Sunday, September 28, 2008

Serial Experiments Lain



You wanted mindfuck - you get mindfuck. If you do not understand what Lain is about the first time you see it: don't worry. You really have to constantly watch for clues and think about what you have seen or else you won't be able to make any sense out of it - and thus won't be able to enjoy it, because you won't be served cool action scenes to distract you from thinking.

This is - by the way - one of the first animes I have ever seen consciously (seeing Heidi or Captain Future as a kid doesn't count) and thus got a rather warped impression of what anime is about. ^_^

Following are a short plot description and a more elaborate - er - elaboration taken from IMDB and wikipedia.

Enjoy !

PS: Safe for all ages but if your kids understand and like Lain then start worrying.

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A week after Chisa committed suicide, her classmates begin to receive emails from her. Hearing rumors fly at school, a quiet withdrawn girl named Lain goes home that day, turns on her dusty Navi computer for the first time and has a conversation with the dead girl. Chisa's message reads that she killed herself because she didn't need her body anymore, and she now exists in The Wired. When Lain asks why someone would do something like that she gets a response: "Because God is here". --- IMDB



Serial Experiments Lain deals directly with the definition of reality, which makes its complex plot difficult to summarize. The story is primarily based on the assumption that everything flows from human thought, memory, and consciousness. Therefore, events on screen can be considered hallucinations of Lain, of other protagonists, or of Lain fabricating the hallucinations of others.  

Story misdirection is central to the plotline;  even the offscreen voices or narrations' information cannot be considered truthful. The series consists of a cross-reflection of philosophical themes instead of the traditional linear events depiction: episodes are called "layers".


Serial Experiments Lain describes "the Wired" as the sum of human communication networks, created with the telegraph and telephone services, and expanded with the Internet and subsequent networks. The anime assumes that the Wired could be linked to a system that enables unconscious communication between people and machines without physical interface. 


The storyline introduces such a system with the Schumann resonance, a property of the Earth's magnetic field that theoretically allows for unhindered long distance communications. If such a link was created, the network would become equivalent to Reality as the general consensus of all perceptions and knowledge (see consensus reality). The thin line between what is real and what is possible would then begin to blur.



9 comments:

Anonymous said...

HELL YEAH!

One of the best series ever! I'll be glad to rewatch this on my iPod Touch.

Anonymous said...

finally the downloads almost done, wish there were more seeders. Either way this is worth the wait because its one of my favorite series ever.

DirtyFinger said...

heh, I'm glad to see that I'm not just serving the hentai crowd. :)

Are there any other good series out there with a similiar quality ? Not tooooooooo hard to understand, please. Some of those just create headaches without generating understanding.

Anonymous said...

There are several anime that I can think of that are smililar to Lain: Boogiepop Phantom, Paranoia Agent, Texhnolyze, and Shigofumi. All of which I recommend.

Anonymous said...

Ok... I thought it over a bit more and I've boiled it down to five good series that have a quality similar to Lain (yet obviously somewhat different). Here they from newest to oldest:

Kaiba (2008)
Paranoia Agent (2004)
Texhnolyze (2003)
Boogiepop Phantom (2000)
Key The Metal Idol (1994-97)

(all of them are under 26 episodes)

Aroddo said...

i watched Key and Paranoia Agent.
don't you think that the woman from paranoia agent looks and behaves like an adult version of Osaka from Azumanga Daioh ? :)

G2 said...

Thank you for sharing this. This is so intense. I may need to rewatch it very soon. I'm only aware of Kaiba. :(

Mulege said...

Hello Navi....

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