History Manga / ElfenLied

* NoNameGiven:
** Numerous examples, especially near the Manga's end. The [[TheStoic Agent]] and the Unknown man are the most prominent. The Operatives in [[spoiler:the Vector Craft]], the Fleet Captain, and The Bakery Lady are also never named.
** Partially with the vast majority of the main cast, who have either only a given name or only a family name. Yuu and Anna Kakuzawa are a rarity. Yuu Kakuzawa and Shirakawa gain names by accident in the anime. Isobe's name is hard to spot at times-- he almost seems this trope.

** Played straight in the fact that humans believe Diclonii to be murderous monsters that will wipe out humanity and hunt them down without mercy.
** Subverted by the fact, that this time humanity is right. [[spoiler:Maybe. Though Diclonii do have a genetic drive to kill humans, there is some ambiguity as to just how much this can be averted by childhood circumstances. Nana is the most obvious example, but there are others in the manga. There is also, it's noted, a genetic drive in ''humans'' to kill humans, but those are normally suppressed by parents '''raising''' their children, not torturing them from their birth, chaining them up, and shooting rocks at them.]] See InformedAbility below.

* AmbiguousSituation: In the manga, [[spoiler: the Diclonii's DNA voice is shown to be an alternate personality that takes control of Lucy, but in the anime, its exact nature is not clear. In the anime, Lucy doesn't mention the voice as the reason for her actions. In the festival scene, during her inner conversation with the voice, one of the bystanders says that Lucy is talking aloud to herself, [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness which implies that she's hallucinating]]]].

* AmbiguousSituation: In the manga, [[spoiler: the Diclonii's DNA voice is shown to be an alternate personality that takes control of Lucy, but in the anime, its exact nature is not clear. In the anime, Lucy doesn't mention the voice as the reason for her actions, and in the festival scene, during her inner conversation with her DNA voice, one of the bystanders says that Lucy is talking aloud to herself, [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness which implies that she's hallucinating]]]].

* BerserkButton: It's rare that diclonii care for anyone. If they do, you really ''don't'' want to threaten that person.

%%* RedEyesTakeWarning: Practically every Diclonius in the anime.

** Tomoo and his friends at the orphanage kill Lucy's dog in front of her, thus causing her to become a misanthropic SerialKiller for the rest of her life.
** Towards the end, Kurama tries killing Lucy in revenge, ultimately [[spoiler:shooting Kouta in her presence, thus causing her to go on a SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum]].

** Towards the end, Kurama attempt to shoot and kill Lucy in revenge, ultimately [[spoiler:shooting Kouta in her presence, thus causing her to go on a SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum, leading to thousands more deaths]].

* KarmaHoudini:
** Averted with Lucy in the manga; Kouta does ''not'' forgive for brutally murdering his dad and sister in cold blood, [[spoiler: and she dies by SuperpowerMeltdown,]] but [[spoiler:the personalities of Lucy and Nyu are reincarnated as twin girls and are reunited with Kouta some years later.]] In the anime, however, she is implied to survive her last showdown with the army, and while Kouta doesn't exactly ''forgive'' her (or at least not her actions), he's much more sympathetic to her plight, and he'd rather see the killing stop than seek revenge.
** Lucy's anime fate [[spoiler:strongly implies (even more so if we add an element from the Manga) that she purposefully killed her DNA Voice side so she and Nyu can finally live in peace with Kouta.]]
** Kurama appears to be one anytime he confronts Lucy. While the latter would kill just about anyone without a second thought, she never attacks him and at one point even pats him on the back with a bloody handprint from one of her vectors. [[spoiler:The reason for this is because when he had Lucy surrounded with a female friend she made after Kouta, one of his men accidentally shoots the girl. Kurama promises he would do everything in his power to make sure she survived if Lucy turned herself in. Since she didn't want to lose yet another friend, she agreed to it. But later Kurama tells her that the girl died from her wound. So Lucy promises to make him suffer the same way he made her suffer, hence why she doesn't kill him, but merely wants to destroy everything around him.]]

* PoweredByAForsakenChild : Much of Kakuzawa's scheming involves the use and abuse of Kurama's Diclonius daughter, Mariko. While at the Institute, she is a hostage to ensure Kurama's complete obedience. Her use as a weapon against Nana and Lucy distracts Kurama and prevents him from acting in time to stop the [[spoiler:virus-carrying missile]]. Even when Mariko herself is gone, her many and varied [[spoiler:clones]] provide both weaponry and, most nightmarishly of all, [[spoiler:the organic material used to build the Vector Attack Craft which have a dubious track record against the masses of Clone Diclonii, and fail completely against Lucy]] making this trope literal and even more loathsome.

** By taunting Lucy and eventually killing her dog in front of her eyes, the abusive bullies at the orphanage unwittingly caused her to become a misanthropic SerialKiller for the rest of her life; when she mercilessly murdered all the bullies out of revenge.

** By taunting Lucy and eventually killing her dog in front of her eyes, the kids at the orphanage unwittingly caused her to become a misanthropic SerialKiller for the rest of her life.

* ThemeTuneCameo. Variants of "Lilium" often show up in the anime's background music. It's also the tune Kouta's music box plays, and is labeled as such. It can also be heard hummed by Lucy in the opening scene as she begins her escape.

* OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank: Goes right along with the HighPressureBlood.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Every Diclonius has the potential to become one of these.

''Elfen Lied'' (pronounced ''Elfen ''Leet'''', not ''Elfen "Lied"''), written by Creator/LynnOkamoto, is a ''{{gorn}}ographic'' {{manga}}, which has been likened to a [[JustForFun/XMeetsY combination]] of ''Comicbook/XMen'', ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'', ''[[Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]'', ''Franchise/{{Friday the 13th}}'', ''Manga/LoveHina'', ''Manga/{{Devilman}}'' and ''Manga/{{Monster}}''. In other words, it's a twisted mixture of mutant battles, PsychicPowers, split personalities, pseudo-harem antics, cute girls, the male lead who discovers that the person whom he interacted during that person's childhood is evil, and of course, bucketloads of {{Gorn}} - and it's more than happy to [[MoodWhiplash swing between comedy and horror at the drop of a hat]]. It has also been compared to ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie'' [[JustForFun/XMeetsY as done by]] Creator/DavidLynch and Creator/WesCraven. There is also a short {{anime}} series of the same name that follows the first couple of chapters but ends with [[GeckoEnding an alternative ending]] before the real plot kicks off.

%%* {{Gorn}}: Plenty of it.

* {{Gorn}}: Plently of it.

** And another one [[spoiler:in the eighth episode during Lucy's backstory, the animators were kind enough not to show [[AssholeVictim the three bullies]] [[KickTheDog beating a puppy]] to death]].

* {{Gorn}}: With so much Gorn, [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Kirk doesn't stand a chance this time!]]

[floatboxright:
Other manga by Creator/LynnOkamoto:
* Manga/BrynhildrInTheDarkness
* Manga/{{Nononono}}
* Manga/ParallelParadise]

Announced in 2018, Creator/DarkHorseComics will license the series in English for the first time in the west. The twelve adaptations will be compressed into four separate 3-in-1 omnibuses, the first which to be released in May 2019.

''Elfen Lied'' (pronounced ''Elfen ''Leed'''', not ''Elfen "Lied"''), written by Creator/LynnOkamoto, is a ''{{gorn}}ographic'' {{manga}}, which has been likened to a [[JustForFun/XMeetsY combination]] of ''Comicbook/XMen'', ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'', ''[[Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]'', ''Franchise/{{Friday the 13th}}'', ''Manga/LoveHina'', ''Manga/{{Devilman}}'' and ''Manga/{{Monster}}''. In other words, it's a twisted mixture of mutant battles, PsychicPowers, split personalities, pseudo-harem antics, cute girls, the male lead who discovers that the person whom he interacted during that person's childhood is evil, and of course, bucketloads of {{Gorn}} - and it's more than happy to [[MoodWhiplash swing between comedy and horror at the drop of a hat]]. It has also been compared to ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie'' [[JustForFun/XMeetsY as done by]] Creator/DavidLynch and Creator/WesCraven. There is also a short {{anime}} series of the same name that follows the first couple of chapters but ends with [[GeckoEnding an alternative ending]] before the real plot kicks off.

The series' title is German for "Elves' Song" or more formally "song of the elves'" and takes its name from the poem "Elfenlied", which is featured twice in the story.

''Elfen Lied'' (pronounced ''Elfen ''Leet'''', not ''Elfen "Lied"''), written by Creator/LynnOkamoto, is a ''{{gorn}}ographic'' {{manga}}, which has been likened to a [[JustForFun/XMeetsY combination]] of ''Comicbook/XMen'', ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'', ''[[Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]'', ''Franchise/{{Friday the 13th}}'', ''Manga/LoveHina'', ''Manga/{{Devilman}}'' and ''Manga/{{Monster}}''. In other words, it's a twisted mixture of mutant battles, PsychicPowers, split personalities, pseudo-harem antics, cute girls, the male lead who discovers that the person whom he interacted during that person's childhood is evil, and of course, bucketloads of {{Gorn}} - and it's more than happy to [[MoodWhiplash swing between comedy and horror at the drop of a hat]]. It has also been compared to ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie'' [[JustForFun/XMeetsY as done by]] Creator/DavidLynch and Creator/WesCraven. There is also a short {{anime}} series of the same name that follows the first couple of chapters but ends with [[GeckoEnding an alternative ending]] before the real plot kicks off.

* ThemeTuneCameo. Variants of "Lilium" often show up in the anime's background music. It's also the tune Kouta's music box plays, and is labeled as such.

* KarmicDeath:
** In the backstory, Tomoo is killed by Lucy, the same Diclonius whom he ridiculed.
** [[spoiler:During Lucy and Bando's showdown, the Unknown Man tries to save Lucy from Bando, and she responds by [[ItMakesSenseInContext popping off his head]] and [[BlackComedy throwing it at Bando]] since there was nothing else around for her to throw.]]
** [[spoiler:After Nousou removing the mind-control device of Barbara, in hope that she really loves him as a father, she beheads him for all the experiments he did to her numerous failed sisters.]]

* AmbiguousSituation: In the manga, [[spoiler: the Diclonii's DNA voice is shown to be an alternate personality that takes control of Lucy, but in the anime, it's not clear whether it's even real. In the anime, Lucy doesn't mention the voice as the reason for her actions, and in the festival scene, during her inner conversation with her DNA voice, one of the bystanders says that Lucy is talking aloud to herself, [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness which implies that she's hallucinating]]]].

* TheExtremistWasRight:
** Don't brush off your father's warnings about losing your voice due to a throat defect, even if he is abusive. [[spoiler:Nozomi experienced this situation first-hand]].

* AmbiguousSituation: In the anime, the role of [[spoiler: the Diclonii's DNA voice]] is downplayed, to the point that it's unclear how real it is. In the anime version of the festival scene, [[spoiler: when Lucy is talking to her DNA voice, one of the bystanders says that Lucy is talking aloud to herself, [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness which implies that she's hallucinating]]]].

* BullyingADragon: Various people (Nana and Bando in particular) continue to trash talk Lucy even after they've seen exactly what she's capable of. This decision ends badly for them.

* TheExtremistWasRight: Don't brush off your father's warnings about losing your voice due to a throat defect, even if he is abusive. [[spoiler:Nozomi experienced this situation first-hand]].

* FinalSolution: Every Diclonii in the series has been abused by humans to the point where their biological survival instinct has fused with their psychosis, which insists that humans must be eradicated or they will eradicate Diclonii. [[spoiler:Turns out that this is absolutely correct. Once knowledge of Diclonii is widespread, all Diclonii babies are killed at birth until human scientists develop a vaccine capable of keeping them from being conceived at all.]]

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: A recurring theme. It’s implied that every diclonius goes through the same thing Lucy does: bullied by humans for being different.