Elfen Lied Highly recommended

Publisher
ADV
Director
Mamoru Kanbe
Production
ADV Films, GENCO
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
13 episodes/25 minutes per episode
Year
2004

Elfen Lied: Vector 2

By noghri
9th Apr 06

Despite the fact that it has only been a few weeks since I first watched Elfen Lied vector 1, it feels like an age has passed waiting for this next volume.
Was this to prove my passion for the first volume right or to be the biggest disappointment of the year so far?

What ADV have to say:

At the core of a conspiracy for a new world order lives a mutant girl who’s made an army’s worth of enemies. Protected only by a couple of college kids, Kohta and Yuka, the horn-headed Nyu is pursued by those who would destroy her and those who would use her to destroy humanity.

But, as her caregivers catch glimpses of Nyu’s past as the vicious Lucy, will they continue to risk their lives to protect hers? Is Lucy’s trail of carnage somehow connected to Kohta’s own dark past? It won’t take much to upset this fragile peace.

Between the bubble baths and the bloodbaths, the predators and the puppies, the world of Elfen Lied is a world of pure innocence and explosive chaos. When the dust settles, the future of the human race depends on one horn-headed girl.

Review

I was so excited to pick up this volume, that I put it on as soon as it arrived. all life went on hold until I had watched this. Firstly I was a little surprised to find that there were only 3 episodes on this volume, until I actually thought about it and realised that there are only 13 episodes in the series.

So I started to explore the disk to find that there were very little in the way of special features on the volume. This too was a little disappointing, so far it was not a pretty picture, It was not living up to my high expectations of the series, will it recover itself and impress me, who knows, lets find out.

Content of disk (may contain spoilers)

Well the first episode starts off with the sexual abuse of a minor, Mayu if forced to strip for her mothers partner. This is quite graphic and to be quite honest more than a little disturbing. Probably some of the most shocking content of any anime I have seen for a while, Mayu for those of you not familiar with the name is a just turning 14 year old girl who looks about 6 years old. She is a run away who lives with her dog Wanta to avoid the pains of the world and lives off crumbs and bread crusts from a local bakery.

While on the beach she is approached by a woman calling the puppy James and takes the dog away. She is now lonely on a beach in the rain. She is found by police officers and to avoiding to her home, and the afore mentioned abuse she runs from the law enforcers. Just as she is cornered she is found and saved by Kohta and Yuka who advise the police officers they are not Mayu’s friends they are her family. They return to the house and shortly afterwards Wanta returns also having run away from its estranged owners just going to show that as easily as her life fell apart it is now restored and in fact improved. Kohta asks her to move in for good and has already approached her mother and gained all the necessary documents to make it official. Mayu returns to school and now sports a nice sailor girl uniform instead of that same Jumper she has worn since running away from home.

A little later on Nyu is about to experience her first day at university, exactly what Kohta is thinking I’m not sure, but he thinks she can fit in by saying ‘Nyu’ and her new word ‘yes’. Either way she is excitable as ever. The class is run by a professor, who just happens to be the son of the head of research, you know the guy who asked for the increase in funding at the end of the last volume, the guy who let Lucy escape in the first place. Anyway to cut a long story short he recognises Lucy/ Nyu immediately when she puts her hand up and shouts ‘yes’ in class.

He cancels the class and asks Kohta, Yuka and Nyu to stay behind after class. He explains that Lucy is his niece the daughter of his younger brother and has been missing for a while. We know this to be a lie, but Kohta, threatened with legal action for kidnapping falls for it and leaves Nyu behind. He also explains that the head trauma is probably responsible for the language difficulties she is having.

As he walks away Nyu learns a new word, his name and screams repeatedly as he walks the long corridor, leaving her behind. After leaving the university both Yuka and Kohta stop on the now familiar scene of the long stairs, on which many scenes have be set, they both break down and cry.

At the same time we see Nyu tied up and naked in another lab. And the professor explains that he is about to sedate her and that when she awakes she will be his Eve and together they will breed a new Evolution. This is another disturbing scene. The girl is already tied up and he has decided on rape anyway why on earth would he then have to sedate her as well. This guy is just a complete sicko.

Or is he, after a short time of talking to himself, which is probably the favourite past time of all evil characters. He discovers that the now untied Nyu is missing when supposed to be asleep.

Mayu points out the floors of the professor’s explanations and Kohta begins to plan on rescuing Nyu. Yuka asks him if he would cry for her if she were to leave, again displaying the now evident desperation to bed her cousin.

Lucy Awakens and explains that ‘the other’ Nyu is asleep. And after his attempts to persuade Lucy that he is on her side, he reveals his own Diclonius heritage in a rather diminutive set of horns. She listens until is apparently bores her and she rips his head off in the style to which she is akin. Yeah, score one for the defenders against perverts, rapists and generally evil guys.

And that about sums up the first of three episodes. I went into quite a bit of detail there, so ill try to avoid that again. Sometimes I can’t help but get carried away with this series.

The second and third volume sees Nana and the psycho specialist soldier Bandoh get their cybernetic limbs to replace those hacked off by Lucy.
Bandoh is now expected to be castrated as a measure to avoid his already contaminated seed being passed to further generations, resulting in new Diclonius.

We learn a little more about the Diclonius species we learn more about the mating systems and that Nana is affectively a Drone, but that Lucy is the equivalent of a Queen of the species.

We learn about Research Chief Kurama’s history and the fact that he had a Diclonius daughter who he reportedly killed with his own hands. But we also learn that he does have compassion for at least one Diclonius as instead of killing Nana as he is supposed to he lets her escape with money and of course her new limbs.

Lucy kills more Random strangers and apparently has lost a lot of control of her vectors.

Kurama is summoned before the head of the research facility, who tells him of his own sons death at the hands of Lucy and that fact that Kohta and the research assistant were the ones to find his decapitated corpse. He explains that the Diclonius test subjects are vicious killers and only to be treated as specimens and is pleased to hear that Nana was eradicated as ordered (we know this not to be true).

Mayu meets with Bandoh and is pleased to see he is much better than the last time she saw him. He thanks her in his own way, by threatening her and eventually agreeing to give her his cell number in case she wants anyone killed, this is truly the reaction of a man who knows only one thing death, usually at his hands. Unfortunately for Mayu she lets on that she knows Nyu and he becomes aggressive and nearly beats information out of her. Luckily she still has the paper with his cell number on and asks him to kill the person threatening her. This is genius in my book, because there is no way I could see it coming, Mayu asks him to kill himself, but instead he lets her go without any more trouble.

Kohta and Yuka take shelter from the rain and end up finally hitting it off, with a hug and some kissing. There are some incidents with panties and laughing until Yuka again turns to aggression and beats up Kohta, as is the way with most Japanese teenage girls according to Anime generalisations.

Kohta finds Lucy while searching for Nyu, he is surprised that she cannot only talk, but appears to be a completely different person. The way she reacts it is fairly obvious that she knows him from earlier in her life and hints are dropped that he has purposefully forgotten what happened 8 years ago.

Nyu suddenly returns and asks for a cuddle, and Kohta obliges after gaining permission from Yuka, this permission obviously expires rapidly and she asks him to give it a rest.

Nana escapes the facility and runs straight into Bandoh who threatens to kill her for having horns. And thus ends the episode.

After a short skirmish leaving Bandoh with one less arm and Nana with a head wound they agree to stop attacking and a kind of alliance is formed to track down Lucy for revenge.

Mayu finds Nana in the cemetery and is surprised to find she now has new limbs, but not a half as surprised as when her leg falls off again. Mayu passes out and when she awakens all is explained and they make friends. And she explains that the paper that Nana is using to burn in the cemetery is actually money and that she has probably burned 1,000,000 yen already.

Mayu obviously not learning from her earlier mistake reveals that she knows another girl with horns and that she now lives with her. Nana asks to meet her and is surprised to realise she cannot sense Lucy and nearly leaves when Nyu answers the door and all hell breaks loose.

Thoughts

This brings us nicely to the biggest cliff hanger since Jonathon Archer was left 3000 years in the future with no chance of return to save mankind or Neo left unconscious on the table next to agent Smith. Ok maybe not and those of you who dislike star trek or at least Enterprise, or missed the matrix movies would not understand what I am prattling on about.

Really though the end of the volume closes leaving us on the edge of our seats screaming for more info, luckily there is a sneak peak to the next volume and it gives you a little insight into what will happen in the near future.

The special features on this disk leave a little to be desired, but to be honest this doesnt detract from the quality of this show that much.

Well, did it live up to my heightened expectations? The answer is a rather Enthused Hell yeah! this series is still my favourite of 2006 and I cannot wait to see more.

If you didn’t heed my advice and pick up the last volume, first slap yourself and then go get it silly.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: * Japanese 2.0 Language * English 5.1 Language * English Subtitles * Character artwork and production artwork galleries * Clean opening animation * Clean closing animation

Release information: ADV 17th April

Notes: Audio: For our primary viewing session, I listened to this show in its English Dub. This is great the cuteness of Nyu is a sickly sweet as ever, Video: Originally airing in 2004, the transfer for this series is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is enhanced for anamorphic playback. Being so recent, the source materials here look really good and essentially as clean as can be. Packaging: Playing heavily to the black and red colours similar to the first volume, the blood splotched cover features the invisible hands against the black so you can see them lightly while Nyu sits in the blood with a small semi automatic in front of her. The mixture of the blood, darkness and innocence of Nyu works well here though it's easy to understand why people would rather have the Japanese artwork. I like the almost minimalist approach of the covers so far, in a lot of ways this is similar but opposite to the covers of Peacemaker. The back cover is done in black with splatters of blood and streaks of blood across it with a small picture of Kohta clutching his head either crying or in pain. The summary covers the basics of the show and the discs extras are clearly listed. As has become a welcome standard, the technical grid lays out all the info needed to asses what makes up the disc in an easy to read format. The reversible cover is minimal in its own way as it shows Nana in a very summery scene. And on the opposite side sports an interview with Series Composer, Takawo Yoshioka. Menu: While there are a number of average or plain menus out there that simply exist, Elfen Lied manages to provide a very accessible menu structure without being over complicated. Over the course of the thirty-second menu, blood drips down as the creepy noises play out and then you get a big crunch and lots of blood flying. It looks goods and sounds good and is easy to navigate, if you get your selections made before the big blood spurt that is, as with many menus when the loop finishes the menu is unavailable for a short time. The disc also correctly read my players' language presets properly and played without issue. Extras: The extras are a bit thin here and are probably the extent of what we'll see for the remainder of the series, this to be honest is a real shame. The first volume seems to have a lot more and the fact that this volume has only three episodes really detracted from the series a little bit. A pair of artwork galleries is included with one devoted to character artwork and the other to production pieces. The opening sequence is provided in clean format as is the end sequence. There are also trailers for other ADV releases.

-- noghri 9th Apr 06

Elfen Lied Images