Elfen Lied Omnibus vol. 2

The craziest train in comics continues…

I mean, it’d be easy to fill a couple paragraphs with all of the “What the hell did I just read?” moments from this latest omnibus edition.  Instead, I’ll just fill one: Bando getting a bionic arm and saying nuts to the castration surgery to go fulfill his vendetta against Lucy. Mayu running into the now-bionic psychopath on the beach and getting along with him (for a bit).  Yuka trying to get closer to Kouta during a rainstorm and accidentally grinding her crotch on his leg. Nana getting her own set of removable limbs that keep popping off at the most awkward times. Yuka’s friend accidentally engaging Kouta in some awkward slapstick involving a urine-soaked diaper.  Anything involving the director and his goofy-ass rage faces. Lots of flashbacks involving the murder of men, women, and (especially) children. A prepubescent diclonius being woken up, murdering a couple people and then having an arm blown off. Mangaka Lynn Okamoto’s feeling that there’s never a bad time for fanservice — not even in a fight to the death between diclonii.

It’s hard to reason why the mangaka would think to bring in such crazy, tone-wrecking plot elements like these.  Especially when she shows that she can deliver a compelling story when she stops with the wackiness and focuses. The flashback to Lucy and Kouta’s shared childhood, which the latter has forgotten/suppressed, is downright heartbreaking to see the two get to know each other and then have Kouta suffer terrifying consequences for telling one little lie.  The way Nyu tries to make it up later in the volume is similarly affecting… until you realize that her boobs are hanging out as she’s doing it. Then there’s the stuff involving director Kurama and his history with the Diclonius Project, how he wound up having two diclonii daughters as a result of it, and how he tried and failed to do right by at least one of them.

I still wouldn’t say that “Elfen Lied” is a good series because its tone and narrative aims continue to be all over the place in a way that suggests mangaka Okamoto is just throwing a lot of stuff at the wall to see what sticks.  That’s no way to create a series, even before you consider what’s being thrown at the wall. Still, “Elfen Lied” is at least never boring as a result of her approach and that makes it entertaining to me at least since I never know whether I’ll find something good, awful, or nuts whenever I turn the page.