Elfen Lied/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Adaptation Displacement: At least in the U.S., what with the manga not being licensed there.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Practically every single character is left slightly insane from their troubled pasts, or completely evil. Often it's very hard to keep them apart.
  • Broken Base: Oh, God, the Fan Dumb. Oh, God, the Hate Dumb. The sane part of the audience probably won't make 50%.
  • Creepy Awesome: Lucy and Mariko, and even Nana at times.
  • Complete Monster:
    • Director Kakuzawa was the head of the research facility that experimented on the Diclonii. Kakuzawa was defined by his extreme hatred of humanity, and his wishing to become a god to a new, evolved human race. In order for this to happen, he has a rocket carrying a deadly virus explode over Tokyo Bay in order to slowly kill off many humans or make them vessels for Diclonius births, and had planned on having Lucy mate with her half-brother, the result of his rape of her mother, and having offspring through her. He would then use said offspring to wipe out the entire human race, and he would ultimately recreate the world as one for Diclonii alone, with him reigning supreme as the new race's "father." It's also shown that he commits several vile acts on his fellow humans such as ordering for Kurama to put down his surrogate daughter Nana and then when Kurama doesn't actually do it, sending Kurama's real daughter, Mariko, to not only hunt for Lucy but kill Nana in order to punish Kurama for his disobedience, shooting Dr. Arakawa when he's displeased by her, and brutally molesting Shirakawa in order to make her crack when he suspects her of being a spy, and is extremely callous to all the suffering that he throws onto them. He's shown as being a terrible parent to his children, expressing apathy over the death of his eldest son, turning his young daughter Anna into a living calculator by merging her body and consciousness within a monstrous abomination kept immobilized in water, and he also sees nothing wrong with using his children to extend his goals, as noted above with his younger son. While Kakuzawa does arguably show some fatherly affection for Anna, to the point of having ensured her survival and release from the shell of the experiment he turned her into back in the day, it's ultimately shown that he's so far gone and inhumane in the present day story that he views her primarily as a prized possession to estimate and foretell events for him so that he can advance his own plans, and nothing more.
    • The Unknown Man from the manga is indisputably one of these. In order to find our protagonist, he crafted a radar system made from a silpelit who was still alive. In order to make sure that she wouldn't use her powers against him, he also built a tank for her which would keep her in a constant state of excruciating pain. He also felt it would be a shame to let this Diclonius' body go to waste, so he, in no grey terms, raped her. When facing Nana at the Maple House Inn, he fires special spiked ball weapons that put their targets under torture and agonizing pain, later using this same weapon on Bandou, and he also nearly kills Mayu's dog friend, Wanta, when it comes to Mayu and Nana's aid. Finally, just when you think this guy couldn't get any more repulsive, he attempts to rape Mayu, and when she fights back, he becomes intent on killing her. Because this man proves to be the embodiment of humankind's most monstrous nature, when Lucy kills him by unceremoniously tearing him in half, it's quite satisfying to see.
    • Mayu's Stepfather is shown to be a child molester who loved to sexually humiliate her, force her to undress and prostate herself in a table-like position as he raped her, and it's shown that he went so far as to sodomise her. He gets no comeuppance for this, as it's only shown in a flashback.
    • Tomoo, the ringleader of the kids who killed Lucy's puppy, is portrayed as a complete and utter sociopath. He was a racist against the "inhuman" Lucy for no valid reason, enjoyed physically and psychologically hurting others more than anything, and was shown to have no redeeming qualities whatsoever, visibly getting a thrill out of beating an innocent puppy to death, and in the anime he drew it out as long as possible not simply to torture Lucy, but because he was enjoying killing another living creature so damn much. While it's debatable if the other children deserved to be massacred by Lucy afterwards, Tomoo most definitely got what was coming to him.
    • While Nyu is the definition of Helpless Good Side and Lucy (Or rather Kaede) is an Anti-Villain and very Ax Crazy Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, the Omnicidal Maniac THIRD personality that has been manipulating the broken Kaede into slaughtering every human in her path might qualify as a Complete Monster, at least if you believe it/she's an actual personality and not just a manifestation of Lucy's killer gene.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: "Lilium", the opening theme.
  • Cult Classic: In Japan at least. In America it's one of the most well-known anime series, being called one of the "classics" by several people.
  • Die for Our Ship: Yuka gets this alot.
    • The Lucy hatedom gets pretty rabid too, but how much of this is Die for Our Ship and how much is simply hating Lucy because she's a villain is completely impossible to determine.
  • Dude, Not Funny: A good measure of the humor in the first couple episodes involves Nyu acting like a toddler, wandering around naked acting ragingly stupid, and molesting both Kouta and other girls.
  • Ear Worm: The opening is probably one of the biggest Ear Worms in anime history.
  • Esoteric Happy Ending: The final chapter of the manga clearly states that the World Health Organization "forbade" the birth of Diclonii worldwide until they discovered a vaccine capable of preventing their conception. Red tape and technobabble aside, the term for this is genocide.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Lucy drops Nyu's particular type of Moe, but turns into a deep-voiced Badass Hot Amazon Tsundere with major Woobie credentials.
  • Fanon: The Unknown Man is a Kakuzawa and thus is related to the Director. They do know each other, the Unknown Man does seem to know and support the Direcotor's agenda, and Anna's Grandmother mentions her "older brothers" (plural) in Anna's flashback, and since Anna never knew about her father's Diclonius offspring with Lucy's mother, it could not have been referring to him. However, they are never confirmed to be related, and it's unsure if the guy wears a Hairpiece to disguise little horns on his head.
  • Fridge Brilliance: The Diclonii are chained up and naked in the facility making some really creepy Fan Service. What else is naked and locked up by humans? Animals. The Diclonus are nothing but animals in their eyes.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The show didn't get very far in Japan (partly due to being hardcore enough that it couldn't be broadcast on-air even in Japan), but was a major Sleeper Hit in America through DVD sales.
    • Same for the actual Germans.
  • Internet Backdraft: This seems to be one of the few series that 4chan seems to legitimately hate.
  • Les Yay: As said before, Nyuu is a girl with the body of a 18 year old and the mind of a 2 year old and as a result has no inhibitions at all. Kouta knows how to keep her in check quite well, but when he's not around she practically sexually assaults a number of the other girls in the house.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Chief Director Kakuzawa, particularly in the manga.
  • Moe: Nyu. She loses some of these traits in the manga when she learns to speak and behave properly.
    • Nana too, in her own way.
    • Lucy has her own version of Moe when she's in her Woobie phase.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Lucy's bullies when they murder her dog. Lucy when she murders Kouta's family. Mayu's stepfather for molesting her and her mother for not helping her due to envy. Nousou when he orders Diana to skewer herself. Pretty much anything Director Kakuzawa and the Unknown Man do.
  • Narm: Almost all of the gory scenes in the anime wind up being this due to the art and how over-the-top it is.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat/Armed with Canon: Between the Anime and the Manga, if you can believe it. The manga all but explicitly states Kouta and Yuka are the Official Couple, but the anime seems to ship Kouta with Lucy. The anime also attempts to make Lucy more sympathetic by removing Lucy's tendency to laugh maniacally while killing people and Flanderizes Yuka's Clingy Jealous Girl moments.
  • Tear Jerker: Especially the manga. Nana gets a lot of this.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Apparently, a seventeen-year-old girl who has no sense of modesty and acts like a toddler is supposed to be cute and/or hilarious!
  • The Scrappy: Tomoo is pretty much the most hated character in the series. A Deviantart user even created a contest asking for people to draw him dying in some way.
    • Yuka is a close second. See her entry below.
  • The Woobie:
  • World Half Empty: After repeatedly showing that Lucy/Nyu had only acted as the humans around them acted, meaning that Diclonii raised by loving parents would be no more likely to become evil than humans, the manga kills off her entire species save a single sterile one. Were you expecting a hopeful solution when Humans Are the Real Monsters and are the ones raising the People of Mass Destruction?

The Characters have a sub-set of YMMV Tropes

Lucy

  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Quite a lot, considering the ambiguity surrounding whether the Diclonius' are genetically predisposed towards wiping out the human race.
    • The Inner Voice is also subject to this: is it the root of her DNA speaking to her? Is it another personality that formed through all of the abuse breaking her? Is she the Embodiment of the Diiclonii? Or is she some combination of all three?
  • Base Breaker: Naturally.
  • Die for Our Ship: The Lucy hatedom can get pretty rabid, but how much of this is Die for Our Ship and how much is simply hating Lucy because she's a villain is completely impossible to determine.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Now, this was completely deliberate on the writers' part, since Evil Is Sexy and Lucy is one of the most sympathetic mass murderers in anime history with a genuinely powerful, and surprisingly, well executed Freudian Excuse, but regardless: to hear her fanboys (and more than one fangirl) talk, you'd think that she had never done anything wrong and just needed a hug to be turned into an angel of sweetness and light, never mind the fact that she started off the series freely killing any human except for Kouta who ever crossed her path. Her romantic rival, Unlucky Childhood Friend Yuka, is of course turned into Ron the Death Eater, and her Clingy Jealous Girl tendencies are Flanderized to the point that the Lucy fandom often gleefully wish for Lucy to dismember Yuka. Of course, Lucy is not only a Clingy Jealous Girl, but a Yandere and Cute and Psycho who slaughtered an entire carnival full of innocent people when Kouta snubbed her, as well as wanting to erradicate mankind... but don't tell that to her fans, or they'll tell you that they all deserved it.
    • Not only that, but they'll also say that they're happy Lucy killed them all. Especially his "stupid and annoying bitch" of a little sister!
  • Evil Is Sexy: Lucy drops Nyu's particular type of Moe, but turns into a deep-voiced Badass Yandere with major Woobie credentials.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Is nearly a Complete Monster for her actions but is still a major Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds. Be ready to feel the urge to sock her in the face... just before giving her a hug. That's Lucy in a nutshell.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Brutally murdering Kouta's father and little sister without any provocation was so horrible and over the top that, even when Lucy became The Atoner, plenty of fans thought that there was no atonement for that. And to be fair, so did Lucy herself.
    • Others also add slicing off Nana's limbs after the threat she posed was completely neutralized, though this one gets a bit mitigated when Nana gets new prosthetic limbs and those limbs easily falling off is a running joke Played For Laughs.
    • And for some, it was her considering trying to kill Mayu after Mayu tried to help her.
    • Fans may split on whether or not Lucy herself crossed it, but everyone agrees that her DNA Voice/Diclonius Queen Personality crossed it when she manipulated a broken Lucy into the aforementioned atrocities she commits. If that wasn't enough, then it attempts to destroy the planet in her dying breath out of spite that she won't get to rule a Diclonii-only world.
  • Ron the Death Eater: She manages to be an odd case that's a victim of this along with Draco in Leather Pants. Now, Lucy is clearly not innocent by any measure. However, there are some that think of her as nothing but pure evil who would always kill others as soon as something goes wrong, just because. Now granted, she certainly shows this behavior early in the series, but as the story goes on, it's made plain that, yes, she does feel awful over what she's done, and does try her best to NOT kill anymore and would've been content to live with Kouta and her friends. However, the people of the Diclonius Research Facility always keep screwing her over and over, and forcing her back into killing people, making it difficult to nearly impossible for her to atone and any hope she can find in humanity and a better future grow dimmer each time. And she's being manipulated by a Split Personality that represents her innate Diclonius instincts, which she first tried to suppress but it soon became her Enemy Within when given life by the pileup of all the emotional trauma she'd endured. Seriously, the girl just can't win.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: She is played up as a Tragic Villain, but some find it hard to feel sorry for her when she murdered Kouta's family out of petty jealousy and was Easily Forgiven for it. It was also shown that before she met Kouta, she killed families just so she could stay at their houses at night. You could count with with your fingers how many people she killed actually deserved it.
    • It could be argued, though, that what would seem like "petty jealousy" to most people felt like something else to Lucy due to Kouta being the first human being to ever show any compassion to her and forge a connection with her. Finding out that Kouta had lied to her about his cousin's gender, thus lied about which girl he'd rather spend time with at the festival, made Lucy think that every feeling for her and act of kindness he displayed might have been all lies as well, and she, being already quite unstable, wasn't able to handle the emotional turmoil in a healthy way. While far from justifying or excusing what she did afterwards, it does make her more pitiable.

Yuka

Nana

  • The Woobie: In a series full of woobies, Nana takes the cake. Everyone loves Nana. She get's pushed around so much. Poor Nana, indeed.
    • Iron Woobie: And yet through all this pain and anguish, she keeps pushing on.

Mayu

  • Hollywood Homely: When she's first introduced she is described as looking like the homeless child she has been for perhaps several weeks at that point. Problem is, virtually nothing about her physical appearance suggests this.

Bando

  • Complete Monster: Majorly averted due to Character Development from a psychopathic soldier who joined his Spec Ops unit only to be able to legally kill people who'd give him a challenge to a Jerkass who considers everyone as shit but has a moral code to not be indebted to anyone, and is also obsessed with having his Revenge against Lucy, to the Jerkass Woobie and Jerk with a Heart of Gold that he is in the end who actually saves Mayu from the Unknown Man in a truly Badass manner, is still obsessed with killing Lucy, but again places Mayu's life ahead of his own and is nearly killed by Lucy as a result, while also expressing a wish to have at least one person who'd care about him enough to mourn his passing.
  • Jerkass Woobie: He's an asshole, yeah. But he still manages to come up as more decent than others assholes here.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: While a few people find his anime counterpart amusing in some cases, most would agree that he has little to no redeeming factors and would rather have seen him killed by Lucy than spared. His manga counterpart has much of his jerkassery toned down considerably, given multiple moments of character development and badassery and is widely considered to be one of the best characters in the manga.

Director Kakuzawa

  • Complete Monster: Played with. At some point in the past, he'd at least been a decent father to his daughter Anna, {{spoiler|even allowing her human self an exit from the monstrous experimental form he turned her into]]. In the present day narrative, however, he shows no love for any of his children, has no qualms with cold-blooded murder, torturous experimentation, and even rape, and is planning to bring about the extinction of all humans on the planet so that he can usher in a new age of only Dicloni, with him as the new world's God. And there are no redeeming qualities to mitigate this horrific level of pure evil villainy.
  • Love to Hate: Manga only. Director Kakuzawa is a fairly despicable character but undeniably a darn good villain.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Again manga only. He practically has everything fall into his hands, has people dance in the palm of his hands and almost always has a stoic face and lets little bother him. He's practically a textbook example of what a good corporate villain might be like and one can't deny that he's got some style. Whether it’s using his own employees like pawns, firing off vector virus missiles or having a second diclonius son at the ready, he seems prepared for anything.

Nousou

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