ELFEN LIED (2004)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological, sociological*

I rated the original 2002-2005 manga ELFEN LIED as one of the most impressive manga serials in terms of its pervading mythicity. The 2004 TV adaptation lasted just one season, consisting of thirteen episodes, meaning that the show wrapped up long before mangaka Lynn Okamoto was even close to finishing his opus. So, given that the storyline of the anime had to be shortened with a generally arbitrary conclusion, is it as mythic as the original story?

The answer probably won't be the same for every uncompleted adaptation, but ELFEN LIED has the advantage that, as noted in my manga review, of not being "densely plotted." Two ordinary school kids, Kouta and Yuka, give shelter to Nyu, a strange young woman with horns, little realizing that she's a member of a race, the Diaclonii, that evolved parallel with human beings. Though Nyu seems childish and innocent, she has a second persona, Lucy, who is filled with bitterness against humanity for years of ill treatment. Lucy-- capable of slaughtering people with her powers-- has escaped from a nearby scientific installation, and the agents of that installation are willing to move heaven and earth to imprison her once more. Thus the Japanese youngsters and their small coterie of friends are plunged into a world of ultraviolent assassins and monsters. 

The thirteen episodes just barely have time to introduce all of the principals, and a couple of minor villains (both killed by the series' end) before the aforementioned climax. One episode does allude to a new "Big Bad," whose function in the manga was to raise the stakes of the ongoing conflict. This villain's presence suggests that the anime's producers may have been hedging their bets in case they were granted a second season. However, at least the third evildoer remains on the sidelines and doesn't generate a plotline of his own, so there's no great loss when he fades from the narrative.

My concept of mythicity depends on a process I call concrescence, which is generally defined as a "growing together of separate parts." Mythic concrescence appears in narratives where the "parts" we generally call "symbols," and which I call "correlations," join so as to form a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. This isn't always possible with a plot-heavy narrative. However, because both the manga of ELFEN LIED and the anime adaptation focus largely upon characters, both are able to illustrate the tribulations of the freakish Diaclonii, monsters who fiercely desire the pleasures of humanity but who are denied them by their very nature. The conclusion of the anime bears some broad similarities to that of the manga, so it may be that Okamoto was consulted about the general direction of his concept so that the climax would possess some of the manga's general resonance. All that said, the anime's chief virtue is its potential to introduce audiences to the manga's terrible beauties.

Note: after the conclusion of the series, a thirty-minute ELFEN LIED OVA was marketed. I have not seen this, as it was not included with the streamed series, but my understanding is that its events remained within the span of the timeline for the thirteen episodes, which suggests that the OVA did not advance the existing narrative further.