The Conclusion

I accept the fact that this post is unlikely to garner attention, as its been ~10 years since this manga was completed, however, I wouldn't mind starting a discussion on such an epic manga.

For most of the manga, I really enjoyed it and consider this to be my fav manga. However the only thing that bothered me was the ending. (To those who have not read to the end, don't read below as it contains multiple spoilers.)

I think the ending would have been much better (and more suited to the style of the anime) if Kurama shot and killed Lucy in chapter 100, rather then have her go on to destroy Tokyo and be forgiven by Kota.

My reasons:
1. 'sadder' ending from the audiences perspective: When a character has been developed to the extent of Lucy's have them suddenly killed off right after she made up with he love, would be incredibly teary eyed. Meanwhile the destruction of Tokyo and the slowly melting Lucy is less sad to the reader.
2. Transformed this manga into a black and white morality code; Prior to reading the ending of this manga, a debate I once delved into was the morality of the humans vs the diclonius. Whether intentional or not here are some key events that the author did in character development of some of the diclonius:
i: In the fight scene in the park, Lucy chooses to spare Mayu's life by throwing her into the bushes as the police were approaching.
ii: When number 2 starting running rampage in the laboratory, she killed everyone she could except for Kurama, who was the only scientist that showed compassion for the diclonii. Clearly number 2 was justified in killing all the people who had been torturing her for the last 3 years, and unlike other diclonius, she chose to only target the ones that had tortured her, rather then take it out on all of humanity.
iii: Lucy, in full consciousness, had 2 opportunities (perhaps more, its been a few years since I read it) to kill Yuka, in one of those instances she pushed her over. Lucy chose not to because Kouta was there.
iv: Nana forgiving everyone who did any wrong to her.
v: Lucy choose to give up her freedoms (and be locked in the lab) to save the life of a girl. She happily obeys every order until she finds out that said girl died.
vi: Remember the humans essentially started a war on the diclonii, a natural reaction to facing a new species that is significantly stronger and smarter then your species is to wipe it out before it becomes a threat. The humans started rounding up diclonius and performing tests on them before they new about Lucy. When a species is intentionally performing a genocide on your species, a natural reaction would be to fight back.
It could be justified that the diclonius and their instincts to kill are justified (as shown above) and you could make a case for either the humans or the diclonius as being the bad guys. This is the sort of grey morality that I like and I think makes for a more interesting story. However any argument made in favour of the diclonius can be countered by the look at what Lucy did to Tokyo due to her instincts despite promising right before that to never use her powers again. It turned the morality into a black and white morality and justifies all the human actions because it proves that all diclonii are just ticking time bombs waiting to go on a homicidal killing spree.

So what did (to the small percentage of people that stumble upon this discussion) think of the ending and why did they like it or didn't like it?

OK to start with i watched the anime first & it was the first anime i watched from start to finish (I admit i have seen Ghost in the Shell, Pokemon & Witch Hunter Robin but i watched none of these all at the time, in fact the only one i've completely seen is WHR) The final episode of EL was one of the most beautiful & teary eyed for me. A few years after i read the manga mostly because of unanswered questions about the anime but it turned into another teary eyed ending for me.

I think your "Kurama kills Kaede" scenario would bring tears to my eyes but it is not something i would enjoy. If i was in a manga story i would allow no one except my true love to take my life. This might seem odd or even horrendous to you but to me if i died by my beloved's hand i wouldn't have any regrets, no sorrow. To die by my beloved's hand would be an honour. I doubt i would have any guilt or regret vice versa if my true love asked me to kill her. Only that we didn't spend more time together so i like the part where the DNA Voice hands Kouta the gun & he fires.

One thing i have learned from reading manga is that nobody is innocent. Being alive means the same as doing evil so i think neither side of this little war can claim the moral high ground, both have their victories & their attrocities. This is the way of the world, the chains of revenge binding people together in hatred. One thing i do like is how this fact is present but it is not in your face, so you figure it out for yourself. One thing i enjoy is that Maple Inn seems like a paradise of trust, friendship & love for all those living there. (Does anyone know if Kurama is staying at Maple Inn with the others or not?)

If there's one part of manga, anime or any fiction i like is the desire to know more about it. From start to finish you want to know more of it & waiting for them just makes it better, like waiting a little longer to make your favourite meal & it tastes better. Even after finishing Elfen Lied i still have that hunger for more knowledge of it. I wanna know more about the Unknown Man's past as well as wether or not Anna & the Agent survived. Plus those twin girls at the ending.

OK to start with i watched the anime first & it was the first anime i watched from start to finish (I admit i have seen Ghost in the Shell, Pokemon & Witch Hunter Robin but i watched none of these all at the time, in fact the only one i've completely seen is WHR) The final episode of EL was one of the most beautiful & teary eyed for me. A few years after i read the manga mostly because of unanswered questions about the anime but it turned into another teary eyed ending for me.

I think your "Kurama kills Kaede" scenario would bring tears to my eyes but it is not something i would enjoy. If i was in a manga story i would allow no one except my true love to take my life. This might seem odd or even horrendous to you but to me if i died by my beloved's hand i wouldn't have any regrets, no sorrow. To die by my beloved's hand would be an honour. I doubt i would have any guilt or regret vice versa if my true love asked me to kill her. Only that we didn't spend more time together so i like the part where the DNA Voice hands Kouta the gun & he fires.

So your saying Lucy should have used her vectors right after promising Kouta to never use them again.

I think it would have been more powerful if she didn't. Still a great manga.

One thing i have learned from reading manga is that nobody is innocent. Being alive means the same as doing evil so i think neither side of this little war can claim the moral high ground, both have their victories & their attrocities. This is the way of the world, the chains of revenge binding people together in hatred. One thing i do like is how this fact is present but it is not in your face, so you figure it out for yourself. One thing i enjoy is that Maple Inn seems like a paradise of trust, friendship & love for all those living there. (Does anyone know if Kurama is staying at Maple Inn with the others or not?)

If there's one part of manga, anime or any fiction i like is the desire to know more about it. From start to finish you want to know more of it & waiting for them just makes it better, like waiting a little longer to make your favourite meal & it tastes better. Even after finishing Elfen Lied i still have that hunger for more knowledge of it. I wanna know more about the Unknown Man's past as well as wether or not Anna & the Agent survived. Plus those twin girls at the ending.

Kurama is the nanas 'dad', they guy who tried to kill Lucy right before lucy destroys tokyo.
I would have to agree about the moral about the attrocities of man, but I think the final few chapters sort of ruined that purpose.

Also this is a sad manga, I actually resorted to crying. (The scene in which Kurama has to kill Nana (but in the end chooses to save her against his orders was the first))

I very rarely cry in movies/animes, but that remains the only time I have cried from a book/manga.

This was an amazing manga in my opinion. I absolutely loved the ending because it left me completely satisfied with the development. I thought the farewell of Lucy/Nyu being sent off by Kouta was really touching because they were sacrificing themselves in order to save him ultimately. Personally, I thought it was touching that as Lucy/Nyu were fading they were working to supress the body was the bent on the total destruction of the human world. Also, I don't think that the diclonius are "ticking timebombs" because Lucy was regarded as the primary diclonius throughout the story. When it was mentioned about diclonius the author set it up that Lucy was special from the very beginning. To say that they are murderers waiting to happen is a little rushed. Something else to consider is that it was an alternate source that was trying to destroy Tokyo. It wasn't Lucy/Nyu wanting to bring about the destruction but because she was different from the other diclonius. In regards about the missing information, I think that most of it was answered at the end. Some of the information from the story could still be missing but I think that the story goes out of its way at the end to provide most of the missing items. For instance, the identity of the pair of twins can only be assumed. Remember that Lucy and Nyu both promised Kouta that they would meet with him again someday which is why he went back to the spot, that he originally met Lucy at, every year. One point that I didn't enjoy was that Kouta ended up marrying his cousin when the whole story set a bond , or romantic mood, between Kouta and Lucy/Nyu. However, the fact that he managed to meet with them again thanks to his daughter and neither personality was destroyed really touched me. All in all, this is one of my absolute favorite endings to a manga and I love how it ended. This is all just my own opinion but I think that it's an amazing ending, especially compared to the endings of other mangas that I've read over time.
It's been a while since I've read this but because I loved the ending I tried to remember most of it. If I'm wrong about some of the information for the end, I'm sorry but I definitely have this series on my list to read again.

Just my quick two cents. Both in the anime, and the manga (Although since the backstory involving Kaede's one happpy day came out earlier in the manga, as early as chapter 30 i think.) there was particular emphasis on this day, as it formed everything good and relateable about Kaede. Early on, when she says to Kouta, "If i ever end up killing people, please kill me." we know thats what its going to come to. That sentance brings about the dread you feel about the ending. The next 70 chapters are about why you should care, really.

If Kurama ended up bieng the one to kill Lucy, it would bring a lot of grief and madness, because even though we hope Kaede is redemable, she isn't. The ending that it has maintains that there are three seperate consciousnesses that make up 'Lucy.' Bieng able to differentiate between Lucy and Kaede is key. To be done in by a gunshot before the resolution not only shows how her and Kouta's odd love for each other would never be proven, as we have to wonder if it is the same as the love for the Artists daughter that led to Kaede's capture and eventual turn into Lucy and Nyu bieng the dominant two personalities; that is a love of decent human biengs. In the end we are able to see both Kaede and Nyu's personalities differ from the psychotic aspect of Lucy, and why she is deserving of redemption in the first place.

I hated the ending in the first place. While not as much as the anime's kind-of cop out ending, i thought it was insane the machinations which make it impossible for Kouta and Kaede to be together. In the end, they are together in the sense of finding the bottle, though we see Kouta with a child resembling Yuka and his deep, deep commitment to find Kaede in the end. And her decleration of love through the note in the bottle is perfectly crafted.

Point blank, i loved the ending after thinking about it. The ending is the only way we see a future free from plot-holes and karma houdini's, truly horrible people in some people's eyes would have never been punished, and that bitterness that wells up from seeing Kaede have to die for her love is renewed on seeing the two truly decent sides of 'Lucy' come out.

Its kind of like having the first person or pet you really loved die. In the end, you're sad at first, but the more you remember and think back on it, you realize the death is the thing you think about the least. Its confusing, frustrating and hopelessly sad at first to think about it, and it doesn't make any sense. But as you go on, it becomes more and more simple, and it makes the memories of that person pricelessly valuable. I think the ending was perfect. It needed to be that sad. It needed to be that vague. In our heads, its infinitely more beautiful where those characters will go then where they would be on paper.

but thats the thing, I wasn't looking for the questions to be answered, I prefer it when not all the questions are answered and let the readers decide...

I'll be the first one to agree that I don't like it when everything is laid out so you don't have to think about anything. However, this is the conclusion to the series. Something that I really despise when a series ends is when they obviously write in something obscure and try to lead off from there on a second series or season. Having everything resolve and the writer obviously isn't trying for a leadoff for more in a plot, for making money, is great to me. To me personally, this ending shows that the writer was in it for the story and really loved their work.

This is some merit to that, but if Lucy got shot and killed by kurama, then he isn't looking for a sequel and it still doesn't lay everything out...

to me Elfen Lied could easily have more going on, such as who was Lucy's mother, could there be other kinds of mutants out there, and how the hell could japan be the only country to be doing research on diclonius. To me I feel that Lucy has a little sister from her fathers side, and she have a very different, but just as terrifying power. And that's what always irritated me with Elfen Lied, near the end it goes into a evolution/religion spiral, were it could have done a huge plot twist, taking the story to the same end, but a darker place. Also the very end with the twins, the reincarnation part, just annoyed me, it never works right when a science fiction turns religious, well not unless it's in there from the start. The thing I would like to know the most is the story behind Lucy's mother, and how she came to berth a mutant, it's the big plot-hole that could be just as simple as "it just happened" or something as complicated as a stand alown story for a manga.

But still, the ending was good enough to end the story, but I can't say it was the best way to end it, it was just ehh ending.

This might be a bit late but:

 

 Lucy choose to give up her freedom (and got locked in the lab) to save the life of a girl. She happily obeys every order until she finds out that said girl died. 

 

im pretty sure the girl survives if you look at chaper 107 page 18 you can see a picture of an artist, and i think that might be the girl.

Edited by zapthor, 28 November 2017 - 11:37 PM.