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Elfen Lied is an anime series based on the manga of the same name by Lynn Okamoto. The anime series premiered in Japan in 2004 and ran for 13 episodes, followed by one OVA special.

The story centers on the sudden appearance of mutant children, a new divergent species from humanity, dubbed "diclonius". A diclonius mutant possesses violent telekinetic powers, capable of ripping people in half purely with their mental powers. They are born with two horns of bone growing out of their heads, a genetic side-effect which marks them as different from baseline humans and leads to their ostracization. The diclonius mutants are all rounded up and restrained in government research facilities. However, in the series one diclonius, Lucy, manages to escape, and agents from the research base she escaped from begin trying to track her down.

Elfen Lied never aired on mainstream television in Japan, nor has it ever aired on non-satellite TV in North America, due to its extreme levels of graphic violence, gore, and nudity. However, it became a cult hit purely based on DVD sales and through word-of-mouth, and major North American anime distributor ADV films announced that it was their best-selling DVD title for 2005.

Unfortunately, because Elfen Lied was never shown on mainstream TV it did not initially gain a wide audience, and the series stopped after one 13 episode season (of a planned 26), and only half of the original manga comic was adapted. The production team was able to anticipate this and thus spent the final four episodes with an entirely-new ending original to the TV series, which did a competant job of ending the series but left many plot threads unresolved, leaving many frustrated fans to mount various movements to try to get the series continued. The series ended before it was released on DVD abroad and became an international cult hit. So far, fan attempts to continue the series have been unsuccessful.