonist is devoid of personality, and is therefore relatable to all men ever. The male protagonist invariably gets himself into a situation in which he must live with at least 3 other women (possibly more!), all of whom have a romantic interest of some kind with him. HIJINKS ENSUE. This is the premise of a "harem anime."
A boy named Kouta is the one who finds Lucy (although, now she is Nyuu) on the beach. He and his cousin Yuka bring Lucy into their home.
Lucy/Nyuu
I would much rather watch Lucy being naked and killing people than watch her as "Nyuu." When she is Nyuu, she is incapable of formulating words, aside from "Nyuu." She does not understand her breasts, does not understand clothing, friendship, or sadness. Thus, all she is capable of doing is being an idiot and saying "nyuu." She is infantile, or maybe closer to a pet. A puppy, whose only purpose is to be cute and to make another girl jealous of the attention she receives. And I am disgusted.
When she is Lucy, she speaks in complete sentences, even if it's only to tell someone why she's about to kill them, or to get out of the way. There is sentience here. I'd much rather watch brutality and learn about her motivations and beliefs than watch her vapid, silly side-personality.
Yuka
She is in love with her cousin Kouta. I understand that being in love with your cousin is not taboo in every society, but it is in mine, and it's not something I can move past. I'm a generation older than my age (as in, my parents had me later in life; I wasn't planned), and I went through 12 years of school with my cousin's son. And just....romantic liaisons between cousins is something I can't wrap my mind around, for all the Melanie and Ashley Wilkes there are in literature.
Anyway, she is in love with Kouta, and has been since they were children. She constantly has flashbacks about meaningless childhood promises and yells at Kouta and cries when he doesn't remember what she's talking about. She gets jealous of Nyuu and Kouta's seeming infatuation with her. The love-obsessed woe-is-me, heartbroken girl.
Mayu
This girl is homeless. She walks around with a cute puppy. She sees brutal violence committed by Lucy, but because Nyuu is nice, SHE DOESN'T TELL KOUTA AND YUKA THAT THEY'RE LIVING WITH A PSYCHOTIC SADIST. In fact, she decides to move in. She is constantly apologizing for everything, including her own existence. The passive, easily pitied girl.
Nana
Nana is a diclonius, like Lucy. However, Nana's sole purpose in life is to please the man who's in charge of her sadistic experiments. She supposedly has stayed sane throughout her life of tests and violence by calling him "Papa" and having absolutely no desires except to perform the tasks he gives her, and receive praise. Her "Papa" kills her by lethal injection after she literally has every limb cut off by Lucy in battle. Girl who exists only to please a father-figure who has spent her entire life putting her through brutal torture.
Extras who exist to be "funny" when treated violently
Yes, there are also men whose only role as extras is to be murdered by a diclonius. But with the women, it's just....different. One woman is brutally knocked to the ground by a man who tells her, "Don't stand behind me, you stupid bitch." I think it's supposed to be funny. She lies on the ground, and says nothing.
I've been assured by many people whose opinions I respect that in the end, Elfen Lied is a good series. Since I'm already 1/3 of the way way through (it is 13 episodes long), I intend to keep watching. If nothing else, I can continue to blog about why I hate it.
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Yes, I'm feeling more and more "WTF People!" lately.
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I'm interested to see how the story progresses, though. Antoine is one of the people who likes the series enough to call it "decent," although there were a lot of people in Club who called it one of their favorite series.
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also, "imbecility" is a crappy excuse to draw a character without clothing.
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And as for being naked....yeah, it's kinda tough. It really does make sense in the beginning, because she's escaping from the lab, and it's like, where would one find pants among the test tubes?
Once she escapes, she's not ever naked (at least, not that I recall?), but she just doesn't understand the concept of clothing, and thus needs some assistance getting dressed. And then, wacky hijinks of the harem anime variety step in!! (And my eyes roll forever.)
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It's downright offensive....and it's offensive because it can be offensive. I suppose, somewhere, deep inside, it has a storyline worth watching.......but it's not worth me sitting through the crap heap of things that offend me to watch it.
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