Elfen lied ( Detail )

Plot

Elfen Lied takes place in Kamakura, Japan, focusing on a new strain of the human race - Diclonius, similar to human beings but different at the genetic level and notable due to physical abnormalities, particularly a pair of short horn-like protrusions. One such Diclonius, Lucy, is the main character of the series: Initially held in a facility built for experimentation, located off the coast of Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, she manages to escape and wreak havoc, but is injured in the process, an event which causes her to develop a secondary, child-like personality known as Nyu.

Lucy is found by two locals, Kohta, who studies at the local university, and his cousin Yuka. They take her in, and become involved with the numerous, often brutal, attempts to recapture her by a Special Assault Team and a number of other Diclonius, who shift from oblivious to murderous frequently. Other characters include Bando, a SAT trooper mauled by Lucy and infected with a virus, and Kurama, a carrier of the virus.

While the animated series ends with Lucy confronting a large team of SAT members, after which she disappears, the manga continues by showing the mad plans of Kakuzawa, leader of Diclonii research, and his ultimate failure. The world itself is endangered.

Characters

Main article: List of Elfen Lied characters

• Lucy (ルーシー Rūshī) is a Diclonius girl around eighteen. Lucy has developed strong emotions of hatred and vengeance towards human beings mainly because of how she was treated by the majority of them as a child; they made fun of her horns and gave her insulting nicknames such as "Freak." As a child, she bonded with a dog which was killed right in front of her by classmates, which triggered her first killing. She seems to lack empathy, kills without much concern, and acts somewhat sadistically, often torturing victims before killing (such as Bandou and Nana, although she did not actually kill them); however, towards the end of the series, she begins to show remorse for her actions, especially towards Kohta, whose father and sister she killed. She is aware of her "Nyu" state as revealed in the manga by her worries just before she reverts. The last chapter of the manga reveals that her name is actually Kaede. Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi (Japanese), Kira Vincent-Davis (English)

• Nyu (にゅう Nyū) is Lucy's split personality that developed after a .50 BMG round ricocheted off the metallic helmet encasing her head.Nyu has a childlike personality and infantile knowledge of the world, forgetting even that she is a Diclonius and how to use or manifest her vectors, leaving her the equivalent to a human being with horns. She initially lackslanguage skills; however, she eventually learns a handful of words and phrases until (in the manga) she can finally speak properly despite the fact she still uses the nonsensical phrase nyu as her catchphrase. Nyu is innocent and incapable of violent acts, a foil to the normally cold and sadistic Lucy; she is the manifestation of her "good side." Whenever Nyu hits her head or is confronted with violence, she reverts to her sadistic side, Lucy, although is unaware of her actions while in her "Lucy" state. Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi(Japanese), Kira Vincent-Davis (English)

• Kohta (コウタ Kōta) is around nineteen and enters the story when his cousin's family allows him to move in to their closed-down restaurant in exchange for maintaining it while he goes to a local university. Kohta has repressed traumatic memories of his father's and sister's deaths during his childhood. Because of his repressing his memories, Kohta does not remember Lucy from when he met her earlier as a child, nor does he remember the child Yuka (which causes problems for him and Yuka due to Yuka's feelings for him; she is hurt at being forgotten). Due in part to his loss, he has a soft spot for girls in trouble and is extremely generous and protective of the girls around him. He constantly has flash backs, like many other characters, that do not make any sense to us. He is more forgiving in the anime, but when he gets his memories back in the manga, he is unforgiving towards Lucy for killing his father and sister. Even so, he also remembers the happy memories that he shared with Lucy and loves her despite the horrible things she's done. Voiced by: Chihiro Suzuki(Japanese), Adam Conlon (English)

• Yuka (ユカ) is Kohta's cousin. She is around nineteen and last saw Kohta when they were ten, during the summer when Kohta family visited (just before Kohta's father and sister were murdered). When Kohta moves to Kamakura to attend the same university as her, she moves in with him at the Kaeda House Inn. She has had a crush on Kohta since childhood, and secretly hopes that they will finally be together. She is uncomfortable with Nyu's attachment to him, and often feels anger at Kohta for not understanding her feelings toward him.Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (Japanese), Nancy Novotny (English)

Diclonius

Diclonii powers involve the use of invisible arms, known as "vectors" that can grasp and impact things as if they are solid, but also become insubstantial and pass through objects. They can slice objects as well, which is how Diclonii kill their victims. Vectors usually have a limited range of a few meters, but the length varies among Diclonii; Lucy's vectors are able to extend to two meters; Nana's can reach five meters, and Mariko's are the longest, with a range of eleven meters. Diclonii also have the ability to detect the location of others of their kind, such as when Kurama releases Nana from the laboratory to search for and retrieve Lucy. However, when Lucy reverts to her "Nyu" state, Nana is unable to sense her; in the manga, Nana is also unable to sense Mariko when she is injured and reverts to a personality similar to Nyu.Much of the plot of Elfen Lied revolves around the Diclonii species, as explained in the original manga,^{[citation needed]} are an evolutionary development from humans. Their bodies are very similar, the only obvious difference being the two horn-like temporal protrusions which are said to relate to their telekinetic powers. In the manga, it is mentioned that a Diclonius would fall into a coma if it lost one of its horns and could never return from their lethargic state if they lose both horns.^{[citation needed]} However, Lucy manages to recover from this twice. In the anime, Lucy goes into shock from losing one of her horns, and was temporarily rendered catatonic for a very brief period before recovering in time to save Nana.

A key point of debate throughout the series is the Diclonii propensity towards violence. Many have a vendetta against humans, and have ambitions to wipe out the human race and populate the world with their own species. If a Diclonius vector penetrates a human body, the "vector virus" is transferred to the human, causing their children to be born as Diclonius. An incident involving the escape of a child Diclonius during Kurama's early years where the Diclonius' vectors penetrated him resulted in Mariko being born a Diclonius, and Kurama takes precautions against a recurrence by attempting to sterilize Bando.

According to the manga, all Diclonius ("Silpelits") born from human parents are sterile and female (there were a few in the anime that were male), resulting in a structure resembling a beehive. There is only one Diclonius that is actually capable of reproducing: Lucy, the "queen".

It is disputed and contradicted during the series as to how Diclonius develop their violent behavior, whether it is part of their personality or whether it stems from abuse by human beings, and both conclusions are supported by evidence. Kurama explains to Bandou that Diclonius are born with the intention of populating the world, and it is implied that Lucy is directed by her Diclonius instincts when she kills human beings as a child.^{[citation needed]} In the anime's final episode Lucy tells Kohta that "I was born to destroy humans." However, it is also shown that the Diclonius have usually been subjected to some type of severe psychological trauma; for example, Lucy was tormented by her human peers and witnessed the killing of her pet as a child, while Mariko was raised in neglect since her birth. They could therefore have developed their homicidal tendencies from abuse. Further supporting this view is the evidence of Nana's character. Unlike other Diclonius, Nana is good-natured and refuses to kill humans in order to please Kurama. Kurama implies Nana's nature is a direct result of his caring for her and treating her as a daughter while she endured horrific experiments at the Diclonius research facility.

Nevertheless, the researchers at the facility believe the Diclonius to be nothing less than an existential threat. The Diclonius there are kept in isolation, where they are heavily restrained to the point of being unable to move and fed through tubes. Lucy mentions the danger to the human race to Kohta in the final episode of the anime: "Given just five years, I can ensure that there are more babies of our kind born in the world than there are normal humans."