Elfin Lied

A confusing series for me on many levels. The very title was sort of confusing. I thought it might have been a bad translation, and it sort of was but not as I thought. It is actually "Elfinlied" which is German for "Elf Song" and the name of a poem.

The series is about the Diclonii a mutant species of human. The Diclonii have horns on their heads that sort of look like cat ears. They more importantly have "Vectors" which are invisible telekinetic arms with which they can cleave or lift things with vast strength.

The series starts with one of these Diclonii naked save for a funky metal helm. She's in some bad ass secret government base and she's walking out and taking out anyone in the way. I mean anyone, doesn't matter if you were just an office girl bringing coffee. Off goes the head. Finally a sniper clips her just as she finally escapes.

She is later found on the beach by our hero, a typical japanese boy nerd and his friend girl friend. Generally when I find a naked horn girl who only makes cat noises I would call the police. These two basically adopt her and take her home. The series then basically is a back and forth between good people and evil secret organizations and good Lucy/ and bad evil Lucy.

The thing that conflicts me about this series is the misogyny present in the series. I've said before it's an unfortunate part of Japanese culture, and it's really vivid here. The worst is the character of Seven who has taken the character of "Female doormat" to extremes. She has been so tortured that she now considers her torturer a father figure even calling him "papa"

On the other hand, there is a compelling story here. Lucy has in effect been given a second chance by her "innocent" state after the shooting. Can she intergrate that and learn to care about people?

Definitely not for everyone, but also definitely a step above the usual "Magical Girlfriend" genre.