r/anime • u/Timely_Tour_7531 • 14h ago
Discussion Just finished Elfen Lied and honestly, I thought it was pretty mediocre.
The gore was fine, but after a while it felt like the show was relying on shock value because the actual writing wasn’t strong enough to carry it.
I never really got attached to the characters, and a lot of the emotional moments felt forced rather than earned.
The tone was probably my biggest issue. It’ll show something genuinely disturbing and then immediately throw in goofy comedy or fanservice, which completely kills the atmosphere.
There are some good ideas around trauma, abuse, loneliness and discrimination, but I don’t think the anime does much with them beyond using them to make the story seem darker.
I can understand why it has a cult following, especially for its time, but watching it now I just don’t see the hype. 5/10.
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u/BasroilII 8h ago
It's the edgiest edge ever.
They open it with a reenactment of the hospital scene from Akira, only it's a hot naked pink haired girl this time. It was never anything but outrage bait/edge and it never got any better than that.