After all, it's Big Bad and Mayhem Maker dies quickly 16 chapters before the conclusion, his life and plans all a lie.

Villains Wiki does, but I don't feel like they are worthy of their own piece, and there's really no info on them beyond their single appearance.

It seems like a lot of internet hate for EL started from people getting gushing reviews and then finding a decent but at times flawed series. If we started out with more qualifiers for our opinions, might the weight of expectation be removed and opinions leveled out?

Counter the charge that critics all but lob at this series: Emotionally manipulative. Counter it in your own way. I don't think it's a valid charge.

Ideally, if we ever got a dream movie or live action TV-series, everyone would be Japanese, or of Japanese descent. Perhaps the Diclonius might be mixed Asian descent, indicating their apartness from others. 

But for this discussion, my aim is to cast for personality instead of ethnicity. So who would you see in some of the major roles. I have a few ideas, which make sense since I'm the first poster. :D

Chief Kakuzawa - Martin Sheen (Presence)

Professor Kakuzawa - Charlie Sheen (Sleazy schemer)

Kouta - Andrew Garfield (confused would-be protector)

Nousou - David Spade (Dripping with sarcastic arrogance)

Arakawa - Mayim Bialik (She deals with Sheldon each week)

Shirakawa - Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Determination slammed by reality)

Kurama - Robert Downey (It has to be done, but I don't have to like it)

BTW, my reasons for wishing for a Japanese cast are not PC, but because to my mind, Japanese culture is embedded in the story in ways that can't just be waved off.

We literally have a whole article just on the things we never see in Elfen Lied. But are all of these oversights?

1- We never see a scene wherein Mayu overtly says "I guess Kouta is no menace to me after all." Or is the 'all adults are perverts' moment meant to show and not just tell this?

2 - Lucy almost doesn't seem to react to the news of her mother's search and constant love that drove her. Or is her reaction shown in how she does her best to abide by Kouta's terms, and then rejects vengeance to save his life?

I think there might be some of these moments where things don't need to be said in declarative sentences. OTOH, for me, Aiko walking around Kamakura asking after a pink-haired girl she once knew during the conclusion would have been nice.

Of course, real fans know that, far from being a jerk, Yuka is really an unsung hero of the piece, often more active in events than Kouta himself, while he remains near the center of things.

But her reputation is that of a slap-happy brittle tsundere, a fact not helped by the anime. So who do you nominate as your tsundere against whom even a Yuka-hater would have to concede?

I nominate a non-manga/anime example. Back before Marvel semi-retconned Bobby 'Iceman' Drake to be gay, he had a girlfriend named Opal Tanaka. Now at first, she was a plucky girl reporter, and awestruck by her superhero guy. Then, they inexplicably made her the hidden daughter of a Yakuza Lord, sent to the USA to hide her, and now sought to fulfill old vows, not only engaging in samurai and yakuza stereotypes but copying off the much better Mariko Yashida storyline in Wolverine. At the end of this, one of the cybernetic samurai who had kidnapped Opal to start with sacrificed himself for her, and when Bobby arrived, Opal accused him of not even knowing what honor was, this to a guy who fought for a dream of racial peace for a world that hated and feared him. Every appearance after that, he would be saving her life from some menace that was attacking X-Men's friends and allies, and she would spew invective immediately. Finally, the last I heard of her, she deceived Bobby in a scheme to make him believe he had fathered her child as a means for some group or other to capture him. There may have been more, but I stopped reading comics because of stories like this.

My guess is, either she was altered for being too similar to Wally West's girlfriend and later wife, LInda Park, or that honor comment was meant to just show her in a low moment, and the next writer thought this was who she was and ran with it till we got this open betrayal storyline, which ended with 'maybe she really does love him after all' -- yeah.

I know that no one 'turns' against their sexual preference because of a bad relationship. But if this were possible, I'm convinced Opal Tanaka could pull it off. I hope she died when the MU blew up, and as iffy as I am on Bobby suddenly having been 'always' gay, if we never see Opal again, I withdraw my concerns.

Sorry for the spelling error.

My main resentment of him comes not from the actual spanking itself. This was bad and way over the top, but could be excused as a man in utter grief lashing out when reminded of a fresh tragedy. I'm guessing this is how Nozomi herself partially views it, if she still loves him after all that.

It's everything that surrounds it that irks me. To start with, little Nozomi was not defiant to him. She didn't even realize that playing the records was a wrong of any kind, even if this is only defined by her father's wish not to be reminded of her mother. Culture aside, and maybe this is my failing, I can't see her 'But Papa...' as being even the lightest defiance, scanlations depending.

The pounding itself was almost fetishist, but again, those driven by fresh grief will act in an irrational manner.

But then, he crosses the line to my mind. When she finally tells him she is determined to pursue her dream, he says he's been waiting for her to stand up to him. Huh? He chastises her for always being meek. I'm thinking, you unbelievable hypocrite. You gave a child who committed at the very best with a huge stretch a mild curious questioning of your authority, and not a rampaging one either, THE HIGH HOLY HELL BEATING OF A LIFETIME. You asshole, you created the meek fearful thing you seemed to want her to overcome, all of this based on information you never bothered to relay. You chastised her for disobeying your wishes, and you chastised her for being too meek to do so. You cannot create a situation like this while claiming you wanted her to grow stronger, when every reaction you gave following this incident reinforced obedience and the price of breaking it.

Was LO trying to show him as this well-meaning hypocrite, or was he just meant to be seen as a weak man who punished his child on multiple levels and angles for the loss of his wife? I get that obedience and reverence is a given in this case, but the man didn't seem to know which orders he wanted obeyed.