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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
The story is great but every single page I am reminded that it was written and drawn by a man. A man that loves underage girls.
dark
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I never read Elfen Lied when it was first made popular, so I thought now would be a great chance to finally pick up the series. Sadly, I was immediately turned off from the story by how ridiculously over-sexualized certain characters are: specifically, a girl who's described as looking like she can't possibly be over 15 years old, and another girl who says she's 12. It was just all a little too cringe-inducing for me, and on top of that, almost all of the characters were tremendously unlikable and the plot was hard to follow.
It seemed like the author kept introducing more random details to the mutants' natures that made no sense and came totally out of left field, just to keep the drama up. I pushed through the rest of the omnibus to see if it ever got any better, but it honestly felt like the entire story consistently went further downhill as it went on.
Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
It seemed like the author kept introducing more random details to the mutants' natures that made no sense and came totally out of left field, just to keep the drama up. I pushed through the rest of the omnibus to see if it ever got any better, but it honestly felt like the entire story consistently went further downhill as it went on.
Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
dark
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Hey violence and gore. I'm on a roll w/ these types of books. Strong three but nothing amazing yet.
I first read this series in high school, never made it all the way through for some reason, but it's definitely got an interesting premise. Since this is the first official English release, it was dope to go back and start it from the beginning.
Elfen Lied isn't phenomenal by any means, but it's got some great ideas. Conceptually, I love the ideas of the "Diclonius" and their vectors, along with the grand "scheme" that the antagonist has plans for. The main character "Nyu" is also interesting and I enjoy the dichotomy surrounding her character.
Since this was released in the early 2000's, it has a lot of the same troupes of manga/anime at the time which seem to bring it down a bit for me. Specifically there's a major focus on gore and nudity. The gore can be used to highlight the gruesomeness of the "Diclonius", but then the nudity is used both in serious segments, as well as comedic ones, and it leaves the series tonally jarring.
I think if Okamoto had taken the characters a bit more serious, instead of using troupes for comedic effect, we would have a series that could be almost as good as another early 2000's classic - Death Note. Instead, those comedic moments take me out of the story, especially when pages before, we were dealing with much--much darker themes.
I'm gonna finish the series when the next omnibus comes out, because I don't think it's awful, I just wished it could live up to the potential.
Elfen Lied isn't phenomenal by any means, but it's got some great ideas. Conceptually, I love the ideas of the "Diclonius" and their vectors, along with the grand "scheme" that the antagonist has plans for. The main character "Nyu" is also interesting and I enjoy the dichotomy surrounding her character.
Since this was released in the early 2000's, it has a lot of the same troupes of manga/anime at the time which seem to bring it down a bit for me. Specifically there's a major focus on gore and nudity. The gore can be used to highlight the gruesomeness of the "Diclonius", but then the nudity is used both in serious segments, as well as comedic ones, and it leaves the series tonally jarring.
I think if Okamoto had taken the characters a bit more serious, instead of using troupes for comedic effect, we would have a series that could be almost as good as another early 2000's classic - Death Note. Instead, those comedic moments take me out of the story, especially when pages before, we were dealing with much--much darker themes.
I'm gonna finish the series when the next omnibus comes out, because I don't think it's awful, I just wished it could live up to the potential.
fast-paced