Elfen Lied
Apr. 11th, 2006 05:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pacificpikachuYeah...um...I just watched all of Elfen Lied in one sitting. I have a headache now. @_@
It was...eh...I'm not sure how I felt about it. From what people said about it, I was expecting something way different from how it actually was. It was good---I definitely enjoyed it--but it just didn't...affect me. Like...I hardly even felt the slightest bit sad over it.
I think the thing I didn't like about it was that, to me, at least, it felt too "anime". I know that sounds ironic (seeing as I absolutely adore anime), but it felt too...exaggerated, contrived, unrealistic. The characters felt like they were trying so hard to be human and realistic, but it all came off as being too fake for my tastes. @_@ It had its dramatic, horribly violent scenes, but they all felt like scenes I had seen before, and despite their brutality they didn't get to me. Also, nudity normally doesn't bother me at all when it's used to make a point or be realistic, but in this...it felt like fanservice. It felt like they used any and every excuse for the characters to be nude--there were even panty shots. I kind of felt the same way about the violence--like on one hand, it was supposed to horrify us, but on the other hand, it was supposed to make the fanboys go "Duuude, that was awesome!" Both the violence and nudity just plain verged on gratuitious.
The art style sort of took away from the series for me, too. It was terribly cute--that wasn't the issue--it was just that...it looked like a harem anime or something. You know, like Love Hina or whatever. It made it harder for me to take it seriously, with all the pink hair and the really big eyes and how just plain cute everything was. And with the (in my opinion, somewhat weak) romance threads running through it, and all the sexual "humor" and random "Awww...isn't she cute?" shots, the anime seemed almost as bipolar as Lucy/Nyuu herself. Like it was trying to be a cute, normal, fanservicy anime at the same time as being a horrific study on humanity and such. Not the greatest combination, in my opinion.
So...I don't know. I'm wondering if I'm going to look back on it and change my mind, but I really don't know. It had its moments I really liked (I can think of about ten different scenes that I was really impressed with), and it was intriguing enough to keep my interest, but compared to, say, Gunslinger Girl or Saikano (other anime about killer cute girls), it didn't feel nearly as poignant or realistic. All the way through it, just for my own curiosity, I was comparing it mentally to Gunslinger Girl, which I felt was much more muted, but also much, much more effective and much more believable. And Saikano--while it was hardly realistic and had its definite cheesy moments--managed to suck me in to the characters, made me care, made me want them to be happy at all costs. Elfen Lied just...didn't quite accomplish that.
Hmmm. I'm probably being too harsh on it--like I said, I liked it--but I was just noticing these things and felt I had to point them out.
It was...eh...I'm not sure how I felt about it. From what people said about it, I was expecting something way different from how it actually was. It was good---I definitely enjoyed it--but it just didn't...affect me. Like...I hardly even felt the slightest bit sad over it.
I think the thing I didn't like about it was that, to me, at least, it felt too "anime". I know that sounds ironic (seeing as I absolutely adore anime), but it felt too...exaggerated, contrived, unrealistic. The characters felt like they were trying so hard to be human and realistic, but it all came off as being too fake for my tastes. @_@ It had its dramatic, horribly violent scenes, but they all felt like scenes I had seen before, and despite their brutality they didn't get to me. Also, nudity normally doesn't bother me at all when it's used to make a point or be realistic, but in this...it felt like fanservice. It felt like they used any and every excuse for the characters to be nude--there were even panty shots. I kind of felt the same way about the violence--like on one hand, it was supposed to horrify us, but on the other hand, it was supposed to make the fanboys go "Duuude, that was awesome!" Both the violence and nudity just plain verged on gratuitious.
The art style sort of took away from the series for me, too. It was terribly cute--that wasn't the issue--it was just that...it looked like a harem anime or something. You know, like Love Hina or whatever. It made it harder for me to take it seriously, with all the pink hair and the really big eyes and how just plain cute everything was. And with the (in my opinion, somewhat weak) romance threads running through it, and all the sexual "humor" and random "Awww...isn't she cute?" shots, the anime seemed almost as bipolar as Lucy/Nyuu herself. Like it was trying to be a cute, normal, fanservicy anime at the same time as being a horrific study on humanity and such. Not the greatest combination, in my opinion.
So...I don't know. I'm wondering if I'm going to look back on it and change my mind, but I really don't know. It had its moments I really liked (I can think of about ten different scenes that I was really impressed with), and it was intriguing enough to keep my interest, but compared to, say, Gunslinger Girl or Saikano (other anime about killer cute girls), it didn't feel nearly as poignant or realistic. All the way through it, just for my own curiosity, I was comparing it mentally to Gunslinger Girl, which I felt was much more muted, but also much, much more effective and much more believable. And Saikano--while it was hardly realistic and had its definite cheesy moments--managed to suck me in to the characters, made me care, made me want them to be happy at all costs. Elfen Lied just...didn't quite accomplish that.
Hmmm. I'm probably being too harsh on it--like I said, I liked it--but I was just noticing these things and felt I had to point them out.
