Elfen Lied is more than it first appears
When I watched the first episode of Elfen Lied I was genuinely shocked and delighted by the gratuitous violence, but as I continued watching the series it became increasingly difficult to classify this genre spanning anime. So here is simple description of the series.
On a small island, deep within a top secret lab, dangerous creatures called diclonius are suffering through torturous experiments. Diclonius look like normal human girls except for two horns protruding from the side of their heads resembling cat ears. They have also developed invisible arms referred to as vectors that can be used to manipulate objects or as potent weapons.
Lucy is an exceptionally dangerous diclonius as she harbors a deep hatred for humans resulting from years of torture and a lifetime of being ostracized. Given the fact that she has already killed numerous people extreme measures are taken to ensure her captivity. One day a clumsy security personal accidentally finds himself within reach of Lucy’s vectors. She does not hesitate to kill her guards and free herself. Stalking through the underground hallways Lucy massacres all who get between her and liberty. Using her vectors to deflect bullets she makes her way outside to a cliff when a sniper bullet hits home knocking the dangerous freak into the ocean.
The next day a young college student named Kohta waits to be reunited with his cousin Yuka in nearby Kamakura. They have not seen each other in ten years, but Kohta has little memory of his cousin or anything before ten years ago thanks to trauma he suffered from witnessing his father and sister’s deaths. The two decide to walk along the beach where they encounter the still naked and bewildered Lucy. She seems to have an extreme case of amnesia, but it seems more like an associative disorder to me. Lucy cant even remember how to speak instead she will only say “Nyu”. The cousins decide to let her stay with Kohta at the derelict inn where he is now living. Nyu, that is what they decide to name her, upon arriving home proceeds to urinate on the floor. She cant figure out how to wear clothing so Kohta tries to dress her only to have Yuka walk in and misunderstand the suggestive situation. Yuka becomes deeply jealous of Nyu so she moves in too.
After some fan service and sexual innuendo there will be more violence as Lucy takes over to fight off mercenaries sent by her former captors. Then she is injured again and Nyu is back with more fan service. Kohta invites a vagrant girl to live with them who brings a diclonius who had been hunting Lucy home with her. The young diclonius decides to live there too in order to keep an eye on Lucy since she is acting in such a harmless but bizarre manner. Thus Kohta completes his harem. More drama and extreme violence awaits the group, and later more sexual situations.
Elfen Lied is often shockingly violent like when Lucy splatters into tiny bits all the other children in an orphanage or instantly decapitates a clumsy secretary. It is also often very ecchi like when Nyu insists on bathing with the other girls, and wont stop fondling their privates. Elfen Lied is not an anime for children. The duality of Lucy’s mind is mirrored in the flavor of the show transitioning wildly from sweetly romantic or comically goofy to suddenly psychotic and frighteningly violent.