Posts in Elfen Lied Category

Spolierific screencaps follow so read at your descretion ;)

This one's going into the extended entry. Spoilerific spoilers ahead, so read after you watch unless you really want to know, 'kay? ;)

Number 35 (Mariko), the most powerful of the diclonius is released.. killing her "mother" right afterwards in gruesome fashion.. she has a bomb implanted in her that can be triggered if she gets too violent, so she loses an arm and finally calms down..

Meanwhile, Nyuu is having some fun trying to fix that broken clock.. and Nana is accepted into the family :)..

Back at the facility, we learn that Kurama left.. he meets Bandou on the beach and asks him to kill a diclonius that will be coming shortly..

Back with Kouta and the rest, Nana asks Kouta about a picture.. It's his little sister, Kanae. He remembers saying something mean to her before she died.. but not much else. Nyuu gets up and tells Kouta not to cry, then remembers something for an instant and runs away... She took a pair of scissors and runs outside where... she just cut her hair to make it short like Kanae's. She tells Kouta that Kanae forgives him.. And Kouta tells Nyuu that he loves her.. while Yuka's listening..

At the beach, Mariko has arrived. Nana feels her presence and goes to find her. Mayu then tells Kouta about it, and he and Nyuu go as well... Nana faces Mariko.. and Mariko, with those long vectors of hers, makes Nana fall apart.. poor Nana...

Hmmm.. Mariko's hair is blonde on the cover of one of the manga volumes... Anyways :) They keep putting it off. Sorry, kawaii, for making such a big deal out of it. I'm allowed to tease a bit, right? ;) Well, looks like they finally get to it next time judging from the preview.

Please keep the excellent comments coming as usual. Y'all really should be blogging this instead of me :)

Lucy and Nana have a little bit of a fight, but Lucy remembers something and goes back to the innocent Nyuu so it's over quickly. Nana eventually apologizes to Nyuu and Mayu asks Kouta if Nana can stay. So there's yet another girl living in the house now.

And it's flashback time... Kurama (Nana's "Papa") worked with Kakuzawa at that facility doing research on the Diclonius. What awful research it was... he couldn't really stand it. One of the test subjects, number 3, got out and looked for Kurama and found him.. then gave him a "reward". One of the others that number 3 ran into soon had a baby with his wife.. a Diclonius one. The vector virus was transmitted when number 3 touched him, and that virus is what causes the mutation to a Diclonius. So Kurama tells him to just kill it... later, Kurama's wife gives birth... so now Kurama's in that same situation, and tries to kill the baby girl himself, but he can't do it, so he along with the baby ends up back at the facility...

And back to the present there, the most dangerous of the Diclonius, even stronger than Lucy, number 35, is about to released....

So we didn't get to "that" this time either.. They're sure putting it off. Well, we'll see what happens next time then :)

Updated 9/22 4:56PM: Corrected spelling to "diclonius", meaning "double sprout". I should really take some time to do a bit of research, shouldn't I? ;)

Continuing with Lucy's past this time... she and Kouta meet and quickly become friends. It's the first time in her life that she's had someone like Kouta to be with, and kinda doubts for a while whether or not he'll keeping coming to play with her... But, the day comes when Kouta has to go. That last day together they do all kinds of things: go to the zoo, play in the river.. And Lucy blushes a LOT. Very kawaii~ :) Kouta says that he's going to a festival the next day.. but with a cousin. And if that cousin is a girl.. Lucy's not very happy thinking about that...

And those voices she hears come... You don't have a place in this world. You should destroy everything, you have to kill them or else you'll be killed.. Just kill Kouta now so you won't have to go through the pain of seeing him with another girl.. And when she comes back to reality she's choking Kouta, but stops when she realizes what she's doing. After the bus ride, she asks Kouta if he's going to be going to the festival with another girl.. And he lies, and says no. So Lucy says she'll send him off at the train station after the festival and goes on.

At the festival, Lucy searches for Kouta, hoping that he's not with another girl. And then she sees Kouta with Yuka.. Uh-oh.. and those voices come back again, saying the same things as before. And this time she does it.. There go 4 peoples' heads.. A girl there, Kouta's sister Kanae, saw what happened and tells Kouta that in front of the train station as we see a very pissed off Lucy look on...

And that's it for the flashback. Lucy wakes up and goes outside where Nana and Mayu were talking.

And I thought we were going to finally get to that part this time.. Perhaps next time. Anyways, Orochi brought up a good question in the comments on episode 8: "Does Lucy deserve our pity?". In some ways she does... what those kids did to her dog last time, her being made fun of all the time.. all those awful things she had to go through. But in some ways she doesn't.. she kills people without reservation when they're in her way. But is that killing instinct something that she can control or not? Is it written into the DNA of all the Diclonius out there as something they have to do to preserve their race (as something like that voice that Lucy heard this episode)? But they're evolved humans so they should be able to control that instinct, right? It's the old "Does DNA control destiny or are we as humans not bound to that destiny?" thing. But all these questions are something to answer after we get through the show, aren't they? :)

Nana gives Nyuu a good kick, but that's all she can do as Kouta gives her good smack and she runs away. But Mayu goes after her... and Nana tells Mayu about everything.

Back at the facility, Kakuzawa-sensei's lab assistant arrives to make a delivery... Kakuzawa's head (lovely..), to the chief, who is Kakuzawa's father. And he's got some plans, just as his son did, to create a new human race.

Back at Kouta's place, Nyuu has a fever and when she wakes up she's back to the other Nyuu and remembers again. And we finally see what she remembers.. poor Nyuu... she was all alone and teased. Those kids were horrible.. especially what they did to that poor dog that Nyuu had been looking after. Looks like we'll... y'all that haven't read the manga will finally learn the rest next time and what kind of relationship Nyuu and Kouta had as children. I already know, but I can't say ;)

Nana and Bandou face off on the beach, with Bandou getting the worse of it. Nana kinda has a problem with breaking apart, losing a leg then putting it back ("Lego girl" as Momotato says). But the she shoots off an arm at Bandou as a weapon and knocks him down. And as he takes out his big gun his robocop arm completely shatters. Then she goes back to the usual Nana, worrying about what she should do. She doesn't want to go against what Papa said. Poor thing... she finds herself all alone and hungry... even though Kurama sent along a TON of money with her. Nana doesn't know how to use it at all.

While Mayu's out walking Wanta she runs into Nana sitting by a fire all by herself. Nana finally makes a friend. Good thing, 'cause she was burning all the money she had before Mayu stopped her ;) Mayu eventually asks Nana about Nyuu, so they go back to the house. Kouta has just stepped out to search for Mayu (while Nyuu and Yuka are... well, Nyuu's having a bit of fun. Where did she learn that?) and sees Nana. Nana doesn't sense Lucy/Nyuu's presence so she's about to walk away when Nyuu opens up the door.. Looks like we're gonna have a little fight here..

Looks like next time we're finally going to learn about Nyuu/Lucy's past. Y'all should look forward to it. Hee hee, I already know what happens ;) As I said before, the manga had me totally absorbed in it around this point and I couldn't stop reading. The anime is doing pretty well, though kinda shuffling things around a bit. We're past the halfway point now (the show is 13 episodes total), and there's plenty left to cover; another Dicronius to introduce, some other things. But I can't say much about that (and commenters please don't either) ;) I'm interested in seeing how it's going to end since the last volume (8) of the manga I read didn't resolve things. I'll be surprised, I guess :)

Bandou is back... but as Robo-Bandou with robotic arms and eyes. So he's off to hunt for Nyuu/Lucy again...

And where we left off last time... Nyuu/Lucy had taken Kakuzawa's head off and ran away.. Kouta and another prof there find him.. Head and all.. then Kouta remember a bit of something. He goes back to the house where Yuka's waiting and doesn't say anything, and remembers a bit more..

Back to the place where Nyuu/Lucy was held.. Kurama talks to the head person there. Now'd be a good time to explain how the Dicronius come to be. They're a sudden mutation in homo sapiens, caused by a retrovirus. The virus is transmitted by the "vectors" (those hands) to others, and when people infected reproduce, the child born is a Dicronius, but can't reproduce themselves (which is why Nyuu/Lucy is special. She can reproduce). All those Dicronius want to do is kill. Which is why the head guy tells Kurama to get rid of Nana since she's of no use. After that, Kurama tells a bit about his own family. He had a daughter, but she died.... by his own hands.

Kouta and Yuka go to search for Nyuu, but a rainstorm comes up and they seek shelter. Yuka's shivering so Kouta embraces her... and things go from there. (I recall this scene being much more ecchi in the manga....). Meanwhile, Mayu runs into Bandou on the beach. Bandou says he'll help her out in a pinch (he will be helpful later on), but only once as thanks. Then he asks about Nyuu/Lucy and Mayu answers... not the right thing to do.. Bandou is about to beat her up, but she says she's in a pinch so he lets her be. Back to Kouta and Yuka.. the rain stopped so they begin to search again. And Nyuu is there (as bad Nyuu).. she's remembered everything and starts talking to Kouta.. And while she's talking to Kouta.. she goes back to the usual Nyuu.

On the beach.. guess who's back again? (ChibiDusk, you'll be happy) Nana's been sent out of that facility by her Papa. But the first person she runs into is Bandou...

I'm really in a summarizing mood tonight for some reason ;) In the manga we already know what Kouta is gradually remembering and what Nyuu remembered. Guess the anime will tell soon. Some of y'all probably have it figured out already... or you think you do ;)

Note: Since I am watching this raw sometimes I run into difficulty understanding some details of what's going on when the discussion gets technical since I'm still learning (though I still get things for the most part). Please bear with me and if you notice any mistakes or important things I've left out please correct me. Thanks :) I should be able to understand things better once I get the manga. Ganbaru!

This ep starts off with that ecchi-looking scene from last time where Yuka just walked in... and she ain't too happy. She remembers a time when she and Kouta went to a festival as children. Seems like she thinks of Kouta as more than just a friend.... Meanwhile, back at that place that girl that's a Dicronus (that's what Nyuu and the rest with those two horns are called) like Nyuu is asked by her "Papa" to go look for Nyuu. She doesn't want to kill her, however...

There are a few more not-so-serious moments this time.. Kouta comes down with a fever, but Nyuu isn't really being useful. He asks her to get some water, but she brings back random stuff :) Yuka comes back and tends to Kouta and asks him if he remembers that festival, but he doesn't very well. And later on while Kouta is cleaning he accidentally bumps into Nyuu there and... well... it's somewhat ecchi and Yuka comes in and sees it ;)

Mayu, the girl that saw Nyuu last time came to Kouta's to give back the umbrella she picked up, and since she saw what happened Kouta asks her to tell him about it. While they're talking Nyuu is cleaning still but slips and knocks over a music box... and now she's back to evil Nyuu and those "hands" go out towards Kouta.. but she doesn't do anything and runs away.. I really thought she had killed Mayu's dog, but thank goodness we didn't have to see that bloody mess ;) After that, Nyuu waits.. since she can sense that Nana is there. See what happens between those two next time (it doesn't look nice).

Anyways, it's still very interesting so I'll keep on watching. Next time is shokugeki ("touch attack", as best I can tell), and the German title is aufeinandertreffen, "to hit each other"... I think ;)

"Aufeinandertreffen" is one of those funky German compound nouns (actually, it can be used as a verb as well) that can be easier to figure out after breaking it down into its individual elements. The verb "treffen" can mean "to hit", but the more common usage is "to meet". That's the meaning we're looking for here. "Einader" means "each other", and the prefix auf just kind of finishes it all off with the meaning of "to meet each other".

The thing is, there's sometimes an implication of a violent "meeting" in the word - like "to collide". It varies. Is such the flavor in this case? Beats me. And that's why learning German sucks.

Thanks! :)

Not as much blood as the first ep, but still plenty of it to go around. The police are looking for Nyuu now and come to Kouta's house. He denies seeing her, and then goes to search for her and finds her on the beach. The tough guy, Bando, on the team dispatched to get Nyuu found her and Kouta on the beach and he takes Nyuu away to deal with her. He orders his subordinate to kill her, but... like the first ep Nyuu rips him apart. And then goes after the other guy, using her powers to throw all kinds of things at him (including large boats), and finally gets him. She can talk normally now... and proceeds to rip off an arm, twist the other and poke his eyes out. Ouch.... But then she suddenly goes back to the nice cute innocent "how could she kill anyone?" Nyuu. She seems to be very much like Hikari in Konomini.. There is a lighter moment after that when Kouta comes home and finds Nyuu soaked from the rain. She can't change by herself so Kouta closes his eyes and does it for her.. And Yuka walks in to see something that looks rather ecchi ;)

At the end of the episode we're back at the place where Nyuu was held. The head guy there goes into a room and there's another girl like Nyuu there. The girl calls him "Papa". Hmm.... Next time is kyouri, "one's heart", and in German im innersten, meaning basically the same.

Tempy has some interesting pictures comparing the artwork in the OP to paintings done by Gustav Klimt. Almost exactly the same.