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"Elfen Lied" (エルフェンリート, Erufen Rīto) has a rather confusing plot and setting
in the anime version alone; the bits of the setting which I glimpsed from
discussions about it hint at the original manga being even more complex in the
relationship department between the characters and organisations. It doesn't
help that the manga wasn't finished by the time the anime was produced, which
very likely leads to inconsistencies between the two with material which so
heavily relies on uncovering secrets to drive its story forward.

How does the plot (as opposed to superficial details, like location or hair
colour) differ between the anime and manga, then?


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2012-12-12T06:30:04.683
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2019-03-14T18:56:20.717
2012-12-14T16:49:07.363
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elfen-lied
How does the plot of Elfen Lied anime differ from the manga?


The anime is mostly the same up to about _half_ the manga. The end of the
manga, when Lucy goes on the bridge and loses her horn while being shot is the
same in the manga. I think the only thing from the latter parts that were
included in the anime was the side-story OVA which featured some of Lucy's
past and the reason why she didn't attack Director Kurama from the research
containment facility where Lucy escaped. I could be misremembering, though.


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2012-12-12T08:12:16.587
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Clearly, the anime does not cover the whole story. One of the major plot
points in the whole series is the execution of the plan to eliminate homo-
sapiens by the research facility, which involves spreading the virus through a
large population by using a missile. We could say that this is half of the
whole story and the anime only covered the first half.

The relationship between Lucy and Kouta is very similar in both the anime and
the manga. The major difference is the fact that Kouta is a bit more agressive
regarding avenging his father and his sister, but in both cases he still tries
to protect Lucy (not forgiving her though).

The bridge incident (the ending of the anime) also differs slightly. Mariko
does forgive her father and engages Lucy in a battle. She uses the explosives
within her to attempt to kill Lucy (thus, her father actually survives and is
not killed). She fails and Lucy merely loses her horns.

There obviously are a bunch of characters not introduced in the anime. Most of
them are not critical for the storyline, though, which might explain their
exclusion at first.

One of the biggest discussions regarding the anime is whether Lucy died or not
at the ending. Technically, from the point of view of the manga, the answer is
no - she actually survived the bridge incident. She loses her horns, which
disables the "evil" Lucy and keeps her as Nyuu. The horns grow back, however.

At first, it doesn't seem like the anime is capable of continuing, since they
killed Mariko's father (whose name I forgot), who plays rather important roles
through the rest of the manga. This is fixable though, they just need to do a
few tweaks and make a new scene where he somehow survives the bridge
explosion.

So, yes: the main difference is the fact that the anime only covers half of
the story, and kills some people who shouldn't have died.


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2012-12-22T23:59:46.973
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