Эльфен Lied: Песнь эльфов и месть Диклониусов

the Japanese manga series
Japanese manga series

Elfen Lied (エルフェンリート) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Lynn Okamoto. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Young Jump from June 2002 to August 2005, with its 107 chapters collected into twelve volumes. Elfen Lied revolves around the interactions, views, emotions, and differences between human beings and the Diclonii, a mutant species similar to humans in build but distinguishable by two horns on their heads and "vectors", transparent telekinetically controlled arms that have the power to manipulate and cut objects within their reach. The series is centered on the teenage Diclonius girl "Lucy" who was rejected by human beings and subsequently wants revenge. The series' title is a misspelling of "Elfenlied", German for "Elves' Song" or more formally "song of the elves", and takes its name from the song "Elfenlied", which is featured in the story. Elfen Lied involves themes of discrimination, social alienation, identity, prejudice, revenge, abuse, jealousy, regret, and the value of humanity. It is also noted for the graphic violence, emotional themes of how the characters change through, and the overall transgressive subject matter of the whole story. A 13 episode anime television series adaptation was produced by the studio Arms and broadcast on AT X from July to October 2004. The anime finished airing before the manga was complete; as a result, the plot differed between the two, especially the ending. The manga is licensed in North America by Dark Horse Comics. The anime series has been licensed in North America by ADV Films and in Australia by Madman Entertainment.

Elfen Lied takes place in Kamakura and Kanagawa, and focuses on the "Diclonius", a newly mutated species. Their appearance is similar to humans, but with several differences, namely horn like protrusions on the forehead, the presence of telekinetic invisible arms called "vectors" and unconventional hair colour. 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, she manages to escape and wreak havoc, but is injured in the process, an event which causes her to develop a secondary, childlike personality known as Nyu. Lucy is found by two locals, Kouta and his cousin Yuka, who study at the local university. 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 frequently from oblivious to murderous.

Much of the plot of Elfen Lied revolves around the Diclonii species, which strongly resemble humans; the only obvious difference is the two horn like protrusions extending from the temporal bone and parietal bone regions of the skull. 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 usually kill their victims. Vectors usually have a limited range of a few meters, but the length varies among each Diclonius. Diclonii also demonstrate the ability to sense one another. A key point of debate throughout the series is the Diclonius 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. It is disputed and contradicted during the series as to how Diclonii develop their violent behavior, whether it is part of their genetic code or whether it stems from abuse by humans. If a Diclonius vector penetrates or even so much as touches a human male body, the "vector virus" is transferred to the human, causing their children to be born as Diclonii (when born from infected humans, they are called "Silpelits"). An incident involving the escape of a child Diclonius during Kurama's early years, where the Diclonius' vectors penetrated him without causing him pain, resulted in Mariko being born a Diclonius and Kurama taking precautions against a recurrence by urging Bando to be sterilized. All Silpelits are sterile, female and age rapidly. There's only one Diclonius that is actually capable of reproducing: Lucy, the "queen".

When Elfen Lied was being adapted into an anime series, director Mamoru Kanbe was recommended to work on the series by the series composer, Takao Yoshioka. Yoshioka believed that Kanbe's general drawing style and composition would be ideal to adapt the manga, still in publication at the time, into an anime series. Kanbe himself, originally reluctant about joining the production, gained interest in it upon reading the manga. While the manga was still ongoing at the time, Kanbe and the production team were forced to condense the plot of the series into thirteen episodes, even though they felt it was necessary to make more as several significant plot details in the manga which Kanbe felt he could have used to make the series more emotive were left out. According to Kanbe, he considered Elfen Lied as a "love story," and he wanted to "bring viewers to tears." This can be seen in several examples, such as on top of a set of steps overlooking the coastline, where many of the interactions between characters take place. This is used as an important device in conveying the ideas of memory and emotional association, such as the contrast between Kohta and Lucy's conversation when they were ten years old in comparison with their conversation in the final episode.

In comments made by director Mamoru Kanbe on the Elfen Lied website, he stated that he intended for the anime to question and discuss values relating to the way in which humans divide each other by difference, as well as the belief that atrocities such as those committed by Lucy in the series are strongly influenced by the way in which people are treated by their fellow beings. The series frequently discusses the events and treatment which define the human character in such a way, and the problems which arise from discrimination, as well as the wild contrasts between compassion and vengeance between fellow humans, through the strong vengeance of Lucy compared with her past memory of Kohta. Many of the themes are mentioned at the teasers at the ends of episodes. Themes such as genocide and the attempts to "purify" the earth from each other also appear in the anime. Both Diclonius and the human species feel the need to populate the earth with their own and wipe the other out. Kanbe quoted this in relation to the desire of humans to cast each other out and segregate one another. Throughout the series, there is a great deal of blood and gore, graphic violence as well as psychological violence. One of the most prevalent motifs of the series is the humanity of the Diclonius, especially contrasted against the inhumanity of ordinary people. One reviewer described the series as "devoted to quite a few of the darker, more callous factors of human nature." The series balances its darker themes with romantic sub plots as well as many comic moments. Elfen Lied has been described as similar to, or borrowing elements from Chobits, 3x3 Eyes and is credited to the composer Hugo Wolf. A poem by Eduard Mörike is the basis for Wolf's version. It is taught to Nyu by the manga only protagonist Nozomi. In the manga, the Diclonius are kept in a grotto called the Lebensborn Cave, a reference to the Nazi eugenics program.

Written and illustrated by Lynn Okamoto, Elfen Lied was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Young Jump from June 6, 2002, to August 25, 2005. Shueisha collected its 107 chapters in twelve volumes, released from October 18, 2002, to November 18, 2005. In North America, the manga was licensed for English release by Dark Horse Comics. They released it in a four volume omnibus edition from May 22, 2019, to September 9, 2020.

Reviewing the first English omnibus volume of Elfen Lied, Anime UK News gave it an 8 out of 10 rating and noted that it is much more detailed than the anime adaptation by explaining what Diclonius are and showing more of the characters' inner thoughts. Although, they stated that the beginning of the anime had "more punch." Anime UK News criticized Okamoto's art as poor throughout the book, but enjoyed the extra unrelated stories included at the end. Comic Buzz gave a 9/10 score, calling it a "great read from start to finish". They felt the art style changed with the characters' emotions and said it reminded them variously of Neon Genesis Evangelion and the work of Junji Ito. Rai of TheOASG gave the omnibus a 3 out of 5 star rating, criticizing the art and fan service, and overall preferred the anime which she acknowledged having bias for. Reception for the anime was generally mixed to positive. Reviewers such as Tasha Robinson of Sci Fi Weekly and Theron Martin of Anime News Network praised Elfen Lied for its story and technical excellence in production quality, animation and color. Due to the many scenes of nudity and gore, Dominic Laeno of THEM Anime Reviews criticized the series as being "overly blatant." Martin criticized the anime for having "sub par voice acting" in both the original Japanese audio track and the English dub, although he gave an "A−" rating for both language dubs. Laeno called the series "a genuinely good watch." On June 12, 2015, the now defunct Chinese Ministry of Culture listed Elfen Lied among 38 anime and manga titles banned in China.

Matt and Ross Duffer have cited Elfen Lied as an influence on their 2016 Netflix series Stranger Things. They said that Elfen Lied was like an "ultraviolent E. T." and noted that the character Eleven was inspired by the anime. Another cited influence was the 1988 anime film Akira, which they felt had in turn influenced Elfen Lied. The anime opening theme "Lilium", with its Latin lyrics extracted from biblical sources, is sometimes sung as a hymn in churches around the world, including in countries such as Ukraine, Sweden, Brazil, and Chile.