9 Famous Storylines That Hollywood Stole From Anime

2. Lucy (Elfen Lied)

What happens when a human can access 100% of their brain? According to this year's Lucy, what happens is much the same as what happens in the anime Elfen Lied. Lucy centres around the titular character played by Scarlet Johansson as she accidentally absorbs a large amount of an experimental drug that grants her complete use of her brain. The film explores multiple themes, including human cruelty, existentialism and what it means to be human. The most recurrent theme throughout however, is whether Lucy's psychokinetic abilities and heightened intelligence even make her still human.

The similarities between Lucy and Elfen Lied may not appear to be all that obvious at first (other than the fact that the protagonists in both are called Lucy), but the themes and concepts of Lucy more than vaguely resemble Elfen Lied. The anime series revolves around the introduction of a species almost identical in appearance to humans called Diclonii. Aside from possessing powers extremely similar to Lucy's in Luc Besson's film, the anime also deals with many of the same issues that Lucy dabbles in. Even with their extremely high intelligence and mental powers, Diclonii are frequently shown to be just as compassionate as humans, even with their strong tendency towards logic. Coupled with the concept of how difference is treated by humans in an almost universally negative way; Lucy may have a different disequilibrium to get its narrative started, but it certainly shares some very similar themes with Elfen Lied.