Awesome / Elfen Lied

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

• After Nana is literally torn apart by Lucy, Kurama, not knowing Nana has disabled Lucy's vectors, punches Lucy in the face, fully expecting to die and not caring because of how precious Nana is to him.
  • Nana is quite an impressive character for such a bleak series. For starters, she faced ordeals such as being experimented upon, dismembered by Lucy, then badly outclassed by Mariko and all kinds of horror being thrown at her in the series, normally she would end up like Lucy and Mariko and go misanthropic with all the horror it implies. But no, she defied her nature to kill all humans, maintained an unshakable positive outlook in life, just because of the kindness of her Papa and later of the people at the Maple Inn. She never killed anyone despite having the capability to do so. And she became the only surviving diclonius in the series and thus can finally experience a happy life. Guess being idealistic can work in Elfen Lied universe.
• When Mayu gets a new home, a birthday cake, and her dog back in the space of a few panels.
• Nozomi, grateful for Kouta keeping a secret for her, takes a Yuka-blow the tsundere meant for Kouta.
• Nana is badly outclassed by Mariko, and becomes a plaything to the cruel little girl—-until Mariko hears Nana call for her 'Papa' Kurama, mocking Nana for this and threatening her 'Papa' (who is really Mariko's Papa). Enraged, Nana literally pulls herself together, punches Mariko out of her wheelchair and disables her vectors when she won't apologize for her threats.
• Bando rescuing Nana and Kurama from an enraged Mariko... by shooting a rocket at her. When Mariko catches it and smugly tries to claim that such a thing can't kill her, Bando shoots the rocket from afar and blows the whole thing up in her face. (Of course she survives, but still).
• Mariko, realizing that her father always loved her, urges Nana to take care of him and fights Lucy to the death. Badly beaten, she grasps Lucy's legs before being beheaded, just so the bombs in her body will also take Lucy out when they go off. Best of all, we see Lucy realize that this is about to happen right as she's beheading Mariko. Very satisfying.
• Despite being overwhelmed by and badly frightened by the vicious pedophile Unknown Man, Mayu fights off memories of her stepfather's rape and keeps the monster busy just long enough to call...
• Bando, who kicks this guy's ass and keeps on kicking it even when hit with a spiked poisoned ball—which he then takes out of his own body and shoves it up Unknown Man's ass! Admit it, this is one of the most memorable moments in the series.
• In a subsequent beach battle with Lucy, Bando shows several good tricks, including the ability to dodge Lucy's vectors. Then when Lucy tries to kill Mayu, Bando takes the blow instead, getting split in half while still taking off Lucy's horns.
• During the invasion of Maple House, Kouta is as overwhelmed as anyone else, till he sees Mayu's dog Wanta get batted back by one of the soldiers. This enrages him so much, he seizes a gun and takes Nousou, the leader of the force, hostage. When Nousou taunts him that Kouta wouldn't kill him, Kouta agrees—and threatens to blow his jaw off instead...
  • This ends up getting him shot, which enrages Nyuu—Nyuu, not Lucy—into being able to use her vectors. She tears apart the invasion force, her horns now immense, doing so not for sadistic fun, but to defend her family. Afterward Lucy does wake up again and urges Nana to take care of them as she departs Maple House for the final time. Nyuu shows this badassery again when she tries to rip Kakuzawa a new one after being taken prisoner by him again.
• When Barbara, one of the clones of Mariko pursues Nana for the 'crime' of living in peace with Humans, Nana is able to kick her butt all over town—till Kurama is taken hostage. Kurama gets his own again when he emerges from a months-log mental fog to kill Barbara to protect Nana, realizing that while it's his fault Mariko died, in order to truly atone, he cannot make the same mistake with Nana, the only one he has left.
• Lucy using her powers to brutally execute her tormentors. While it was a Start of Darkness, watching the little monsters finally get their long overdue comeuppance (and the ringleader's fear just before dying) was infinitely satisfying.

  Kaede/Lucy: (After having just been forced to watch the murder of her dog) You know who isn't human? You wanna know who isn't human?! PEOPLE LIKE YOU!!!

• Bando says he owes Mayu a kill for saving his life, then changes his tune when he realizes Mayu knows where Nyu is and starts beating her. Mayu pulls out his phone number, asks him to help her stop the big guy who's beating on her, and says he's not much of a man. Even Bando realizes that she's dead on the money and lets her go. Let's repeat: a fourteen-year-old Heartwarming Orphan has more balls than the manly Psycho for Hire who's out for blood.
• In the anime, Kurama letting himself blow up along with his diclonius daughter deserves a mention, along with helping Nana escape in an earlier episode.
• On that note, Lucy's Bolivian Army Ending.
• Lucy and Bando's fight in episode 2. Bando figures out he just needs to stay at least two meters back, and Lucy's vectors can't reach him. Cue Lucy throwing a boat at him.
  • When Bando figures out the range of Lucy's vectors, he thinks he's got her dead to rights... until Lucy swipes a gun from his teammate's body and blasts him with it.
    Lucy: Are you having fun?
• Kouta gets several as well, including getting shot several times to save his friends family. Most importantly taking a bullet for Lucy even after he figured out she killed his dad and sister just because he couldn't stand losing another family member, even Lucy. Also combined with Heartwarming the several times he takes one of the girls into his house and makes them part of his family with barely any hesitation, just because they need someone to care for them. It really took courage to forgive someone who casually killed his family yet endure that hatred just to come up with such decision.
• Near the end of the manga: Kouta has a fatal gunshot wound, Lucy's body is already at limits from an abortive attempt at avenging the aforementioned fact on a global scale (which ended in technically minor damage to the neighbouring city), and JSDF air and maritime forces are already scrambling to take her out with their full firepower - fighter jets, warships, missiles, the whole works. What does Lucy do? She proceeds to sing the title song Elfen Lied while patching up Kouta's body on a cellular level and blasting the JSDF forces out of both sky and sea, simultaneously. And she knows full well that she's going to end up with a terminal and ultimately fatal Superpower Meltdown from the effort.
• Nana's first realization of the advantage having a full set of artificial limbs gives her. Namely, being able to literally throw her arms and legs at an enemy using her vectors.
• Chapter 63, even better with Tchaikovsky as background music.
  • Almost anything Lucy does that isn't totally horrific or undeserved could be this for her.
• Mayu's amazing courageous act near the end of her backstory. She is sexually abused by her stepfather. Her mother hits her and clearly blames Mayu for his problems. Then one day, Mayu tells the bastard that she is done with this, and gets the fuck out of there. That requires a huge amount of bravery, and Mayu proves she had it.
  • In the tenth episode, Mayu actually stops Lucy's attack on Nana when the two start fighting again, narrowly cheating death as Lucy's vectors merely scratch her back as Lucy is too caught off guard to resume her assault. Even Nana is shocked at what nearly was an act of Heroic Sacrifice on Mayu's part. Mayu then begs Lucy to stop killing, saying she has the power to stop it all right here. Lucy though insists on resuming the fight with Nana and pushes Mayu aside, only for Mayu to again scream for her to stop. It's enough to trigger her shift back into Nyuu, as her cries directly echoed Kouta's in their last fateful meeting as children. The fact that Mayu was able to diffuse the fight solely through the compassion she had for her two friends, and to force Lucy to listen to her words for any amount of time was another truly impressive display on Mayu's part.
• Bando, in the manga, finally getting his chance at a re-match with Lucy, and his removing anything from the beach she can use a weapon and coming prepared with 50. caliber gun pays off as he nearly beats her until the Unknown Man gets in his way, giving Lucy a weapon in the form of his corpse. And Bando still manages to nearly win by having another weapon; the Unknown Man's crossbow, and Lucy and survives because Mayu tries to stop the fight.

• In a way, Lucy asking Kouta to give her a Mercy Kill at the end. Note that this happened right after Lucy's DNA Voice personality went on a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum in a last-ditch effort to eradicate humanity. With her body broken, her mind shattered, and her vectors annihilating what's left of the world, Lucy ultimately decides... to stop. With a little help from Nyu and Lucy, the DNA Voice defies her very nature by ending her rampage and allowing not just a human, but her love interest, to kill her, partly to stop the pain, partly so Kouta could avenge his family, and partly so all of this could finally end. Love made her crazy, but love is what drove her to be happy, and in the end, because of love, Lucy beats her Enemy Within, and ultimately earns a happy ending ala reincarnation. Wow. This may have been a Bittersweet Ending, but it was earned.

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