"One heck of a disgusting bloody gore manga with an eye-popping storyline tangled with complicated character relations."
Made famous by its anime adaptation, Elfen Lied is well known for being THE cruelest, goriest, and a highly perverted, piece of work ever. The level of bloody mess you will encounter throughout the story can haunt the unprepared for many moons to come. In short, one is expected to have a strong stomach to survive these 107 chapters. Consider ...yourself warned!
Elfen Lied is perhaps the most controversial story of all time. Opinions on it varies greatly with some calling it "garbage of the century" while others claiming it
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 Alternative TitlesSynonyms: Elven Song, Elfenlied, MOL, Digitopolis, memoria Japanese: エルフェンリート More titlesInformationType: Manga
Volumes: 12
Chapters: 113
Status: Finished
Published: Jun 6, 2002 to Aug 25, 2005
Demographic:
Seinen
Serialization:
Young Jump Authors:
Okamoto, Lynn (Story & Art) Statistics Ranked: #13172 2 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #141
Members: 97,944
Favorites: 5,502 Resources | Reviews
Filtered Results: 40 / 44
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Dec 9, 2014
Overview:
I have written many anime reviews, but this is my first time writing a manga review. Please be gentle critics! Usually the manga is better than the anime...unfortunately, today we will be looking at an exception to that rule of thumb. SPOILERS! This is a compare/contrast with the anime. If you haven't read the manga yet, skip this review!!! Elfen Lied (despite the bashing it gets on MAL and 4chan) is actually my favorite anime of all time. I'm not even being ironic, I'm dead serious! However, the manga... kind of sucks ass. I personally preferred the anime for quite a number of reasons. Firstly, Lucy's character ... 
Feb 17, 2008
This manga is a mix of comedy, cuteness, gore and drama, and if it doesn't have one of the best stories I've ever got involved in, it's characters would make up for it.
Story- Is a evangelical sci fi twist. Read it long enough and you'll be caught up in it. This is Definately a seinen manga with alot of nudity and many sex references, despite that it doesn't get in the way of the main story, and you won't think that it's just about girls being nude. There are a lot of flashback chapters, but they don't dissapoint like in other mangas, as they dive into ... 
Dec 6, 2008
By giving this series an overall rating of 6 is me being generous. Elfen Lied to me feels like a series that had so much potential. The ideas behind the story were deep (extinction of humanity, the moral question of what is human compassion). However, the way they were brought out were horrible.
Nearly every other page contains somebody crying in drama; so much that it got old fast. To those that will eventually read Elfen Lied; prepare for a big cry-fest. Rest assure though, the artist does randomly throw in comic relief, which end up make those moments incongruous with the flow of the ... 
Nov 27, 2010
Oh how the times have changed. At a point earlier in my life, before I reached what was probably the half-way point of Elfen Lied, I would have given this an overall better score, but I'm afraid things did not allow that. If anything, elfen lied is a testament to having to finish a series before you have a good idea of how you're going to address it, and for that reason before I go on I want to bring something up. Elfen Lied might tempt you with scenes of gorn, but it takes a lot more than that before a series can be called
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May 4, 2008
Story:
Story is quite deep, there are many unexpected twists and turns that'll make your head spin. While there are numerous events that do have a powerful effect upon you, there are some things that seem to replay throughout the whole story, but that doesn't hurt it in anyway Art: Don't know much about art but it was pretty nice. I think there are some scenes where the charcters are suddenly disproportioned, but they're in small little spaces so they don't stand out much. Quite a few bloody scenes that were done nicely. Character: Character development is a little slow at times and you kind of wish that you could ... 
Apr 16, 2014
A beautiful, beautiful piece of work to say the least – a special thank you to the creator: Lynn Okamoto! This manga captured the shocking revelation of a true human society that was thought unknown, whilst still evoking emotion with every blood and tear drop. The manga leaves the reader with an internal conflict, rendering them unable to deduce right from wrong – were the actions of Lucy ever justifiable given her constantly miserable circumstances?
The ending, from what I’ve gathered, has been highly censured; it wasn’t some asinine, outrageous ending, it was just considered… ‘Unpopular’. I, personally, fail to see any alternate ... 
Sep 26, 2012
"Elfen Lied," or in english, "Elf's Song," is a manga series inspired by a German poem written by Eduard Morike. The poem tells the story of an Elf who unknowingly wanders into a small village and is ostracized by the humans there. The poem ends with the Elf being clobbered over the head by a man.
In this manga, our 'Elf,' is a mutant named Lucy and our 'village,' is Kamakura, Japan. Herein lies a tale of racism, prejudice, misanthropy and incestous relations between cousins. I came into Elfen Lied with high hopes after hearing how it was supposedly, "sad," and "beautiful," it is. ... 
May 2, 2011
Elfen Lied has done the imposable when it comes to manga and me- grab my heart and force me to cry. Anime can do this easily, but up until I read this gem of a manga I never even shed a real tear to print media.
Art (5/10)- I understand that this was (and most certainly is) suppose to be a bloody, gorey, nudity fest that usually appeals to guys and girls who are fans of guro. I wouldn't say I'm not a fan of guro, but I would say I'm not a fan of pointless guro which the first few volumes of the series seemed ... 
Apr 14, 2012
As noted within its genre, Elfen Lied is a tragedy. In my eyes, it's the most beautiful tragedy to have been created. This is not to say the content of Elfen Lied is beautiful in the way that it should be in reality as well. I mean it is beautiful as being a work of art that draws out powerful emotions of sadness and horror at the acts that go on within in.
It's unfortunate that many people claim it to be only about gore and nudity thus completely ignoring the plot. True, the first glimpses of Elfen Lied show ... 
Dec 19, 2009
Elfen Lied is the ultimate man's manga; including all fundamental aspects one has come to expect from a male oriented manga with no exception of blood, nudity, sexual references and imagery, brutal violence, science fiction and even cat girls. As a girl, I won't complain, having a natural affinity to the more male oriented themes, however this is no manga for the faint of heart; the story often making you cringe as you witness limbs fly in every direction. Strangely enough, the brutality is probably one of the manga's most redeeming qualities, the way death and pain is delivered is intriguing at the least which
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Jan 13, 2013
This is my first review...and I didn't think would ever have made a review for a manga/anime! I am a person that prefers anime over manga every time; however, Elfen Lied changed that. After watching the anime, I felt that the anime was in my top 10. It was awesome. Soon, I found out that the manga has a different ending than the anime and was more complete. Feeling uneasy to start reading, I just read the first few pages to see how it was. I was hooked. I started to burn right through the pages...I ended up completing the whole manga in a few
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Mar 26, 2019
Time to get really controversial. *Rubs hands together* Lets go.
Since Elfen Lied is a very popular anime with a bit of a cult following to back it up, I found myself very interested in giving it a shot. Not to mention, it had some things that I really appreciate in my anime, like cute pink haired killer girls, gore, and an amazing theme song. Seriously though, I love the Elfen Lied opening, I listened to it even before I learned about the show. Go check it out, its very beautiful. Now, most Elfen Lied fans suggest the manga above the anime. Since the manga has over ... 
Jul 22, 2015
At first sight Elfen Lied is terrible. First of all, the artwork is mediocre at best. Second, It's seems like It isn't more than an ecchi/harem with some unnecessary gore, and I am not a particular fan of any of these. And if that is not enough some characters like Bandou are just badly constructed and many of the organization's security plan seems too stupid to be true.
However, you can't judge a book by It's cover. What looks like plain and shallow are, actually, just the first steps of an amazing story. This manga has a really complex background, and talk about prejudice, instincts, human ... 
Aug 4, 2013
"Her name was Lucy. She was gifted with tremendous power, and cursed with it as well. She was a dangerous enemy, and a good friend."
Ok, so that quote is not from Elfen Lied, and her name was Terra, not Lucy. But then again, Lucy's name wasn't Lucy or Nyu, either--but I digress. How do you have sympathy for, let alone like, someone who does the things she so often and so casually does? I think its because not only do we get to see how she got that way, but how this isn't always an excuse. She can be an utter asshole in both her ... 
Feb 3, 2011
This is by all accounts my favourite manga of all time. I warn you however that I am partial to dark, twisted animes/mangas and a little bit of gore never bothered me so this may have aided my love for Elfen Lied.
*Possible spoilers ahead* Story - A brief summary for those who don't know. These are Dicloniuses in the world which are distinguishable by the horns on their heads and they tend to have exceedingly murderous tendacies. They usually kill using their invisable hands called "Vectors".I don't want to give too much away but I adored the plotline to pieces. I've never really read anything quite ... 
Jul 28, 2012
I'm horrible at writing reviews but here I go. Elfen lied is an manga that delly brings out a humans true nature in my opinion. When a person finds something different they want to destroy it right? I'm sure many other reviews say something similar. It brings up many issues that make me choke up. Bullying, devices that stop a races murderous intentions, using sentient beings as your science projects, etc.. This is a cruel creation light hearted at times but it takes dramatic turns frequently and keeps you on edge. I highly suggest this to those who are a fan of more hardcore
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Aug 29, 2022
Story: the story really isn't too bad, but there's like such an unnecessary amount of nudity for the tone of the manga it feels forced and weird. Also I feel like there story should have ended way earlier than it did, near chapter 65. I felt like this dragged. I'm giving it a 3 for story.
Art: it had moments of awesome art, but man drawing faces is rough for the artist... 3. Character: predictable side characters, just too plain for me. Not enough depth. 3. Enjoyment: the only great thing about this manga is its pacing. Really great chapter writing in terms of how chapters end, and ... 
Dec 19, 2010
As you may know, Elfen Lied has lots of gore, nudity and such. But the story line is amazing. I'm not usually one to really read this kind of stuff but... It fascinated me in many ways.
Story; 10: The story is amazing, and very elaborate, it will really get the reader hooked within the first few pages, strength of every action and scene in this made me ready for more! Art; 8: The art wasn't the best part of the manga, it wasn't really eye catching, but since the storyline was great, the art didn't make a huge deal, ... 
Jun 22, 2014
Elfen Lied is one of those series that you read and question whether or not it was a good series, oh wait, no it isn't. Elfen Lied is an amazingly written series that had a lot of very adult themes. It was the first series that I had ever read that I had come back to at a later age with more education and enjoyed it more due to my expanded knowledge. Whether your a psychologist or a biologist this series has a lot to offer to both different professions. It's less than I can say for Okamato's other work.
Elfen Lied takes a scientific approach ... |
