Okay, lets just say that this animation series does not pull punches. Give it a few minutes on the first episode and it already starts spraying hosefuls of blood at your face. And the fact hits you just as hard as the blood does: This is not going to be one of those "normal" animes where there are cute winged and sparkly angel fairies helping naive though kindhearted and brave protagonists on their quest to save [insert group here]. No, this will be one of those where the protagonist has an agenda paralleling some combination of Adolph Hitler's ethnic cleansing with the amount of pain and blood for the victims at the caliber of a bowling ball making contact with one's masculine genitals multiple times at terminal velocity. Those poor useless human security guards will be playing the part of ragdoll-with-weak-limb-strings for our protagonist to rip their arms and legs one by one with. Oh yes, it's that exciting.

The story starts out by keeping the audience guessing long enough while their jaws drop to the ground from all the random deaths of the security guards whose weapons are rendered ineffective by some form of Matrix-esque ability of a female prisoner, who is currently escaping from a facility. Trust that the amount of violence depicted here will not falter as the series continues.

As the story goes on, the reason why so much blood flies around actually starts to manifest itself into a story with what one could call a plot, yet it seems as if the plot exists for the sole purpose of being a poor excuse to show the audience the physical and psychological torture that is inflicted by and dealt to female humanoids with pink hair and triangular horns that often seem to resemble cat ears. I know what you're thinking, females with hearing organs on top of their heads that actually resemble a feline? Is this even anime anymore?!

The protagonist, whose name is either Lucy or Nyuu according to whether she has been dealt cranial blows thus far an even or an odd number of times, respectively, changes personalities as well as her eye size as her pretty little pink-covered head sees fit to receive concussions. This is no surprise, but later you'll find out that she's basically a mutated human with bipolar disorder caused by internal conflict and possibly continued by post traumatic stress disorder. Her mutation has surprisingly done nothing against her physical attractiveness (I believe most of the audience would agree), but seems to have done everything in allowing her to psychically deflect, displace, and dissemble anything around her as she sees fit. Her species is named the Diclonius, which has its roots in Greek meaning "two horned," apparently referring to what looks like cat ears on her head, though they aren't supposed to be cat ears.

There are others like her, as the story progresses, each with their own agendas and usually vendettas (such as Lucy/Nyuu herself). Each of these Dicloniuses have the same ability as does Lucy/Nyuu, except that their strength and range of engagement varies. Humans therefore, naturally power-hungry and stupid by nature, attempts to wield the Diclonius as weapons, with Lucy/Nyuu's escape from the facility and her slaughter of the guards like lawnmower through your hair as the first testiment to their idiocy, all in all with about the same amount of resultant blood except with about 50 more heads than yours.

Not that I mind myself, but this series contains many scenarios that seem like they simply want to tell the audience, "Hey! We think it's fun to have gratuitious sexual situations and sexually tortured females!" Granted, perhaps they had this storyline in mind despite the amount of male audience attracted by the persistent nudity of certain female members of the cast, but hey, it's anime, the first rule of watching it is to not to think about it. There are probably some people who find this either offensive or, as I do for the following, a blatant attempt to magnetize more male viewers with the possibility that the producers may believe the story to not be strong enough to attract viewers on its own, in which case if you are one of these people on a particularly moral high horse, you probably should not watch this for the fact that it contains innumerable situations that contain what you may see as daggers through your cornea. But if you're in for gratuitiously sexually deviant scenarios with bloodied floors deep enough to sustain the Nile River, then start up your IRC client, BT client, or go to your nearby video store (once licensed) right away to download or purchase this series. I try not to give away too much more than the first few episodes, and trust me if you thought I gave away too much here, you need to keep watching. You're in for a shock on the level of taking a bath with your favorite toaster oven.

I absolutely Love this anime. If you can get past the gratouitous amounts of blood and sexual content it has a really deep story line and the animations are beautiful. The opening theme is nice and I wish there would have been more.

As much as I love this anime, I don't think I can stand another Elfen Lied thread. There are so many other threads regarding Elfen Lied.

It's full of blood, guts and suggestions that at the very least some of the of characters were abused in some way. This is a show of characters with deep psychological scars of one type or another. I only have the first two volumes of the Elfen Lied series but I still plan to first the collection. Until I have finish the collection I am not going to give my final judgement just yet.

On another note, I think ist an interesting idea to put a stone cold killer and a cute character in the same body, not something you see a whole or done just right.

Not just long ago there is also an Elfen Lied thread. I only watch the first 3 eps. I quitted. Too Bloody. Things crack up. Just can't handle.

Not just long ago there is also an Elfen Lied thread. I only watch the first 3 eps. I quitted. Too Bloody. Things crack up. Just can't handle.

This anime is great, but if you can't handle the blood and gore then you won't be able to see what they anime really have to offer. And the manga is even better, but its even worse ( more bloody and physcho...)

I want to see more of the anime, i really hope that it have a second season or something. Need more ^_^

I remember when i first watch this anime, i was so surprise by how bloody it was, but i got used to it. Cute characters with... a killer intend -_^

I was totally breathless when i finish watching the serie , and since then , about 3 or 4 months ago , i was hoping that adv films bring the second season as soon as posible , but rather they finished the manga recently , and i dont think they´re gonna bring anymore episodes of this anime . I started looking and i found there was a 14 ep , it takes place between the 10th and 11th ep i think , but , why would they bring that ep. a year after they´re finished with the serie ?
just for fun ? , or maybe they had it on mind for the fans or something , i just hope they realize there are fans that need the second season to understand better the ending .
thats just what i think XD

It's a good thing that you stopped at ep 3, if you don't like violent anime. cause eps 4 & 5 are wicked sick. esp ep 5. (mayu's dad is the sickest f**k i have ever seen. other than what i just said. this is a freaken good anime series. it's a must see, so just grab a puke bucket and watch. the story line is the best and so very deep dark and twisted.

One of the finest anime. but way too much blood on the walls...

I watched the whole thing and loved it ^_^ Yes, there was a lot of blood and nudity, but I thought the story was pretty interesting. :)

I really liked the show. The story and plot was awsome. My only problem with the series is its length.

My only problem with the series is its length.

I agree, the blood and gore didn't bother me at all, plus when it was recommended to me i was told how violent it was so i knew what to expect. I loved the characters and was really able empathize Dicondolus. The portions about their childhoods was very well done. I really hope there is me to come; i just can't get enough of this anime.

I�??m one of the people (seemingly few) who thought it was only a little above �??OK�?�. It had nice animation and fairly good soundtrack. However the rest of the show left a little bit to be desired in my eyes. The plot left me just not caring too much about the characters. Though the characters themselves were in some sense compelling or at least entertaining. Overall I would give it a 7 out of 10, or if however I felt like being a bit hard a 6 out of 10.

Also the blood and gore in the series did not bother me, nor did the nudity for that matter�?� In fact I think I liked it. At least to the extent my more base and exacting senses would permit me too.

The anime is great.

Lucy is full of mystery, that's why the anime is great,

the ending is a little bit confusing but it's ok. :D, the sound track is awesome

Is one of the BEST Anime's i saw!It has anything What you need!Brutality bloood girl' love....Naked girl ^^.EVERYTHING!! Soldier's cop's gun's doctor's!Action shut's....Oh maaaaaaannnnnnnn......If somebody does'nt seen it then he must! :)