Elfen Lied Omnibus Volume 1

So, I recently re-watched the Elfen Lied anime, and to be honest, it's not that great. What I saw in it was the core of a good story, but that popcorn kernel never blossoms into a delicious morsel. The nudity and violence in the anime feel gratuitous and exploitative because there isn't a whole lot of story to justify it, so it feels like a cheap horror film. Teen tits, cousin incest, urination, and treating a nonverbal mentally challenged girl as "cute" and sexualizing her, and you could say it even feels like a hentai with the actual sex scenes taken out. The manga is, however, on another level. Without the pretentiousness of the opening title sequence, it also doesn't feel like it's pretending to be more than it is. Although, it is kind of weird how it has a "cute girls doing cute things" type of cover, when the content is actually much darker. I'd say this manga is charming and intriguing, and that you care more about the emotions of the characters. You get more story, obviously. This means there's more time for building up character relationships, explaining back stories (the homeless girl's past is revealed more, for example), and they can do more exposition. In the anime, it often seemed like stuff just happened out of nowhere. Motivations for characters didn't seem built up over time, they just popped up like whack-a-mole. The pacing problems caused by the anime being only 13 episodes are fixed, and this book's story goes much further than the "ending" of the anime. So if you're like me and you watched the anime, thinking "this has such potential, but it's wasted, and I don't understand why things are happening the way they are", this manga will definitely be a more enjoyable experience than the anime. I also want to disagree with a different reviewer who made it seem like this would be rife with errors just because he was able to screen shot one spelling error where they spelled "Kamakura" wrong - the book, other than that typo, is actually very well-written. Every book will have like 1-3 errors in it. This book only has that one that I've seen so far, although I'm not done reading it. Anyway, I'd definitely call this manga the definitive way to experience the Elfen Lied story. There's so much more here!

Like many Westerners I first heard about Elfen Lied from the 2004 anime. I was an instant fan. The anime being so short with an unsatisfying ending drove me to find the manga. Man was I glad I did. The manga actually tells a completed story. Unfortunately until about a year ago there was no legit way for me to read this manga so I resorted to the unsavory methods that everyone who has read manga knows about. I moaned, begged and complained to everyone who would listen that I would pay out the nose for a legit copy in a language I could read and look what we have now. I am overjoyed. I would have preferred it in singular volumes instead of omnibuses from a collector's stand point but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Some people are complaining about the art especially when compared to the anime. Yes the art is rough early on but it improves over the course of the series. It is really interesting to watch the artist improve in his craft as the chapters go on. Elfen Lied was also Lynn Okamoto's first foray into being a manga artist so some roughness is to be expected. For prospective readers. Don't let the cute cover art trick you. This series is very dark and violent. It is not for the faint of heart. Go read the wikipedia article on Elfen Lied if you are interested. It has minimal spoilers but still mentions the themes and some of the less palatable content. I love this series but I know it is very much not everyone's cup of tea so I'm against recommending it for the unprepared.

It's an amazing story, and definitely better experience than the anime. As for it being an Omnibus, 3 volumes in 1, it is insanely thick for a book the same height as an average manga, making it sketchy to read as is when it first comes in. I have a history with thicker mangas having spines cracking and pages falling out, which was before I knew how to prepare thicker books. I would suggest using proper ways to stretch the spine of papercovers, which you should look up if you plan on reading thicker books, before anyone starts reading it.

While for a single paperback volume it does have a very thick appearance, that doesn't hinder the story, and Miso's review is more of a blind one, and should be taken with a grain of salt. This manga is finally in English in an official capacity, where US fans of the anime based off this from 2004 were stuck with fan translations, this series is much darker and more depressing than it's anime counterpart, and has a few differences from the anime. I initially discovered the anime and loved it. And keeping myself intentionally blind about the manga for so long in the hope this would be out finally, has definitely paid off. In the manga they definitely show how she escaped by herself before the first scene in the anime, and the flow of the manga is a little more broken up, but that's to be expected from multiple perspectives in a graphic novel format. If you want to challenge yourself about what it means to be human, this series is definitely worth a read. My educated guess however, is that Vol 1 and 2 (only ones announced for this year) basically sum up the anime (as the anime runs about the first half of the manga series) so if you're expecting lots of new content if you came from the anime, you may be disappointed a bit, but the difference in the story's flow may be enough of a refreshing experience. I know it is.

I absolutely love this manga! I grew up watching the anime as a child (I watched it not knowing little kids shouldn’t watch it!), and it’s always been my favorite anime ever since! The manga I am reading after it has finally been translated in English and I LOVE it! It’s really good! The manga I heard goes so much more in the world of Elfenlied than the anime, but I would say I love both so dearly! Elfenlied forever! I do say when I opened the package the plastic was torn, but the book doesn’t seem damaged!

Ayant quelques bases en anglais, je me suis tournée vers cette édition pour enfin posséder la version papier d'Elfen Lied. Alors, certes, trois volumes en un, c'est un véritable pavé, aussi gros qu'un roman de Stephen King ; mais c'est un pur bonheur. Après avoir attendu tant de temps pour tenir cette merveille entre mes mains, trois volumes en un n'étaient pas de trop, et je n'ai plus qu'une hâte : être en octobre pour en dévorer le suivant. De plus, le service de Book Depository est très sérieux et appréciable : bien emballé et reçu plus tôt que prévu, que demander de plus !

Also my favorite anime

Like many people pre-ordering these omnibus volumes, these were not originally licensed in English and therefore only in very SELECT languages, such as German, Spanish, and of course Japanese. Originally, Elfen Lied was introduced to Western audiences as a 13 episodic short series, which recently was acknowledged as a direct inspiration for Stranger Things (pretty cool). In the manga, there is much more content, gore, and character building scenes that were vapid or empty feeling in the anime. The artwork is true to the artist's style in the anime, however, there are definitely some noticeable translation errors within the pages, but can easily be overlooked as the rest of the written work is really really cool. There are supposedly 4 singular volumes made into each omnibus, so each volume has a coloured page to show this while reading. FOR FIRST TIME READERS While the cover seems like a light-hearted, slice of life kind of story it definitely is not. This is a very mature, gorey, and disturbing manga however the story and concepts are very similar to authors like Junji Ito, for those who need a comparison. If you like horror manga with twisted undertones and strong hints of sci-fi, I highly recommend Elfen Lied!

If you enjoyed the anime, but had questions on certain things that happened in the series or wanted to know more, the manga will fills in all the gaps and how the series truly ends. This is only 1 of 4 Omnibus of the 12 volume manga series. Well worth a read. I have been looking everywhere to find this manga for a few years. Dark Horse Comics has done it again by releasing another dark/gritty masterpeice manga series (Berserk).

Ładne, porządne wydanie.