Elfen Lied
I'd heard a lot about this series in the past, and I have had it downloaded for a good while, but I just never got around to watching it. I always said that it was something that I would really need to be "in the mood" to watch.
Well, this past weekend I was just in the mood to watch something; I'd been re-watching Evangelion and didn't want to see any more of that, I didn't want to take a FLCL run or to watch something which I'd been watching already. So, I decided that I should finally see what this series was all about, and go beyond the first 8 minutes.
6 episodes later, I slept for the night with the thought of "wow, that series was not what I expected."
A little background, first. I first found out about this series from an anime-review website* which had some good reviews for the series. I'd also heard it in passing from many people, with such terms for it as "legalized anime-porn", "blood + nudity", ... you get the idea. My only experience with the series prior to the weekend was the first 8 minutes of episode 1; I'd heard more about that than any other part, so I watched that right when I first acquired the series.
The next day, I watched 2 episodes, finished Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations (the last episode just came out), and ran through the last 5 episodes.
That series is amazing. There's a website where I keep track of what I watch and also keep a running top-5 of animes; the list was FLCL/Haruhi/TokiKake/Evangelion/Outlaw Star. I never thought I'd stop considering Outlaw Star one of my top picks, but Elfen Lied kicked Evangelion to #5.
All I can say in a review of the series from what I heard about it that it is somewhat true. This series would never be aired on US television; the gore isn't an issue, but there'd be problems with the nudity. On the other hand, the series is just something that you could not expect coming into it. You are a little on-edge every second of the series, unexpected moments come in the first 8 minutes + some other sections that keep you on your seat, watching for the smallest change to prelude a large scene reminiscent of a horror film. In this tension, though, you get a very strong story for an anime, though you do see these "links broken and then re-attached by accident" stories often. The twists in the story, though, are ones that are unique to a series like this; the graphic nature of the series fits incredibly nicely, and the series wraps up with links complete and a very strong emotional bond formed between the main characters.
Elfen Lied is not a series for everyone, though. From everything I've read and from my opinion, I consider FLCL and this linked: you either love it or hate it. I would not suggest this series to anyone as their first series, or even 5th. Unless you can go beyond the explicit nature of the series to get to the true story, you will never like it; you can't do that if you don't have an understanding of the "intricacies" of anime. (in other words, there are strange things in this series, but you'll see stranger just going through other, much more normal animes)
* I went to the site as I was writing this, and I clicked on the first banner ad in several months intentionally. Lesson here: targeted advertisements on very specific sites work.
Well, this past weekend I was just in the mood to watch something; I'd been re-watching Evangelion and didn't want to see any more of that, I didn't want to take a FLCL run or to watch something which I'd been watching already. So, I decided that I should finally see what this series was all about, and go beyond the first 8 minutes.
6 episodes later, I slept for the night with the thought of "wow, that series was not what I expected."
A little background, first. I first found out about this series from an anime-review website* which had some good reviews for the series. I'd also heard it in passing from many people, with such terms for it as "legalized anime-porn", "blood + nudity", ... you get the idea. My only experience with the series prior to the weekend was the first 8 minutes of episode 1; I'd heard more about that than any other part, so I watched that right when I first acquired the series.
The next day, I watched 2 episodes, finished Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations (the last episode just came out), and ran through the last 5 episodes.
That series is amazing. There's a website where I keep track of what I watch and also keep a running top-5 of animes; the list was FLCL/Haruhi/TokiKake/Evangelion/Outlaw Star. I never thought I'd stop considering Outlaw Star one of my top picks, but Elfen Lied kicked Evangelion to #5.
All I can say in a review of the series from what I heard about it that it is somewhat true. This series would never be aired on US television; the gore isn't an issue, but there'd be problems with the nudity. On the other hand, the series is just something that you could not expect coming into it. You are a little on-edge every second of the series, unexpected moments come in the first 8 minutes + some other sections that keep you on your seat, watching for the smallest change to prelude a large scene reminiscent of a horror film. In this tension, though, you get a very strong story for an anime, though you do see these "links broken and then re-attached by accident" stories often. The twists in the story, though, are ones that are unique to a series like this; the graphic nature of the series fits incredibly nicely, and the series wraps up with links complete and a very strong emotional bond formed between the main characters.
Elfen Lied is not a series for everyone, though. From everything I've read and from my opinion, I consider FLCL and this linked: you either love it or hate it. I would not suggest this series to anyone as their first series, or even 5th. Unless you can go beyond the explicit nature of the series to get to the true story, you will never like it; you can't do that if you don't have an understanding of the "intricacies" of anime. (in other words, there are strange things in this series, but you'll see stranger just going through other, much more normal animes)
* I went to the site as I was writing this, and I clicked on the first banner ad in several months intentionally. Lesson here: targeted advertisements on very specific sites work.
Labels: anime
posted by bradleyjx at
1:15 AM
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