Elfin Lied
Ger., “Elves’ Song”
Based (loosely) on the manga by Lynn Okamoto
13-episode anime by Mamoru Kanbe
Production Companies: Genco and VAP (2004) and ARMS
This is the anime that Adult Swim shied away from. While they’ve aired other shows with TV-MA ratings, such as The Boondocks, (detrimentally, since half the jokes were bleeped because they contained the show’s favorite racial slur) they realized that their censors would render Elfin Lied utterly incomprehensible.
The show contains scenes of extreme violence and gore, torture, and sadism. There is explicit nudity. The characters are anatomically correct, and viewer’s eyes are not protected by the well-worn anime trope of “magic steam.” There is also a graphic scene of child rape that many viewers may find distressing.
So why a review of 14-year-old anime that sounds like dark-web porn?
I watched several episodes back around 2006 and found that I was hopelessly confused. I made the (for me) mistake of watching each episode about a week apart, and you know how it is: bright lights, sparklies, flashing things. Zeppy’s brain hurt. And I’m not keen on ultra-violence. So I quit watching.
But I kept seeing it mentioned around, and it became clear that a lot of anime fans considered it a kind of benchmark for beautiful writing and emotional depth. Anime fans aren’t always the most discerning of critics, but I kept seeing it compared to animes I thought well of, such as Full Metal Alchemist (Brotherhood) or Death Note.
It’s on Hulu, and I decided to take a second look.
Yes, it’s gruesome. It has a lot of violence, the child rape scene is unhinging, and there is a lot of cruelty.
But, like the nudity, virtually none of it is gratuitous. Indeed, it amplifies the emotional and intellectual depth of the story.
There are two species: Homo sapiens, and a new one, Diclonii (Diclonus: Latin, the name of a double-horned dinosaur). Diclonii are an offshoot of humans, a contagious genetic mutation. The only physical feature is a pair of horns, one above each ear. They also have the power to manipulate objects within a certain radius of themselves through “vectors”, depicted as ghostly arms. These arms have immense power, and even a little girl can pull someone’s head off, or rip them in half. Humans believe Diclonii have a predilection to violence, although as the series goes on, it becomes apparent that human treatment of captive Diclonii, hideously cruel and callous, may be the real factor.
A Diclonus, Lucy, escapes, killing dozens in the process, and after a trained military assassin team fails to kill or recapture the girl, the facility holding the Diclonii elects to send another Diclonus (#7) after her. She, too, is a young female, emotionally crippled by a lifetime of deprivation and abuse.
Lucy fetches up on a beach where she is found by a couple of college students, Yuka and Kouta. Lucy has decompensated as a result of her ordeal, and the utter strangeness of the outside world, presenting the mental and emotive aspect of a toddler, and the two students dub her Nyu, since that is the only sound she makes. (FWIW, “nyu” is “new” in Japanese). This decompensation inadvertently provides Nyu with a disguise, hiding her from the facility and from #7, who cannot sense her presence in her Nyu persona. The two students take the damaged girl in, totally unaware of her far more dangerous aspect. From there, the stage is set.
Nudity and sex are usually treated in a manner in anime that is juvenile and far too coy for these western eyes. There is much sniggering and embarrassment and facile jealousy, so much so that if it represented greater Japanese society the culture would have died out by now, unable to reproduce due to extreme social awkwardness.
That element is almost entirely missing from Elfin Lied (the one time it is used that way, it’s in a genuinely funny scene). Nudity is used to depict innocence, trust, and friendship. Nakedness evokes pity, horror, and alienation. It’s a serious and profound approach rarely seen in art-house cinema, let alone anime.
The series addresses alienation, genocide, and emotional, physical and sexual abuse. It also addresses love, friendship, humanity (and Diclonii are very much human) and the courage to bridge chasms of fear and misunderstanding.
There is no simple, pat plot resolution. How could there be? But it does present the viewer with both an intellectual challenge and an emotional haunting, as most good writing will do.
This is a profoundly disturbing piece of work, but one that adds rather than detracts from the humanity of the viewer.
And really, isn’t that what great art is meant to do?
NB: Video of the stunningly beautiful, if NSFV opening sequence, “Lillium” sung by Noma Kumiko composed by Konishi Kayo & Kondoo Yukio.