Elfen Lied

Elfen Lied vol. 1 front cover

Look at the front cover of Elfen Lied volume 1. What genre do you think this manga is? Romance? Shoujo? Slice of life perhaps? Think again…

It’s actually seinen. It’s a manga full of  blood and gore, and a little bit of nudity. But putting that aside, it is one of the best manga out there.

In the story, there are a bunch of evolved human species: diclonius. A noticeable difference between diclonius and normal humans are that dicloniuses have a small horn on their heads. Because of this difference, they are often bullied when they are kids, being called names and avoided for being “weird”. At first they simply become sad. But at some point, they just lose it, and all hell breaks loose. Diclonius can make these “vector hands” that come out of their body and simply rip things apart, including human heads. They end up getting captured and put in a maximum security prison/research lab, where their hatred against humanity gradually grow. It’s kind of similar to Gaara from Naruto.

rapist hands

The series starts big; it draws you in like no other. Lucy, the main protagonist of the story and a diclonius, breaks out of maximum security research lab island, and goes on a rampage, killing everybody on sight. A sharpshooter manages to take a shot at the helmet she is wearing. She gets knocked out and drifts into the sea. When she wakes, she seems to have lost her memory, being unable to remember anything including speech. From  a cold blooded murderer,

Lucy - murderer mode

to an innocent looking girl with an infant-lie personality. She is found on the beach by Kouta, and ordinary high school boy. He gaves her the name Nyuu, because “nyuu” is the only word that Lucy can utter.

Nyuu - the innocent version of Lucy

Naturally, the cops start coming for the escaped diclonius, who reside in Kouta’s house. Kouta who doesn’t know of Nyu’s real identity, thinks that she’s…I don’t know what he was thinking actually. He just brings her home as if she was a stray cat. In fact, until late part of the story, Kouta does not know that she is a diclonius.

The story then revolves around Lucy, dealing with the her two personalities that come and go: Lucy the murderer and Nyu the innocent infant. I should stop here. Anymore and I would spoil the story. Those of you who just wants some hentai, this is not the manga. But those of you who are looking for a deep, meaningful plot, with a strong nostalgic theme, then I present you, Elfen Lied.