serial experiments lain greta gerwig

The Ending Of Serial Experiments Lain Explained

Years before social media as we know it, before Cambridge Analytica, before even "The Sims" or "The Matrix," there was "Serial Experiments Lain." This one-season wonder anime explored theories of metaphysics and epistemology with a cyberpunk sheen. It was the blueprint that a lot of media followed, like the "Matrix" series, the "Battlestar Galactica" prequel series " Caprica ," anime such as "Paranoia Agent" and " Paprika ," and IP-laden films like "Ready Player One" and " Space Jam: A New Legacy ."

"Serial Experiments Lain" is about a middle school girl named Lain, who receives an email from a classmate that died. The email explains that this classmate isn't really dead, but rather has merely shed her physical form. She now exists in the Wired (what people call the internet in "Lain") and has found enlightenment/met God in there. Lain delves deeper and deeper into the Wired, finding out truths about herself and the world around her. The Wired starts to affect reality, begging the question: Which world is really real?

Is the Wired real? Is reality real?

"Serial Experiments Lain" starts with what seems like a clear delineation between the "real" world and what goes on in the Wired. One is real, and the other is just communication between real people on a simulated plane of existence. When it's all said and done, the Wired is just a "medium of communication and the transfer of information," Lain's father says to her early in the show. "You mustn't confuse it with the real world." As the show progresses, the difference between reality and Wired get very muddy. Humans abandon their physical form to become programs, and programs become human and warp reality.

Part of this is due to how the internet works in the world of "Lain." The Wired is an online space that has somehow connected to the earth's magnetic field . By resonating with the earth, the Wired taps into a Jungian shared unconscious. Thus, what happens online becomes manifest through humanity's shared perception of reality. Our brains make it real.

Lain eventually discovers that she and her antagonist Masami did not start out life as humans. They are programs that have found a way to shift between the Wired and what we think of as reality. Lain realizes that she can control (or program) both the Wired and our physical plane of existence, like Neo and Bane in the "Matrix" sequels , but years before those came out. The show argues that our existence is defined by others' perception of it. We are other people acknowledging that we exist.

The nature of the extremely online self

In the final episode, Lain chooses to erase herself from existence by removing memories of her from her friends and family. This move underscores the sociological and psychological theory that there really is no such thing as a core self. What we think of as a Self is made up of how we are perceived and interacted with by others. Erving Goffman's "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" posits that the self is a character we play in our interactions with others. If you don't have an audience to play that part to, do you even have a self? As Lain puts it, "I only exist inside those aware of my existence."

Removing herself from a fixed point in existence frees Lain to do whatever she wants. She visits her childhood friend Alice as an adult, implying that by no longer being tied to a specific time and place in people's memory, she can now freely move anywhere and anywhen. However, this isn't how the internet works in real life. In an essay for the Ringer , Justin Charity argues that "Lain" presaged many of the ways the self would be destabilized by social media, for the worse. The more online versions of Lain are meaner, more reactive, and more vengeful. A girl who seems completely meek in her real world interactions becomes an avenging troll online. As we've seen with YouTube and Facebook , much of the internet exists to elicit strong emotions in us. Combine this with how online profiles decouple our online words from our faces, and you get anonymous trolls.

Echoes of Lain

"Serial Experiments Lain" was one of the first adult-oriented anime to break through to America. Like " Cowboy Bebop ," " Neon Genesis Evangelion ," and "Ghost in the Shell," it was consumed by a western audience that loved cyberpunk philosophizing. The show wasn't as widely seen as those other anime, perhaps because it never ran on Cartoon Network's Toonami block, but the themes of "Lain" have only gotten more relevant.

We see echoes of the show in films like "Inception" and "Transcendance," which the Daily Beast argued ripped off "Serial Experiments Lain" whole cloth. The idea of abandoning one's body and solely existing online pops up in shows like "Caprica" and " Dollhouse ," which question the idea of a soul and whether it can be uploaded to the cloud. Every person who questions whether this reality is a simulation is, whether they know it or not, following in Lain's footsteps.

The creators of the show went on to lend this philosophical vibe to later works, as well. Screenwriter Chiaki J. Konaka went on to write "The Big O," which also investigated ideas of simulated reality and the nature of memory and the soul. The main three collaborators on the show — Konaka, director Ryūtarō Nakamura, and artist Yoshitoshi ABe — worked together on a show about the unseen world of ghosts after "Lain." They were set to create another show, "Despera," until Nakamura's death in 2013. According to Konaka's Twitter , work recently restarted on the anime, with a major announcement due to come out in 2022.

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Serial Experiments Lain

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Serial Experiments Lain

Serial Experiments Lain is a franchise that includes an anime , a game and several artbooks and other publications. The spiritual sequel to Serial Experiment Lain, Despera is still in production. We have also, compiled any and all news related to the show.

The series was inspired by a 1994 book named 'Cyberia' about the growing subculture of internet users and how it could lead to a counterculture.

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18 July 2023 12:24 PM

The brain behind ‘Barbie’: inside the brilliant mind of Greta Gerwig

One of hollywood’s most talented directors spent the past few years in… barbieland. greta gerwig goes very, very deep on the pinkest movie ever.

By Brian Hiatt

When Greta Gerwig was in preproduction on her Barbie movie (out July 21), executives from the brand’s owner, Mattel , paid her an inevitable visit. She gave them a preview of the movie’s look (very, very pink ) and feel ( Elf- y magical-realism ramped up a thousandfold). Then she hit them with a monologue: stuff like the influence of spiritualist painters, how Barbie is like an ancient religious myth, references to The Red Shoes and Stairway to Heaven and Heaven Can Wait. “I think at that point, when I was in hour three of talking,” Gerwig recalls with a small laugh, “they all realized no one has thought more about this. They saw I wake up every morning and panic about proportions and color saturation. And they were like, ‘We don’t have to panic. She’s already panicked about this.’ And I think that gave them a sense of comfort.”

On a sunny late-May morning, Gerwig is sitting at a conference table in the rented Manhattan office suite where she’s finishing postproduction, in one of the denim boiler suits she started wearing every day during the making of the movie (today’s is black), her hair in a loose bun. It’s 10:30, and she has a three-month-old baby at home (plus a four-year-old and a 13-year-old stepson), so she’s just now getting to breakfast, which she takes down as she embarks on two more hours of erudite Barbie talk.

Well before Barbie, Gerwig had one of the most fascinating careers in 21st-century Hollywood . First, she brought a new kind of daffy comedic naturalism to screen acting, from early mumblecore triumphs like Hannah Takes the Stairs to a string of brilliant collaborations with her partner, Noah Baumbach , including Greenberg, Frances Ha, and Mistress America. She co-wrote the last two movies before shifting gears to auteurdom in 2017, writing and directing the exquisite coming-of-age comedy Lady Bird, and 2019’s revisionist take on Little Women.

Barbie, which stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling (and was co-written with Baumbach), is her biggest and most mainstream project. But she insists it doesn’t feel that way. “I’ve never been part of anything like this,” she says. “But in a funny way, it feels like the fundamentals are the same. Even though it is Barbie and it is an internationally known brand, the movie feels very personal. It feels just as intimate as Lady Bird or Little Women. ”

I know you tend to resist autobiographical interpretations, but when Barbie says, “I don’t wanna be an idea anymore,” something about that really reminded me of your transition from a much-discussed actress to a writer-director.

You know what? It’s so funny. That did not occur to me at all. But now that you say it, of course! When you’re directing something, you have to be a bit stupid about yourself, or a little bit unconscious. And, yes, you’re totally right. And also, I had no idea. But that’s true. It’s completely true.

There are things like I grew up in Sacramento, and Ladybird takes place in Sacramento. But so many of the things that are personal that come through your movies are never the things that are the most obvious to you. The things where you really feel unconsciously seen are things like that, where you realize, “Oh, man, I didn’t hide anywhere.” And that’s always part of the joy of making art for people, is sometimes they understand it more than you do, which is unsettling.

No, but it’s good.

How did you come to decide on Barbie’s arc in the movie?

I hope two things made that journey feel surprising but inevitable. I started from this idea of Barbieland, this place with no death, no aging, no decay, no pain, no shame. We know the story. We’ve heard this story. This is an old story. It’s in a lot of religious literature. What happens to that person? They have to leave. And they have to confront all the things that were shielded from them in this place. So that felt like one thing.

There’s a lovely scene where Barbie sees an older woman — a sight she’d never encountered in Barbieland — and tells her she’s beautiful.

I love that scene so much. And the older woman on the bench is the costume designer Ann Roth. She’s a legend. It’s a cul-de-sac of a moment, in a way — it doesn’t lead anywhere. And in early cuts, looking at the movie, it was suggested, “Well, you could cut it. And actually, the story would move on just the same.” And I said, “If I cut the scene, I don’t know what this movie is about.”

Yeah, I kind of thought that was an absolutely key moment for Barbie’s journey.

That’s how I saw it. To me, this is the heart of the movie. The way Margot plays that moment is so gentle and so unforced. There’s the more outrageous elements in the movie that people say, “Oh, my God, I can’t believe Mattel let you do this,” or, “I can’t believe Warner Bros. let you do this.” But to me, the part that I can’t believe that is still in the movie is this little cul-de-sac that doesn’t lead anywhere — except for, it’s the heart of the movie.

Margot said when she first saw the screenplay, she loved it, and was positive that the powers that be would never let you make it. How do you think you got it all through?

The movie in its conception and even from the script stage was always a wild ride. But I think that in the execution of it and the directing of it, it allowed me to go even farther, and to make it even more like a candy-colored explosion of things that people didn’t necessarily think would be the Barbie movie. But, yeah, I can’t account for it. But I’m thrilled to bits that they let me do it this way.

It’s definitely a blast of color, which is refreshing after years and years of increasingly color-desaturated summer blockbusters.

I never wanted my adult taste to override what I loved as a kid. When I was eight years old, I loved the biggest, brightest, loudest, sparkliest thing that I could find. And I need to honor that even though I want the movie to be beautiful and delicious. I don’t want it to be overwhelmed with adult good taste, because that just feels disingenuous to what the task is. So we were picking these bright, saturated colors. The result was that the set was like a dopamine generator. People would walk in and smile.

It’s easy to underestimate what it took for Margot to manifest what we saw onscreen, especially when she’s just being the Barbie-est Barbie she could possibly be. How did that performance evolve?

Margot and I talked a lot about finding this place where it’s not that she isn’t smart, but that she doesn’t, at the beginning, have an interior life. Finding that sort of transparency as an actor was the baseline of where Barbie started. And then the discomfort of feeling disconnected from the environment, from feeling something coming up inside of you that’s not the same as everyone else.

She’s such a technical actor. But as Barbie changes, she allows the audience to see her experiencing something pure without performing. She’s allowing herself to be vulnerable. And it’s crazy because she’s playing a doll, and yet it’s such an exquisitely human performance. It’s not something where you can stick the landing. It was something where she had to just allow it to happen. She’s a person who can stick landings — and I think it was finding another gear inside of her.

Tell me about what it took to get Ryan Gosling as Ken, and to push him to be the most ridiculous version of Ryan Gosling imaginable.

Well, it was only ever Ryan Gosling, and it was a long journey. Margot and I just wouldn’t take no for an answer.

From the moment that Margot came to me and I knew we were making this for Margot, I equally knew we were making this for Ryan. And I did not know Ryan at all. I’d never met him. I just was sure, and as soon as I thought of it, it made me so happy. Who else could do this? It’s some combination of Marlon Brando meets Gene Wilder meets John Barrymore meets John Travolta.

He’s never been quite this funny onscreen.

I’ve always thought of him as a secretly comedic actor. His comedy goes back to taking it incredibly seriously as an actor, where he never is doing it just for the laugh. And the way we talked about Ken was as in-depth character work as I’ve ever done with anyone about anything. When they were shooting their last scene together, in the bedroom where they’re kind of coming to a place of understanding, and when he turns around and says, “There is no just Ken, it’s Barbie and Ken,” and he’s exhausted and his face is stained with tears — I’m like, if what actors do is perform empathetic acts for our benefit, I don’t know that anyone has ever invested more in making people understand the plight of this man. It was extraordinary. I felt with both of them that I might direct movies for a long time and never see anything that uniquely and gloriously unhinged.

How did you craft the moment where Barbie finally learns that some women in the real world hate her and find her oppressive?

It felt like we had to give the counterargument to Barbie, and not give it short shrift, but give it real intellectual and emotional power. And Mattel was incredibly open to it. I said, “We have to explore it, because it’s a lie any other way. And we can’t make it a lie.” I think they heard it.

The feminism in this film comes out so naturally, just by placing Barbie and Ken in the real world. It starts the moment they arrive in Venice Beach. Ken feels that people are suddenly looking at him with respect, and Barbie doesn’t have the words for it, but she feels she’s being objectified. Did that flow out as naturally as it seems?

I think of the film as humanist above anything else. How Barbie operates in Barbieland is she’s entirely continuous with her environment. Even the houses have no walls, because you never need to hide because there’s nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed of. And suddenly finding yourself in the real world and wishing you could hide, that’s the essence of being human. But when we were actually shooting on Venice Beach, with Margot and Ryan in neon rollerblading outfits, it was fascinating because it was actually happening in front of us. People would go by Ryan, high-five him, and say, “Awesome, Ryan, you look great!” And they wouldn’t actually say anything to Margot. They’d just look at her. It was just surreal. In that moment, she did feel self-conscious. And as the director, I wanted to protect her. But I also knew that the scene we were shooting had to be the scene where she felt exposed. And she was exposed, both as a celebrity and as a lady. To be fair, Ryan was like, “I wish I wasn’t wearing this vest.” [ Laughs. ] But it was a different kind of discomfort.

When I hear you use the word “humanist,” I feel like I need to gently push back on behalf of the fans who are going to love this movie and perceive its message as unabashedly feminist.

Of course, I am a feminist. But this movie is also dealing with [the idea that] any kind of hierarchical power structure that moves in any direction isn’t so great. You go to Mattel and it is really like, “Oh, Barbie has been president since 1991. Barbie had gone to the moon before women could get credit cards.” We kind of extrapolated out from that that Barbieland is this reversed world [where Barbies rule and Kens are an underclass]. The reverse structure of whatever Barbieland is, is almost like Planet of the Apes. You can see how unfair this is for the Kens because it’s totally unsustainable.

Was the idea of Kate McKinnon’s character — the Weird Barbie who’s been played with too much — from your childhood experience?

We grew up in a neighborhood where there were a lot of girls older than me. So I had a lot of hand-me-down Barbies that had already gotten a haircut by the time I got them. It was like, “Well, we have to do that.” It felt almost like a spiritual conduit to the world of play through that Barbie. Remember that book The Giver, by Lois Lowry, where the giver has all the colors and the feelings and stuff? That’s sort of what I thought about Kate’s character. She would be like the giver in a way like she had the knowledge that everyone else didn’t have.

There are clips online of you and Kate onstage together in a production at Columbia University.

We lived together, we were in an improv group together. I always thought Kate was the funniest, most talented person I knew. But then you have this moment where you think, “Well, maybe that was just college.” But I was right!

When I was casting and I called her, we laughed the whole time because I think we both had the same experience at that moment. For whatever reason, with the direction that our lives led us, I’m actually directing this movie, and she actually is a comedic genius who was recognized as such. And now we’re adults, and I’m saying, “Do you want to come do this?” It was like, we’d gotten into a time machine when we were 18 and came out at 39. The reality is, we’re still the 18-year-old kids who are making musicals. We actually didn’t get more sophisticated than we were at 18.

Now that you’ve entered this world of big franchises, how will you balance your directing career going forward, between huge commercial films and smaller ones?

I think probably every director has a fantasy baseball league in their head of what movies they want to make. And there’s some movies I’d like to make that require a big canvas. At the same time, I’ve seen so many directors move between bigger movies and smaller movies: Chloé Zhao doing Nomadland and making Eternals. Or Steven Soderbergh, or even my weekend buddy Chris Nolan. He made the Dark Knight trilogy — and they’re wonderful — and then made The Prestige, which is not a tiny movie, but it is also not the same thing. I want to play in lots of different worlds. That’s the goal.

There’s footage out there of you directing the garden scene in Lady Bird, and you seem so joyous. It feels like you love being a director.

I love it so much. I love every part of making a movie, soup to nuts. And Margot is the same way. For us, it’s Disneyland every day. I honestly can’t believe I get to do this.

You’re a member of the Directors Guild, the Writers Guild, and the Actors Guild. The Writers Guild is already on strike, and the other guilds don’t seem too happy, either. There are whispers of a tri-Guild walkout.

I’m really proud of being a union member. I’m in support 100 percent of however we come at this.

I’m living through this moment like everybody else is, especially in terms of the AI thing, which is terrifying and exciting. I don’t know what to say about it. I guess it’s clearly a tool that hopefully can be used to help. I think it’s incredibly important to protect creative people — writers and directors and actors — because I don’t think what they can do can be replicated. We have to set some very firm ground rules moving forward. Because otherwise, we’re looking at a world that becomes a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy.

This feels like it would have been an insane question before Barbie, but would you want to do a superhero movie, or an action movie ?

Yes, of course. It would have to be something I had a feeling for and a relationship to. A well-shot, well-executed action movie is just incredible. It’s a dance. I’ve never done anything like that. But even in a small way, working with the stunt coordinator who did fight choreography on Barbie, he was just fascinating. It was so fun to talk to him.

I think Barbie, in a way, is already a superhero movie ?

[ Laughs. ] Yeah, in a way. It’s iconic in the same way. And it’s sort of mythic in the same way.

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Evangelion's rei ayanami steals the spotlight in crunchyroll's final 'summer of anime' week, 10 shonen anime moments that broke the internet.

The 1998 anime series, Serial Experiments Lain has a strong cult following thanks to its unique blend of Cyberpunk and esoteric philosophy. What started as the story of a teenage girl becoming enthralled by a strange alternative version of the Internet called the Wired becomes a metaphorical story that examines our relations with technology. Serial Experiments Lain is a unique series in that it demands that the viewer comes to their conclusions about its event.

RELATED: Serial Experiments Lain: 10 Things That Make It A Must-Watch Horror-Anime

One way to help a viewer understand this complex series is by understanding the series' references and influences. This article will help a bit in understanding this series by explaining ten interesting bits to trivia about this esoteric anime series.

10 Heavily Influenced By A Single Book

The series' unique blend of Internet culture and esoteric philosophy was heavily influenced by a single non-fiction book. That book being 1994's Cyberia by Douglas Rushkoff. The book primarily deals with the growing subculture of internet users and how the Internet could lead to a new counterculture. The book also examined how the Internet could create something close to the esoteric concept of a global brain.

The book heavily influences how the series depicts the Wired and its users. The book's application of the ideas of Timothy Leary to the internet was also a major influence on the series' theme. Finally the recurring cyber-club Cyberia is a direct shout-out to the book.

9 Has A Video Game Spin-Off

Serial Experiments Lain has a rather interesting video game spin-off. This game, released around the same time as the series, is an alternative take on the series. The series follows Lain's interactions with her therapist as she begins to violently lose touch with reality.

RELATED: 4 Manga & Anime That Would Make GREAT Video Games

The game itself is more a multimedia experience, where this story presented through a variety of formats like video and text documents. The game is also notable for being darker than the original anime with its very brutal depictions of self-harm and dealing heavily with mental illness.

8 The Series Is Filled With Shout Outs To Apple Computers

A more light-hearted piece of trivia is that series is filled to the brim with shout-outs to Apple Computers. The most apparent reference is that many computers appearing in the series are based on Apple's design. For example, Lain's first computer is based on the 20th Anniversary Macintosh. Also, all computer in the show uses an Operating System called Copland OS which is the same name as an unreleased OS created by Apple.

There are some more plot-relevant shout outs with Tachibana Lab, the company that invented the Weird. The company's name is a play on words with the Apple Macintosh. That play on words being that Tachibana is named after a type of orange native to Japan.

7 The Series Takes Places In An Alternative Timeline

Every episode of Serial Experiments Lain 's starts with a bizarre sequence of a robotic sounding voice saying "Present Day, Present Time" before laughing hysterical. This sequence seems to indicate that the series takes place in the modern-day, but the world of Lain does not seem to reflect our reality.

RELATED: The 10 Most Hilarious Alternate Timeline Stories Made For Famous Titles

By looking at in-series documents and dates presented in series it's revealed that Serial Experiments Lain take place in the 1999 0f an alternative timeline where the Wired was developed instead of the Internet. Of course, given the series's loose depiction of reality, it is hard to determine what else is different from its 1999 from ours.

6 Knights Of The Eastern Calculus Are Based On A Real Group Of Hackers

The Knights Of The Eastern Calculus are a mysterious organization of hackers that seek to manipulate Lain into aiding the implementation of Protocol 7. The organization is also presented as the creators behind many of the advanced computer-related devices seen in the series.

The name of this organization is a reference to a well-known in-joke among the hacker community, that being the Knights of the Lambda Calculus. This was an organization whose membership was joking given out to hackers who work with the Lisp programming language.

5 Protocol 7 Is A Dual Reference

Protocol 7, Masami Eiri's masterplan to merge mankind's collective unconscious with the Wired, is a shout out that references the series' dual interest in Internet culture and esoteric philosophy. On the Internet side of things, Protocol 7 is a reference to the real word Internet Protocol version 6, the framework on which devices on the internet could communicate with each other. So Protocol 7 is named so, as it supposes to be the next step in the Wired's evolution.

On the esoteric philosophy side of things, Protocol 7 is named after Timothy Leary's 7th layer of consciousness. This layer is a point of enlightenment where the human mind could access the memory and experience of the whole of humanity. So for a plan involving mankind's collective unconsciousness, it would make sense to have named after a concept that involves it.

4 The Men In Black Are Influenced By Snow Crash

Despite being a work of Cyberpunk, Serial Experiments Lain does not share many of the aesthetical elements commonly associated with the genre. One exception is the Men in Black, a duo of mysterious government agents hunting down the Knights Of The Eastern Calculus. Their appearance is very cyberpunk looking with their specs looking close to being cybernetic.

RELATED: 10 Cyberpunk Anime You've Completely Forgotten About

The reason why the Men in Black look very Cyberpunkish is due to their appearances being based on the character of Lagos from the Cyberpunk novel Snow Crash. Most noticeably Lagos' headgear is described in the novel of being a pair of spec with one lense looking more complex than the other, nearly the same as the Men in Black.

3 The Series' Ninth Episode Is Based on Real Conspiracy Theory

The strangest episode of Serial Experiments Lain is its ninth episode, where the show gives an exposition dump about the development of the Wired. What makes this episode so strange is that it goes into a direction involving alien conspiracy theories and experiments involving ESP.

A particular noteworthy claim is that the Wired was based on alien technology recovered from Roswell in 1947. It makes mention of an organization called Majestic 12 that was in charge of covering up the crash and exploiting the recovered technology. This organization is based on a real-world conspiracy theory popular among UFO conspiracy theorists in the 1980s.

2 The Show Was Intended To Interpreted Differently In Japan And The U.S.A

A close-up of Lain looking expressionless in Serial Experiments Lain

An interesting thought process behind the series was revealed during an interview with series producer Yasuyuki Ueda. That thought process is that the show's creators wanted the difference between Japanese and American culture to lead to viewers' interpretation of the series to differ based on their country of origin.

This did not happen in reality for a lot of reasons. The primary reason is that the show is very heavily influenced by Western literature and philosophy. Another reason being that internet allows fans on both sides of the Pacific to easily compare not coming to a more shared conclusion than intended.

1 The Size Of A Character's Pupil Represent Their Connection To Weird

An interesting aspect of Serial Experiments Lain is that characters' eyes are used as a visual shorthand for which characters are more connected with the Wired than reality. This is most noticeable with the show's characters who are more in touch with reality having larger pupils. Characters who are more in touch with the Wired have smaller pupils.

This shorthand can be seen by the characters with the largest pupils are Alice and Lain's father, who are both depicted as being more grounded in reality. Lain in comparison has a smaller pupil compare to her large iris represent how much of her personality is submerged in the Weird. Finally, Masami Eiri has pupil so small they come off as inhuman representing his complete joining with the Weird.

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Serial Experiments Lain

Serial Experiments Lain Explained

Creator:

Type:	tv series
Director:
Music:
Studio:
Network:	( )
First:	July 6, 1998
Last:	September 28, 1998
Episodes:	13

Developer:
Publisher:	Pioneer LDC
Released:	November 26, 1998
Platforms:

The Nightmare of Fabrication
Author:
Published:	May 1999

Serial Experiments Lain is a Japanese anime television series created and co-produced by Yasuyuki Ueda , written by Chiaki J. Konaka and directed by Ryūtarō Nakamura . Animated by Triangle Staff and featuring original character designs by Yoshitoshi Abe , the series was broadcast for 13 episodes on TV Tokyo and its affiliates from July to September 1998. The series follows Lain Iwakura, an adolescent girl in suburban Japan, and her relation to the Wired, a global communications network similar to the internet.

Lain features surreal and avant-garde imagery and explores philosophical topics such as reality , identity , and communication. [1] The series incorporates creative influences from computer history, cyberpunk , and conspiracy theories. Critics and fans have praised Lain for its originality, visuals, atmosphere, themes, and its dark depiction of a world fraught with paranoia, social alienation, and reliance on technology considered insightful of 21st century life. It received the Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival in 1998.

Lain Iwakura, a girl in her junior year of high school, lives in suburban Japan with her middle-class family, consisting of her inexpressive older sister Mika, emotionally distant mother Miho, and computer-obsessed father Yasuo; Lain herself is awkward, introverted, and socially isolated. The status-quo of her life becomes upturned by a series of bizarre incidents that take place after girls from her school receive an e-mail from a dead student, Chisa Yomoda, and she pulls out her old computer in order to check for the same message. Lain finds Chisa telling her via email that she is not dead but has merely "abandoned her physical self" and is alive deep within the virtual realm of the Wired itself, where she claims she has found "God". From this point, Lain is caught in a series of cryptic and surreal events that see her delving deeper into the mystery of the network in a narrative that explores themes of consciousness, perception, and the nature of reality.

"The Wired" is a virtual realm that contains and supports the very sum of all human communication and networks, created with the telegraph, television, and telephone services, and expanded with the Internet and cyberspace . The series 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 resonances , a property of the Earth's magnetic field that theoretically allows for unhindered long-distance communications. If such a link were created, the network would become equivalent to reality as the general consensus of all perceptions and knowledge. The increasingly thin line between what is real and what is virtual/digital begins to fracture.

Masami Eiri is the project director on Protocol Seven (the next-generation Internet protocol in the series' time-frame) for major computer company Tachibana General Laboratories. He had secretly included code of his very own creation to give himself control of the Wired. He "uploaded" his own consciousness into the Wired and "died," leaving only his body behind. Masami explains that Lain is the artifact by which the wall between the virtual and material worlds is to fall, and he needs her to go into the Wired and "abandon the flesh", as he did, to achieve his plan. The series sees him trying to convince her through interventions, using the promise of unconditional love, romantic seduction and charm, and even threats and force.

In the meantime, the anime follows a complex game of hide-and-seek between the "Knights of the Eastern Calculus" (based on the Knights of the Lambda Calculus ), hackers whom Masami claims are "believers that enable him to be a God in the Wired", and Tachibana General Laboratories, who try to regain control of Protocol Seven. In the end, Lain realizes, after much introspection , that she has control over everyone's mind and over reality itself. Her dialogue with different versions of herself shows how she feels shunned from the material world, and is afraid to live in the Wired, where she has the possibilities and responsibilities of an almighty goddess. The last scenes feature her erasing everything connected to herself from everyone's memories of her. She is last seen encountering her closest friend Alice once again, who is now married, though Lain herself is unchanged. Lain promises herself that she and Alice will meet again anytime as Lain can literally go and be anywhere she desires between both worlds .

Serial Experiments Lain was conceived, as a series, to be original to the point of it being considered "an enormous risk" by its producer Yasuyuki Ueda . [4]

Ueda had to answer repeated queries about a statement he had made in an Animerica interview where he claimed that Lain was "a sort of cultural war against American culture and the American sense of values we [Japan] adopted after World War II ". [5] [6] [7] He later explained in numerous interviews that he created Lain with a set of values he viewed as distinctly Japanese; he hoped Americans would not understand the series as the Japanese would. This would lead to a "war of ideas" over the meaning of the anime, hopefully culminating in new communication between the two cultures. When Ueda discovered that the American audience held most of the same views on the series as the Japanese did, he was disappointed.

The Lain franchise was originally conceived to connect across forms of media (anime, video games, manga). Ueda said in an interview, "the approach I took for this project was to communicate the essence of the work by the total sum of many media products". The scenario for the video game was written first, and the video game was produced at the same time as the anime series, though the series was released first. A dōjinshi titled "The Nightmare of Fabrication" was produced by Yoshitoshi Abe and released in Japanese in the artbook An Omnipresence in Wired . Ueda and Konaka declared in an interview that the idea of a multimedia project was not unusual in Japan, as opposed to the contents of Lain , and the way they are exposed.

The authors were asked in interviews if they had been influenced by Neon Genesis Evangelion , in the themes and graphic design. This was strictly denied by writer Chiaki J. Konaka in an interview, arguing that he had not even seen Evangelion until he finished the fourth episode of Lain . Being primarily a horror movie writer, his stated influences are Godard (especially for using typography on screen), The Exorcist , Hell House , and Dan Curtis 's House of Dark Shadows . Alice's name, like the names of her two friends Julie and Reika, came from a previous production from Konaka,, which in turn was largely influenced by Alice in Wonderland . As the series developed, Konaka was "surprised" by how close Alice's character became to the original Wonderland character. [8]

Vannevar Bush (and memex ), John C. Lilly , Timothy Leary and his eight-circuit model of consciousness , Ted Nelson and Project Xanadu are cited as precursors to the Wired. [9] Douglas Rushkoff and his book Cyberia were originally to be cited as such, and in Serial Experiments: Lain , Cyberia became the name of a nightclub populated with hackers and techno-punk teenagers. Likewise, the series' deus ex machina lies in the conjunction of the Schumann resonances and Jung's collective unconscious (the authors chose this term over Kabbalah and Akashic Record ). [10] Majestic 12 and the Roswell UFO incident are used as examples of how a hoax might still affect history, even after having been exposed as such, by creating sub-cultures. This links again to Vannevar Bush, the alleged "brains" of MJ12.

Two of the literary references in Lain are quoted through Lain's father: he first logs onto a website with the password "" (" Think Blue, Count Two " is an Instrumentality of Man story featuring virtual persons projected as real ones in people's minds); [11] and his saying that " madeleines would be good with the tea" in the last episode makes Lain "one of the only cartoons ever to allude to Proust". [12] [13]

Character design

Yoshitoshi Abe confesses to have never read manga as a child, as it was "off-limits" in his household. [14] His major influences are "nature and everything around him". Specifically speaking about Lain's character, Abe was inspired by Kenji Tsuruta , Akihiro Yamada , Range Murata and Yukinobu Hoshino . In a broader view, he has been influenced in his style and technique by Japanese artists Kyosuke Chinai and Toshio Tabuchi.

The character design of Lain was not Abe's sole responsibility. Her distinctive left forelock for instance was a demand from Yasuyuki Ueda. The goal was to produce asymmetry to reflect Lain's unstable and disconcerting nature. [15] It was designed as a mystical symbol, as it is supposed to prevent voices and spirits from being heard by the left ear. The bear pajamas she wears were a demand from character animation director Takahiro Kishida. Though bears are a trademark of the Konaka brothers, Chiaki Konaka first opposed the idea. Director Nakamura then explained how the bear motif could be used as a shield for confrontations with her family. It is a key element of the design of the shy "real world" Lain (see "mental illness" under Themes). When she first goes to the Cyberia nightclub , she wears a bear hat for similar reasons. Retrospectively, Konaka said that Lain's pajamas became a major factor in drawing fans of moe characterization to the series, and remarked that "such items may also be important when making anime".

Abe's original design was generally more complicated than what finally appeared on screen. As an example, the X-shaped hair clip was to be an interlocking pattern of gold links. The links would open with a snap, or rotate around an axis until the moment the " X " became a " = ". This was not used as there is no scene where Lain takes her hair clip off. [16]

Serial Experiments Lain is not a conventionally linear story, being described as "an alternative anime, with modern themes and realization". [17] Themes range from theological to psychological and are dealt with in a number of ways: from classical dialogue to image-only introspection, passing by direct interrogation of imaginary characters.

Communication, in its wider sense, is one of the main themes of the series, [18] not only as opposed to loneliness, but also as a subject in itself. Writer Konaka said he wanted to directly "communicate human feelings". Director Nakamura wanted to show the audience — and particularly viewers between 14 and 15—"the multidimensional wavelength of the existential self : the relationship between self and the world".

Loneliness , if only as representing a lack of communication, is recurrent through Lain . [19] Lain herself (according to Anime Jump) is "almost painfully introverted with no friends to speak of at school, a snotty, condescending sister, a strangely apathetic mother, and a father who seems to want to care but is just too damn busy to give her much of his time". [20] Friendships turn on the first rumor; [21] and the only insert song of the series is named Kodoku no shigunaru , literally "signal of loneliness". [22]

Mental illness, especially dissociative identity disorder, is a significant theme in Lain : the main character is constantly confronted with alter-egos, to the point where writer Chiaki Konaka and Lain's voice actress Kaori Shimizu had to agree on subdividing the character's dialogues between three different orthographs . The three names designate distinct "versions" of Lain: the real-world, "childish" Lain has a shy attitude and bear pajamas. The "advanced" Lain, her Wired personality, is bold and questioning. Finally, the "evil" Lain is sly and devious, and does everything she can to harm Lain or the ones close to her. As a writing convention, the authors spelled their respective names in kanji , katakana , and roman characters (see picture). [23]

Reality never has the pretense of objectivity in Lain . [24] Acceptations of the term are battling throughout the series, such as the "natural" reality, defined through normal dialogue between individuals; the material reality; and the tyrannic reality, enforced by one person onto the minds of others. A key debate to all interpretations of the series is to decide whether matter flows from thought, or the opposite. [25] The production staff carefully avoided "the so-called God's Eye Viewpoint" to make clear the "limited field of vision" of the world of Lain .

Theology plays its part in the development of the story too. Lain has been viewed as a questioning of the possibility of an infinite spirit in a finite body. [26] From self-realization as a goddess to deicide , religion (the title of a layer) is an inherent part of Lain background.

Apple computers

Lain contains extensive references to Apple computers, as the brand was used at the time by most of the creative staff, such as writers, producers, and the graphical team. As an example, the title at the beginning of each episode is announced by the Apple computer speech synthesis program PlainTalk , using the voice "Whisper" , e.g. say -v Whisper "Weird: Layer zero one" . Tachibana Industries, the company that creates the NAVI computers, is a reference to Apple computers: the tachibana orange is a Japanese variety of mandarin orange. NAVI is the abbreviation of Knowledge Navigator , and the HandiNAVI is based on the Apple Newton , one of the world's first PDAs . The NAVIs are seen to run "Copland OS Enterprise" (this reference to Copland was an initiative of Konaka , a declared Apple fan), and Lain's and Alice's NAVIs closely resembles the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh and the iMac G3 respectively. The HandiNAVI programming language, as seen on the seventh episode, is a dialect of Lisp ; the Newton also used a Lisp dialect ( NewtonScript ). The program being typed by Lain can be found in the CMU AI repository; [27] it is a simple implementation of Conway's Game of Life in Common Lisp .

During a series of disconnected images, an iMac and the Think Different advertising slogan appears for a short time, while the Whisper voice says it. [28] This was an unsolicited insertion from the graphic team, also Mac-enthusiasts. Other subtle allusions can be found: "Close the world, Open the nExt" is the slogan for the Serial Experiments Lain video game. NeXT was the company that produced NeXTSTEP , which later evolved into Mac OS X after Apple bought NeXT. Another example is "To Be Continued." at the end of episodes 1–12, with a blue "B" and a red "e" on "Be"; this matches the original logo of Be Inc. , a company founded by ex-Apple employees and NeXT's main competitor in its time. [29]

Broadcast and release history

Serial Experiments Lain was first aired on TV Tokyo and its affiliates on July 6, 1998, and concluded on September 28, 1998, with the thirteenth and final episode. The series consists of 13 episodes (referred to in the series as "Layers") of 24 minutes each, except for the sixth episode, Kids (23 minutes 14 seconds). In Japan, the episodes were released in LD , VHS , and DVD with a total of five volumes. A DVD compilation named " Serial Experiments Lain DVD-BOX Яesurrection " was released along with a promo DVD called " LPR-309 " in 2000. [30] As this box set is now discontinued, a rerelease was made in 2005 called " Serial Experiments Lain TV-BOX ". A 4-volume DVD box set was released in the US by Pioneer/Geneon. A Blu-ray release of the anime was made in December 2009 called " Serial Experiments Lain Blu-ray Box| RESTORE ". [31] [32] [33] [34]

The anime series was licensed in North America by Pioneer Entertainment (later Geneon USA) on VHS and DVD in 1999. [35] In December 2002, TechTV announced that Serial Experiments Lain would air on the channel as part of its Anime Unleashed programming block, [36] with the series making its debut on January 21, 2003. [37] The original home releases went out-of-print in December 2007 when Geneon closed its USA division. [35] At Anime Expo 2010, North American distributor Funimation announced that it had obtained the license to the series and re-released it in 2012. [38] The anime series returned to US television on October 15, 2012, on the Funimation Channel. [39]

Serial Experiments Lain was first broadcast in Tokyo at 1:15 a.m. JST . The word "weird" appears almost ubiquitously in English language reviews of the series, [40] [41] [42] [43] or the alternatives "bizarre", [44] and "atypical", [45] due mostly to the freedoms taken with the animation and its unusual science fiction themes, and due to its philosophical and psychological context. Critics responded positively to these thematic and stylistic characteristics, and it was awarded an Excellence Prize by the 1998 Japan Media Arts Festival for "its willingness to question the meaning of contemporary life" and the "extraordinarily philosophical and deep questions" it asks. [46]

According to Christian Nutt from Newtype USA , the main attraction to the series is its keen view on "the interlocking problems of identity and technology". Nutt saluted Abe's "crisp, clean character design" and the "perfect soundtrack" in his 2005 review of series, saying that " Serial Experiments Lain might not yet be considered a true classic, but it's a fascinating evolutionary leap that helped change the future of anime." [47] Anime Jump gave it 4.5/5, and Anime on DVD gave it A+ on all criteria for volume 1 and 2, and a mix of A and A+ for volume 3 and 4. Lain was subject to commentary in the literary and academic worlds. The Asian Horror Encyclopedia calls it "an outstanding psycho-horror anime about the psychic and spiritual influence of the Internet". [48] It notes that the red spots present in all the shadows look like blood pools (see picture). It notes the death of a girl in a train accident is "a source of much ghost lore in the twentieth century", more so in Tokyo.

The Anime Essentials anthology by Gilles Poitras describes it as a "complex and somehow existential" anime that "pushed the envelope" of anime diversity in the 1990s, alongside the much better known contemporaries Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop . [49] Professor Susan J. Napier , in her 2003 reading to the American Philosophical Society called The Problem of Existence in Japanese Animation (published 2005), compared Serial Experiments Lain to Ghost in the Shell and Hayao Miyazaki 's Spirited Away . [50] According to her, the main characters of the two other works cross barriers; they can cross back to our world, but Lain cannot. Napier asks whether there is something to which Lain should return, "between an empty 'real' and a dark 'virtual'". Mike Toole of Anime News Network named Serial Experiments Lain as one of the most important anime of the 1990s. [51]

Despite the positive feedback the television series had received, Anime Academy gave the series a 75%, partly due to the "lifeless" setting it had. [52] Michael Poirier of EX magazine stated that the last three episodes fail to resolve the questions in other DVD volumes. [53] Justin Sevakis of Anime News Network noted that the English dub was decent, but that the show relied so little on dialogue that it hardly mattered. [54]

Related media

An Omnipresence In Wired : Hardbound, 128 pages in 96 colors with Japanese text. It features a chapter for each layer (episode) and concept sketches. It also features a short color manga titled "The Nightmare of Fabrication". It was published in 1998 by Triangle Staff/SR-12W/Pioneer LDC.
Yoshitoshi ABe lain illustrations ab# rebuild an omnipresence in Wired : Hardbound, 148 pages. A remake of "An Omnipresence In Wired" with new art, added text by Chiaki J. Konaka, and a section entitled "ABe's EYE in color of things" (a compilation of his photos of the world). It was published in Japan on October 1, 2005, by Wanimagazine , and in America as a softcover version translated into English on June 27, 2006, by Digital Manga Publishing .
Visual Experiments Lain : Paperback, 80 full-color pages with Japanese text. It has details on the creation, design, and storyline of the series. It was published in 1998 by Triangle Staff/Pioneer LDC.
Scenario Experiments Lain : Paperback, 335 pages. By "chiaki j. konaka" (uncapitalized in original). It contains collected scripts with notes and small excerpted storyboards. It was published in 1998 in Japan.

Soundtracks

The first original soundtrack, Serial Experiments Lain Soundtrack , features music by Reichi Nakaido : the ending theme and part of the television series' score, alongside other songs inspired by the series. The second, Serial Experiments Lain Soundtrack: Cyberia Mix , features electronica songs inspired by the television series, including a remix of the opening theme "Duvet" by DJ Wasei. The third, lain BOOTLEG , consists of the ambient score of the series across forty-five tracks. BOOTLEG also contains a second mixed-mode data and audio disc, containing a clock program and a game, as well as an extended version of the first disc – nearly double the length – across 57 tracks in 128 kbit/s MP3 format, and sound effects from the series in WAV format. Because the word bootleg appears in its title, it is easily confused with the Sonmay counterfeit edition of itself, which only contains the first disc in an edited format. All three soundtrack albums were released by Pioneer Records .

The series' opening theme, " Duvet ", was written and performed in English by the British rock band Bôa . The band released the song as a single and as part of the EP Tall Snake , which features both an acoustic version and DJ Wasei's remix from Cyberia Mix .

See main article: Serial Experiments Lain (video game) . On November 26, 1998, Pioneer LDC released a video game with the same name as the anime for the PlayStation . [55] It was designed by Konaka and Yasuyuki, and made to be a "network simulator" in which the player would navigate to explore Lain's story. The creators themselves did not call it a game, but "Psycho-Stretch-Ware", and it has been described as being a kind of visual novel: the gameplay is limited to unlocking pieces of information, and then reading/viewing/listening to them, with little or no puzzle needed to unlock. [56] Lain distances itself even more from classical games by the random order in which information is collected. The aim of the authors was to let the player get the feeling that there are myriads of informations that they would have to sort through, and that they would have to do with less than what exists to understand. As with the anime, the creative team's main goal was to let the player "feel" Lain, and "to understand her problems, and to love her". A guidebook to the game called Serial Experiments Lain Official Guide was released the same month by MediaWorks . [57]

External links

Official Funimation website

Notes and References

Napier. Susan J.. Susan J. Napier. November 2002. When the Machines Stop: Fantasy, Reality, and Terminal Identity in Neon Genesis Evangelion and Serial Experiments Lain . Science Fiction Studies. 29. 88. 418–435. 0091-7729. May 4, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070611205327/http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/abstracts/a88.htm#Napier. June 11, 2007. live.
Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20070323032932/http://www.anime-revolution.com/anime/sel-character-profiles. March 23, 2007. [SEL] Character Profiles]. Anime Revolution. December 30, 2006.
Web site: Otakon Lain Panel Discussion with Yasuyuki Ueda and Yoshitoshi Abe . September 16, 2006. August 5, 2000. https://web.archive.org/web/20061026065237/http://www.cjas.org/~leng/o2klain.htm. October 26, 2006. live.
Web site: Abe Yoshitoshi et Ueda Yasuyuki . AnimeLand. Anime Manga Presse. Scipion. Johan. September 16, 2006. fr. March 1, 2003. https://web.archive.org/web/20070927120258/http://www.animeland.com/index.php?rub=articles&id=399. September 27, 2007. live.
Animerica , (Vol. 7 No. 9, p. 29)
Web site: Online Lain Chat with Yasuyuki Ueda and Yoshitoshi ABe . The Anime Colony. September 16, 2006. August 7, 2000. https://web.archive.org/web/20061024122218/http://www.cjas.org/~leng/lainchat.htm. October 24, 2006. live.
Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20080804105225/http://www.animejump.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=32&page=1. August 4, 2008. Anime Jump!: Lain Men:Yasuyuki Ueda . September 26, 2006.
April 2000. Serial Experiments Lain. HK Magazine . 14. Asia City Publishing. Hong Kong. in Web site: HK Interview . Chiaki J. Konaka . September 25, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20101124051110/http://konaka.com/alice6/lain/hk.html. November 24, 2010. live. and Web site: HK Interview . Chiaki J. Konaka. September 25, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20101101005437/http://konaka.com/alice6/lain/hkint_e.html. November 1, 2010. live.
[Animerica]
Serial Experiments Lain , "Layer 01: WEIRD"
Web site: Movie Gazette: "Serial Experiments Lain Volume : Reset" Review . October 11, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20060521165608/http://www.movie-gazette.com/cinereviews/860. May 21, 2006.
Yasuo: "I will bring madeleines next time. They will taste good with the tea." Serial Experiments Lain , Episode 13, "Ego". Lain has just erased herself from her friends' memories, while for Proust the taste of madeleines triggers memories of his childhood.
Web site: Anime Jump!: Lain Men: Yoshitoshi Abe . September 16, 2006. 2000. https://web.archive.org/web/20060510030644/http://www.animejump.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=33&page=1. May 10, 2006. dead.
FRUiTS Magazine No. 15, October 1998.
Manga Max magazine, September 1999, p. 22, "Unreal to Real"
Benkyo! Magazine, March 1999, p.16, "In My Humble Opinion"
Web site: T.H.E.M.Anime Review of Serial Experiments Lain . November 24, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20061011155649/http://www.themanime.org/viewreview.php?id=353. October 11, 2006. live.
Web site: DVDoutsider Review of Serial Experiments Lain . November 24, 2006. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120305015738/http://www.dvdoutsider.co.uk/dvd/reviews/s/serial_experiments_lain.html. March 5, 2012.
Web site: Anime Jump!: Serial Experiments Lain Review . Mike. Toole. https://web.archive.org/web/20080610033719/http://www.animejump.com/index.php?module=prodreviews&func=showcontent&id=201. June 10, 2008. October 16, 2003.
Serial Experiments Lain , Layer 08: RUMORS
Web site: List of Serial Experiments Lain songs . December 7, 2006. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20070113231952/http://animelyrics.tv/anime/lain/. January 13, 2007.
Book: Abe, Yoshitoshi. Visual Experiments Lain. 1998. Triangle Staff/Pioneer LDC.. 978-4-7897-1342-9., page 42
Manga Max Magazine, September 1999, p. 21, "God's Eye View"
Serial Experiments Lain, Layer 06: KIDS: "your physical body exists only to confirm your existence".
https://web.archive.org/web/20060302194747/http://www.ahcca.unimelb.edu.au/refractory/journalissues/vol3/colman.htm Study on Lain , Buffy , and Attack of the clones
Web site: Conway's Game of Life . Carnegie Mellon University . June 24, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090722175621/https://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/ai-repository/ai/lang/lisp/code/fun/life.cl. July 22, 2009. live.
Serial Experiments Lain , Layer 11: INFORNOGRAPHY.
Web site: Be, Inc. . https://web.archive.org/web/20031128123907/http://www.beincorporated.com/. November 28, 2003. November 27, 2006. dead.
Web site: Serial Experiments Lain – Release . September 16, 2009. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20100216181824/http://www.geneon-ent.co.jp/rondorobe/anime/lain/release.html. February 16, 2010.
Web site: Serial Experiments Lain Blu-ray Box RESTORE . ImageShack. April 14, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150402163147/http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/292/lainblurayrestore.jpg. April 2, 2015. dead.
Web site: serial experiments lain Blu-ray LABO プロデューサーの制作日記 . September 16, 2009. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20101226100424/http://blog.geneon-ent.co.jp/graphid/. December 26, 2010.
Web site: Playlog.jp Blog . October 15, 2009. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20090817033108/http://playlog.jp/sendenman/blog/2009-08-15. August 17, 2009.
Web site: Lain on BD announced – Wakachan Thread . October 15, 2009. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120227184130/http://hr.deadgods.net/hr/kareha.pl/1250369962/. February 27, 2012.
Web site: Geneon USA To Cancel DVD Sales, Distribution By Friday . Anime News Network . September 26, 2007. January 30, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100328222859/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-09-26/geneon-usa-to-cancel-dvd-sales-distribution-by-friday. March 28, 2010. live.
Web site: Tech TV Anime Unleashed Schedule . Alexander . Isaac . . December 6, 2002 . August 18, 2024 . live.
Web site: TV Shows > Anime Unleashed > Serial Experiments Lain : Layer 01: Weird . https://web.archive.org/web/20030605113330/http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3414570,00.html . Josh . Lawrence . . January 22, 2003 . June 5, 2003 . August 18, 2024 . dead.
Web site: Funi Adds Live Action Moyashimon Live Action, More . Anime News Network . July 2, 2010. July 3, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100704090410/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-07-02/funi-adds-live-action-moyashimon. July 4, 2010. live.
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Web site: Movie Gazette: 'Serial Experiments Lain Volume 2: Knights' Review . Anton. Bitel. Movie Gazette. September 16, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20060821190520/http://www.movie-gazette.com/cinereviews/828. August 21, 2006.
Web site: Sci-Fi Weekly: Serial Experiments Lain Review . Tasha. Robinson. September 16, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20060720210555/http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue123/anime.html. July 20, 2006.
Web site: Serial Experiments Lain Vol. #1 . Beveridge. Chris. Mania.com. July 13, 1999. September 16, 2006. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20150402114355/http://www.mania.com/serial-experiments-lain-vol-1_article_73942.html. April 2, 2015.
Web site: The Spinning Image: "Serial Experiments Lain Volume 4: Reset" Review . Southworth. Wayne. September 16, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20070928001632/http://www.thespinningimage.co.uk/cultfilms/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=872&aff=13. September 28, 2007. live.
Web site: Anime News Network: Serial Experiments Lain DVD Vol. 1–4 Review . Silver. Aaron. September 16, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20060325152323/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/reviews/display.php?id=34. March 25, 2006. live.
Web site: DVD.net: "Lain: Volume 1 – Navi" Review . Lai. Tony. September 16, 2006. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20060920211809/http://dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=1081. September 20, 2006.
Web site: 1998 (2nd) Japan Media Arts Festival: Excellence Prize – serial experiments lain . https://web.archive.org/web/20070426014853/http://plaza.bunka.go.jp/english/festival/backnumber/10/sakuhin/serial.html. April 26, 2007. Japan Media Arts Plaza. September 16, 2006. 1998. From the Internet Archive .
Nutt. Christian. January 2005. Serial Experiments Lain DVD Box Set: Lost in the Wired. Newtype USA . 4. 1. 179.
Book: Bush, Laurence C.. Asian Horror Encyclopedia. October 2001. Writers Club Press. 978-0-595-20181-5., page 162.
Book: Poitras, Gilles. Anime Essentials. December 2001. Stone Bridge Press, LLC. 978-1-880656-53-2., page 28.
The Problem of Existence in Japanese Animation. Susan J., Dr.. Napier. Susan J. Napier. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 149. 1. March 2005. 72–79. 4598910.
Web site: Toole. Mike. Evangel-a-like – The Mike Toole Show . Anime News Network . November 20, 2015. June 5, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20151010114552/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/the-mike-toole-show/2011-06-05. October 10, 2015. live.
Web site: Serial Experiments: Lain . March 16, 2002. April 17, 2015. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110927060034/http://www.animeacademy.com/finalrevdisplay.php?id=201. September 27, 2011.
Web site: Serial Experiments Lain – Buried Treasure . May 11, 2000. April 17, 2015. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110826092828/http://www.ex.org/5.2/25-anime_followup_lain.html. August 26, 2011.
Web site: Serial Experiments Lain – Buried Treasure . November 20, 2008. April 17, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150403122125/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/buried-treasure/2008-11-20/serial-experiments-lain. April 3, 2015. live.
Web site: Serial Experiments Lain . September 25, 2010. January 22, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210122195345/https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B00005OVPO/. live.
Web site: Games Are Fun: "Review – Serial Experiments Lain – Japan" . April 25, 2003. November 10, 2006. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110927061706/http://www.gamesarefun.com/gamesdb/review.php?reviewid=67. September 27, 2011.
Book: ja:シリアルエクスペリメンツレイン公式ガイド. Serial Experiments Lain Official Guide. ja. .

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License . It uses material from the Wikipedia article " Serial Experiments Lain ".

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Serial experiments lain.

Directed by Ryutaro Nakamura , Yuichi Tanaka …

Close the world. txen eht nepO.

Lain—driven by the abrupt suicide of a classmate—logs on to the Wired and promptly loses herself in a twisted mass of hallucinations, memories, and interconnected-psyches.

Kaori Shimizu Yoko Asada Ayako Kawasumi Ryusuke Ohbayashi Rei Igarashi

Directors Directors

Ryutaro Nakamura Yuichi Tanaka Akihiko Nishiyama Masahiko Murata Johei Matsuura Shigeru Ueda

Producers Producers

Yasuyuki Ueda Taro Maki

Writer Writer

Chiaki J. Konaka

Original Writer Original Writer

Yasuyuki Ueda

Editor Editor

Tsuyoshi Imai

Cinematography Cinematography

Takashi Azuhata

Art Direction Art Direction

Masaru Sato

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Yoshitoshi ABe

Composers Composers

Reichi Nakaido Jasmine Rodgers

Songs Songs

Paul Turrell Ben Henderson Lee Sullivan Alex Caird Steve Rodgers Jasmine Rodgers

Pioneer LDC Triangle Staff

Popular reviews

Review by COBRARocky ★★★★★ 3

It's about being a girl on the computer.

Review by AndoCommando ★★★★★ 20

Ya'll don't seem to understand

Review by Eli Hayes ★★★★★ 34

someone please fucking hit me with a semi-truck.

Review by Ayymad ★★★★ 4

Women will literally abandon the physical realm and upload their conciousness to the internet instead of going to therapy

Review by Riley ★★★★★ 3

I'm just like her except instead of transcending physical space to the digital world i'm logging onto letterboxd and reading bad takes all day long frfr

Review by adambolt ★★½

I don't know what you guys mean this is super easy to understand all I had to do was watch 57 explained videos and read a 15,000 word essay about the symbolism

Review by eve 💿 3

there are many versions of me.

there’s the me I show strangers, the me I show my mom, the me I show my dad, the me I show one friend, the me I show another.

then there’s online me. there’s tumblr me, letterboxd me, twitter me.

every time I remake, delete, refresh, etc. is like a rebirth; the internet providing us with the power to make or destroy an entire identity in the span of seconds.

there are infinite versions of me.

but how do I know which one is real?

maybe they’re all real. maybe I, we, and them are all the same. maybe we are more than flesh and blood and veins and bones.

we are multidimensional, new and used, young and old, all at the same time.

we are thoughts and ideas and connections.

Review by Jaime Rebanal 🇵🇸 ★★★★★ 3

Words to begin talking about the experience that I have had with Serial Experiments Lain , the brilliant miniseries from Ryutaro Nakamura are so difficult to come up with on the spot, other than simply stating the obvious, it was a beautiful experience that I surely am never to forget in a long while. Anime is a medium that I have only recently started to explore more, but not since Neon Genesis Evangelion have I ever experienced something that ever felt like Serial Experiments Lain – avant-garde expressionism at some of the most beautiful that any screen would be lucky enough to host. If more well known works like those of Studio Ghibli, or Akira and Ghost in the Shell are…

Review by 🌻 lindsay 🌻 ★★★★ 7

I’ve existed on the internet for most of my living memory. It’s an essential part of my life and always has been. However, I do think that at some point there was a shift. The internet became more closely linked with our identities. It stopped being a place to view, to read information, to put out information. It began to become a place where we exist and live every day.

I think there’s a lot of fear that comes with knowing that, especially if you didn’t grow up embedded in online culture. Watching it from a distance or watching it as it began to happen, I can only imagine how scary that would be. I think this is where a…

Review by louferrigno ★★★★★ 23

(NOTE: THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE ENTIRE SERIES EPISODE-BY-EPISODE. AS SUCH, SPOILERS ARE PRESENT ALL-AROUND. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED).

Few series have had their legacy defined by mystique and complete obliqueness like Serial Experiment Lain , delving into complex themes like the nature of reality, identity, and communication just as the internet’s interconnected stream of information began taking the form it takes today. Forming a trifecta of late 90’s anime mindfucks alongside Neon Genesis Evangelion and Revolutionary Girl Utena , a series like Lain was always destined to have niche appeal, something people will say is 100% the best while fully knowing that it's nowhere near accessible as something like Cowboy Bebop or, hell, even Evangelion to a certain degree (at…

Review by Katy ★★★★

are ya winnin’ son?

Review by bira

when your circle is not even real but yall crazyyy

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Serial Experiments Lain - Anime of the Week

Welcome to the weekly Anime of the Week Discussion Thread! Each week, we're here to discuss various older anime series. Today we are discussing...

Lain Iwakura, an awkward and introverted fourteen-year-old, is one of the many girls from her school to receive a disturbing email from her classmate Chisa Yomoda—the very same Chisa who recently committed suicide. Lain has neither the desire nor the experience to handle even basic technology; yet, when the technophobe opens the email, it leads her straight into the Wired, a virtual world of communication networks similar to what we know as the internet. Lain's life is turned upside down as she begins to encounter cryptic mysteries one after another. Strange men called the Men in Black begin to appear wherever she goes, asking her questions and somehow knowing more about her than even she herself knows. With the boundaries between reality and cyberspace rapidly blurring, Lain is plunged into more surreal and bizarre events where identity, consciousness, and perception are concepts that take on new meanings.

Written by Chiaki J. Konaka, whose other works include Texhnolyze , Serial Experiments Lain is a psychological avant-garde mystery series that follows Lain as she makes crucial choices that will affect both the real world and the Wired. In closing one world and opening another, only Lain will realize the significance of their presence.

[Source: MyAnimeList]

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Serial Experiments Lain

Lain receives an email from a recently deceased girl.

People search for their pleasures at Club Cyberia.

Lain receives a mysterious circuit.

Lain's real and wired worlds begin to mix.

An adolescent girl develops a unique connection to a virtual reality network known as The Wired.

Cast & Crew

Ayako Kawasumi

Kaori Shimizu

Ryunosuke Obayashi

Rei Igarashi

Information

Accessibility

Internet Service Terms Apple TV & Privacy Cookie Policy Support

IMAGES

Serial Experiments Lain (1998)
Sección visual de Serial Experiments: Lain (Serie de TV)
Serial Experiments Lain (1998)
Serial Experiments Lain (1998)
Serial Experiments Lain (TV Series 1998-1998)
Serial Experiments Lain (1998)

VIDEO

2012 AMG CLS63 with Hennessey HPE700 Upgrade
Serial Experiments Lain

COMMENTS

One ticket of Barbie please : r/Lain
346 votes, 27 comments. 42K subscribers in the Lain community. A subreddit for the anime Serial Experiments Lain. Let's all love Lain!
The Ending Of Serial Experiments Lain Explained
Before social media and The Matrix, Serial Experiments Lain made us question existence. The ending forces viewers to draw a line between reality and fiction.
I recently watched Serial Experiments Lain. : r/Lain
I recently watched Serial Experiments Lain. Here's my much detailed breakdown for the mind bending show ahead of its time-. To me Lain was already what she is at the start of the show, she was never human, she just took human form. And the Wired is not the internet, and Lain is not AI. Lain is the collective consciousness of all mankind.
[Spoilers] My analysis of Serial Experiments lain : r/anime
In my point of view, it's more of a philosophical and sociological commentary/consideration. That's why I think Eva is an easier work of art to love and understand, because it's oh so much human, Lain is alien stuff at best, (there even is an alien in the show). Present day, present time, kids. Oooookay, so, let's start from the very beginning.
Serial Experiments Lain
Buy Serial Experiments Lain on Apple TV. Page 1 of 5, 9 total items. A series gets an Average Tomatometer when at least 50 percent of its seasons have a score. The Average Tomatometer is the sum ...
Serial Experiments Lain' review by faye • Letterboxd
Serial Experiments Lain 1998 ★★★★★ Watched Apr 18, 2023. faye's review published on Letterboxd: ... and soon-to-be greta gerwig's Barbie. i thought it was absolutely phenomenal honestly. it honestly gave me really similar vibes to Radiohead's album OK Computer; ...
Serial Experiments Lain (TV Mini Series 1998)
Serial Experiments Lain: Created by Yasuyuki Ueda. With Kaori Shimizu, Bridget Hoffman, Dan Lorge, Randy McPherson. Strange things start happening when a withdrawn girl named Lain becomes obsessed with an interconnected virtual realm known as "The Wired".
Serial Experiments Lain (TV Mini Series 1998)
S1.E1 ∙ Weird. People are getting emails from a girl that killed herself last week (Chisa Yomoda), which claim that she only gave up her body, but is actually still alive inside the Wired, and that God is also there. After getting one of these emails, the introverted Lain becomes interested in computers and she ask her father for a new NAVI.
Serial Experiments Lain
Serial Experiments Lain is a franchise that includes an anime, a game and several artbooks and other publications. The spiritual sequel to Serial Experiment Lain, Despera is still in production. We have also, compiled any and all news related to the show.
Serial Experiments Lain Explained!
A detailed explanation & breakdown of the anime series: Serial Experiments: Lain This has been my favorite anime since I was a child, but it's often so philo...
Serial Experiments Lain
Serial Experiments Lain is a Japanese anime television series created and co-produced by Yasuyuki Ueda, written by Chiaki J. Konaka and directed by Ryūtarō Nakamura. Animated by Triangle Staff and featuring original character designs by Yoshitoshi Abe, the series was broadcast for 13 episodes on TV Tokyo and its affiliates from July to September 1998. The series follows Lain Iwakura, an ...
The brain behind 'Barbie': inside the brilliant mind of Greta Gerwig
When Greta Gerwig was in preproduction on her Barbie movie (out July 21), executives from the brand's owner, Mattel, paid her an inevitable visit. She gave them a preview of the movie's look (very, very pink) and feel ( Elf- y magical-realism ramped up a thousandfold). Then she hit them with a monologue: stuff like the influence of ...
Serial Experiments Lain
Buy Serial Experiments Lain on Google Play, then watch on your PC, Android, or iOS devices. Download to watch offline and even view it on a big screen using Chromecast.
Serial Experiments Lain Summary and Synopsis
Serial Experiments Lain is a Japanese anime series directed by Ryūtarō Nakamura, following teenager Lain Iwakura as she becomes increasingly entangled in the enigmatic virtual world called the Wired. Through confronting various psychological and philosophical dilemmas, the series delves into themes of identity, reality, and consciousness, challenging viewers with its layered narrative and ...
Serial Experiments Lain: 10 Things Fans Never Knew About The Mind ...
Serial Experiments Lain is a hard anime to follow, and some things can get past you. Here are some facts most fans missed.
Film Retrospect
Greta Gerwig's "Barbie' is inspired by "Serial Experiments Lain", "The Matrix" and "The Truman Show". "A Barbie doll determined to find the place beyond...
Serial Experiments Lain Explained
Serial Experiments Lain is a Japanese anime television series created and co-produced by Yasuyuki Ueda, written by Chiaki J. Konaka and directed by Ryūtarō Nakamura. Animated by Triangle Staff and featuring original character designs by Yoshitoshi Abe, the series was broadcast for 13 episodes on TV Tokyo and its affiliates from July to September 1998. The series follows Lain Iwakura, an ...
The serial experiments lain Project
A set of videos exploring the themes and deeper questions of the anime series "serial experiments lain"
Serial Experiments Lain
Lain—driven by the abrupt suicide of a classmate—logs on to the Wired and promptly loses herself in a twisted mass of hallucinations, memories, and interconnected-psyches.
ScarletCutter's review of serial experiments lain · AniList
Serial Experiments Lain in many ways is weird. Its the type of anime where even if you watched a few seconds of it the show would immediately question the sanity of both yours and itself.
Serial Experiments Lain
Written by Chiaki J. Konaka, whose other works include Texhnolyze, Serial Experiments Lain is a psychological avant-garde mystery series that follows Lain as she makes crucial choices that will affect both the real world and the Wired. In closing one world and opening another, only Lain will realize the significance of their presence.
Serial Experiments Lain
Serial Experiments Lain. Available on Funimation, iTunes. Yoshitoshi ABe (Texhnolyze) brings to life this existential classic that paved the way for films like The Matrix. After the suicide of a classmate, fourteen year old Lain logs on to the Wired and looses herself in a mess of hallucinations and memories. Anime 1998.
Serial Experiments Lain
Serial Experiments Lain is a Japanese anime television series created and co-produced by Yasuyuki Ueda, written by Chiaki J. Konaka and directed by Ryūtarō Nakamura. Animated by Triangle Staff and featuring original character designs by Yoshitoshi Abe, the series was broadcast for 13 episodes on TV Tokyo and its affiliates from July to September 1998. The series follows Lain Iwakura, an ...

The Ending Of Serial Experiments Lain Explained

Is the Wired real? Is reality real?

The nature of the extremely online self

Echoes of Lain

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The brain behind ‘Barbie’: inside the brilliant mind of Greta Gerwig

I know you tend to resist autobiographical interpretations, but when Barbie says, “I don’t wanna be an idea anymore,” something about that really reminded me of your transition from a much-discussed actress to a writer-director.

How did you come to decide on Barbie’s arc in the movie?

There’s a lovely scene where Barbie sees an older woman — a sight she’d never encountered in Barbieland — and tells her she’s beautiful.

Yeah, I kind of thought that was an absolutely key moment for Barbie’s journey.

Margot said when she first saw the screenplay, she loved it, and was positive that the powers that be would never let you make it. How do you think you got it all through?

It’s definitely a blast of color, which is refreshing after years and years of increasingly color-desaturated summer blockbusters.

It’s easy to underestimate what it took for Margot to manifest what we saw onscreen, especially when she’s just being the Barbie-est Barbie she could possibly be. How did that performance evolve?

Tell me about what it took to get Ryan Gosling as Ken, and to push him to be the most ridiculous version of Ryan Gosling imaginable.

He’s never been quite this funny onscreen.

How did you craft the moment where Barbie finally learns that some women in the real world hate her and find her oppressive?

When I hear you use the word “humanist,” I feel like I need to gently push back on behalf of the fans who are going to love this movie and perceive its message as unabashedly feminist.

Was the idea of Kate McKinnon’s character — the Weird Barbie who’s been played with too much — from your childhood experience?

There are clips online of you and Kate onstage together in a production at Columbia University.

Now that you’ve entered this world of big franchises, how will you balance your directing career going forward, between huge commercial films and smaller ones?

There’s footage out there of you directing the garden scene in Lady Bird, and you seem so joyous. It feels like you love being a director.

You’re a member of the Directors Guild, the Writers Guild, and the Actors Guild. The Writers Guild is already on strike, and the other guilds don’t seem too happy, either. There are whispers of a tri-Guild walkout.

This feels like it would have been an insane question before Barbie, but would you want to do a superhero movie, or an action movie ?

I think Barbie, in a way, is already a superhero movie ?

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SEASONS (4)

Season 1 (2016)

Related Titles

eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

BABY REINDEER

Serial Experiments Lain: 10 Things Fans Never Knew About The Mind-Boggling Anime

10 Avatar Franchise Characters Who Would Have Been Great Avatars

10 Heavily Influenced By A Single Book

9 Has A Video Game Spin-Off

8 The Series Is Filled With Shout Outs To Apple Computers

7 The Series Takes Places In An Alternative Timeline

6 Knights Of The Eastern Calculus Are Based On A Real Group Of Hackers

5 Protocol 7 Is A Dual Reference

4 The Men In Black Are Influenced By Snow Crash

3 The Series' Ninth Episode Is Based on Real Conspiracy Theory

2 The Show Was Intended To Interpreted Differently In Japan And The U.S.A

1 The Size Of A Character's Pupil Represent Their Connection To Weird

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