Why do people like Elfen Lied

[IAmTehTaco]

I honestly stopped at episode one...
You have to admit though, that opening was ******** beautiful...

[Mir Teiwaz]

Ween shellan yorra accroad mea, sarla oz enne.
Titil yehah, presia yorr wis yehah, presia yanje.

I might have not hated it if the ending didn't piss me off.

[Fullmetal Joestar]

I love it. But I'm not crazy about it. I like the gore. But it's over the top at times.

[doitsundere]

• It was one of the first animes I ever watched as a child (horrible choice to watch as a ten/eleven year old, I know) but even today I still love it for the... beauty? The music and the sadness that hits. I remember watching it when I was young because I liked the gore but now I think the show would be better off without a lot of it. Manga is good, though.

[Miniver the Depressed]

Guilty pleasure for me.

As someone who grew up being horribly bullied it's satisfying to see Lucy brutally dispose of the same kind of people who messed with me when I was a child. (Twisted, I know.)

Not to say that she always did that, there were many innocent people that Lucy effortlessly offed, but I took that as part of the tragedy of her accepting her species duty to wipe out humanity.

Can't stand the obvious ***** stuff that happens though.

[Avian_Karma]

I'm not usually one for gore, but Elfin Lied has some sort of draw to it that makes it interesting. It also speaks to me on a personal level, having been through some of the hardships these characters have endured. I do enjoy this show, even though it's extremely flawed. It plays with emotions a lot though, and that's something I tend to like. Being happy for someone, being angry at someone, being sad for someone, wanting to see where it would go next. It left me on the edge of my seat.
That is why I like watching it. On top of that, it's also short, so I can knock it out pretty fast, making it an easy binge.

[Harmonic Tune]

Like someone before me what wasn't good about invisable arms ripping off peoplea heads the science fiction was intresting to me but meh it could have been good without the nudity and coercing on the girls. I guess it was targeted for men?
I guess I watch it at the wrong time which is after it had died and popularity was down. Maybe then I would have enjoy watching it and even enjoy talking a lot a lot of it. You'll know how it is. Finding a jewel no one knows about and not being able to talk about kinda moves you to reading popular crap. That's me

[Harmonic Tune]

Whoops fast double post

[Clarissa_Dark]

I liked the manga, not going to lie. I started the anime, but fell asleep. (Mainly because I was at my first con, in the middle of the night, and I was exhausted.) I think I like it because it felt taboo to me. Naked girl, lotsa awful violence, some soul-ripping (of mine), and drama. Will I ever re-read it? Probably not. But I enjoyed the ride while it lasted.

[TenjoZakito]

I liked it because it was extremely bold for a TV Anime at that time.
The jump between the fan service and gore, in my opinion, is their way of attracting the audience.
To be very fair, the Manga had just the same amount of blood and fan service, this is how the series had always been, it's not the Anime producer's decision.
My personal take on this is that, the purpose of the manga/anime is to deliver a cruel message, but in order for people to swallow that message down without completely detesting it, you add other elements into it to distract the audience from how brutal the message truly is.
Lucy went through quite a bit of emotional trauma in her childhood, her brutal murder of innocent people was a result of the trauma, it doesn't give her any excuse but at least we know she's not doing it for no reason at all.
All the characters have a background story that shows a dark side of humanity, for example Mayu(the girl with the dog) was molested by her stepfather, or Yuka who have incestuous feelings for her cousin.
If the whole anime/manga was created solely for shock value, those background story would be unnecessary and redundant, they could just have a cute anime girl killing people every episode, they don't even need to have Nyu and Lucy as separate personalities.
I believe the harem/moe/fan service is just a front to draw in the general anime watching audience, look beyond that and you have a pretty good storyline.

[Susue]

I think people like the gore--I know that's why I tried to watch it, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. The characters didn't do much for me and the character design made me think the series was older than it was. I don't know where I was when it was released, but it didn't make my radar at the time. I tried watching it a couple years ago to no avail or much enjoyment, but to each their own.