Weekly Reactions: Elfen Lied [Episode 4] (Reboot get!)

Ah, well met! We meet again Elfen Lied!

It's a... pleasure to be back within your innocence-crushing and sadness-inducing embrace?

But seriously, I enjoyed this anime very very much with my previous viewings. Though I can definitely say with security that this anime and manga are definitely not for everyone.

I like box openers

I can honestly see why Alice dropped the anime. It becomes quite hard to watch at some moments and, admittedly, the characters don't SEEM to undergo much change nor are they quite interesting at the very beginning.

I am looking at you Kohta...

Anyway, if you need a little synopsis before we dive into episode four, hopefully Alice's previous episode reactions will suffice.

Episode 1   Episode 2   Episode 3

With that out of the way, let's get this reboot started!

BUT another quick note: for the purpose of these reactions, I will attempt to put on the guise of a first time watcher.

I will not allow myself to allude to future events in the series (as much as I REALLY want to)

With that said, this freaking episode.

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 So yea! ... Episode 4!

Honestly... it's not the incredible start back to this anime I anticipated... I mean don't get me wrong, I think the episode was fine, I just remember other episodes being much more effective in their overall execution.

... Let me elaborate/

I noticed 3 distinct... well I don't want to call them conflicts because each of these situations have several conflicts in between respectively to each thing that is occurring.

In my humble opinion YES >=(

The first of these conflicts presented has to do with Yuka's jealousy towards Nyu.

Long story short, I am not a fan of this minuscule conflict blended within the mix of all of the other action.

Why are you worried about her and not me? Blah blah blah... This happens in almost every anime involving a male protagonist and several female characters. And, over time, it looks like this trope, a staple in harem and shojou genres, manages to infect anime that deal with themes that I believe are the focus and much more serious in comparison to one relationship.

... Although we do get to see Yuka straight up
DECK KOHTA IN THE FACE
like a freaking thug.
I found this action just WAY more than priceless.

And, yes, I can definitely appreciate jealousy as a character trait if it is not over something petty like attention. ESPECIALLY if it is attention towards a presumably helpless and . It's practically like they have a child with them to look after. Not... their child but you know what I mean.

I am probably getting way too worked up over this little thing but jeez, I have never liked the serious jealousy of a female character over another female character that happens to be vaguely close to the lead character.


To finish off the negative part of this reaction, yes, I know Yuka's role in the mix and in the manga it is probably even stronger, she has more issues to deal with concerning Kohta that we are not fully aware of yet,

Nice, just freaking nice. Now I have a new reason
to fear the mannequin. 

and I am also aware that this anime is on the older side of the spectrum but I still can't get over the fact that this trope that has become so commonplace and present within a good number of the anime I have seen.

I find it hard to believe that this is a design choice.
Not every homeless girl walks out in public without pants
... Aside from the fact that some people actually
fancy the design of a publicly
half naked teenage girl.
-_-

Ok well the second and third things I noticed with this episode were good aspects that I hope are explored more in the future.

The second are the hints dropped by the actions of Mayu and her increasingly suspicious activity concerning her condition.

She is increasingly suspected of running away from home and the main characters are beginning to become more involved in her affairs after her appearance in the previous episode.

I like to see these humanitarian-like efforts to come from the main characters like this because it definitely helps me stay on their side when things start taking more drastic turns.

The few little things provided by this episode make me very curious as to who this girl really is and why she is dressed like that, with this puppy dog Wanta, living off of table scraps ect.

Wow. That is actually kind of sad. =/

And last but definitely not least comes the most interesting... thing happening in this episode, the continuation of Nana's hunt for Lucy.

As the last episode concluded, Nana was able to locate Lucy and the episode cut right before the awesome fight got on way.

Before the fight starts, anime law dictates that engaging dialogue must be established and completed before the fight actually commences.

It turns out that, despite Lucy's monstrous presence
and power, Nana had some advantages in this battle.

So naturally they engage in such dialogue and... interesting things are revealed.

I mean sure, we know about Nana's status as a member of the diclonius race and we know that she has been the subject of numerous tests by that facility I totally forgot the name of because I didn't watch the prior episodes, but we sort of get a better feeling and definition of what her goals are at the moment and what her motivation is in this whole scheme.

She, essentially, is a puppet for this whole organization sure but she does not have any purposeful or malicious deceit behind any of her motivations to please Captain Kurama, a man who she refers to as "papa". (Freaking adorable by the way.) Nana is literally, from what we know at this point, hunting down Lucy soely for the purpose gain praise from his father going to literally any length to doing so.

Very very interesting set of conflicts within this... thing because I don't think that Nana necessarily finds the capture and possible slaughter of a member of her own race a particularly enjoyable thing while she has a father to please and make happy.

Despite her caring nature, gentle deposition and lamb-like innocence (kept remarkably intact by the way) it still looks like she is the type to man up and do whatever it will take to please a person that she loves.

What really happened? Well, they say that AvatarHippo's
fuck giving center grew three sizes that day.

So, regarding the episode as a whole, I really appreciated the interesting conflicts brought up concerning Nana and Mayu. Even, admittedly, Yuka because, aside from the jealousy, we are beginning to get a better idea of the pain she went through with her separation with Kohta. There is clearly something we don't know about with this guy and I want to find out.

Kohta and Lucy/Nyu for now are pretty weak in the character department but I can still appreciate the roles that they are given at the moment.

Lucy and Nyu are both given their proper and respective hints early on to show that there is more behind their "personality shift" than just psychosis or the destruction of a mind. And I look forward to re-discovering exactly what that reason is in the future because, if I remember correctly, I loved the heck out of it.

Cutest. Cockblock. Ever.

My reaction to episode 2 is coming out next Thursday and the Angel Beats review will come tomorrow evening/night.

Thank you for reading and I hope you stick around for this anime because it does get a lot better in my opinion.

-AvatarHippo