Child Abuse in Elfen Lied

Braver and luckier than many, Mayu says No!

Child Abuse describes a broad and deep variety of wrongs committed against children, usually though not always reserved for such wrongs when they reach the criminal level, both legally and morally. The world of Elfen Lied, sadly like our own, is overflowing with examples of these crimes, and at least three will be focused on here.

Kaede

Kaede's circumstances were of course the harshest of all. In her case, parental abandonment was not merely a fear, but a reality. In the area orphanage, she faced multiple levels of pain and alienation. From the start, she was told flatly of her abandonment, engendering harsh questions that led to some level of self-loathing. The instructors and guardians there barely concealed their own loathing and contempt for her due to her horns. The other children likely took that as a cue to be ever more merciless and unrelenting in their attacks. As a defense, Kaede shut down her emotions, only for the vicious Tomoo to regard this as a challenge to overcome. By the time Kaede's murderous side (or instincts ) fully surfaced, she had fully realized the last stage of an abused child's disconnect : Now, in her eyes, she was a 'real person' , whereas almost no one else was. Life had become a place of harsh transactions, where lessons had to be taught swiftly, merely to survive. This culminated when, believing herself to be betrayed by Kouta, she murdered his family, as much to demonstrate to him why she should not be trifled with as for vengeance. But what seemed transactional to her was instead horrifying and sickening to Kouta, a dichotomy she could not bear, fleeing to avoid having the lesson of this vengeful killing from shaking her from her mission. As was later seen, Kaede's tolerance for abusive sorts remained low.

Mayu

It is not known at what point Mayu's mother in essence disconnected from concern about her daughter, but it can be said that the abuse begins there. Mayu does not mention the fate of her true father, whether he left or died, and she seemed genuinely shocked by the coldness her mother showed, once she told what her stepfather was doing. It can be speculated that, whether or not Mayu's father abandoned them or died, her mother chose to treat it as abandonment, indicating a narcissitic personality that was perhaps not even as mature as Mayu's. It seems that, while dating, the future stepfather made certain to pay the mother enough attention to allow her to delude herself into believing she had his affections. It also seems unlikely that Mayu was his first victim, since he seemed practiced at hiding what he was doing to her; given Mayu's household skills, it seems sadly likely that she was forced to clean up any evidence of his assaults upon her. It can be speculated that Mayu knew her mother was not the warmest of individuals, but still expected a more protective reaction when she told of how her stepfather had raped her. With any semblance of the parental bond dissolved, Mayu still chose to stay for a short time after her confrontation with her mother, partly out of having nowhere to go. Even in her self-interested lock-out of her own child, one wonders why the mother did not at least call the stepfather out and demand that he 'pay attention' to her once again. Mayu's narrative seems to indicate a quick progression from the last confrontation to her stepfather's last attempt against her, but the story is unclear on how quick this was. Mayu's last departure was a fight-or-flight survival defense, literally running off half-dressed and never looking back. On some level, perhaps she feared a more planned departure being interdicted, either by an argument from her mother or being actively stopped by her stepfather. It is not known why the stepfather did not try to pursue or retrieve Mayu, since she was an easy target, and likely the reason for his marriage to the mother in the first place, at least in part. It is also not known if the marriage still stood when Kouta and Yuka contacted the mother about taking custody of Mayu. Either possibility exists : either the marriage had dissolved when the stepfather's target was gone, or the mother retained hopes of gaining back his interest once Mayu was assured of never returning. The pair were never seen again after the custody transfer. Unlike the Diclonius girls living in Maple House, Mayu never bothered to maintain a low profile, so it is possible that either the stepfather gave up on her, or was frightened off (which, when one considers Mayu's frequent companion was Bando, might make sense.)

For her part, Mayu continued to show signs of her abuse, disrupting most notably her relationship with Kouta. One of Nyu's antics early on soured her initial trust, and even made her a bit more wary of Yuka. Even after she more firmly learned of Nyu's behavior, she was said by Nana not to be 'good with guys', which some readers have interepreted as affecting her sexual preference, though she seemed to have a crush on Bando, part of an emotional gamble to see if people could be trusted. In an odd way, her later chastistement of Kouta for his handling of Nana's arrival and Yuka's affection could be seen as his once again having her trust. In many manga and anime, and to an extent in the real Japan, a sage daughter might so task a loving but clueless father. Needless to say, on its worst day, Mayu's relationship with Kouta is more properly parental and affectionate than the best day of her time with her stepfather. Another level of building back her trust occurs with Yuka, a mother figure, and Nyu and Nana as well as Nozomi, sister figures with baggage of their own.

In the anime, Mayu's recovery is taken one step further as she openly refers to Yuka and Kouta as the Mama and Papa of the Kaede-Sou.

Nozomi

Nozomi is an odd example. By all accounts, her father had the least malign intent of any abuser in the series, yet Nozomi shows the results of his actions more publicly and obviously on a consistent basis. Unlike Kaede and Mayu, Nozomi does not have the strength or savvy to put on a public mask, and largely is the very shy person she appears to be. More, at some point, her father seems to have become aware of the lines he crossed in his efforts to protect her, and even to feel some shame about it. Nozomi's father firmly believed he was protecting his daughter's interest by frustrating her dream of singing, armed as he was with secret knowledge about how this might affect her mental and physical health. Yet his good intent largely backfired. Without the knowledge of her mother's downfall, Nozomi could not reason out the whys and wherefores of her father's punishments, and grew both weak-willed and nervous. While parent and child have begun to reconcile, like Mayu before her, Nozomi seems to have sought out Kouta and Yuka's house as a safe haven, with Kouta as the secret-keeper and encourager that Nozomi's father felt his concerns precluded him from being.