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Elfen Lied, episodes 9-13
I guess I'll finish blogging about Elfen Lied before I catch up on Code Geass, as Elfen Lied is finished.
Overall, things got better in these last 5 episodes than they had been previously (as in, I was interested), although there are many, many better shows out there. If you are new to anime, I do not recommend Elfen Lied as your first series, unless you love shows with horrific violence, pointless nudity, and really creepy gender roles. If you want a show that will screw with your mind, watch Neon Genesis Evangelion or Revolutionary Girl Utena instead.
Episode 9 starts where 8 left off, with Lucy remembering the time when she and Kohta met as children. This was after Lucy's puppy had been beaten to death by her classmates, and she has already begun to randomly murder civilians (she is like, 12, if that). Child!Kohta tells her that he thinks her horns are cool, and Lucy is floored by the fact that someone appreciates her.
She waits for Kohta to meet her (his family is visiting Yuta's on vacation) in the woods again. Police officers are seen searching the woods, discussing the fact that "locating the mass-murderer is more important than searching for the missing girl." Which is obviously funny to the viewer, as we know that Lucy is both.
Kohta and Lucy visit the zoo together, where she freaks out about animals she has never seen before. She then begins to hear voices, and realizes that she has been murdering people. The voices tell her that humans will kill her, if she doesn't kill them first.
Kohta tells Lucy that he must go home with his family, and this is his last day. Lucy tells him that this day was the most fun she had ever had in her life. The voices in her head whisper to kill Kohta, and she tries to strangle him on the bus. Afterward, KOHTA IS MILDLY SURPRISED AND SAYS THAT SHE STARTLED HIM. Hello? Some of the reactions on this show are just not believable at all. Kohta tells Lucy that he cannot hang out with her that night, because he must meet up with his cousin. Lucy is jealous, and asks if his cousin is a boy or a girl. Kohta lies, and tells her that his cousin is a boy (it is in fact Yuta).
Lucy goes to the festival, and sees Kohta hugging Yuta. She is upset, and assumes that Kohta only pretended to like her, that everything was a lie, just like her school-friend who told the bullies where to find her puppy. Lucy throws up, and her personality makes its first all-out shift. Her vectors kill everyone in the immediate vicinity, and people think that a bomb just went off. Kohta's sister (who hasn't yet met Lucy) is witness to the carnage, and knows that Lucy did it.
In the present, Nyu/Lucy wakes up. She pushes Mayu down, but then has a flashback to Mayu telling her to stop, and her personality reverts to Nyu.
There is another flashback to Lucy as a child, after meeting Kohta. She is hidden in a family's home, having killed everyone inside. The cops are breaking in, and ignore Lucy, searching for the killer. They pay for their mistake by being brutally murdered, until Lucy is shot. It is at this point that she is taken to a laboratory and chained to a wall, so that she can be experimented on.
It is revealed that the director of these labs wants all Diclonius to be killed because their testing facilities are full. Kurama (the man who Nana calls "Papa," and also a scientist) has a daughter with his wife, and the daughter is born as a diclonius. His wife finds him standing over their daughter, strangling it. His wife had a difficult birth, and is bleeding everywhere from cancer (?). She dies on the floor, as Kurama wails, "I'll stop! Look, I stopped! So please wake up. Please wake up." It's too late - she's dead!
It is revealed that a person being born as a diclonius is something that happens when the parent is infected with a "vector virus," or they are touched by vectors of a diclonius and not killed, and have children. Lucy broke out of her cell one day, and infected him, smiling and calling it a present (BWAHAHA).
There is another Diclonius called 35 (they seemed to be numbered...."Nana" means #7 in Japanese) that has like, 26 vectors or something ridiculous. 35 is released (although confined to a wheelchair) to search for Nana and Lucy. She is, apparently, THE MOST HORRIFIC OF DICLONIUS. She is also Kurama's real daughter.
In the middle of a street, Nana meets 35, and is prepared to do battle so that they won't go to Kohta's house. 35 repeatedly picks Nana's body up and lets it drop, beating her to a pulp. When 35 attacks, Kohta arrives on the scene and has flashbacks. He is a child again, hugging Yuta good-bye at the festival, and she tells him that she will always be waiting for him. Kanae (Kohta's sister) kicks Yuta. Kohta yells at Kanae, and their father yells at Kanae when she tries to tell them that she just saw a bunch of people getting killed by Lucy.
Kohta and his father and sister are on a subway, going home. Kanae repeatedly tries to tell them about the people who she just saw get murdered, but her father ignores her, and Kohta fights with her. Suddenly, Lucy appears from the corner of another subway car. Kanae starts freaking out, knowing that Lucy is a murderer. Kohta gets angry with Kanae and argues, until he strikes her in the face. Immediately after he slaps her, Lucy literally rips her body in half. Kohta's father finally looks up from his newspaper, and is startled, until Lucy rips his head off. Kohta is going into shock as he says, "Lucy, I thought we were friends."
"We are," she says, "That's why I didn't kill you."
Lah, dee, dah, after this, Kohta obviously suppresses all of his memories and they aren't triggered again until he sees Lucy killing.
In the present, Lucy/Nyu tells him she'll understand if he hates her. Kohta tells her that he can never forgive her, but that he likes Nyu. THEY KISS. WHAT THE FUCK.
In my last post on Elfen Lied,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
animal_eyes made a good point: the series does do a good job at showing that the diclonius girls (Nana, Lucy, etc.) turn violent/uncontrollable because of the way they are treated by other people in their lives: by their family, by scientists, by classmates. They are pushed to the breaking point, and boy, do they hurt.
It is not necessarily the girls' fault that they act the way they do. But still, could there not have been any male diclonius anywhere in the series? Why are they only girls? Adding in Mayu and Yuta, the entire show made me uncomfortable with its representation of female characters.
Most of all, I am turned off by everybody's improbable reactions. Like Mayu: I am a runaway girl who has been traumatized by my step-father sexually abusing me. While living on the beach, I see a girl a bit older than me commit some horrific murders. I then decide that it would be a great idea to live in the same house as her and some other people.
Or Kohta: Now that I remember the memories I've been suppressing for years, I know that you killed my father and sister, and untold numbers of other people. I lived in a mental hospital for an entire year because of you, and I have lost parts of my memory forever, probably suffering from PTSD. Please, let us kiss now.
Overall, things got better in these last 5 episodes than they had been previously (as in, I was interested), although there are many, many better shows out there. If you are new to anime, I do not recommend Elfen Lied as your first series, unless you love shows with horrific violence, pointless nudity, and really creepy gender roles. If you want a show that will screw with your mind, watch Neon Genesis Evangelion or Revolutionary Girl Utena instead.
Episode 9 starts where 8 left off, with Lucy remembering the time when she and Kohta met as children. This was after Lucy's puppy had been beaten to death by her classmates, and she has already begun to randomly murder civilians (she is like, 12, if that). Child!Kohta tells her that he thinks her horns are cool, and Lucy is floored by the fact that someone appreciates her.
She waits for Kohta to meet her (his family is visiting Yuta's on vacation) in the woods again. Police officers are seen searching the woods, discussing the fact that "locating the mass-murderer is more important than searching for the missing girl." Which is obviously funny to the viewer, as we know that Lucy is both.
Kohta and Lucy visit the zoo together, where she freaks out about animals she has never seen before. She then begins to hear voices, and realizes that she has been murdering people. The voices tell her that humans will kill her, if she doesn't kill them first.
Kohta tells Lucy that he must go home with his family, and this is his last day. Lucy tells him that this day was the most fun she had ever had in her life. The voices in her head whisper to kill Kohta, and she tries to strangle him on the bus. Afterward, KOHTA IS MILDLY SURPRISED AND SAYS THAT SHE STARTLED HIM. Hello? Some of the reactions on this show are just not believable at all. Kohta tells Lucy that he cannot hang out with her that night, because he must meet up with his cousin. Lucy is jealous, and asks if his cousin is a boy or a girl. Kohta lies, and tells her that his cousin is a boy (it is in fact Yuta).
Lucy goes to the festival, and sees Kohta hugging Yuta. She is upset, and assumes that Kohta only pretended to like her, that everything was a lie, just like her school-friend who told the bullies where to find her puppy. Lucy throws up, and her personality makes its first all-out shift. Her vectors kill everyone in the immediate vicinity, and people think that a bomb just went off. Kohta's sister (who hasn't yet met Lucy) is witness to the carnage, and knows that Lucy did it.
In the present, Nyu/Lucy wakes up. She pushes Mayu down, but then has a flashback to Mayu telling her to stop, and her personality reverts to Nyu.
There is another flashback to Lucy as a child, after meeting Kohta. She is hidden in a family's home, having killed everyone inside. The cops are breaking in, and ignore Lucy, searching for the killer. They pay for their mistake by being brutally murdered, until Lucy is shot. It is at this point that she is taken to a laboratory and chained to a wall, so that she can be experimented on.
It is revealed that the director of these labs wants all Diclonius to be killed because their testing facilities are full. Kurama (the man who Nana calls "Papa," and also a scientist) has a daughter with his wife, and the daughter is born as a diclonius. His wife finds him standing over their daughter, strangling it. His wife had a difficult birth, and is bleeding everywhere from cancer (?). She dies on the floor, as Kurama wails, "I'll stop! Look, I stopped! So please wake up. Please wake up." It's too late - she's dead!
It is revealed that a person being born as a diclonius is something that happens when the parent is infected with a "vector virus," or they are touched by vectors of a diclonius and not killed, and have children. Lucy broke out of her cell one day, and infected him, smiling and calling it a present (BWAHAHA).
There is another Diclonius called 35 (they seemed to be numbered...."Nana" means #7 in Japanese) that has like, 26 vectors or something ridiculous. 35 is released (although confined to a wheelchair) to search for Nana and Lucy. She is, apparently, THE MOST HORRIFIC OF DICLONIUS. She is also Kurama's real daughter.
In the middle of a street, Nana meets 35, and is prepared to do battle so that they won't go to Kohta's house. 35 repeatedly picks Nana's body up and lets it drop, beating her to a pulp. When 35 attacks, Kohta arrives on the scene and has flashbacks. He is a child again, hugging Yuta good-bye at the festival, and she tells him that she will always be waiting for him. Kanae (Kohta's sister) kicks Yuta. Kohta yells at Kanae, and their father yells at Kanae when she tries to tell them that she just saw a bunch of people getting killed by Lucy.
Kohta and his father and sister are on a subway, going home. Kanae repeatedly tries to tell them about the people who she just saw get murdered, but her father ignores her, and Kohta fights with her. Suddenly, Lucy appears from the corner of another subway car. Kanae starts freaking out, knowing that Lucy is a murderer. Kohta gets angry with Kanae and argues, until he strikes her in the face. Immediately after he slaps her, Lucy literally rips her body in half. Kohta's father finally looks up from his newspaper, and is startled, until Lucy rips his head off. Kohta is going into shock as he says, "Lucy, I thought we were friends."
"We are," she says, "That's why I didn't kill you."
Lah, dee, dah, after this, Kohta obviously suppresses all of his memories and they aren't triggered again until he sees Lucy killing.
In the present, Lucy/Nyu tells him she'll understand if he hates her. Kohta tells her that he can never forgive her, but that he likes Nyu. THEY KISS. WHAT THE FUCK.
In my last post on Elfen Lied,
animal_eyes made a good point: the series does do a good job at showing that the diclonius girls (Nana, Lucy, etc.) turn violent/uncontrollable because of the way they are treated by other people in their lives: by their family, by scientists, by classmates. They are pushed to the breaking point, and boy, do they hurt.It is not necessarily the girls' fault that they act the way they do. But still, could there not have been any male diclonius anywhere in the series? Why are they only girls? Adding in Mayu and Yuta, the entire show made me uncomfortable with its representation of female characters.
Most of all, I am turned off by everybody's improbable reactions. Like Mayu: I am a runaway girl who has been traumatized by my step-father sexually abusing me. While living on the beach, I see a girl a bit older than me commit some horrific murders. I then decide that it would be a great idea to live in the same house as her and some other people.
Or Kohta: Now that I remember the memories I've been suppressing for years, I know that you killed my father and sister, and untold numbers of other people. I lived in a mental hospital for an entire year because of you, and I have lost parts of my memory forever, probably suffering from PTSD. Please, let us kiss now.