Elfen Lied

If you have the stomach for it, I highly recommend the anime "Elfen Lied". I am an anime/manga fan, but there only so many out there worth recommending, so believe me when I say that I have little criticism and nearly all praise for this one.

It's not an ongoing series of over a hundred episodes, it's a mini-series of 13 entries. It's short, sweet and to the point but at the same time incredibly fullfilling. Because there are onyl 13 episodes, it really seems like a really long movie more than anything. The production is excellent and the writers are very eloquent with the dialogue and story, which is no easy task for a plot so wrapped around blood, gore and nudity.

The first ten minutes or so of the first episode is sick and unsettling in its unrelenting violence, but please don't let that deter you. The story touches on topics of various human qualities which drives the plot on an emotional rollercoaster of sci-fi and human sin. It is anything but one-dimensional, in fact I've never seen a show with such an awkward balance of violence and cuteness. Several of the characters and themes are incredibly adorable that it's a complete punch in the face when people are being butchered by a psychologically-unstable devil girl the very next scene.

That being said, watch the anime. You will not make it through the whole series without atleast coming close to shedding a tear, I guarantee you that's how impactfull it is. If you don't feel anything, then you have aspergers.