Anime Review: Elfen Lied

     Elfen Lied was a anime that I had on my radar for a long time, but never got around to watching. Being based on a manga there will always be two schools of thought. Either the anime is just as good as the manga or better, but what generally happens is that the anime becomes mashed together and ultimately worse then the source material. Elfen Lied is regarded as a grade A show, it is a horror show and to be fair one of the better ones out there. From the characters to the deeply disturbing and emotional story of loves and forgiveness mixed with a ton of guro (gore). The characters are fairly strong and the emotional bonds that bind them all are fairly well done and to see the climax of where these relationships go by the end of episode 13 puts some closure to this anime series. From what I gather the producers of this anime left out a lot of material of the manga to condense the series, and it is a detriment to this series. The pacing seems way to fast in this show, especially episode 13 that one felt way to rushed. Being from 2004 which had great looking shows like Samurai 7 and Burst Angel this one felt a little flat. The style looks more akin to shows from the late 90's, maybe people like this style but I was not one of them.

   Saying all that I still really enjoyed this series, and I can see way many people do as well. I remember watching Mirai Nikki and seeing Yuno for the first time and thinking to myself this character seems familiar somehow. After watching this show I now know why, but these two are completely different beasts. Overall Elfen Lied is a good show that unfortunately feels to rushed, some plots of the manga are left completely out and you don't get as much closure on the story as you do in the source material, but it still is a good anime if you can stomach the large amount of gore.

 Elfen Lied 7.5/10
+Good Story
+Pretty good characters
-Pacing problems
-weak score
-feels unfinished