Elfen Lied - Complete TV + OVA Blu-ray

Lucy is a Diclonius — a human-appearing mutant with small horns, pink hair, and an invisible network of telekinetic appendages called Vectors that can slice through steel and tear bodies apart at the molecular level. She has been imprisoned and experimented on since childhood in a government facility, her entire existence a product of human cruelty. When she escapes in a spectacular and extremely bloody breakout, a head injury leaves her with a fractured personality — the childlike, innocent Nyu — and she washes up naked and amnesiac on a beach near Kamakura. Two college students, cousins Kouta and Yuka, find her and take her in. Kouta carries a trauma of his own, a childhood memory he cannot fully access, whose connection to Lucy becomes apparent only gradually. The facility sends operatives to retrieve her. Other Diclonius are deployed against her. And the sweet, helpless Nyu who can barely say her own name exists alongside the devastatingly dangerous Lucy whose capacity for violence has no ceiling — sharing one body, one face, and one slowly emerging question about whether anything humanity did to her can be answered with anything other than extinction.

Elfen Lied is a 13-episode dark fantasy horror series produced by Arms Corporation — the studio behind Kite and Mezzo Forte — and directed by Mamoru Kanbe, based on Lynn Okamoto's manga serialized in Weekly Young Jump. It aired on AT-X from July to October 2004 and is one of the most discussed and debated anime of the 2000s — praised for the genuine emotional weight beneath its extreme violence and fan service, criticized for its deployment of those same elements, and consistently cited as a formative viewing experience by a generation of Western anime fans. The opening title sequence, using Klimt-inspired imagery set to the haunting Latin choral piece "Lilium" by Yukio Kondo, remains one of the most memorable in the medium.

The original North American DVD release was by ADV Films beginning 2004. In December 2012, ARMS released a Blu-ray remaster box set in Japan; in September 2013, Section 23 Films and Sentai Filmworks released the remaster to North American audiences under the ADV Films banner — this 2-disc Blu-ray Complete Collection. 

Notable Staff & Voice Talent

Director: Mamoru Kanbe
Original Manga: Lynn Okamoto (serialized in Weekly Young Jump, Shueisha, 2002–2005, 12 volumes)
Character Design: Seiji Kishimoto
Studio: Arms Corporation / Studio Guts (Kite, Mezzo Forte)
Music: Yukio Kondo
Opening Theme: "Lilium" — original Latin choral composition by Yukio Kondo
Ending Theme: "Be Your Girl" by Chieko Kawabe

Japanese Cast:
- Sanae Kobayashi as Lucy / Nyu
- Chihiro Suzuki as Kouta (Pilot Candidate, Voices of a Distant Star)
- Mamiko Noto as Yuka (Kaiba, Freezing Season 1 & Vibration)
- Sayaka Ohara as Mariko
- Kenji Nojima as Bando
- Yuki Matsuoka as Nana

English Dub Cast (ADV Films — Houston, original dub used for TV series):
- Luci Christian as Lucy / Nyu (Black Bullet — Enju)
- Adam Conlon as Kouta (Voices of a Distant Star)
- Shelley Calene-Black as Yuka (Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, Noir)
- Cynthia Martinez as Nana (Voices of a Distant Star, Tenchi GXP)

Blu-ray Features (Section 23 / Sentai Filmworks 2-Disc Complete Collection)

- All 13 Episodes + OVA "In Passing Showers" — Complete Series, Uncensored
- Textless Opening Animation ("Lilium")
- Textless Closing Animation
- Character Artwork Gallery
- Production Artwork Gallery
- Based on ARMS 2012 Japanese Blu-ray Remaster

Spoken Languages: English & Japanese Audio, English Subtitles

Edition Details

Japanese Title: エルフェンリート (Erufen Rīto / Elfen Lied)
Runtime: ~350 Minutes (Complete Series, 13 Episodes + OVA, 2 Discs)
Director: Mamoru Kanbe
Blu-ray Release Year: 2013 (U.S. Release, September 3 — Section 23 Films / Sentai Filmworks / ADV Films label); Sentai reissue 2021
Original Broadcast Date (Japan): July 25 – October 17, 2004 (AT-X)
Publisher: Section 23 Films / Sentai Filmworks (ADV Films label)
Rating: TV-MA
Region: Region A (North America)
Genre: Dark Fantasy, Horror, Drama
Themes: Diclonius Persecution, Dual Personality, Government Experimentation, "Lilium" Opening, Formative 2000s Western Anime Fan Experience

Media assumed VG+ unless otherwise noted.