Elfen Lied: Complete Collection + OVA (Blu-ray)

this is a great anime but very greusom if you are just getting into watching some classics, but it is really really great

This is a comprehensive review where I try to show the pros and cons of the Anime. Reading this should tell you if you're going to buy the product or not which is why I'm going to be as explanatory as possible. Alrighty let's get this thing started. First of all let me explain how this will work I'm going to put my rating justification first, then a little plot summary, the pros, the cons, various warnings and examples of what to expect, then an afterword. No I will not give this a comprehensive plot summary because it would ruin the show.The plot focuses around Lucy/Nyu (the main Diclonius, I'll explain dicloniuses later) and Kohta (the main human). The main support characters are Yuka (Kohta's cousin), Nana (another Diclonius), Mayu (a young girl who is mostly just a supporting character), Bandoh (a merc), and Kurama (the SIC of the main villainous organization). Now because the story is about them I guess I have to explain them. Dicloniuses are mutants who have telekinetic powers that manifest in the form of invisible arms and vibrate at a frequency high enough to cut through objects, pick up objects, or stop bullets. These manifestations are called "Vectors." Dicloniuses are very noticeable because they have horns growing out of their heads (hard to miss right?) That's all I'm giving out. Wouldn't want to ruin the fun XDMy first thing will be to justify my rating. I gave it the three it deserved because even though I loved the anime there were certain things I did not agree with them putting in. That and the things that are listed below added to my reasoning for the rating.Now the pros. They will be numbered so you can compare the number of pros and cons to make your life easier.1.) Lucy- her character development is deeper and more underrated than anything I've ever seen before. Long story short she grew up a being tormented by her peers because of the horns even though she is a relatively good person which can be seen throughout her backstory. However she does unfortunately give in to her hate. Much to the misfortune of her tormentors.2.) The rest of the characters are all well explained in their own right except for Yuka she's just there being a jealous crybaby which makes her relatively hate able. But all the other characters are pretty cool.3.) Now this isn't much of a pro but in the first episode the first five minutes is pretty much a naked woman slaughtering a bunch of security guards, now I don't know about anyone else but I thought it was awesome.Somewhere in the middle (These are things can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it)1.) The Story- now I'm not going to ruin it but it is very well written depending on how you look at it. However I enjoyed it so much because I am good with empathy. Now I feel that's how you have to look at this show because it helps you understand the predicaments of the characters and understand why they do the things they do. However on the flipside there are some plot holes, I thought the backstories fixed them but some people don't. To each his own right? Anyway the way I see it the best way to get the whole story is to just read the manga, which I hear fixes the vast majority of them. However that is not saying the anime isn't worth it. It's just not as comprehensive.2.) The Length- Now, the series is only 13 episodes. That's bad because they had to condense 107 chapters of manga into 13 anime episodes and the manga ends at a point in the story after the anime. Its good because for someone like me with only a little bit of time on their hands this show is great because it condenses a cool story into 325 minutes and only 3 discs, ya know, one of those things you can get out in one sitting.3.) Plot Continuity- This is probably the most common problem I've read about in other critical reviews and unfortunately it's true. However, another thing I've noticed is that practically EVERY anime has this problem, except for Bleach, which is incredibly story driven. Yet even in all theses animes you can find the plot and storyline, you just have to pay attention and you can understand everything relatively easily.Cons (the cons are all of my general warnings if any of this deters you this show may not be for you.)1.) There is a scene in episode 5 that goes from 3 minutes in to 6 minutes in and I'm not going to describe it but it was quite depressing and disturbing. I felt it completely killed anything good they did in the episodes before it just because it was so sad. (DO NOT LET YOUR KIDS OR ANYONE UNDER 18 WATCH THIS SCENE) That's my opinion anyways. However I will say that this scene revolves around Mayu and when you think about it shows why she's so nice because she can't bear to put people through the kind of sadness she went through. Just an absolutely pure soul. (Wow I made the con a semi-pro)2.) The Nudity- believe it or not there wasn't too much however there were 3 scenes with underage nudity COMPLETELY NON-SEXUAL but it definately kills the mood of the scenes it's in. If you're against this kind of thing like I am then don't bother but if you can just try to ignore it then you'll be able to enjoy everything else.3.) Graphic Violence- The violence is very graphic and very bloody however it's also detailed (when they cut something off you can see the muscle and bone...... very interesting feature) just depends on if you can stomach it. If so have fun if not well that's your choice.AfterwordSo, in conclusion, if you can look past the cons then it really is at the least worth the time to watch. I feel it's an interesting add to any collection but hey that's your choice I'm just trying to give some input. PLEASE NOTE: I didn't do any nitpicking in this review because I don't see the point, I just pointed out the biggest problems and good points I could think of. If you'd like to point out something I missed I'd appreciate if you took the time to write it in the comments. Be thorough and I will respond to your comments as soon as I possibly can. (Any constructive advice is greatly appreciated and actually encouraged so I know if I should try to review other things.)

Well, I never thought the day would come where there would be a US release of this anime. This is one of my favorites, but I won't get into the story or try and upsell it. If you're hear to buy it, you already know how great of a show it is. You don't need yet another review praising this anime's subtle caveats. I might as well admit now that I am one of those suckers who created an amazon.co.jp account and ordered this Japan release blu ray for $300 upon release. It's considerably less now and the US release is amazingly cheaper. So I feel like a fool. Yet, I had to buy this because the Japanese releases unfortunately do not contain English subtitles (even though its not that hard to do). So this US release has pretty decent english subs. Not like a fan-subbed release, but still. Considering the low profile of this series, I still can't believe they released it in blu ray and that its not a Funimation release.So I'll compare it to my Japan release:(***as of 11/14/14, there is a cheaper version of Elfen Lied being sold in Japan. It is marked as "blu ray import" and is $51. This looks identical to the US release. Don't quote me but I think its exported (from the US) to Japan and is not what I am comparing it to. The boxset I am referring to on the amazon.co.jp site is now at $120 and was released in 2012. This is the original/first release.)Physical AttributesThe Japan Boxset had a lot of artwork made just for the box. A small pamphlet with some excerpt pages from the OVA. A soundtrack cd as well. The boxset also contained 4 blu ray discs. Of course, nothing was written in english. But the box set was decent and pretty (not worth $300 though). The artwork on the discs are different than the ones in the US release. If I remember correctly it was a pic of one of the three girls on the cover with that brown symbol backdrop. Nothing really drastically eye popping.The US release is a nice flimsy blu ray case. Has only two blu ray discs. Contains all the episodes and the OVA between the two discs. There is no extra artwork, no fluff. But to be honest, I can't complain for <$30.A / VThe Japan release had some very good visual work done to it. Compared with this recent release I would still say the difference is too negligible to tell. I feel that the Japan 2012 release is a 9 (visually) and the 2014 US release is a close 8.5. Not too sure if from the same or different source (don't know too much about licensing companies and how they acquire/put content on new media formats). Haven't read the forums or message boards to know the exact details. I will say however, that over 8 years later since its dvd release, it looks amazing on blu ray. Yes, it doesn't look like Attack on Titan and other very recent blu ray shows, but it is very well done and they gave it more attention than I thought would be given to such an old and low profile series. Very impressed.The audio is different. In the Japanese version we get Japanese 5.1 DTS-HD and Linear PCM. In the US version you get 5.1 DTS-HD English and Japanese (according to the back of the blu ray cover). For some reason, I'm reading it at 6.1. But maybe thats an error on my software end. This collection is well worth the money and is a worthy adversary to the Japan release.

This series comes so close to being perfect and being considered one of the greats up there with AKIRA, Your Name, Spirited Away and Royal Space Force yet fails at one major element. Unless you plan to binge watch the series in one sitting, it doesn’t leave the impression that you should return to it after a few episodes. I found myself watching the first four episodes then forgetting to return to the series and didn’t do so until recently where I watched them all over 2 days. Other than that one major flaw, the series itself is absolutely beautiful, a heartbreaking story with some seriously gory imagery (no joke, the first episode sets the precedent for how much blood and guts you are going to see over the course of this show).The story doesn’t follow the manga to the letter, down to the fact this series was produced while the manga hadn’t finished yet, but does have its own self contained ending instead.Last thing to note is while the DVD markets itself as ‘The Complete Collection’ it’s actually missing the later produced OVA, so as a buyers tip get the series on Blu-Ray.

Ich wollte "Elfenlied" schon lange meiner Sammlung hinzufügen, fand den Preis aber überteuert. Als ich hier zugegriffen hatte, war der Preis bei 20,99 EUR - ein absolutes Schnäppchen! Bild- und Tonqualität sind absolut in Ordnung. Die Synchronisation finde ich ebenfalls okay. Ich muss dazu sagen, dass ich den Japanischen Dub nicht kenne. Zum Anime selbst brauche ich wohl nichts mehr sagen. Er ist toll!

In spite of some quite gory violence the music and artwork can best be described as beautiful. To me the storyline was full of holes and the overall coincidences that supported it a bit too contrived. There is nudity but this is part of the story and not in a sexy way! I enjoyed it but never felt, until the penultimate episode, that I must see the next episode soon.

the dvd arrived early by royal mail and in good condition, definitely not for the kiddies but better than the rubbish on TV

A very violent and sad tale, but there is the usual Japanese lighter comedy moments to and it has a nice ending, possibly!Nice supernatural tale of an over-powered group of girls in a nice animation style