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MauritiusToday.com - Shopping Mall - Elfen Lied: Diclonius Report Complete Collection
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List Price: $49.98
Our Price: $44.99
Your Save: $ 4.99 ( 10% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Adv Films
Starring: Elfen Lied
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: ADV Films
EAN: 0702727146220
Format: Animated
Label: Adv Films
Manufacturer: Adv Films
Number Of Items: 3
Publisher: Adv Films
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2006-11-28
Running Time: 325
Studio: Adv Films
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Editorial Reviews:
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Critics have described Elfen Lied as "weird,"(Anime Planet), "surprisingly sadistic,"(Gamerz Edge), and "addictive" (Animesou). Now wonder, when you consider what makes this series hum! Lucy, a beautiful young mutant, is bred by the government to be the ultimate weapon. Armed with unfathomable powers, she escapes her handlers, but loses her memory in the process. Fortunately, our young waif is taken in by two well-meaning students. Now, with government killers on her trail, the disposition of a five year old, and a hair trigger for ultraviolence, Lucy and her young friends must unravel the dark secret of her legacy before it’s too late.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Elfen lied pwns
Comment: ok if you like blood gore/ romance type anime this is perfect this series is deffinalty in my top 2. great story plot, alot of violence WHAT more could you ask for? i HIGHLY recomend this anime to any anime fans
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Tried to get somewhere...
Comment: I was very disappointed in this anime. It was very pretty, I got to see a lot of nice boobs, but the darker story lines didn't even really seem to fit the story they seemed more there for shock value. And I guess this is a bit of a spoiler but I would have like to have been warned about the strong overtones of sexual abuse on such a young girl. And really what it had to do the plot I never found out. I was so excited when I started watching this anime too. The super powers have amazing capacity to go somewhere, but instead they just made a very dark, sad anime that had nothing to redeem itself in my eyes (which boobs do tend to help me over look a lot in anime).
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the best anime series ever
Comment: I have now seen all of Elfen Lied and I'm re-watching it - this time with my wife, who also likes it even though she doesn't like anime.
Although Elfen Lied goes out of its way to offend (some viewers may find themselves turning off due to excessive nudity or the brutal violence) and although the pacing will likely turn off younger anime fans who might want Elfen Lied's first five minutes to continue throughout the series, and although the show blends anime genres with abandon, there is nevertheless a great experience to be had here.
I feel I ought to defend some of the more radical artistic choices that the creators of this anime made. Now nudity has never bothered me, but, as a 46 year-old father of a young girl, I'm definitely not the type to be a fanboy who drools at the idea of 13 year-olds (and younger) running around naked in anime. Also, as a committed pacifist I'm definitely no fan of extreme violence - basically I avoid any anime with violence and, after seeking out many non-violent series and movies, I've only ever watched two violent animes (Elfen Lied and Now and Then, Here and There) after thoroughly researching them and after being convinced that their story held more than mere superficial thrills. Anyway, my point is that, in my opinion, Elfen Lied has a great deal more going for it than the violence and nudity. If that wasn't the case, I would have switched off after a few episodes, because I have no stomach for violence and nudity if they only exist for their own sakes.
The thing is, Elfen Lied uses its extreme violence and nudity (along with well-drawn characters) to help set up an emotional paradox: the extreme violence encourages us to come to the conclusion that the character of Lucy is irredeemable and must be destroyed; on the other hand, the nudity (and her Nyu alter-ego) encourage us to see her as fragile and needing protection. Other plot points give us a situation whereby the character of Kouta is the only person capable of saving her - this stuff is almost Shakespearian - it's what great drama is made from. I believe strongly that, without the nudity and the extreme violence, the show's creators could not have given us such a compelling emotional paradox.
Now, clearly the show explores a lot of the viewer's emotional boundaries - certainly boundaries of taste are well and truly pushed - but I think that to say that Elfen Lied is nothing more than a sort of 'shonen' fanboy's cheap and dirty thrill is to miss the mark. Maybe some teenagers out there get excited at extreme nakedness and extreme violence but I'm certainly not one of them. This show has a lot more going for it than its critics seem able to see or admit. Elfen Lied is a perfect example of nudity and violence being used in furthering a story that would give the viewer a less emotional impact if these aspects were missing. In short, this is not a case of mindless violence, nor is it a case of the show's creators cynically exploiting the puerile sensitivities of the average fanboy's penchant for nudity. It's a case of artists using radical and even unpopular media to create an emotional response in the audience - this is exactly what artists SHOULD be doing, and these artists do it very well. It's a pity when a reviewer fails to see beyond his own personal prejudices, and I feel that's the case with many of the negative reviews of this show.
If viewers can deal with a complex story that develops over the entire six-hour length of the series, they will find a viewing experience that is very compelling, with nicely written characters and a story that can elicit great emotion from the viewer. True, the artwork is not the best and the pacing is, at some points, uneven, but all-in-all this is a great series that builds to a cathartic climax of beautiful proportions. Anyone who doesn't like this show is, in my view, missing out on one of the great anime experiences. As I've said, the show goes out of its way to offend people of certain sensibilities (I nearly avoided it because of the violence), but even so, I put this show nearly on a par with the work of Satoshi Kon, Makoto Shinkai and even Hayao Miyazaki. It's the best anime series I've seen so far, and while the artwork doesn't rise to the level of a series like 'Last Exile' or 'Lain', it is at least competent, and the story and characterization more than make up for the lack of visual flair.
The show delves into issues such as the nature of true love vs. false love, what constitutes a 'family', nature vs. nurture, the limits of redemption and the effects of bullying and xenophobia, and the plot is every bit as complex as a Satoshi Kon film. Although the artwork and the visual excesses might lead a viewer to think the series is just going to be a visceral thrill-ride, this is not a superficial show by any means. The series plays with the viewer's expectations and mixes light and dark elements in a way that some viewers might find just plain weird - this is a show that fools the viewer into thinking a character might become important, then kills him off within five minutes; it's also a show that mixes harem comedy with ecchi (nudity) and some of the most brutal violence I've ever seen in anime - yet the mixture somehow works. The violence and even the nudity never seem gratuitous: somehow the creators of the show manage to make it seem like these elements belong - maybe it's just because the show breaks so many of anime's rules - part of the fun is in seeing just how far the show's creators can push the edge of the envelope while staying true to the story.
Elfen Lied: Diclonius Report Complete Collection comes on three discs in thinpak cases, and they are all housed in a very sturdy box. There are no inserts and the artwork is nice but not great - I would have liked the box to have the Klimt-esque images from the start of the show, but that's just me. The discs themselves are very spartan - you basically get the show (with the usual English sub/dub options) plus previews. The sound and visuals are good and I didn't notice any compression artifacts while watching the show. The series is presented in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen.
All-in-all, if you're willing to give this show a fair chance, it will reward you greatly.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Worst thing I have ever seen in my entire life. 0%
Comment: NOTE: I updated this review to add more to my points and take out some things that didn't add much to it, not that it won't be flooded with hateful comments again.
Okay, I seem pretty hasty giving out a zero percent on my first review, but this is the one product I had thought about for a while before joining Amazon, so this will get reviewed first. Don't worry, there will be positive reviews on the way.
While there's lots of terrible things in the world, I try really hard to not hand out zero percents like candy, but Elfen Lied is one of those extremely few things that truly deserves it. Someone in college recommended this to me, and trusting him, I sadly watched this whole abomination. In my six years of watching anime, this is the worst, and thats truly saying something because most anime is awful (particularly the modern stuff). It is so awful, it quickly dethroned FLCL from my "worst anime of all time" position, which prior to watching Elfen Lied, thought that was an impossible feat as FLCL kept that for five years.
The plot is that there's a mutated race of humans called the Diclonious, which are mostly girls that have horns that look like cat ears and invisible arms called vectors that can tear apart anything. Their goal is to wipe out humanity, many of them are studied in a research facility in Japan. One of them named Lucy breaks out of her cell and begins killing people left and right. A sniper nearly kills her but only winds up shattering her helmet and causing her to plummet hundreds of feet into the sea. Kouta and Yuka find her naked on the beach and decide to take her home. The research facility wants her back and sends assassins, the army, and other Diclonious to get her back or kill her. The plot is bad enough with all the teen angst from the main characters, but then spirals into these worthless sub-plots like with the runaway girl Mayu and how she became that way because of her step dad violated her.
I'm not kidding, everything in Elfen Lied is bad, and there's so many bad things about it, I have to sort out the bad things into several categories.
CHARACTERS: This mostly forms the rotten core of why EL is so loathsome. I hated every character in this series because they either were unbelievably unrealistic in the way they acted or just plain reprehensible. As Jonathan Lane stated in his review, the characters are ridiculous. If you found a naked mentally ill girl on the beach, you'd most likely call the cops or maybe even give her food and clothes before doing that; but in EL, Kouta and Yuka just take her in and don't tell anyone about her. Most of the characters are of the teen angst variety that I detest so much. Yuka wants Kouta to fondle her breasts so badly that she throws temper tantrums at him whenever he helps out a girl strictly out of good will. What's with Kouta? He doesn't stand up to anyone in this series. When he finds out that Lucy killed his sister and dad a long time ago, he doesn't even show the slightest resentment to her. Wouldn't it be more realistic if he at least threw a punch at her? Lucy is basically a naked, walking meat grinder with another teen angst story. The show is pathetic in trying to make you feel sympathy for Lucy by showing childhood flashbacks of her being beaten up by the school bullies and even killing her pet dog. This would work if they showed this BEFORE she killed lots of people, but since they did this afterwards, it comes off as a shoe-horned attempt at making her look less evil. When I see those flashback scenes, I feel like Lucy is basically saying "I was bullied as a kid, I hate the world. Whaaahhh!!" much like Jonathan Davis of Korn fame. Infact, I'm surprised either him or Corey Taylor didn't submit that idea to the creators of EL. Nyu, Lucy's alternate personality, is no better. She does nothing more than act like a dumb five year-old saying "Nyu" all the time and breaking things. I don't know how Nyu doesn't infuriate more people. Nanna, another Diclonious, was sent to retrieve Lucy but ends up being mangled by her and another Diclonious later in the series. Normally, I'd feel sadness for her, but considering how she's such a pushover, I was yawning most of the time. Mayu isn't really a character to be hated, but she doesn't add anything to the series.
GENRE MIXING: This tries to combine action, horror, romance, tragedy, and comedy into one; and epically fails. Mixing multiple genres like this is extremely pretentious and always yields garbage. Reckless genre mixing is just the writers saying "Look at us!! We're different, we deserve respect!!" It's really just creative bankruptcy because it's easy to mash a bunch of different things together rather than properly develop a good story on one, maybe two genres. There's a reason good anime titles stick to one or two genres per title because that's what works!! If I'm watching an action/horror anime, I don't want to see cutesy romantic comedy or hear any sappy J-pop songs while watching it, those types of things aren't any good to begin with and don't go with that style of anime. Mixing different genres in anime is no different that mixing different genres in music. If I'm listening to a death metal album, I want death metal songs; I may enjoy some jazz or progressive touches, but if there's anything really foreign in it like pop or rap, I'll be disgusted.
PLOT HOLES/CONTRADICTING THEMES/BAD ENDING: Elfen Lied fans happily overlook this, but I won't. A serious plot hole in EL is that an individual Diclonious chooses whether or not to live their lives killing humans, but in another breath, a scientist says a Diclonious will kill their biological mother at age three and kill others afterwards. The writers either are a bunch of monkeys with Microsoft Word or humans with the intelligence of former group. This anime is called Elfen Lied because it's based off a German poem with said title that's about the cruelty of humans. If this is about the cruelty of humans, they did a horrible job at it. The worst people that weren't Diclonious were the bullies in Lucy's childhood and Mayu's step dad, it would have been much more convincing if they showed masses of people killing many Diclonious at the beginning of the series to make it more convincing that humans are bad. That isn't the case, most of my hate went to Lucy because it looked like she was supposed to be bad, not the humans. The series ends abruptly, leaving practically all the questions you'd have about this anime unanswered. I firmly believe when writers come up with cliffhanger endings, it's not "art," it's extreme laziness. Sadly, lots of people eat up cliffhangers because it's human tendency to accept mediocrity because writing a proper ending actually REQUIRES EFFORT.
APPEARANCE: I hate the way everything looks in EL. The animation is way too smooth for its own good and the imagery looks way too perfected; like all other anime nowadays, it looks as if everything was modified and filtered through digital image programs. The character designs are some of the worst I've ever seen, the characters have that sickening "cute" look, especially the female ones. The Diclonious designs are terrible and only took about four seconds to make, I mean, girls with horns that looks like cat ears? How original!! I guess the Diclonious look like that to cater to the guys who like furries. What's with the use of Gustav Klimt artwork on the box and in the opening and closing segments? The paintings feel really out of place with EL.
SOUNDTRACK: I'm not impressed with the soundtrack. I'm not a big follower on anime soundtracks, but the music shouldn't annoy me to death. There's a friggin' J-pop song at the end of each episode. This would be more forgiving if this were a cutesy happy anime because even though those are awful, you'd expect J-pop to be in it. However, since EL is supposed to be really dark and serious, it's reprehensible. The opening song "Lithium" is just pretentious Latin drivel. Like the Klimt artwork, feels like it was shoe-horned in to look like "art."
VIOLENCE AND NUDITY: Contrary to what the fanboys say to naysayers like myself, I'm not offended by the excess violence and nudity in EL. Rather, I'm bored with it. After the second or third episode, the violence and nudity in EL looses whatever shock it might have had and when watching it from then on, you say to yourself "What's that? Oh nevermind, more gore and nude scenes." Most of the nudity is pointless, especially the scene where Mayu and Nanna are bathing together, did we really need to see that? It adds nothing to the story except appeal to some dirty old men. Though the pathetic fans will violently disagree with me on this, the combination of doe-eyed cute teen girls, over-the-top gore and nudity is an extremely laughable attempt at dissonance. Some people said to me "Dude, that was the whole point!! This is supposed to be dissonant, and it's good because it's very experimental!!" Like the genre mixing said above, this is more creative bankruptcy. Combining cute girls with gore is like combining rap and metal, they're both very different and are guaranteed to fail if combined.
POSITIVE RECEPTION: There's lots of bad things in the world that people rightfully hate in great numbers, such as Limp Bizkit and Battlefield Earth. Because those types of bad products already got the critical backlash they deserved, they really aren't worth my bashing power. Now this, not only has this gotten lots of praise from critics and anime fans alike, but some even have the nerve to rank this as one of the best anime titles of all time. Everyone in this position is either new to anime and is therefore easily starstruck by the junk on Adult Swim or has seen a lot of anime but have extremely bad taste.
FINAL WORD: If you're someone who enjoys this putrid new wave of anime that's so popular with the Hot Topic kiddies, then you'll love this. If you want an anime free of the current gimmicks that actually relies on good plot and strong characters, then avoid this like the ebola virus. For good anime, watch Akira (old dub only), Doomed Megalopolis, AD Police, Wicked City, Cyber City Oedo, Ninja Scroll, BioHunter, Ghosti in the Shell, and Memories for starters. DON'T EVER watch Elfen Lied, it will scar you for life.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This is a great Series!!
Comment: Right from the start it takes off and draws you in. I got home from work at 1 in the morning and figured I would watch a couple of Episodes. Well 6am roles around and had it not been so late I would have watched it all in one sitting. The animation is solid...the story keeps you hooked and the only problem I had with it was the flash back episodes...they made them with the huge eyes. I just wish there was a lot more of it.
It is something that I will watch more than once. It has subtle humor which in some series it ruins the character but that is never the case here.
I would highly recommend it!!!
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