So Woolie actually smashed that pool cue over your shoulder. Bennet, I don't think that was an accident. Did you diss Reboot at some point in your life?

If there's one thing about this series I can say, it's that the vectors are terrifying, not in how they look or what they do, but the what could happen to someone with them. I think a lot of people, myself included, would be scared out of their minds of the idea of facing someone with an invisible force that could dismember or kill you in an instant, and there'd be nothing you could do about it because you can't see it, and thus can't avoid it. This was later surpassed by the series Inuyashiki, in which the villain, Shishigami, has the power to kill people with mind bullets that can shoot someone anywhere as long as he knows where they are

We live in a world where Woolie actually hit Bennett with a stick. That is awesome.

Woolie the Liar killed my Anime reviewer

1:50 Woolie doesn't need no weapon. He killed a guy once while playing football. Then he went to the guys funeral and told his mom: "This is what you get for letting your boy play with killers."

WAIT FUCKING WHAT?!?! WOOLIE WOOLZ??!

Elfen Lied is the perfect anime/manga to find in middle school. It's got everything a 2deep4u 14 year old could want for a 'mature' anime.

I think one of the problems with Elfen Lied is that there was a chance for some amazing morally gray areas. The manga is mostly to blame here. It would have been great if it focused more on that not all diclonius are evil and not all humans are good. Another thing that bugged me was Lucy's back story and personalities. Lucy just kills Kouta's family out of jealousy and that was it. If done differently, Lucy would have gone to kill Kouta's family, with prompting from the diclonius voice, but stop herself from actually doing it. She would have seen the loving family Kouta has and realize that killing them would only bring her temporary happiness. Then the diclonius research institute, having been monitoring her, shows up and uses this as an opportunity to show some faceless government that the diclonius are a threat to humanity. They brutally murder Kouta's family and make it look like a diclonius attack. Lucy witnesses this and has a mental breakdown. Now regarding her personalities, both the manga and anime have just the 'lucy' 'nyuu' and 'diclonius voice'. The manga does have a Kaede personality, but it's negligible. What should have been done was have Kaede as the original personality, Lucy being born from the extreme emotional trauma, and Nyuu from the blow to the head. The voice would just be a separate entity attached more to instinct since it's not a fracture of the original personality. The Lucy personality would exist to protect Kaede from emotional pain, and the Nyuu personality would be there to protect her from physical pain.

Woolie has since said that that breaking of the pool cue was totally legit. Bennett took a bump.

Coming from a die hard fan of the series, very good, respectable and professional review. I really appreciate you being able to respect the series and it's fan base despite your dislike for the show, something I think we need more of in critics nowadays.

You don't fuck with Woolie!

I always found Elfen Lied pretty schizophrenic, as schizophrenic as its lead characters. It's like two different stories/anime slapped together. One is trying to be a schlocky harem anime, the other, a dark, bloody sci-fi tale of horror and gore. And the two do not really mesh together.

I don't have a problem with the quantity of children killed in the show, and don't think that on its own should be anymore if a problem than adults, or anything else being killed. The problem was with how forced it was. Most of the violence just being there for shock factor is the problem.

Lucy still scares the shit out of me to this day, it's like a stand if it had like infinite amount of arms that can cut you to pieces

Geez Woolie you went Def Jam on Bennet's ass XD

I love how Woolie continues to have the most lore out of all the Best Friends.

Remember that time Woolie killed that guy? Yeah. Now he joined the Ustabaiaz in order to kick Bennet unconcious as he tires to become one step closer to Shin Woolie. ... Man, I hope there are enough Zaibatsu fans here to get that.

The sequence between Bando and Mayu has by far the best moment in the whole story (including the manga), when she hands Bando the note he gave her with his phone number saying she's being attacked and she needs him to keep his promise of helping her for saving his life. He gets really pissed but keeps his promise after she throws it to his face saying he's all talk and has no honor. Still makes me laugh to this day.

Question: What is the helmet Lucy is wearing for? It doesn't contain her vectors, nor does it cause any sensory deprivation, the only thing it did was stop the bullet she got shot with so instead of dying she got a split personality due the concussion; so I ask again, what is the helmet for?

Woolie breaking a pool cue over Sage's back brought me back 'ere

I feel cheated! On the base of the thumbnail, I was expecting a review of Gustav Klimt's famous painting The Kiss!

I watched this anime years ago...then repressed trying to remember it. Then I watched this review and the memories started following back to me. Thanks for the review Sage. XD

That puppy scene was what disturbed me the most about this anime. And yet, a small group of people online will defend that scene and say "those kids don't deserve to die despite what they did to Lucy's puppy". IMO, those bullies deserved it. I know they're just around 10 or 11, but Lucy had every right to kill them for what they did, or at least she had every right to lash out on them. Well, what do you think will happen if you kill someone's dog or even go as far as sexually assault someone's kids? Heck, what would John Wick do if he was put in the same scenario as Lucy?

I always liked the Elfen Lied manga mostly because it felt like it felt like it was trying to subvert the harem trope, and considering it was published right as the harem trope was getting reaaaaallllly popular is was really ahead of it's time. But now that every other horror manga does the thing where it shows horrible people doing horrible things to show how horrible they are, it does seem pretty ridiculous. I hate anime that is produced during the same time the manga is, I know they do it because they want the anime to promote the manga. But stuff like this happens, where the story is cut short or changed so much that manga and anime are two totally different stories. Or you get an Attack on Titan situation, where it takes years for season two to be produced.

"If Forest Gump yo-yoed between himself and Leatherface," I would definitely pay to see that.

Maybe Elfen Lied is just one of "let's look into how much dark a dark side of humanity can get" things. Most of us are normal and live in relative peace and don't know incredibly dark parts of humanity firsthand but we know how some people are fu#$@% up and this anime explores it in its own way... and the point about it not answering it's question... maybe that's it? We don't really know why faced with certain situation one person will turn bad and another will be enforced in believe that being kind to others is the key.

This anime is only important to me because of the opening title sequence and theme song bc it's truly gorgeous ngl

The Feels: The Anime? More like LAWL OMG SO EDGY: The Anime.

Elfen Lied: Style over Substance. Come at me.

Great review Bennett! You took a rather balanced and fair position despite most critics either gushing or just shitting on it. Elfen Lied is an oddball anime with some bizarre choices, a very limited budget, and plenty of aspects that could be considered flaws including its contrived coincidences and melodrama. It also just so happens to be my favorite anime of all time.

17:36 Dio: I've taught you well kids Kids: Thanks Dio-sama

I personally like Elfen Lied but I still really liked Sage's review.

ELFEN LIED- one of the most disturbing and extreme cartoons ever made! It makes SOUTH PARK look like a kids show and WALTZ WITH BASHIR look respectable and that’s why I appreciate the work so much and holds a special but sinister place in my life and younger years.

"to many kids getting butchered" NOT ENOUGH.

I have to simply say wow and thank you. I have been watch anime abound for few years now and have found it helpful and uplifting by some finding a way to put some joy in me , no matter how bad my week has been. so I find it big surprise and joy to see you review these anime for 150ep and to yourself, Gabe and Mark.

I don't know why but there's something about Elfen Lied that I still like. I think the animation and colors for the anime adaption served it well, because when you look at the manga art style it reminds me a bit of Love Hina or late 90s art styles. I have also read the manga and the story just goes so much deeper than I ever would have guessed from the anime. I'm unsure if I would ever want the rest to be animated but for what it is...it's not so bad. To this day it's still in my top 10 favorite anime opening videos. Just absolutely gorgeous theme song and Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss" adapted to fit Nyu/Lucy and there are some really hard dark subjects being brought up which I actually felt in my chest once I got swept up in the story and took the fan service for what it was; I accepted those bits and even found them entertaining because I'll be honest with you, they weren't drawn badly, and I didn't feel titillated when Nyu/Lucy was naked because when Nyu was nude I only saw someone with the mind of a child and with Lucy it was more like...it was just natural, not sexual. She was never sexual when she was naked, at least not on purpose. Also, Bando is redeemable a tiny bit, at least in the manga. Yeah to me Elfen Lied is simultaneously very exploitative, shallow, plot-thin and ecchi while also being dark, a tiny bit thrilling, psychological, and pretty unique. I'm of two minds of it, and I think the anime helped confuse me more how I feel about it .

Lucy's "evil" side is actually her natural impulses as a Diclonius Queen. She's genetically programmed to eliminate humans and propagate her species. The problem of the show not addressing the questions it raises comes from the manga being as shallow as his author. The whole purpose of the story is for Kouta to gather his harem. One indication of that is how absurdly evil everyone but Kouta and his harem are. The children at Lucy's orphanage are the best example of that. I can accept without any problem that the kids hated Lucy (it's stated later in the story that said hate is a genetic reaction of humans against the Diclonius species), but only complete cartoon psychopaths would murder a puppy the way they do and manically laugh as they do it. Cruelty to animals is considered an early warning sign of psychopathy, but those kids go so far as to be literal inhuman monsters that would make Hannibal embarrassed. In fact, he would probably have them for dinner.

I discovered Elfen Lied at that awkward time when the hormones were raging and I couldn't really watch porn. So, Elfen Lied filled that role. I also loved the extreme violence. These days, I still enjoy it, but for the life of me, I couldn't really say why. The nudity is novel at best (thanks, porn!) and while I love hyper-violences now and then, I'm not really a fan of anything else in the anime. The art style is boringly simplistic, the story isn't engaging, the characters are annoying at best and forgettable at worst. And yet, I still love watching it, and I know not why.

Congrats on this being the 150th episode! I have seen this show once back in 2013 when it was on Netflix. And when i finished it after three nights, I had thought that the show was very depressing but remembered really liking it.

I discovered Elfen Lied after the Death Battle between Lucy and Carnage and recently finished watching the series. Like you said, this isn't a mainstream anime, so I did go in expecting it to be more extreme than the usual anime I watch. I liked it overall; really emotional and tragic. The problems I do have are mostly the plot threads that went nowhere, like the Director being a Diclonius or his son's assistant being brought in to help the facility. And I agree that Baldo felt wasted after his first fight with Lucy; we didn't even get to see their rematch. The weirdest thing for me though was Yuka and Kota's relationship; I kept yelling at the screen "You're cousins!"

LOL, I recognize Linkara, Woolie, and Takahata

Honestly I wish the Manga had been adapted into an anime in modern times. Like for example, with Made in Abyss, the anime censors some of the grossest parts of the Manga while still getting the story across wonderfully. I feel like the anime of Elfen Lied in modern times would have been able to remove Kouta and his cousin being incestuous and focused in on the story of Lucy being the Queen of the Diclonius and how she had that inner voice compelling her to remake humanity. That story was so interesting. **Spoilers for those who haven't read the Manga** Lucy is definitely a combination of Nurture and Nature and the Manga does a great job of showing how her three personalities are evidence that both things are important to how a person acts. Her "Instinct", the inner voice compelling her to kill everyone, is her base nature. "Lucy" is the personality that was nurtured along with her inner nature due to how she was raised, which resulted in her being violent and apathetic and lonely. However, Lucy learns that she does not want to kill everyone, thanks to her third personality, Nyuu. "Nyuu" is the personality that was nurtured to be kind and sweet and innocent, who isn't influenced by her base nature. I really wish all of that had been further explored in the anime.

My first episode from this channel was the Grave of the Fireflies Review. I've watched most of this man's reviews and consider myself a fan. Thank you Sage for the countless hours of dedication and hard work you've put into your channel. Here's to another 150 episodes.

Sage's critique of Bando at 18:30 is pretty much the entire problem with Elfen Lied. The story (especially after The Unnamed Man appears in the manga) goes so extreme with the violence, torture, gore, sexual innuendo, etc. that the questions the story raises about how people develop morality get drowned out and whatever personal drama it attempts is rendered ironically hilarious.

Will there ever be a Jin-Roh review? That would be pretty interesting.

2:40 for those coming from the most recent Woolie VS Silent Hill

Happy 150th episode Bennett! Keep up the great work :D

Thanks for doing the show all these years! Looking forward to the 250th episode!

This is why Dark Fantasy (Berserk, Game of thrones, Claymore, the Witcher,...) and Dark Sci-fi(Alien, most of GRRM Sci-fi novels) are hard to write and most creator of this genres failed. Just because you but Rape, child murderers, Necrophilia,... into it, doesn't made it mature and do the genre justice. They need to made good characters that reflects the worlds that they are building but still have something that contrast it and made people cares about them. Sure you can write a bunch of asshole as the main characters (like Guts in Berserk, or Littlefinger,..) but they have to be like-able while fitting into the established world. Which Elfen Lied failed.

"A show that misses more than it hits can be forgiven if those hits go for a long way. Even the greatest batters in history fail 70% of the time, so it basically comes down to this; are you the kind of person who remembers the home runs or the strike-outs?" That's the kind of logic I go by when I appreciate titles such as Sonic, Naruto, Sword Art Online, Korra and RWBY, which have just as many, if not more faults than hits. I choose to let myself appreciate the hits rather than let the misses or those who only focus on said misses ruin the experience for me. While I can respect putting that logic toward Elfen Lied, I think this show may be a bit too messed up for me after only 30 minutes discussing it for better or worse.

I remember thinking the anime was cool and Lucy lovable as a teen, but when I look back to it, not so much. It felt like a cheap exploitation of what teens want, with the philosophical bullshit to pretend to be deeper then it really was.

Elfen Lied was a soul-crushing manga to read, but I had to finish it just to get it over with. I couldn't watch the anime. The writing is abysmal, the characters are awful, and as you point out Sage it never answers the questions it poses.

Elfen Lied was my first anime outside of the typical Pokemon / Yu-Gi-Oh sort of deals. I was 11 at the time (9 years ago) and I only watched it purely for the gore and didn't really pay attention to anything because edgy 11 year old. I might go back to the series to look at it from a very different perspective but I'm not sure. Good review!

The only good thing about Elfen Lied is that it gave us the webcomic "Nana-chan's daily life". I'm wondering if it was really supposed to be "Lied" (song) and not "Leid" (suffering). And speaking of moe and brutality, wouldn't Hirugashi be perfect for Anime Abandon? Because man, it's horrible to watch.

Congrats on 150 man! Can't wait for more

After a few rewatchings, that's one of your best reviews, to me. Adressing the intrinsic flaws without putting the qualities aside, and the humility to consider your opinion on the series as subjective and aknowledging the validity of other points of view. Kudos !

Wait, wait wait.... Sanguine Games, makers of Ironclaw, my favorite Tabletop RPG system are the viceroy of Bennettopia? When and how?! Also congrats on 150 episodes Bennett, well done.

(Slow clap.) Thank you, Sage--you summed up my problems with this anime better than I ever could have.

Life is worth living for videos like this. Thanks Sage

I find it awsome you were willing to take a poll cue for your craft. Respect.

My husband and I tried to watch this series when we were still dating, because our friends wouldn't shut up about how great it was. It was so draining that we couldn't finish. This anime just sapped us both, and gave us nothing in return.

Elfen Lied was one of those shows I watched back when I was 13-14 and going through my extreme depressive and misanthropic stages. it served as a sort of outlet and made me feel justified for hating the world. However, as I got better and made more friends, the cracks in the plot and characters showed, and I just wrote it off as edgy trash with some good music... now I sort of an more just "meh" about it, I suppose.

Congrats, Sage! :D I'm looking forward to more! And those outtakes...I still can't believe that you actually took a cue stick to the back! And on accident even! That took balls!

Been with you since your first video game review, will stick with you till the end.

So Lucy is an edgier, gorier Mewtwo?

Please. Review Jojo's Bizarre Adventure OVA 1993.

Man bennett, your reviews are allways so great, keep up the good work man!

Thank You for 150 episodes Sage, i look forward to what you have for us in the future.

Was not expecting Woolie to appear.

Am I the only one who found Elfen Lied hilarious?

Love your reviews sage!

Fantastic video! Love the fact that both Linkara and Woolie from Super Best Friends is in this. :D

Figures Woolie's cameo would involve him bringing grievous bodily harm to someone else. Like that guy he killed in the football field.

I'm surprised that you never talked about the voice acting in the show. Most people who love the show will still admit that both the Japanese version and the English version of the anime have sup-par performances. I'm not saying that the acting is horrible but when I first saw the show's subtitled version even I could tell when it's obviously off even though I can't speak the language. The English version infuriated me when I tried watching clips of it after seeing the Japanese version all the way through. The subversion is at least decent enough where it's not too distracting and the animation and sound effects can take center-stage and disturb the viewer during the gory sequences. The dub easily could have been better than the sub but alas all they did was an attempt to imitate the original and became far more problematic. I can notice way too many lines that sound off. It ruins the show for me.

The fact that out of the people from the beginning only Sage has remained relevant (AND likeable) and Linkara has become the lightbringer, speaks a lot about how creators must change with time.

From the description on your previous episode, I was expecting a Gurren Lagann review. Elfen Lied is a hell of an anime to review as well and congratulation on your 150 episodes Sage!

Take out the weird hair, horns and super powers, and it's essentially just a story about a girl who is bullied and grows up to be a serial killer who hits her head, regresses to amnesiatic semi-retardation, and has to be taken care of by the son of two of her victims. ...The rest is just shallow, gratuitous violence and nudity.

I love Elfen Lied, but I can see why other people wouldn't like it. And I personally can't stand the manga. People always say how much better it is than the anime, but they're wrong. It's just... Just ew. One thing that always bothered me about the anime that Sage didn't mention is that Yuka and Kouta find a naked, mentally incapacitated girl on the beach, and they never ONCE call the police. Yeah, that would have been the wrong thing to do since it would've gotten Nyu hauled back to that facility again, but they didn't know that! It never even occurred to them! WHY DON'T PEOPLE IN ANIME EVER CALL THE POLICE???

I have to say a very solid review. Years back one of my friends of a friend showed us the first episode of Elfen Lied since he was into it and yeah..... the weird mix of extremes did throw me off. And hoenstly all I've seen of it (another one of those reviews most of the anime reviewers on the site have talked about from former JO to still around Animerica) kind of shows it's a series not really made for me. But I do appreciate you digging up why this works as a cult series and why it's a series that is made for a very specific crowd even if you don't happen to be a part of it. Not a lot of jokes but pointing out how much of a tool Bonto is and the weird cousin incest is good stuff. My only real complaint about this is the fact that you don't bring up your very old Elfen Lied Abridged series. Cause honestly I think that work even predated your video game reviews or at the very least how I first found about your work and I'm sure a bunch of other people. I know you mentioned it on Anime Abandon before but that would of been the perfect thing to bring up here for the anniversary to point out how far you've come. Since yeah in your Elfen Lied Abriged days you did have a lot more bad taste and shocking sort of jokes and it'd be interesting comparing how you were back then to how you were now. Granted a lot of that series isn't available now but again it'd be something worth bringing up for how far you've come on this anniversary of the show. But with 150 done and more to see how you keep this show going cause it's your destiny... did I just reference the Pokerap of all things? Weird.

Hey, um, I-I'd just like to take a moment of my time to thank the wonderful content creator that we all know and love that constantly puts his body on the line for our entertainment and joy, so, from all the thanks of the Anime Abandon fans... Thank you Takahata, we hope your nose gets better soon!

You mentioned Serial Experiments Lain I now love you forever

I will give you credit as a guy who doesn't care much for Elfen Lied. You gave a fair and reasonable review. I'm in the camp of thinking it's one of the finest pieces of art in any medium. I actually gave you a like, because you were fair.

Kudos for making what probably is the most fair and kind review Elfen Lied could ever get.

I think, quite possibly, the fact that Benett had a pool cue break over his back *instead of snapping on the weak point* was quite possibly the best part of this episode. Not that this episode was bad, because it was great, but because thats fucking amazing.

You should review Higurashi When They Cry :)

As per usual, I find it kind of amusing that people like Bennett are more disturbed by naked bodies than they are of said bodies being ripped to pieces. Though in this case I can forgive such an attitude a little more, because I would describe this anime as "Gorenography". It revels in its level of ultra violence and the misery of its characters to near fetishistic levels.

Great episode! I laughed well at the beat-down scene and the rest of the review was great! That pool stick mishap though.. yikes! That's actually a well known problem in Hollywood movies really, even with preparation , props designed to break in certain places are kind of a pain to make happen precisely.

holy fuck elfen lied! this anime was one of the shows that helped me get into anime!! irritating fuck stick #1 is one of the funniest and most entertaining bad guys ever. great beginning, great gore, great vibe, fucking amazing music, and some pretty unintentionally funny moments. god i love this anime congrats on 150 episodes man!

I remember watching a bit of it and from what I heard, it does sound interesting but good lord, the scenes with the schoolkids are just ridiculous. First, when I was a kid, if some brat was this unnecessarily mean and violent and said something as dorky as "you're totally not a human", he wouldn't be the head of the bullies, he'd be the one everyone avoids and laughs at for thinking he's so cool when he's such an asshole in every meaning of the word. Second, what kid murders puppies?! Have you ever SEEN how kids react to puppies? Even the ones who genuinely are assholes think hurting puppies is a special kind of fucked up. Again, if a kid suggesting killing one, especially one belonging to someone they know, he would no longer be the kid everyone laughs at, he'd be the one everyone beats up for even considering something like that.

Hey, it's Woolie! The presence of the zaibatsu grows! you cannot ignore it's girth!

Well done sage! Love the end credits!

Totally forgot you were involved with channel awesome/that guy with the glasses. Thank fuck that you got out of there. Still love all the old and new stuff. Keep it up man!

Here's Elfen Lied in a nutshell: Look at me, I'm so edgy, but I'm also artistic! Cry! Dammit! Cry!

"Elfen Lied" was the first anime I technically ever watched so it has this special place for me. It's not perfect, far from it, though I also believe it's nowhere near as bad as some put it. But dang it, I still love it nonetheless. And yes, I've also read the manga, which was also one of my first in that category, and liked it there as well. Also, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't this be the newest series Sage has covered here? I'm failing to recall any show that aired past 2004 that he covered. Closest would be "Eiken" which started in 2003 and ended in 2004.

This was perhaps the most detailed review you ever made, Bennett. I don't think I ever heard you speak so much and the video is not even that long. More than a review, it felt like an explanation of the anime. I'm not saying I didn't like it, just that it was different. To 100 more!

awesome video as always, really surprised you never mention that you once did an abridged series of elfen lied. then again that was a long time ago.

Can't show naked butt, can show head being ripped off. KZfaq, always makes sense.

Yeah..... I have not watched this show since middle school. And now I am kinda disturbed that middle school me watched this.

Keep doing your thing man! Love the way you think.

Great review Bennett - I get why you aint a fan, but I LOVE this anime. It was one of my gateways into anime fandom - and have probably seen the whole series about 10 times !