First Episode Summary
-------------------------------->
The story begins with a naked young girl named Lucy escaping under odd circumstances from an insular research facility off the coast of Kamakura in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan. Lucy manages to nonchalantly dismember and slay a fair number of the staff and guards with a form of seemingly supernatural power and gets outside. A sniper is seen trying to shoot her, only managing to ricochet a bullet off her metal helmet. Lucy then falls off a cliff into the sea, bleeding from her head but ultimately surviving and evading the research staff.

Lucy is not a normal human but rather a diclonius: a mutant variant of humans with two small horns on their heads (hence the name diclonius) that resemble cat ears. The diclonius race possesses telekinetic powers through use of their "vectors", long arms that resonate at a speed that causes them to be undetectable by sight. The number and reach of the vectors depend directly on the diclonius.

The day after Lucy's escape, a boy named Kohta arrives at Kamakura to meet his cousin Yuka. Kohta has come to study at the local university and has been given lodging at an old, family-owned inn, the "Maple (楓, Kaede?) Inn", provided he acts as the caretaker. After meeting with Yuka, they go for a visit to the beach and find Lucy washed up on the shore, still naked and bleeding from her head. The head trauma Lucy experienced causes her to develop a split personality. In stark contrast to the cold and sadistic Lucy, this personality is completely docile, harmless and is incapable at first of saying anything other than "Nyū". Not knowing what to do with her, Kohta and Yuka take her back to the inn to look after her and name her "Nyū". Yuka quickly decides that it will be best that she also live at the inn.

Kohta, Nyū, and Yuka begin settling into their life at the inn and Nyū begins to dredge up painful repressed memories from Kohta's past. Meanwhile, the researchers from the laboratory where Lucy was held begin searching for her, dispatching both human and diclonius agents to hunt her down.


My Opinion
------------------>
I love this anime. It never had any weak points The rising point appears early and it feels like a climax throughout the entire thing. Most of the younger audience is discouraged to watch this anime due to its insane amount of gore and nudity; but, it appeals to late teens and adult viewers. The abrupt ending might disgruntle some people, but it makes up for that and it continues as a manga (thankfully the anime follows the exact same plot as the manga). So, what does everyone else think about it?

This is one of my fav Animes, too bad it only had 13 Eps. T_T I thought it ended good too, overall it was awesome. I luved all the blood and violence yet it also had a storyline. ^^ I coulda done without the nudity but Elfen Lied still rocks! I liked the ending.. Well that's cool, I didn't know there was a Manga, I'll have to check that out. ^-^

Yer GREAT series, in my top 5best animes I'd say,

has awesome action scenes.
the background are rendered extremely good probly best i seen in a series (i mean outside like the ambient lights, trees,water etc)
Nyuu

story lines deep, has few comic parts/dramatic parts/depressing parts poor nyuu at end ='(, musics great love the opening song lilium (thinks thats name)

it's also one of few animes i prefer the dubbed version,

oh and if you have 5.1 sound system IT ROCKS, god it probly has best sound effects i have ever heard, like in first episode when people are getting ripped left and right.
the sound is unbelievably good,

many people dislike ending from what ive read on net, but i find its a very good ending, and it doesn't need a 2nd series or extra episode to explain. (though it bugs me we dont find out about the president dude with the horns =/, but i guess we cant win em all :p )

i suck at reviews so im not even gonna attempt one lol,

A very Beautiful Anime with some of the best drama ever!
well...not for kids though
But seriously, you have to love the anime, it has alot of story, the art is great, the violence is insane, it really is good!

I didn't think the ending was bad, but for it to have a 2nd season would do no justice to the series
If none of you watched Elfen Lied, WATCH IT!
(if you're 15 or more)

Watched it loong time ago (one of my first few anime), then a week ago I spent 2 days finish reading the manga (yea read the raw), and afterwards it made me rewatch the anime again.

It's still as good as ever. One of my favourites for sure.

I've seen many, many animes and in my opinion elfen lied is one of if not the best. the mix of drama and action, cuteness and the character development is top notch. My only complaint is that its not long enough..i'd love to read the manga but I can't find any translations of it anywhere

I've seen the anime like 2 years ago or so and I find it very dramatic. Lucy was the Ultimate right? She's got some power there. But was Lucy alive at the end?

Its definitely my favorite of all time

Such a great anime for anyone you understands and gets the underlying meaning.

It is a great Anime. I have only seen up to episode 8, but I am planning to see the rest of it as soon as possible.

Very good touched up on more thing also that is wrong with society today to very good anime never got board of it and i still watch but yes it could have been longer.

Elfen Lied, one of the best animes in my opinion. Thirteen episodes was a bit too short for the series though, as for the manga continues far beyond the end of the anime. It is on my top 5 anime list though. ^_^

I haven't read the manga,but I love the anime!Awesome music and animation,the plot is magnificent~I totally adore Lucy.Poor her,and all the other characters with a sad past...This anime was so touching and bloody,I can't stop loving it...Too bad it was such a short anime...*cries*

I'm usually very squeamish with blood and gore, but I really enjoyed Elfen Lied. Some parts left me feeling uncomfortable, but the story makes up for it. Very touching.

And you have to admit, the opening is absolutely beautiful.

I like the show. Orginally I watched it because I heard that its even bloodier than Blood + and also that the show deals on psychology (traumatized) ,but after watching it ,I was quite touched by the ending .I'm still wondering if lucy survived or not. The ova episode was quite funny and also I was a little touched by lucy's attachment to another human besides Kohta, I was touched when the tears started flowing out of the helmet thing when she was told her friend couldn't be saved. The ova was probably filler but I still like it. Another thing I like about the show is Nana's attachment to her father and how she wasn't psychotic like the rest of the diclonius .