Elfen Lied Volume 1 DVD Review

By sothis Published: May 23, 2005

PACKAGING AND MENU

10 / 10

ADV really outdid themselves this time.

Though simplistic, Elfen Lied V1’s box art is some of the most effective I’ve seen. The cover has a shot of Lucy, naked and bandaged, with half of her original mask on and half broken off. Her hand is bloody and her hair is flowing. This is easily one of the best pictures they possibly could have chosen for an image that represents the series. The background is a beautiful night scene. The side of the DVD has splattered blood which flows onto the back cover, which is just as stunning in its own way. Devoid of screenshots, it simply shows a picture of Nyuu hunched down, bloody. The background is black, with white text that very mysteriously (and effectively, yet again) describes the story. The insert has the same cover picture on one side, and an interview with the director on the other side (and blood splatters!).

Hands down, this menu is the best I’ve seen out of anything ADV related that I’ve reviewed. The background is a gray panel of sorts, that has a very grungy and dirty look (reminded me a lot of the lab). Pencil sketches of Nyuu are shown over a graph pattern, with blood splatters slowly falling/splashing on the screen. Navigation is colored well and easy to figure out. Eventually the blood splatters over the entire screen, which is completely indicative of the series. I really, really like this menu.

FEATURES

7 / 10

The only extras to be found are production and character artwork. I will say that the background for the character artwork is very neat-looking, with the same gray panel look as the menu. The background images are quite stunning and vivid, and are very neat to look at. I suppose the interview on the insert might count as an extra as well, so that’s a good thing. Other than that, though, no extras to be found except the usual clean opening/closing, and typical things like previews. Nothing bad by any means, but nothing out of the ordinary either.

VIDEO

10 / 10

The video quality was wonderful in every way. Elfen Lied is a series full of vibrant colors and hues, and the DVD showed them in all their brilliance. These vivid colors came across especially well in the violent and bloody scenes (which there were plenty of). In general, there was no noticeable aliasing and the picture was clean, not grainy.

AUDIO

8.5 / 10

The audio, in general, was very good. Many scenes made use of the 5.1 rear channels, but usually only during the action scenes. Then again, there was one scene in particular where someone knocked on a door, and both of us looked around, thinking someone was knocking on our door outside. Most of the sound was based around the center channel for the vocals. In a few scenes, the ambient background noise overpowered the dialogue. There was no noticeable distortions or dropouts.

As far as the dub goes, it was decent. Definitely not nearly as bad as Maburaho, though not as good as Saiyuki either. These are definitely two extremes on either end of the dub world, so this fairly average dub probably was to be expected. Kouta’s voice was decent, though he sounded a bit older than he is in the series. His voice was probably the best as far as sounding realistic and not scripted. Yuka’s voice, on the other hand, was way too high and girlie sounding, especially for how her character looks. Seriously, most English dubs I see all have way too high voices for the females, and I’ve never understood why. I think part of it might be not taking the part seriously (as opposed to sounding scripted), but it’s all guessing on my part. Of all the actors, Nyuu’s was probably the best and most convincing, matching the Japanese seiyuu quite well.

CONTENT

8 / 10

Volume 1 has four episodes of the series. Elfen Lied follows Kouta and Yuka, two cousins, as they help try to figure out who the bloody girl on the beach they found is. Men are out to kill her, but for Kouta and Yuka, they have no idea that the naïve and seemingly mentally retarded girl they are housing is really a cold blooded killer. Plenty of violence and mayhem follow in these three episodes, and we are also introduced to someone who might become Nyuu’s nemesis: another horned girl just like herself, who also has a penchant for blood.

All I can say is "damn". Elfen Lied definitely is one of the most violent things I’ve seen, with plenty of blood, tearing body parts and beheadings. From the get-go you are immersed into a bloodbath of kickass proportions, and that’s just the beginning. Elfen Lied is very much a fanservice anime, which is prevalent not only with all the gore, but also the excessive amount of nudity and ecchi. Not only is Nyuu naked a huge amount of the time, but various other things happen such as her forcing Kouta to grope her. This is the one element of the series I didn’t enjoy, and felt was a little overdone. Then again, if your target audience is teenage males, it’s a good way to go I suppose. Each episode flows by quickly and makes you want to see the next.

Colors are vibrant and beautiful, with huge attention to detail in the backgrounds. Sakura blossom petals float through the air during a few of the episodes, and look surprisingly 3D. The character designs are the only thing that I probably wasn’t very excited about, since the eyes look like they should be on dating sim characters (huge and oval) and the features are a little too cartoonish and simple. Music is orchestral and haunting, especially the opening track.

All in all, Elfen Lied looks like a solid new release from ADV. The violent and engaging story makes Elfen Lied a must-see.