Elfen Lied

The art was horrible in the beginning, but trust me it gets better as the story continues. This manga is viewed very critically and it seems like a lot of people don't like it, but I actually do. I really liked the worldbuilding, Lucy as the main character and the relationship between Bandou and Mayu which was very flat in the anime. Overall it wasn't as horrible as many people say it is. Sure, a lot of characters are flat (Yuka was annoying af), but it still is a good manga because of the story and worldbuilding. At least that's how I think about it.

Elfen Lied.... Going to make a very short review.

With such a great start, it seems to only go downhill.

Story- Had a ton of potential but nope, flush it all down the toilet. The last chapter didn't feel rewarding at all; it made me feel as though I was wasting my time rooting for Lucy and Kouta.

Art- Nothing to brag about, sometimes the characters look amazing. And others they just look mediocre. Can't complain much because I loved Lucy's character design and Kouta's. Nana and Mayu both look compelling as well most of the time. I however wasn't a fan of Nyu's design, but that's just a personal taste. It was drawn very well. Most of the time it just felt... So empty. That's why I gave it a 6.

Characters- Characters well all around fleshed out and believable. This is where Elfen Lied excels. At least with the main characters. The side characters on the other hand, hell I don't remember one of their names (except for Anna and Wanda), not even Kouta's cousins name. On a sidenote, I doubt many people care but they literally started calling him Kohta at the end of the manga.... Did I miss something? His name was Kouta for like 80+ chapters then they just start calling him Kohta?
Translators come on.

Enjoyment- It was alright, I think it's just the nostalgia that's making me give it a 6, otherwise it'd be lower. [spoiler] I felt like I was reading it to see Lucy and Kouta end up together. I probably was, and when that didn't happen it just made me feel sick. I feel as though I hate the fact that I wasted my time, on the other hand I'm glad I actually got around to reading it. [/spoiler]

Overall- I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I was told the ending is sweet but sad. No, it's just fucking sad. It makes you want to forget you ever read the damn thing. [spoiler] All we wanted was for Kouta to somehow forgive Lucy and end up with her and we got nothing close to it. [/spoiler]

I wouldn't recommend this to anyone sadly because of how.... Appalling the ending was to me. Did the writer think that's the ending that we wanted? That we deserved? Man... I just wish it could have been different. If I had to describe it, I'd say very very bitter, hardly sweet.

I honestly don't care if anyone finds this helpful, I just needed to get that off my chest.

(This is my first manga review, sorry if it's not helpful.)

Elfen Lied, a manga by Lynn Okamoto, published in 2002 to 2005, with twelve volumes collected, with an anime adaptation. It is considered as one of the goriest series of all time. Believe or not, I really enjoyed this series.

I first started out Elfen Lied by the anime, it got me easily hooked by the second episode, and after finishing the anime, I wanted more. I found out it was based on a manga, and the anime and manga are different, which then I immediately started reading it. If I could describe the manga in one sentence, I would say "A rollercoaster of emotion."

Story 10/10
The story got me easily hooked, it's original and well written. The anime ended in a note where many questions were unanswered, however, the manga answers most of them. One thing about the story of the manga however, is the ending, I think the ending was very confusing and I'm still trying to figure it out to this day. The story goes in a bit of a slow pace however.


Art 8/10
A lot of people say the art is not very good, I have to agree around the first volume, the art is not the best. However, around volume 10 till the ending, the art changed, it looks very sci-fi like and it's very detailed. Don't believe me? Compare the art from the volume 1 and volume 12, and tell the differences.

Characters 9/10
Heck, this story when it comes to characters, it does a great job with backstories and why the character acts that way. My favorite character is Lucy, mostly because she's one of the most well written characters I have ever seen. The side characters are also likable (except Yuka), one of them was Nana, she was the comedy relief of the story, and she did handle them well. The side villains such as Kurama or Bando are even likable even if they did horrifying things in their lifes.

Enjoyment 8/10
If you are not okay with people having their limbs torn off or people getting dismembered, then this story will not be the best choice for you. This story has so much gore, I don't think I've read a manga with that much gore. The story has also a lot of nudity, if you dislike seeing cute girls naked, then maybe this won't be your kind of story. There is so much nudity in this, it was pretty close of being a hentai. The story also tackles issues such as pedophilia and how people treat other people due to their differences.

Overall 10/10
I personally enjoyed this manga, I understand there are people who dislike this manga due to its graphic violence and nudity. I liked this story because it's different from other stories I've read in the past. If you're looking for a story that is dark and also has its sad moments, Elfen Lied is perfect for you.

Thanks for reading my review :)

this manga was pretty much really enjoyable, it had abit of humor there abit of romance here and lots of blood, gore & ecchi. not to mention incest too :-)
the story was really great as it's not any cliche storyline i've seen before. it comes on really strong in the start & it only gets better. also, some of the problems faced by the characters in the manga are quite relatable in real life & the manga also ends off quite realistically.
the art is good, not great but it's alright i guess!!
the characters are really cool and their way of thinking is rather realistic & relatable. lucy, is definitely a really strong character with her backstory & even though she may be a out of control killing machine, she still does this cause she's been betrayed in the past & so she has her reason for doing so. kouta, was much better protrayed in the manga than in the anime, in the anime, he just instantly forgives her when he realises lucy was the one that killed his family while in the manga, his thinking is more realistic where he harnesses hate for lucy like anyone would if someone killed your sister and dad. however, there were useless sub characters included & the manga would've just been the same without them.
the manga was overall, pretty enjoyable .

You're probably wondering what I'm doing writing a review about a manga that ran from 2002-2005 in 2019. With my patience for sitting down and watching an anime dwindling, I've been attempt to explore manga and LN's more and more, and Elfen Lied was perhaps the first anime I had ever watched, so it felt natural to try and visit the original manga. Boy was this a mistake.

(Spoilers will be included in this review!)
The manga and anime do not start straying apart by any significant means until volume 5, chapter 43. This chapter introduces a character who's sole purpose is to add in a diaper fetish, and to tie in the iconic song "Lilium," which in the manga is "Elfenlied." Her role is so insignificant that she was easily replaced by a music box in the anime. This is about the point where I knew I was in for a ride that would probably only be going downhill.
Next comes convoluted "this character hasn't died yet" convenience one after another. Remember how in the anime, Kurama comes to understand his sins and his failure as a father to Mariko, and with this he accepts their deaths as he embraces her in his arms? Well... this comes close I guess? They embrace, and a giant non-explosive warhead then comically crushes only Mariko despite them being embraced, before another is fired and crushes Kurama. They're dead, right? Nope! Mariko has somehow saved them both, and is now docile in a "Nyu" like state. Shortly after this, she dies anyways when facing off Lucy, just to have Kurama live in comatose grief for the next 2 years until he gets the perfect conditions to have a happy ending with Nana, which also tries to bait that she's his lover now! Real sweet.. I guess? The count for these ridiculous encounters only increases as the manga goes on, and they're ridiculously predictable, as well as frustrating. Maybe just don't put characters in situations where they should by no means survive if you're not ready to kill them off yet?

The contrived conveniences aren't the end of my frustration with this manga. I guess at some point or another I should address the characters that actually had some purpose.
- Kouta is Kouta, there's nothing to say on him. He's bland, he gets a backbone occasionally, but he doesn't really offer much outside of caring about and protecting his family.
- Yuka is... Yuka. She's basically obsessed with Kouta, can't properly express her feelings, and classic tsundere style punches or kicks Kouta anytime something embarrassing happens. I tried to sympathize with her character more than I have in my previous watchings of Elfen Lied, but I just couldn't. She cares about Kouta remembering her more than she cares about Kouta remembering and coming to terms with the deaths of his father and sister, and sobs about it in every other scene.
- Mayu doesn't really get much further development in the manga, she's probably one of the most stable characters next to Kouta. She's sweet, she cares about her new family, and wants to keep them together and safe. She also... ends up with a crush on Bandou. And kisses him. About 30 minutes after he just got done calling someone else a pedo for nearly raping her.
- Nana is probably one of the most frustrating characters for me. She's adorable, well intentioned, and despite her lack of knowledge does her best to contribute to the Kaede residence. Right up until Kurama disappears after promising her he'd return. Remember how in the anime, Nana learned to live with the grief and move on? In this she becomes borderline obsessed with Kurama, to a point where it seems like she's ready to ditch her closest friends over him without a 2nd thought. It reaches a point where it's all she seems to think or talk about.
- Lucy/Nyu is probably the strongest character of the series much like the anime. She's still intricate, deeply scarred, and ultimately tragic. She is however, robbed of her complexity, and to explain that gripe we're going to move on to the next topic.

The Diclonious virus, the biggest threat of this world and what ties this whole story together. We're often lead to believe in the anime that it is normally not the diclonius children themselves that leads to mass killing and destruction that occurs around them. They have a "killing instinct" of sorts embedded into their DNA, that's often awakened by cruel treatment or the enforced message that there's no possible way diclonii and humans can co-exist, that they are freaks that must be exterminated. Up until the point where it straight up takes control like another personality and forces that character to do harm. Isn't there supposed to be some moral gray in this series? How does this voice become so prominent that it can completely take control of a "host" and force them to be violent and destructive. Diclonii become exactly what the anime seemingly tries to fight the message of: a race that could never co-exist with humans, that will only bring ruin, that is to face genocide. Despite this manga trying desperately to tie the end of every character's story in a pretty bow, this is the fate of the diclonii race.

I could honestly continue ranting for quite some time, so let's try to wrap this up. Elfen Lied is a story with a lot of potential that ends up wasted trying to prove just how """mature""" this series is. I can deal with ecchi, it's not my cup of tea but I can tolerate it. This manga pushes it too far on more than one occasion purely for the sake of it, down to our previously mentioned diaper fetish character. Any mature themes feel like they're muddied down to "this guy good, this guy bad," and despite handling these themes, somehow nearly every character you may root for ends up with a happy ending now matter how contrived the plot got to place them there. The diclonii are now nearly extinct, humanity does not have to answer for it's crimes of mistreatment and experimentation against an entire race, and everyone's happy, yaaay! This manga left me with a bitter taste in my mouth, and I wish the ugly art had been enough to steer me away from it in time.
If you're looking to experience nudity, blood, gore, and darker themes but don't mind them being toned down, just watch the anime. It's better in practically every regard down to the resolution, and while many questions get left unanswered in the anime, it does not create nearly as many that are quite as ridiculous as the manga does.

As you may know, Elfen Lied has lots of gore, nudity and such. But the story line is amazing. I'm not usually one to really read this kind of stuff but... It fascinated me in many ways.
Story; 10: The story is amazing, and very elaborate, it will really get the reader hooked within the first few pages, strength of every action and scene in this made me ready for more!
Art; 8: The art wasn't the best part of the manga, it wasn't really eye catching, but since the storyline was great, the art didn't make a huge deal, though I think everything in this manga is great.
Character; 10: The characters are all amazing, going through individual struggles, and feelings. They just make you feel for them and understand the pain, even if you possibly haven't been through what they have. Their actions are believable because, trust me, if I went through what they did, I would probably react the same way.
Enjoyment; 10: I truly, truly think that this manga was amazing, it is worth more than a thousand words, though, less nudity would be nice, I really enjoyed this manga.
Overall, I believe this is one of the best manga I have read, (I heave read a lot, haha) and I think that the mangaka deserves a round of applause for coming up with such an amazing story. If you read Elfen Lied, I hope you enjoy! (Oh, and if I should make improvments on my reviews please send me a message or something! This is only my second review. thanks!!!)

A beautiful, beautiful piece of work to say the least – a special thank you to the creator: Lynn Okamoto! This manga captured the shocking revelation of a true human society that was thought unknown, whilst still evoking emotion with every blood and tear drop. The manga leaves the reader with an internal conflict, rendering them unable to deduce right from wrong – were the actions of Lucy ever justifiable given her constantly miserable circumstances?

The ending, from what I’ve gathered, has been highly censured; it wasn’t some asinine, outrageous ending, it was just considered… ‘Unpopular’. I, personally, fail to see any alternate ending that’d please the audience whilst maintaining the plot’s integrity and I still believe that the ending was far better than what could’ve been.

I’d recommend this manga to anyone who is interested in the philosophical and morale aspects of life or to anyone who wants to be emotionally moved by such works. It is definitely the best piece of literature that I’d ever read; I was continuously reminded of the times of happiness (and how precious they are), times of sadness, times of pain, times of love, times of loneliness, times of anger, times of fear, times of betrayal, times of confusion, times of blood and times of tears.

I’ve loved every element of this manga, sure I’d change a few things around for my personal benefit however it’s perfect the way it is!

All I can say for this manga is that is sticks to the main storyline and is incredibly gory as well as incredibly perverted.

The manga was better than the anime for sticking to the plot but it really goes overboard with its more than dark themes and off topic conservations between characters. But I found the manga very enjoyable for concluding the story with a somewhat happy ending and keeping attached to the murderous but sexy main character Lucy.

This manga will remain as one of my close but not too close favourites and I recommend to reviewers to read it themselves and give their own review of this unforgettable manga.

It has been a while, so I took the time to sit down a re-read of the Elfen Lied manga since I had recently rewatched the anime and have been on a re-watch binge during the pandemic.

And my reaction is simply "Wow that was a beautiful mess" a beautiful story that has a lot of stuff that undermines how powerful and impactful it could be.

I 100% understand why the anime does a lot of the things it does. I mean I kinda already knew why, but trying to see where the things work and dont, you really see where Lynn Okamoto got totally out of touch in terms of keeping cohesive story.

You can read from volume 1~7 skipping page 203, and then skip to volume 10 Pages 76 to 138, to read the part about Lucy and Aiko, and then skip to the last 5 pages of Volume 11.

All of that stuff that you'd skip is utterly pointless and irrelevant.

Literally none of it matters. It does effectively nothing for the story line.

It only introduces and handles a bunch of largely irrelevant and throw away characters. Has a revival of a character that was appeared to be killed off, and there is some real strange absurdities that just don't have a reasonable foundation.

I think the one good part of the Manga after the 2nd half that really makes it worth reading is the story behind Arakawa, the scientist girl who was the assistant to Prof.Kakuzawa. In the anime she has a noticeable presence, and plays a key role in the ending, but we don't get to see much more than that.

The manga gives her more detail, more personality, and a stronger purpose to play... but that kind of ends up being entirely undermined and pointless. It's worthy reading to get to know the character more, but not much else.

The anime is a lot better by many metrics, and the areas that I highlighted to read basically give the context you need to understand a few details and "plotholes" in the anime. Many things that were changed serve the narrative and philosophical ideas much better. Especially concerning Kaede(Lucy), Nana, and Mariko I completely understand why Nozomi was dropped as well.

From my perspective, Lucy(and Nyuu), Nana, Mariko, Kurama's, and Kouta's place in the story are all more meaningful in the anime than they are in the manga. Especially Mariko and Kurama's. The end and situation they face in the anime is astoundingly profound and powerful. But in the Manga there's a lot less substance and feels more like their lives were tossed away for the sake of just making Lucy feel more evil.

Even more so because the Anime and the Manga end in effectively the same place with only a few minor differences.

The manga is much more cluttered and has a lot of ends that aren't tied up. The first half stands out as fairly good, and well inspired, and serves as a great foundation to the setting and story.

However, there's a lot of meaningless narrative parts in the 2nd half of the manga that do absolutely nothing at all. A lot of it simply feels like Lynn got carried away.

The entire run is loaded with pointless ineffective violence, and panty shots worthy of the shallow and fanservice-y accusations that get tossed at the series that the anime really doesn't do.

There's a lot of things in the entire manga that is ecchi, gratuitously violent, or rapey just to be explicit, but it really just doesn't do much but harm the quality and atmosphere of the manga. So it comes as a pretty reasonable change that the anime toned it down, and then utilized it more for effect and presence. Substance is better than quantity. And the Manga didn't utilize it's violence and adult themes as effectively as it could have. Something the anime exceeded at.

The biggest problem I really have with the manga is that it is not as much of an emotional driver that sinks into your soul like the anime does. The Manga has good emotional moments, but it really does not pull at your heart like the anime does.
The anime just does this exceedingly well, while the manga exceeds at being violent and perverse.

As a first time manga run, it's surprisingly well done, has a lot of recognizable value, and it serves as a fantastic source material for adaption, but standing on it's own, it has a lot of issues that detract from an otherwise beautiful and powerful story.

Elfen Lied is one of those series that you read and question whether or not it was a good series, oh wait, no it isn't. Elfen Lied is an amazingly written series that had a lot of very adult themes. It was the first series that I had ever read that I had come back to at a later age with more education and enjoyed it more due to my expanded knowledge. Whether your a psychologist or a biologist this series has a lot to offer to both different professions. It's less than I can say for Okamato's other work.

Elfen Lied takes a scientific approach to the whole "magical girl" genre, I put that in brackets because they aren't technically magical in this series, they use a force created by their bodies that the humans have taken to calling vectors (one defintion of vector being "an organism that transmits a disease or parasite from one animal or plant to another), which is a sort of way to insult these beings because these arm like appendanges can transmit their DNA into the bodies of humans, meaning that the humans infected with this DNA will give birth to Diclonius children (Diclonius being another insult to them, calling them an animal with horns). What makes this series so interesting to a person who believes in science like me is the fact that they explain everything with science, and very well so. Okamato uses already existing aspects of humanity and amplify them to create the dliclonius as a fictional species and makes it believable. In a strange sort of way, author Lynn Okamato makes it so that this fictional species that has monumental power is decently believable. Then the story of the series is pretty well written as well. For those of you that haven't heard of or prefer to avoid spoilers for series to a massive extent, this series is about a young diclonius woman who falls out of a tower and is found with amnesia on the Kamakura beaches by two other young adults, it follows these people through their experiences that all seem to revolve around the diclonius girl. The manga has a great amount of character development, even for lesser characters and even villains. Even the villains are well written. From an institution director attempting to protect his daughter, to said daughter attempting to protect her father, or even a diclonius man that has endorse humanity viewing his species as monster-like. There isn't a single human character. Though I can't say why the series is called Elfen Lied without spoiling a major plot point. This series also has a knack for portraying very adult themes very maturely while keeping a good amount of levity at nearly all points of the series. The sexual/physical abuse that one of the characters has survived is handled extremely well in a really realistic way. Then you also have a character that has a such a lack of self confidence that she has to wear a diaper because she can't control her bladder due to her lack of self confidence, this is still handled in a very mature way.

But the series is kind of lacking in the means of art. It starts of decently drawn and ends off a bit better, and as this is the authors first manga. His next series, Brynhildr in the Darkness, looks a lot better but of course it does everything else worse.

Age Rating: M for Blood and Gore, Disturbing content, Child Rape/Abuse, Nudity, Adult Themes, Explicit language, Intense Violence, and Incest.

Disclaimer: This is not for the faint of heart or those who are squeamish, there is a lot of mature content that something from North America wouldn't dare touch on. Okamato doesn't censor this series in the slightest.

Overall Rating: 9/10

Elfen Lied is a very well written series with a slight amount of fan service. But in the end it takes its intended audience seriously, which makes it one of the most enjoyable series I have ever seen.

Overview:

I have written many anime reviews, but this is my first time writing a manga review. Please be gentle critics! Usually the manga is better than the anime...unfortunately, today we will be looking at an exception to that rule of thumb.

SPOILERS! This is a compare/contrast with the anime. If you haven't read the manga yet, skip this review!!!

Elfen Lied (despite the bashing it gets on MAL and 4chan) is actually my favorite anime of all time. I'm not even being ironic, I'm dead serious! However, the manga... kind of sucks ass. I personally preferred the anime for quite a number of reasons.

Firstly, Lucy's character was more interesting with 2 personalities: 1 good (Nyuu) and 1 morally complex and greyish (Lucy), whereas the manga had 3 personalities with good (kaede) good (nyuu) pure evil (literal voice of DNA). This 3 personality path divided the character into clearly good and evil parts and robbed the primary character of much of her complexity. This also brings me to the next HUGE problem with the manga: DNA taking over and forcing people to be evil. The anime was much more ambiguous on the nature vs. nurture side of the diclonius killing instict, but leaned towards nurture since the only time we see a diclonius kill without prior heavy abuse is in Kakuzawa Jr's stories he told Kurama. Not exactly someone who can be trusted since nearly everything he says in the series is a lie. Although still debatable, the manga leans heavily towards nature and the diclonius simply being evil. This totally undermines the anti-discrimination theme that is a key part of the story, since it makes the discrimination and inhumane treatment seem justified. The Diclonius are wiped out in the manga, and we the reader are supposed to cheer this on! An entire human sub- race is simply evil at the genetic level and must be wiped out rather than learning to coexist with the rest of humanity. If the anime Elfen Lied was like X-men, the manga is basically "The Ugly Mushroom", a Nazi children book explaining to kids why Jews must be exterminated. Besides arguably having the worst moral of any manga EVER, it is also complete bullshit since DNA does NOT work that way! You can be genetically pre-disposed towards sociopathy and limited empathy, but DNA does not grab hold of your body and force you to be evil like Lucy's did when she sliced Kurama rather than allow herself to be shot.

Now we move on to Kouta, who is very average in the manga, whereas in the anime he just about the nicest guy ever. He is like Keitaro from Love hina, DBZ fused with Mohatma Gandhi. Although not the most realistic, I actually prefer this version of the character. At least he's memorable and interesting unlike manga Kouta who is just bland and forgettable. Another reason I like the anime is that I vastly prefer Kouta/Lucy to Kouta/Yuka. Lucy may have murdered Kouta's family, but the amount of remorse she feels and her desire to repent and become reborn (via Nyuu) coupled with Kouta's extreme kindness and forgiveness make them an interesting couple. They seem similar to Rodion and Sonya from Crime and Punishment. Rodion murders her best friend, but in the end she still loves him and forgives him following his extreme remorse and repentance. He goes through a Christian rebirth rather than an amnesia from bullet rebirth though. Kouta/Yuka is not only a rather dull couple, but Yuka is a truly irritating and unlikeable character. She whines more than any other character despite having had by FAR the best lot in life. She lashes out with violence every 5 minutes for minor shit ( Thank GOD she wasn't the one born with vectors). I also think Kouta/Lucy pairing is a far better reflection of the themes of repentance, love, and forgiveness, so it even adds better artistic aesthetics along with being more interesting and enjoyable.

Another thing is the tone of the anime under Kanbe's direction vs. Okamoto's tone and writing in the original manga. The anime has some silly ecchi moments, but the fucking manga goes so overboard, it REALLY makes the series difficult to take remotely seriously. Hell, there is an entirely wasted character who's only point of existence seems to be that her incontinence satisfies one of Okamoto's many fetishes. Kanbe stated he wanted to make an anime that could make 18 ups cry and challenge our assumptions on things like the limits of love, repentance, forgiveness, etc. Okamoto never took himself so seriously or had such a strong artistic vision. As proof, he personally made the first hentai doujin of elfen lied. I'm not fucking kidding, look it up! Kanbe has a strong resume in directing great anime and even made shoujo like card captors far better than they needed to be. He worked under Miyazaki himself on Nausicca for crying out loud! Okamoto has some good ideas, but is a writer with a bad need for an editor and has never written anything else of note.

Finally, as the plot in the manga went on we saw more and more silly shit that I could have gone without. If Kakuzawa had a whole clone army of totally controllable Marikos, why did he send the wild and uncontrollable original? The answer is that Okamoto clearly had the idea for babara and the other Mariko clones after the fact, and it creates a massive plot hole that makes Kakuzawa look even dumber than he already is. Did anyone think the Unknown man added anything other than a hilariously un-aerodynamic weapon? He got to make Bando a hero at least, which no one even wanted. Even Bando gets a second chance in this life, but not fucking Kaede? WTF?! We also get that admiral that looks like Itachi Uchiha and that god damned ridiculous vector tank! Overall, I will take an open ending over a bad closed ending any day! Why do people think having a closed ending makes something better? Brothers Karamazov: open ending. Birdemic: neatly wrapped ending.

PS. although minor compared to some of the manga's more grievous sins, the artwork in the manga is TERRIBLE! It sort of improves halfway through, but my god is it bad!

Elfen Lied

This proves once again that the manga is not always better than the anime. The anime adaptation actually showed more quality and censored many of the unnecessary perverted scenes from the manga. Of course, it fell short in terms of the story because the anime didn't cover the entire manga.


The Elfenlied manga has an at least subtle main plot right up to the end. But all of this failed because of the Creator's lack of talent. The story was done immensely, the characters were almost catastrophic and this work had almost no detail.

A particularly negative point about the work is the writer's massively sick and perverse predilection. It was not just about breasts and genitals, but also tremendously about sexual arousal and female orgasms.


And in the end we were presented with an enormous pile of plot armor without any explanation, so that it just looks like a happy ending.

Story

The actual basic idea of ​​the main story was not bad, as was the approach with the research facility and its background. However, the implementation of all of this has been an absolute disappointment.

Up to Chapter 60 everything revolves around some sexual content and enormously monotonous slice of life elements.

As expected, the whole finale towards the end also felt very badly implemented. With the difference that at least something happened.

Representation / drawing

The drawings are enormously below average. In some approaches even on the level of a complete amateur. Especially in the area of ​​physique, face and generally the entire anatomy of the characters.

Backgrounds were average, nothing to speak of.


Characters

The worst point in the entire manga. What happens when you put a bunch of unsympathetic, flat and boring characters under one roof. Certainly nothing good.

We have by far one of the worst protagonists in the entire anime / manga scene. Bunch of female protagonists who are only conditional on fan service. Especially since none of the characters has any personality. Everyone just felt forced and artificial. Especially Lucy / Nyu.

The top three characters by far were Nana / your father and the military killer.


Conclusion

By and large, this is a hugely poor manga in every way. The potential for the story was there, but not much was done with it in the end.

Basically, his next work, Brynhildr in the Darkness, is a much better title than this one.

Story:
Story is quite deep, there are many unexpected twists and turns that'll make your head spin. While there are numerous events that do have a powerful effect upon you, there are some things that seem to replay throughout the whole story, but that doesn't hurt it in anyway

Art:
Don't know much about art but it was pretty nice. I think there are some scenes where the charcters are suddenly disproportioned, but they're in small little spaces so they don't stand out much. Quite a few bloody scenes that were done nicely.

Character:
Character development is a little slow at times and you kind of wish that you could give them a good kick. But what really makes up for that is the fact there are numerous characters that have different personalities who play their parts very well.

Enjoyment: I'm enjoying lots of things about the manga, but I think the one thing that draws you in is the story. Augumented with a variety of characters the whole thing comes together very strongly.

Overall: For now it's a 10. On the basis that the storyline is very strong with a nice cast of charcters that keep things interesting.

Warning:
Now here is where elfen lied probably loses a lot of ground to other manga. Even with spectacular story, a great cast of characters, there has to be a catch somewhere. It is unfortunate, but Elfen Lied brings out many parts of the story with strong graphical content. Examples would range from legs and arms flying from their owners in a bloody blur and ecchi that could almost be considered hentai. These scenes don't dominate the story, but there are enough gory scenes to cause some to turn around. So for kids out there or readers with weak stomaches, you are heavily advised not to read Elfen Lied. Also for those who consider themselves depressed or slighly mental, you might find yourself in a darker place if you read Elfen Lied.

By giving this series an overall rating of 6 is me being generous. Elfen Lied to me feels like a series that had so much potential. The ideas behind the story were deep (extinction of humanity, the moral question of what is human compassion). However, the way they were brought out were horrible.

Nearly every other page contains somebody crying in drama; so much that it got old fast. To those that will eventually read Elfen Lied; prepare for a big cry-fest. Rest assure though, the artist does randomly throw in comic relief, which end up make those moments incongruous with the flow of the story.

There came a point when the story became predictable. Many chapters ended with a cliff hanger... Too many actually. Cliff hangers ended up being so absurd (a character being killed off way too soon) that when I started the next chapter, I could almost exactly predict the outcome. My thinking process was "Nope, the artist doesn't have the guts to kill him/her off yet."

As mentioned before, the delivery of the story could've been better. 107 chapters were not necessary. I enjoyed the anime more than the series; it kept the main themes of the story short and sweet without dragging on. Around chapter 80 was when I realized that the artist is now trying too hard to hammer in her themes.

All in all, Elfen Lied was a huge waste of potential. With better story telling antics and better character development, this could've been a great series.

There were many things that I loved about Elfen Lied. It has very good action (lots of crazy blood, gore, and explosions), it has plenty of comedy (in that cute haremish sorta way), and best of all it has characters that actually evolve (without the typical shōjo romance BS). Each character has a background and extenuating circumstances that make him/her unique, most of them tragic. Watching these people grow from the roots of their issues is quite beautiful. The development doesn’t lack in showmanship or emotion and that is what makes Elfen Lied absolutely amazing.

Flaws? Well the art is good, but it’s not phenomenal. The action is depicted rather nicely, but sometimes the pages would be overloaded giving it a very busy appeal. I didn’t really know where to focus my attention at certain points, however. This isn’t a heavily reoccurring thing, so it wasn’t too bad. The character design is nice, but the eyes are so large and similar that it became difficult at times to differentiate the female characters. The male characters all looked vastly different from one another most of the time, so identifying them didn’t require as much effort.

Another flaw that I found with this series was the ecchi (or frivolous perverseness) element was mostly unnecessary. The unrelated sexual innuendos took away from the serious tone that shadowed the plot. I can understand the need for comic relief, especially in a piece like this, but there are other ways to add humour rather than breaking plot to insert stupid sexual dialogue, which seemed like a waste of space given that the women spent eighty five percent of their time in the buff.

Overlooking the crude humour breaks and sometimes brimming art panels, Elfen Lied is a wonderful series that should be read by any fan of manga at least once. The plot is very interesting, especially if you’re into science-fiction and elements that question the term “humanity,” or if you just love to stare at bare breasts. Like I said earlier, the character development is wonderful, done no amends by the anime series in the least. I recommend this with seven out of ten stars.

this is pretty much garbage. it's riddled with inconsistencies whether its pacing, plotlines, Diclonius mythos, Lucy's powers, or even just characters acting like decent human beings. a lot of people put focus on the gratuitous violence and bloodshed but once you get past the first scene, you adjust and move on.

if anything, it's the borderline pornographic material that's gratuitous. there is unwarranted nudity and sexual scenes within the Elfen Lied manga that do little to the plot except to maybe give the readers breather aka fap material? but it is UNCOMFORTABLE. it is uncomfortable to see Nyu who acts like a child groping and touching the majority of the female cast inappropriately while they're moaning and being assaulted (this is not an exaggeration). i'm not reading Elfen Lied for hentai with SOME splices of sci-fi and grotesque fight scenes; i'm reading it FOR the sci-fi and grotesque fight scenes and i am willing to put up with sexual antics if I can get substance. But alas, there is very little substance.

I won't list names but literally barely any "notable" characters die for real? There's a character that "dies" only to be revealed to be alive later, and then "dies" again only to be revealed that they are STILL alive, and this situation happens to a handful of other characters. I get why that adds ~drama~ to add death but once you bring the majority of the deceased characters back to life, I really just don't care! There are literally no stakes if you, the author, can prove that you can bend the rules of reality to bring your dismembered character back alive and well. It causes me to lose all suspense of disbelief and my ability to care about what is happening throughout the story and its characters.

Speaking of characters, most of them are offensively one-dimensional or irredeemably, nonsensically evil. They have generic, bland character designs to the point where I mix up minor characters with each other (the secretaries or whatever all look the same). You hate most of the characters and then learn later you're supposed to be rooting for them because...well, just because. I ask, "Why should i care?" and Elfen Lied gives me no answer. Not a single character is worth caring about, because they're just not likable at all. You can sympathize with their experiences with abuse (I could be talking about SEVERAL characters; people being beaten or abused is apparently VERY normal in this universe), but they're one-note or irritating so you don't care.

That's why the """love triangle""" fails.

(Small spoiler warning).

I don't like Yuka, or Kouta, or Lucy, really, so why should I be sad that Kouta doesn't get together with Lucy at the end when she's homicidal and killed his family? And he, rightfully so, hates her for it? Kouta only cares for Lucy in relation that she is also Nyu; when she is Lucy, he hates her! When she is Nyu, he finds her cute! Even though Nyu is just a hapless amnesiac who sexually assaults every girl she comes in contact with, which I guess Kouta finds... endearing? Which is gross and sad for Lucy, because she loves a man who loves someone she will never meet or exist, but shares the same body as her? The other part of the love triange isn't really any better. Why should I be cheering for Yuka or sympathizing with her when she is proven to be an unlikable, selfish, vindictive excuse of a human being who revolves her ENTIRE LIFE around Kouta in the relation of whether he wants to bump uglies with her (not about to dive down the 'they're confirmed cousins" rabbit hole)? The whole "triangle" is set up really sloppily and it makes it difficult to remotely care about who gets who because I'm just rolling my eyes (or covering them) wishing for it to stop.

On the topic of romance, why is pedophilia normalized in Elfen Lied? Nana (who is about 14 years old physically, 6 years old actually) wants to marry her Papa who is absolutely in his late twenties-early thirties. I thought it was weird, but I guess we're supposed to see their relationship as a good, romantic thing...for some reason. And then there's Mayu (13-14 years old) kissing Bandou (the assassin jackass bandit who kills people for a living) who also definitely in his late twenties or early thirties. Also seen as a good romantic relationship. Even thought its basically illegal. It's...disgusting, to say the least.

"But Miss Reviewer!" you cry out, "Why haven't you talked about the actual plot at all? Why not discuss the Diclonius? Or what happens else besides the romance and sexual content?"

"Well," I'll reply sourly, "because there is no actual plot".

And I'm right. It's barely there. Of course, someone is going to disagree with me and point aggressively at the pages dedicated to explaining the science mumbo jumbo and yeah, it's there, but it is smashed in between these pointless romance and running around in the rain being sad and graphically sexual scenes between minors, almost like afterthought. When removed from Elfen Lied and observed separately, it's cool. But within the story, it is shoved aside for cheap violence or sexual content and neglected. It barely stuck with me at all.

Even if we were to consider the science fiction parts of the story, they hold no ground. It is not believable or interesting, it is random and nonsensical, with Lucy's strength varying from Godlike to barely winning against someone with a machine gun to the whole transferring-cells-to-save-my-friend-who-is-dying concept that made not a lick of goddamn sense to the reveal of a RADIOACTIVE SWAMP underneath the Earth where an impossibly massive, omniscient Diclonius head lies soaking in its waters.

(End of spoiler warning)

anyways, all in all, I think Elfen Lied frickin' sucks and I fail to understand how it got adapted into an anime (which is much easier to sit through than the manga because so much of the sexual antics were cut out!). The writing is sloppy and it is basically just gratuitously edgy with lots of pointless nudity and blood alongside characters so shallow I couldn't even dip my toes in if I tried. It's a solid 3/10, absolutely deplorable. The only reason it isn't a 1 is that I appreciate the effort put into the Diclonius mythos even if it becomes a steaming load of BS by the end of the final chapter.

FINAL SCORE: 3/10. Do not bother if you expect something of quality. If you like something with tons of violence, I hesitate to suggest this as a read, but go for it. If you like hentai and can stomach violence, sure! This is your boat, go sail it.

I owe an apology to VAP and Arms. After completing the anime, I blamed them for Elfen Lied’s mediocrity. In actuality, it's the fault of the mangaka Lynn Okamoto for its creation. Elfen Lied resembles a puzzle with missing pieces and pieces that don't belong. Although the concept is uniquely complex, some parts were unexplained or just plain ridiculous.

The story wasn't entirely bad, just a bit dramatic. The characters were distinguishable in personalities. As a harem, every girl that entered Kouta’s life had a tragic past. The best part were the backstories, even illustrated in extra chapters. It tells the story from the character's point of view and displays their emotions. It's understandable about their situation of not having anywhere else to go. Thankfully, not every single character is infatuated with Kouta (the male protagonist). Three girls have feelings for Kouta, but he never showed favoritism for one or the other. There's also character development in Nyu, who matures from the girl who only uses one word and enjoys groping other girls after a time skip in the story.

The idea of a mutant called Diclonii was good at first, until Lynn decided to vastly vary them from humans without an explanation. First, it's gory with the Diclonii’s ability to kill humans with telekinesis, their invisible vector arms. The amputated heads and bodies ripped apart grab your attention. Then it turns comical. Their bodies appear humanlike. They even die like humans. However, their bodies are apparently made of plastic, as they receive plastic body parts instead of bionic parts like regular humans. This makes them appear as your typical Barbie doll. It makes no sense, because Kouta squeezed Nyu’s non-plastic boobs plenty of times. At the very last minute, Lynn decides to give one specific Diclonii the unfortunate ability to melt for overusing her power, when this was never mentioned throughout the story. Then I questioned why can't she die normally. Also, Lucy is the original Diclonius from a virus that spread during the time she was born. The manga failed to mention how this virus originated. The lab named Lebensborn was apparently using young Diclonii as test subjects to discover what's unknown about them, but those flaws, among others, were never explained.

Apart from the flaws with the Diclonii concept, there are major things that ticked me off about Elfen Lied. As the story progresses, it became clear that Lynn couldn't make up his mind about what he wants to do. A scene would become a teaser with the character being backed into a corner, on the brink of death, or going through a psychological state. Then things suddenly brightened with the character surviving a near-death experience or turning back to normal. For example, a character had a gun to his head, and the scene cuts to a scene of blood splatters. Then the character later appears with an excuse of someone saving him. If foreshadowing took place, I'd excuse this. The most ridiculous thing is how you witness a character taking his/her last breath from having his/her guts spilled out, body split in half. Then they appear chapters later completely unharmed. There's also a lot of pointless tears, especially from Yuka, who disliked Kouta not showing her enough affection or not remembering their childhood.

The ending didn't make sense at all, and Lynn threw anything together just to end it all. Sad scenes occurred, and they weren't realistic. They'd cry one minute, perk up the next, and then go back to bawling. Characters that died suddenly come back to life. Then new information was introduced at the last minute just to hurry and end the story. Reminds me a lot like Lynn’s other work “Gokukoku no Brynhildr.”

The character design was average. It's just your typical big-eyed characters. The background design is what really stands out. It was moderately detailed from the cracks in the wood floors to the swirly clouds in the sky. The gradient colors were good, too, especially in the streets at night and dark hallways. I don't invest my time much into ecchi, but it's fanservice galore of course. I think it was done well, just wish it was done at appropriate times.

The meaning behind “Elfenlied” (“Elf Song,” a poem in German) is creative in terms of the title. Behind all of the amputated heads and chopped bodies lie a mediocre story. There are several other minor flaws in Elfen Lied, such as a character who wears a diaper and characters with family complexes. If the puzzle was completed with all of the right pieces, I would've enjoyed it more. Overall, I thought Elfen Lied had the right idea, but it wasn't drawn correctly.

Warning: this review contains spoilers.

First impressions:
So, we got a mutant race of humans coming into existence, and humans are trying to kill them. Sounds interesting enough, what could go wrong?

Story: 4/10
Elfen Lied is about a race of mutated humans called the diclonius, that instinctively kill humans and who are captured by the government and placed in a top secret base, to be experimented on. The main focus is an escapee diclonius named Lucy who gets shot in the head, causing her to have amnesia and a split personality called Nyu, who washes up on a shore, where she’s found and taken in by our primary protagonist, Kouta, together with his cousin.

Elfen Lied is trying to be this socio-political drama about the diclonius, who are discriminated against by humans, and are usually killed on sight. It does this by asking questions like “Can humans and diclonius co-exist?” and “Are diclonius born to kill humans or is it because of human’s treatment of them, that they are the way they are?”. On paper, this sounds like a really interesting (if a bit tired) idea, but the problem is that the presentation and execution of this concept are very poor and lackluster, to say the least. This holds especially true because the ending doesn't even begin to answer the questions that are set up, and any hint of an answer is told very vaguely.

The story itself suffers from the biggest case of tonal-whiplash that I’ve seen in quite a while. This is because even though this series is trying to be dark and serious, with its socio-political themes of society’s moral hypocrisy and alienation of out groups, it just doesn't really work, when it relies so much on cheap, emotionally-manipulative shock factor, instead of something of actual substance. An example of this is in a scene where a group of psychotic little kids beat a puppy to death, while grinning from ear to ear. Besides that, you’ve got at least one fanservice scene in almost every chapter, some examples of which being the time Lucy/Nyu needs help getting dressed, the time(s) the main character’s cousin wants to bang him and the time Lucy/Nyu gropes and makes out with people, just ‘cause. To top it all off, the plot becomes silly, in how dark and serious it's trying to be with the execution of its themes, all of which basically boil down to “humanity does fucked up things”. Now just to be clear, I don’t mind when manga take a more naturalistic approach with their storytelling. The problem with Elfen Lied, though, is that not only can it not pick an appropriate tone, both overall and in the individual scenes, but also that it goes so unnecessarily over the top, so that it just ends up coming across as cartoony and falling flat on its face.

The storyline itself is a whole other beast, which I’ll talk about now. I don't mind the slice-of-life moments, as they allow for some levity, but also give you the time to get to care about the characters, and actually feel bad for them when the shit hits the fan. I find it jarring, though, that it turns into a harem, because as the story continues, Kouta picks up a new loli or a new diclonius to live with him because [insert tragic reason here]. Also, there are some narrative choices that are so ridiculous, that I almost cry tears of laughter when reading them, because of how over-the-top they are. For example, when Lucy kills Kouta’s father and sister, that was basically kick-started by a misunderstanding, because his cousin was getting a little too close to him, she decides she likes Kouta too, and goes yandere on his ass. I find that entire series of events funny as hell, and to add more to my comedy, it turns around and frames it as tragic, but to my mind, it’s just forced melodrama. This series’ tendency to force drama is only escalated when it turns out that Kouta and Lucy conveniently meet again years later, around the same time period when Lucy escapes and Kouta comes to live in the town where he and Lucy met and played together as children. It's there that Kouta conveniently doesn't remember what happened in his past, and Lucy conveniently exhibits the cognitive ability of a four year old. Did the planets just align for this one monument or is Kouta just a loli magnet? I can probably name a few more examples of in-series, off-screen godly intervention, for the sake of drama, but I digress. In all honestly though, if this were to happen in real life, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. The inhuman experiments, the double moral standards and the comically evil psychopaths in power; all of these are visible a mile away, yet this story showcases them like this is some sort of new concept that hasn't been explored before, even though it has been, but much better elsewhere.

Characters: 4/10
Our lead protagonist, Kouta, is pretty much bland-as-toast, due to how passive he is. Even if personality-wise, he’s a good, if not conflicted guy, he just isn't used to his full effect. This is rather bothersome, as he has major roles to play in the story. I like the fact that they tried to add more depth to him, by giving him some history with Lucy before the start of the main story, adding a good amount of conflicts stemming from that, later on in the story. At the end of the day though, it doesn't really amount to much in the grand scheme of things. It flip-flops between “I hate you” and “I love you” way too much, making it feel cheap, and I stopped caring after the first so many times. Fortunately, to balance out Kouta’s blandness, we have our secondary protagonist, Lucy/Nyu, who’s a little better written and offering a far greater level of intrigue than Kouta, besides the whole split personality thing. The thing that I find to be the most interesting about her is her inner conflict, as on the one hand, she hates humanity and has a natural instinct to kill all humans, but on the other hand, there’s also the part of her that just wants to live a peaceful life with Kouta and extras, despite her guilt towards him. This duality that’s presented in her character is much more interesting than a one dimensional, sadistic attitude of “kill all humans, cause humans are bad, m’kay”.

The side characters are just as bland and lacking in both depth and character development as the leads. The only characters that actually stood out for having something more to them were Nana and doctor Kurama. Nana, because she’s one of a few diclonius that are actually kept alive for experiments and has been stuck in a lab for most of her life, yet doesn't have any hostility towards humans, besides for self-defense. Even in those cases though, humans are generally still alive after the encounter, as she actively chooses to spare them, despite the fact that diclonius are supposed to instinctively want to kill humans. Relative to Nana though, doctor Kurama is an entirely different breed of interesting. On the outside, he seems like a very cold and cruel man, to humans and diclonius alike. Despite this though, he seems to have this very odd father-daughter relationship with Nana, even though his real biological daughter is another diclonius, that’s kept at the base. The main appeal of his character is his dual nature, where on the one hand, he’ll kill both humans and diclonius without a second thought, but on the other hand, will express clear feelings of affection (paternal, not romantic) towards Nana. This is exemplified when Nana was badly injured and was going to be put down for failing her mission, but he went out his way to help fix her up and even gave her massive amounts of money, to help her start a new life. His backstory was also pretty well done, as in it, he was presented with this very interesting moral dilemma, where he happened to find out his baby daughter was a diclonius. The result of this revelation was, of course, that he received an order from his superiors to kill his daughter, which made him heavily conflicted. On the one hand, his child would most likely be a threat to humanity, one day, but on the other hand, it was his baby daughter, who hadn’t harmed anyone. So to make a long story short, he tried to go through with it, but in the process his wife saw him and killed herself, but then his daughter ended up in the lab on the base where he works, and he is forced to live with guilt for his actions. On another note, the villains in this story are very cartoonishly evil, as they just do their thing, because they can. They're just evil for the sake of being evil and are used as a poor excuse to hammer in the message, which is that humans do fucked up things.

Art: 5/10
Where do I begin with this? The artwork is really ugly and the backgrounds look really shitty. As for the artstyle, it has this moe/cartoony aesthetic that really doesn't fit with the dark tone of the series. The character designs are probably some of the ugliest things I’ve ever had to look at, especially when it comes to the characters’ eyes. They’re drawn huge, even by manga standards and look like they came from the anime for clannad, except without Kyoani’s standard high level of detail.

Enjoyment: 6/10
Now I know I’ve been somewhat negative about Elfen Lied throughout this review, but there are a few parts I liked. I liked the gory fights, where people get ripped apart and even some of the fan service, jarring as it was.

Overall: 4/10

Conclusion:
Elfen Lied is a cluster fuck of ideas that by themselves are good, but which are badly implemented by an incompetent writer, who doesn't know how to use them to their full effect, and instead substitutes proper writing for cheap drama and shallow thematic development to get a rise out of people. That is Elfen Lied’s biggest trap, and it’s main tactic, that it uses to get you to care and invest emotions in its narrative, that even I myself fell into it. Once you get off its emotional roller coaster though, and regain the use of your brain, you see it for what it is. If you’re looking for a gore fest, then Elfen Lied is the manga for you. However, if you're not looking for a gore fest, then you’ll be unimpressed by its poorly written characters and generally lazy writing. On the bright side, if you like this concept and wish it were executed better, then I recommend you read Parasyte or Ajin (or even Tokyo Ghoul, if you’ve really exhausted all other options, and feel you can’t live without more).

Special credit to my unpaid and slightly pissed editor, Lonecrit.

"One heck of a disgusting bloody gore manga with an eye-popping storyline tangled with complicated character relations."

Made famous by its anime adaptation, Elfen Lied is well known for being THE cruelest, goriest, and a highly perverted, piece of work ever. The level of bloody mess you will encounter throughout the story can haunt the unprepared for many moons to come. In short, one is expected to have a strong stomach to survive these 107 chapters. Consider ...yourself warned!

Elfen Lied is perhaps the most controversial story of all time. Opinions on it varies greatly with some calling it "garbage of the century" while others claiming it an outstanding "masterpiece of all masterpieces". I prefer to stay away from these extremes but without a doubt naming Elfen Lied as the former is far from justified.

While it is rare to see "kawaii" horned girls brutally tearing bodies apart (or get their bodies tear apart), quite frankly Elfen Lied is infamous for that. However, that is not to say things just happen out of the blue and limps go flying for no apparent reason. In fact, it is evident that the mangaka put a great deal of effort into both explaining the background to this horrid power, and at the same time develop the story and character relationships. Many questions will likely come to mind as one read deeper into this manga. Questions like "why is this nude girl mercilessly killing innocents?" and "why do they possess these terrifying power?" will be among the first. Rest assure, that answers will be given in great elaborate details and the results will likely make heads go spinning, yet they will also cast an irresistible curse on you to keep reading.

The overall plot of Elfen Lied is truly amazing. It covers a wide variety of themes in great details, ranging from simple triangle love relationship, to the ever more common child abuse, to the horrid reality of non-ethical scientific research, to the threat of global terrorism, and lastly on human origin and our mutation/evolution. One can truly say Elfen Lied has it all.

However, nothing is perfect. What Elfen Lied lacked was some great artistic drawing. Although the reader can depict one action from the next, the amount of detail (ie. the quality of the artwork) is seemingly below what one would expect from such high quality story. But I guess we can also call it fortunate since if the artwork is better drawn, people might really start to faint from reading the manga due to excessive gore or result in severe nosebleed when the story gets to the more perverted scenes.

Strong character developments plus complex interrelations is another successful selling point of this manga. Although there are certain characters where we can easily identify as black or white (as in those we should love vs those we should hate), many actually belong somewhere in the gray region. Throughout the story you will find yourself rooting for a character in one chapter and surprisingly find yourself wanting to have that same character killed in the next chapter. It is precisely these types of character building techniques that make Elfen Lied loved and hated by many.

Finally I would like to once again remind my fellow MAL readers that this manga is not meant for young children and hopefully it will give you enjoyment rather than weeks of nightmare. I know I certainly enjoyed it to its fullest.


Reviewer BS:
*This is my first manga review. If you think there are places to improve on (and I know there are tons), please send me a friendly PM or just leave a comment. Thank You.*

The most bloodiest,goriest,psycho,depressing manga read in history. Elfen Lied is disgusting and yes it is very depressing. But its story telling is amazing and is very enjoyable. But be warned, these are the most violent and depressing 107 chapters you will read in your life. Every page is graphic(not literally), but is an amazing manga that shoud be read by all manga fans. Elfen Lied has amazing storytelling and its epic.