Elfen Lied is a bit of a weird series, a very exploitative telling of a sad story, with loads of torture, (other) extreme violence and nudity thrown in. It is also a brutal send-up of the many harem-comedies and dating video games which were very popular at the time, in which the male protagonist had a slew of pretty girls thrown at him to pick and choose from.
Your mileage on this particular series may vary, but parts of it are better done than might be expected. For example, it is rightfully famous for its opening and closing credits sequences, which are based on the paintings of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt. For their packaging of this release, 101 Anime has followed the lead of that sequence, and the end result is... well, damn pretty!
In the pre-order listings, this release showed with a considerably higher price attached, and a considerably thicker-looking packaging, which makes me wonder if 101 Anime's original plans were a bit more ambitious. As it is, this release is basically just a steelbook with two discs and a booklet, hardly the stuff for a "Pretty Packaging" article. But while watching the series (a review will follow), I did notice the steelbook is quite the eye-catcher. I kept letting the light play over it, creating new color combinations each time. It undeniably is a piece of pretty packaging, so... ah well, why not? It's rare to see a steelbook given such proper use of its metallic qualities.
Therefore, here is a gallery of shots. Click on the edge of the pictures to scroll through them, or at the center of one to see a bigger version.
And here it is, a steelbook with an unnecessarily nude girl on the front, justified by being part of a Gustav Klimt-inspired piece of art.
Steelbooks are generally not my favorite kind of packaging, as the boxes are often prone to scratching and other sorts of damage. However, this particular release makes great use of the metallic background, with inks of varying translucency.
It looks different under each angle and each kind of light, and makes for a very attractive release. Pretty!
Inside: the two Blu-rays and a 36-page booklet.
The inside of the steelbook shows more Gustav Klimt.
As for the booklet: while not particularly large, it contains a wealth of design-art in it, and is "disguised" as a laboratory manual. It also shows the full textless versions of all the paintings used in the opening credits, which is pretty cool.
Note that as on-disc extras, the discs themselves have huge design galleries on them.
The end!