Serial Experiments Lain (Ryūtarō Nakamura, 1998)

[Michael Kerpan]

Lain does an excellent job of keeping one guessing -- and upsetting one's guesses....

[Red Screamer]

Just finished #09. Pornography, surveillance, social media, live streaming, and conspiracy theories. Not a bad prediction of where the internet was headed! The show is losing me a little bit in this middle stretch as it moves into more sci-fi territory and focuses on narrative without as many stylistic and lyrical flourishes. I knew the early episodes set my expectations too high! Still, there’s an interesting mix of story elements as the paranoid Philip K. Dick thread merges with cyberpunk brashness and worldbuilding, ironic religious symbols, and high school drama.

Episode 9 in some ways the weirdest installment yet, though not really in a good way. Half of it is dedicated to an essay laying out conspiracy theories and an alternate history of the internet. The other half, set in the Wired and the real world, has several spots of shoddy animation not up to snuff with the rest of the series. Think of the static ghostly creatures in the Wired early on; just about every other similar creature in the series has been thoughtfully designed and novel, whereas these are thrown together without much texture or specificity, the body parts and static effect only vaguely sketched. I actually preferred the essay half, with its CD-ROM visuals and backstory for the power lines motif, among other things. It’s the weakest episode yet, and I really hope the animation in future episodes returns to the usual standard. I did love one thing about the format of the episode though, the hard cut (a technique used to great effect throughout the series) that comes at the end:

Episode 9Show

Lain has a memory of her being "installed" into family, which she doesn't want to believe. The vision ends and suddenly her computer desk looks small and low-tech, with one screen, compared to the outsized, multi-screen and -hologram, almost organic behemoth we’ve gotten used to. She slumps over in her chair exhausted, saying it’s all a lie, it has to be. It's a low point for her so far. Hard cut: cold, scientific narration about the power generated by the turning of the earth or something. Maybe I didn’t describe it well, it's late, but that was a great use of the split format of the episode.

Michael and Sausage, great comments about Lain’s room, I was trying to find some way to word the way her room changes throughout the series (and in the memory; I found the details in the shot of her original room unsettling) but you both expressed it perfectly.

Episode 8Show

We're given more of a window on Arisu. Arisu is a lovely person. Tho' we eventually learn that Lain has, in fact, peeped on Arisu's most private moments and spread the information, Arisu looks in Lain's eyes and refuses to believe it, chooses instead to see Lain's better self. She's wrong, but she is a wonderful friend. Lain must know this, because when she causes the whole world to scrutinize her, she instinctively calls out for Arisu (and there is a perfectly timed crack in the window glass to signal Lain's fracturing identity). Arisu of course has run off, unable to cope with her teacher knowing her sexual fantasies about him. Lain, unable to find Arisu, has an apocalyptic vision (premonition?) of the world in flames. This whole strand is emotionally painful in a way the show has not explored yet. The moment in Arisu's room is so wrenching, so pointedly painful; and Lain's isolated collapse at school is wracked with its own deep pain. For a show so often distanced and clinical, it has a sure and persuasive grasp of serious emotional pain and an ability to bring the viewer directly into it.

Episode 8Show

But it wasn’t Lain who was spying on Arisu, as it's clear from the change of voice acting and animation. It’s that “social Lain” who “our Lain” has a psychic battle with a little later in the episode. When the split happens it’s the social, peeping Lain, who has already existed in the Wired, I guess, that takes over Lain’s body to greet her friends once Lain has altered the course of reality.

The show continues to mix in new textures and types of animation in just about every episode, with episode 07 in particular having some great grainy animations and faux digital stuff.

[Michael Kerpan]

Red Screamer -- The line between "real" Lain and the other(s) seems to be hard for us to draw (and for her to maintain). A very porous boundary.

[Mr Sausage]

Episode 8Show

We're given more of a window on Arisu. Arisu is a lovely person. Tho' we eventually learn that Lain has, in fact, peeped on Arisu's most private moments and spread the information, Arisu looks in Lain's eyes and refuses to believe it, chooses instead to see Lain's better self. She's wrong, but she is a wonderful friend. Lain must know this, because when she causes the whole world to scrutinize her, she instinctively calls out for Arisu (and there is a perfectly timed crack in the window glass to signal Lain's fracturing identity). Arisu of course has run off, unable to cope with her teacher knowing her sexual fantasies about him. Lain, unable to find Arisu, has an apocalyptic vision (premonition?) of the world in flames. This whole strand is emotionally painful in a way the show has not explored yet. The moment in Arisu's room is so wrenching, so pointedly painful; and Lain's isolated collapse at school is wracked with its own deep pain. For a show so often distanced and clinical, it has a sure and persuasive grasp of serious emotional pain and an ability to bring the viewer directly into it.

Episode 8Show

But it wasn’t Lain who was spying on Arisu, as it's clear from the change of voice acting and animation. It’s that “social Lain” who “our Lain” has a psychic battle with a little later in the episode. When the split happens it’s the social, peeping Lain, who has already existed in the Wired, I guess, that takes over Lain’s body to greet her friends once Lain has altered the course of reality.

Yeah, I addressed that in the paragraph right before the one you quoted:

Episode 8Show

Lain rejects [being called a hologram of god], but is forced to confront its truth when she is brought face-to-face with her worser self, a double who Lain says acts "like the part of me I hate". Lain's jealous, spying, malicious self. On realizing that her worser self has spread malicious gossip...

The show seems to want us to read this peeping, gossiping Lain as a projection of Lain's worst instincts. If not, the seemingly school-wide rejection she faces following all the gossip would be a horrendous, unfair cruelty on behalf of the show. A show tormenting its character without motivation. But if that double is a part of Lain, then that scene becomes Lain facing the consequences of never having adequately reckoned with the negative side of her own personality, which in the freedom of the Wired has come storming out to wreak havoc while Lain remains unaware until too late. An exaggerated metaphor for a psychological phenomenon, where refusing to address our worser selves can lead us not only to hurt and betray others unwittingly, but even reject that we could engage in such behaviours because they clash so completely with what we've conceived our identity to be.

[Michael Kerpan]

Episode 11 is definitely a tough oneShow

First the fragmentary replays, then the interactions with Chisa and Eiri, then what looks like more than one version of Lain trying to interact with Arisu and the other two girls.
One weird moment, Lain walking down the street is annoyed by the noisy humming of the electric wires
and orders them to be quiet -- and the noise stops. There seem to be no clear boundaries between real world and Wired at this point. Lain seems like a mess. But Eiri doesn't seem very convincing to her (or me), he seems like a pitiful ghostly remnant. Perhaps this is the point of maximum disarray, after which something different will have to coalesce?

.

[Red Screamer]

Episode 8Show

Ah, good point. I read it more literally as an algorithm or an impersonation (if not something more spiritual) using the “mask” of Lain, which is why the animation of her face and movements were grotesquely off, looking shuddery and hard-edged, and her voice sounded more nasal and robotic. Plus, sadly, that creepy scene in Arisu’s bedroom may be the first time we see Lain smile. But your interpretation makes more sense for where the show seems to be headed.

[Mr Sausage]

I mean, you could well be right. This is a pretty slippery show sometimes.

[Mr Sausage]

Episode 12Show

A hell of an episode: dense, creepy, sad, but also touching. Arisu is turning into the show's most important character, the one who demonstrates the show's main value: friendship as a selflessly given, emotionally engaged state. Not a friendship of action, as in most male-driven narratives, but friendship as an emotion, one that's projected outwards, freely, without demand.

It's Arisu who is the catalyst for Lain's self-actualization. After a brilliantly creepy, atmospheric journey through Lain's house (complete with a vision of Chika gibbering and talking into a non-existent phone), Arisu finds Lain in a semi-conscious state holding her bear. Lain declares herself to be nothing more than a program meant to destroy the barrier between world and Wired, to bring humanity back to its most primal connection, with the collective unconscious once again conscious. The body is meaningless, she repeats. But Arisu repudiates this with real connection, touching Lain's hand and face, and placing Lain's hand to her heart as it races with fear. They share something no one has shared all series: an emotion. After all the sterile declarations of love in previous episodes, here, finally, a real demonstration of it. This touching and human moment prompts a showdown with Eiri.

One of show's surprises: it's Gnostic! Eiri, the so-called god of the Wired, is actually the Gnostic concept of the demiorgos or demiurge, an artificer who fashions the world and who claims to be the originator of all creation. But the demiorgos is a false god; he's not the true prime mover, just a lower artificer who applies his own rules and laws and claims them to be the very principles of existence. So: Eiri--who Lain repudiates as merely the artificer of the Wired, not the originator of the technology that gave rise to it. That is, not the prime mover of its existence, just its exploiter. In a rage, Eiri proclaims Lain to've been merely a scattered omnipresence in the Wired until he gave her a body and an "ego". She claims he's no different, that he too was provided those things by another. In a vain attempt to prove her wrong, Eiri compels himself back into bodily form. The show goes all Akira and Lain appears to banish his bodily form.

The MIB are cleared up: their client (the man in the room Lain was taken to see?) was an agent of Eiri, using the MIB for Eiri's ends. Their payment: a horrible death, seemingly effected by phantoms of the Wired.

Wired Lain at one point says, “People only have substance within the memories of others. That’s why there were all kinds of me’s. There weren’t a lot of me’s, I was just inside all sorts of people, that’s all.” No idea what that means. It's evocative, but scarcely explains her fragmented existence. But perhaps it explains Eiri's plan to create her: if he can only have substance within memories, then Lain, the omnipresence of the Wired, will be his eternal witness, assuring his own immortality. Is Lain only an instrument of his own persistence?

This show is so much fun. Looking forward to seeing how it wraps up tomorrow.

[Michael Kerpan]

Episode 12Show

I think Lain is right, Wired or no Wired. To what extent does a "unitary me" (or you or anyone) exist. We really are a different self (to a greater or lesser degree) to everyone we interact with. On the Wired (and off) each person saw the Lain they "knew". But this episode seems to suggest that Arisu is the one person in all the world who saw Lain most deeply, deep enough to feel compelled to connect in a human fashion (not through the Wired). To hold on and not let go, no matter what terror she experienced. And Lain at last responds and holds on to and protects Arisu when all the Eiri-induced hell breaks loose. Arisu cares about Lain -- and Lain cares about Arisu.

The vision of Mika Arisu sees as she looks for Lain in her now rather horrific looking home is interesting. I wonder if it suggests Mika too wanted to (or wished she had) connected to Lain.

I felt a bit bad for the 2 MiB we were familiar with. Who was it that took them out so quickly -- not giving them a chance to even attempt to find a place outside the scope of the Wired? And why were they summarily eliminated? It seems a bit unfair that the "evil MIB boss" seems to have gotten off (so far).

I would say this was the most powerful episode so far.

[Mr Sausage]

Episode 13Show

Not what I was expecting. A mostly quiet, contemplative coda. Lain wipes herself from the collective memory and the show resets. Lain's identity remains...unsolved. A projection of herself encourages Lain to see herself as a god--she is omnipresent after all. But Lain resists this trap. There is a suggestion of some greater reality or spiritual realm: the Lain projection mentions that the Wired is not enough on its own to contain the collective memories of human kind, it must be connected to something else, something much greater I'd guess. But this is merely a hint.

The show has driven at the concept that nothing has any existence without memory. My best guess: Lain is not god in the usual sense. She is the maintainer of reality. She exists as reality's eternal witness. So long as everything is in Lain's memory, everything will continue to exist, much as people are kept alive in the memories of all who know them. Lain is like the stuffed animals on her windowsill, mute but always watching. And this would clarify the eye motif. The Wired is the memory of humankind, the assurance of its continuation, and Lain is the consciousness within it. Cool.

In the final scene, Lain goes into a future memory (time exists on a flat plane for her) and give a memory of herself to Arisu. Arisu is married (or in a long-term partnership) and teaches kids. She has a vague recollection of Lain that she cannot place. But Lain merely introduces herself. Arisu will keep Lain's memory going. This is a satisfying ending.

There is a last cheeky moment: Lain says to the viewer she will be here with us forever, but the tv shuts off before she fully finishes.

Maybe I'll say more later. I know I've been doing more plot synopsizing than interpreting, but it's helped me get a handle on the show's shifts and slides.

This was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed myself through the whole process. Lain itself was a beguiling and rich experience, and being able to go through it slowly like this, and read the thoughts of everyone else as they grapple with its mysteries, was extremely rewarding. Thanks so much, Michael, for suggesting all this!

[Michael Kerpan]

I am so glad a bunch of folks joined in. Always nice to show off (and discuss) one of my top favorite shows.

[vsski]

Sorry, I have fallen little bit behind, my day job got in the way.

Episode 11Show

- We start we a recap of some of the key events of the series, only to find out that Lain has implanted them in her memory by connecting her brain directly to her computer (she is shown being back in her old room)
- The scientist god Erii warns her it could be dangerous and that she is nothing but an executable software program with a body - you can just see the anguish in her of realizing that her dreams of being a normal real person are never going to be realized
- Walking down the old street in front of her house wondering how to continue a blob like creature appears that turns out to be the the girl from Episode 1 who committed suicide, telling her dying is not easy, while from the other side the shooter boy from episode 2 hands her a gun telling her to finish her body; she is torn between whether to end her bodily existence and foresees a technical apocalypse
- Even when she feels everything she believes is destroyed, she holds on to the hope of regaining her former life by manipulating the information in the Wired so it changes the real world
- The episode ends with Arisu in her room being visited by Lain, almost appearing in the doorway like the Roswell Alien and being told that Lain is trying to rectify what went wrong and that she can manipulate information, Arisu is scared
- In the end we see the four schoolmates in their schoolyard with the other two behaving as if nothing has happened and Lain still existing as a real person and only Arisu knowing what is going on
- Will Lain succeed or will she be wiped out and how will Arisu cope with the new found knowledge?

Episode 12Show

- Things are moving at a rapid pace
- Arisu is visiting Lain’s home only to walk through a ghostly side of deserted and dilapidated rooms even coming across the appearance of Lain’s sister until she finds Lain lying on the floor under cables besides one of her teddy bears, the room also showing signs of destruction
- Lain seems semi conscious when she greets Arisu, who is more scared than ever
- She explains to Arisu that she is only a software program and has existed in many forms in the Wired and in the memory of people but that Arisu is the only true friend she ever had and that she isn’t trying to connect with her like she does with others not to destroy her
- The leads to an incredible emotional scene and the first true human interaction of love and appreciation for one another in the series
- The theme of memory and how we remember other people strongly resonates with me, after all when we don’t physically interact with someone all we have of that person is our memory of them; whether they are alive, dead, or just an image from a program we have seen, it is our memory of that person that ultimately remains with us and that memory is always subjective and the same person will be remembered differently by different people, so everyone of us exists in fragments and different images in other people wether we are real people or just a program like Lain - this really moved me
- During the encounter between Lain and Arisu, Erii reappears trying to exert control only to realize he doesn’t have a hold on Lain any longer, the creator no longer controlling his creation
- And in the end he turns out to be a false god who is banished and absorbed by the technology he created
- In parallel the men in black got destroyed by the Wired (how I didn’t really understand, but one of them sees an image of Lain through his goggles before his demise) after the “businessman” from the earlier episode paid them off and tells them to escape to a place where no one can find them, which turns out to be too late
- It wasn’t clear to me who he was working for, maybe Erii, but to be honest I didn’t much care at this stage nor did the demise of the men in black bother me after their brutal behavior in wiping out the Knights in the previous episodes
- So how will it all end? Can Lain remain in her body even if she is only a program by continuing to connect with others and remain in their memory? How will Arisu live with her new found revelations?
- I’m looking forward to the final episode

[Michael Kerpan]

Episode 13Show

That final encounter with grown up Arisu has always made me tear up -- and today was no exception. It was bittersweet but lovely.

I loved seeing the re-set fates of the people Lain had encountered in the past. I especially enjoyed seeing the 2 MiB now employed as utility linemen. It was interesting that Arisu (at first) almost remembered Lain, she was certainly very aware that some (unnamable) someone who had once belonged in her life was no longer there. And Taro (and Lain's father) seems to have had a similar (albeit less strong) sense.

As to what pushed Lain into drastic action? Clearly her love for Arisu -- and her inability to bear seeing the harm that was being inflicted on Arisu due by Lain's Wired world. Arisu was so terrorized she even lashed out at Lain -- but Lain still could not (and did not) let her go after the confrontation with transformed and out-of-control Eiri. After this, re-setting was inevitable.

Not certain just who/what the second Lain (the one in a dress rather than in a chemise) was after the re-set. The residue of Wired Lain, perhaps.

An amusing prank to have Lain's "heavenly father" turn out to have been the model for her adoptive earthly one. Also interesting was his promise to have good tea and some madeleines (viz. Proust) for their next little tete-a-tete at the "floating tea table in the sky.

Sorry to discuss things out of order -- but just trying to catch my memories of Lian before they vanish....

[Mr Sausage]

AllShow

Yeah, Arisu's mind shattering is one of the most intense and harrowing depictions of someone enduring a total psychic collapse in response to major trauma. I'm not sure I've ever quite seen that. I'm used to people in media having relatively calm reactions to mind-bending stuff, or at least adjusting with relative quickness. So it was tough to watch Arisu break like that, especially coming on the back of such a touching moment of human connection. Lain's reset is the most selfless thing she's done.

I have a couple unanswered questions:

-What happened to Chika? [EDIT: sorry, Mika, Lain's sister]. Oddly, we never see her after the reset; I think we only hear her and see evidence of her presence. And what was all that prophecy stuff about? What prophecy was she being pushed to fulfill?

-What's with the teddy bear motif? Lain's forever dressing as one, or hugging that bear of hers. When she meets god (the father), he tells her she doesn't need her teddy bear hat anymore. Does this signify she's finally growing up?

[vsski]

Episode 13Show

- “What isn’t remembered didn’t happen. Memory is only a record”
- Arisu when confronted by Erii in Lain’s room can’t cope with what she sees even when Lain tries to protect her and she has a breakdown and falls into a catatonic state similar to Lain’s sister
- Lain now realizes that the only way to save her friend is to erase herself from her memory and the memory of everyone else
- So the reset button is hit and we get to see the same scenes we saw at the beginning of the series just now with Lain missing in them
- However, Arisu, Lain’s father, Taro all seem to realize someone is missing but they can’t put their finger on it
- We also get to see Erii walking down the street being frustrated with his job and the two men in black are construction workers on a crane cabling electricity lines
- Lain is questioning who she is and where she is and starts conversations with another Lain image who is trying to convince her that this is what she wanted, only to be rebuked by Lain and made to disappear
- When all seems lost suddenly Lain’s father appears to resurrect her and give her life again, how is not clear to me, but likely through his computer
- And so suddenly Lain exists again, but no one knows her
- And in the end Arisu who is now together which the teacher she always loved when walking down the road sees Lain standing on an overpass; she seems to recognize her and runs up to her only to stand in front of her and not recognize her after all
- Lain introduces herself and after Arisu leaves stay at the overpass saying they can meet again anytime
- So when something isn’t remembered, did it really not happen?

- I can’t help feeling incredibly sad for Lain; after all she wanted was to be accepted and fit in and be a real person, but in the end too many lives were wrecked so she decided to eliminate herself for others to live their lives without disruption

What a ride! I’m sad it ended and I’m sad how it ended, but at the same time it was incredibly thought provoking. Still sitting here processing what I have seen over the last 2 weeks. I mostly recorded what I thought I saw happening, but will need a little time to process and then interpret what it means for me. I’ll come back when I’m ready.

Thank you Michael for suggesting this and thank you Mr. Sausage for your many incredibly interesting thoughts as things progressed, I really enjoyed this process.

[Michael Kerpan]

I've been processing this (or trying to) for 23 or so years (off and on). Ganbatte!

[Michael Kerpan]

Lain's fatherShow

I think the father at the end is NOT the same as the proxy family one, just that the "adoptive" one was made to look like the "real" one, The world we saw throughout most of the show is gone, replaced by a more benign one, with an Internet incapable of vast harm. Too bad this show is only make-believe.

[Red Screamer]

Episode 11Show

This is an immersive, brilliant “filler” episode. The first half is all recap, but it’s done with characteristic daring, more of a creative freakout than a clip show. Many of the clips are either given new context or the animation is altered to change the tone or they’re put into a montage with other scenes and images that makes new connections between them, including some motifs and maybe even plot information (Is the MIB guy supposed to be the doppelganger of the Cyberia DJ?) I didn’t realize before. Either way, the power of the montage and soundtrack make the whole thing captivating. And under that episode title, it’s a bit of a parody of the exposition and worldbuilding of the sci-fi genre, thematically relevant because of the currency of the internet era: data.

My earlier comment about “the other Lain” smiling is highlighted by the show in the episode’s final line. I think the show went back in time to narrate the erasure of Lain's gossip from Arisu's point of view, so the scene we see at the end would be the same as the earlier scene where Lain splits in two when she greets her friends outside school. Though there are enough differences that I could see it being an alternate version of events as well.

I like the way this show has played with its own seriality over the course of its run, like the subtle variations we get on the repeating opening sequence—including one here.

[Michael Kerpan]

>> I like the way this show has played with its own seriality over the course of its run, like the subtle
>> variations we get on the repeating opening sequence—including one here.

Wait until you see just what goes on with the episode structuring in 13...

[Red Screamer]

You weren't kidding!

Episode 13 / AllShow

After Episode 12 went full horror, Episode 13 dives into the show’s heady sci-fi concepts, and does so by leaving behind most of the narrative conflict. The show doesn’t end as much as it offers a few possible endings.

Is Lain a benevolent God who relinquishes her power or is she merely committing a more technologically advanced suicide? How good can you feel about retreating from your own life into a passive watching mode where the lives of others become an infinite stream of information or entertainment? I like Sausage’s interpretation but the show is too shifty for me to be entirely satisfied with it. The show has dropped a handful of narrative threads without resolving them, to the point where the show in retrospect is clearly a shotgun scatter of ideas and impressions more than it is a sustained exploration of technology, religion, youth, &c. It’s kind of like, OK, yes, serial experiments. This ethos summed up by the moment in this episode where Lain is philosophizing about memories and death and human relationships, with authoritative title cards doubling what she’s saying. Then Lain stops, the Japanese script starts shifting and warping, and she asks herself, “Is that true?”

There are so many misdirects in the plotting of the show that it was kind of shocking to see Lain’s feelings for Arisu and the idea of Lain as God as the internet revealed as the center of the show. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that there is no center, that’s just where the show’s prism happened to stop spinning. I’m not sure how to feel about the narrative of the show ending with Lain watching, It’s a Wonderful Life style, a much older Arisu on her way to pick out curtains with her new husband. (Not to bring up Twin Peaks: The Return again but…) Lain sacrificed herself and created an alternate reality in order to save their classmate Chika and give Arisu a normal life? The degree to which Lain’s love for Arisu might have been romantic is an uncomfortable, tragic aspect to her decision, and Lain returns to the state of loneliness that she started the show in but this time from the opposite direction.

Mr Sausage—we do see Chika after the reset, Arisu suggests inviting someone to Cyberia, which seems like it’s going to be Lain, but then a shot reveals that it’s Chika, who the other friends imply Arisu has been trying to befriend the way she did with Lain. Arisu seems to vaguely remember Lain and then she accepts the substitution with a line of dialogue about memory. Another substitution for the absent Lain in that scene is that we have Arisu contemplating her shadow before walking into school the way Lain always did.

There’s also some interesting formal things going on here, with the episode starting/re-starting halfway through and, like you referenced Michael, we get three meaningfully different versions of the street footage the episodes typically open with. There are also replays of certain shots—of Lain leaving her house in the morning, walking to school, and on the bus—that were repeated in the early episodes like clockwork, but this time Lain’s absence becomes the focus of each shot. It’s kind of like the TV version of the ending of L’Eclisse!

The show has really done a lot with a little over its run. One thing I noticed these last few episodes was how smartly the show builds in impact as it goes on. First of all, you have the strange storytelling strategy of having Lain’s character development happen elliptically and largely off-screen. We only glean how she’s changed from slight differences in behavior or dress, the audience always playing catch up. This sets us up for Lain becoming more and more mysterious, and perhaps inhuman, as the show goes on.

Another technique in that vein is how the show uses recurring spaces. Usually, spaces repeating with minimal variation is a staple of TV shows—think of the familiarity of a sitcom set. The universe of Serial Experiments Lain is too unstable for that. There are either emphasized, ritual repetitions like the ones I mentioned above, or the spaces change unexpectedly and dramatically, like tides swelling and receding. We’ve already mentioned how Lain’s room shifts in size and material and degrees of reality (what a great metaphor for teenage life), with details like the continually changing animation of her stuffed animals. But how about these shots from the same high angle of her first introduction to her bedroom and something like her last—when her family moves out and leaves her behind, maybe even taking her computer?




Or these shots of the entryway—the entryway where earlier Mika split in two—after the family has moved out.




I could comb through the show and find many such examples but I just wanted to point out one way the filmmakers and animators are paying attention to both spaces and the show’s evolution, which gives images like these great impact.

Thanks for the discussion everyone, and great suggestion Michael, I probably never would have discovered this new favorite without your recommendation! I look forward to it haunting my dreams.

[Michael Kerpan]

Thanks to all who have joined in this watch-through. I am sometimes reluctant to tout my favorites too much, lest others find them a wash-out.

For those who enjoyed this, there are 3 more Abe-connected series.

Niea_7 (2000) -- Aliens have come to earth, but are mostly pretty unobtrusive. One (Niea), however, unceremoniously (and without asking) moves into a closet in the room of our heroine, Mayuko (voiced by Lain's sister). A rather sad not-yet-college student (studying to take.re-take entrance exams). For now, Mayuko is working in and living at a superannuated neighborhood bath house. Lots of comedy (lots good, some falling seriously flat) mixed with some drama and pathos. A number of echoes of Takahata in this, which is a plus for me. The best moments are very good -- and more than make up for the lapses. Story (but not script) by Abe, as well as the artistic design.

Haibane Renmei (2002) -- My favorite anime series ever -- and probably the most genuinely "spiritual" (in a non-denominational fashion). Despite some Christian imagery (largely superficial), there appears to be a profoundly Buddhist (philosophical rather than religious) core. I love the characters, love the Japanese voice acting, love the story, love the music and love the overall visual appearance. This show drew inspiration from Murakami's Hardboiled Wonderland AND Kore'eda's Maborosi and (even more) After Life, It deals with a temporary home between one life and one's next life (whatever that might be). On my last re-watching (20th anniversary of the show and my first viewing of it), I was especially aware that some of the animation quality can be a bit rough. But, as it turned out, this had next to know real impact. This was conceived and written by Abe, as well as based on his artistic vision. It was developed right after Lain. Initially it was intertwined with Niea (first conceptual drawings were intermingled) but eventually developed into two separate shows.

Texhnolyze (2003) -- This series reunited Konaka (writer of Lain) and Abe. Abe contributed the character designs (and apparently some of the character's characteristics) and the overall look. In terms of sheer visual impact, this is probably the most impressive of the four shows. It is more "traditional" in technique than Lain, however. It features a post-apocalyptic setting (mostly set in a city far underground). It is perhaps the "darkest" anime series I've encountered -- very grim (is it merely pessimistic or full blown nihilistic). Very violent rather often, but impressive to see. Long sections with limited amounts of dialog. I need to re-watch this -- but it is longer (22 episodes, I believe) and takes an emotional toll.

A show that never happened. The follow-up to Texhnolyze was a very appealing-sounding (and looking) steampunk project named Despera. This was planned to reunite Konaka and Abe with the director of Lain. Sadly Nakamura developed serious health issues and never was able to participate. It is possible this show will eventually be made -- as Konaka and Abe have continued to work on developing it.

[Mr Sausage]

SpoilerShow

Mr Sausage—we do see Chika after the reset, Arisu suggests inviting someone to Cyberia, which seems like it’s going to be Lain, but then a shot reveals that it’s Chika, who the other friends imply Arisu has been trying to befriend the way she did with Lain. Arisu seems to vaguely remember Lain and then she accepts the substitution with a line of dialogue about memory. Another substitution for the absent Lain in that scene is that we have Arisu contemplating her shadow before walking into school the way Lain always did.

Whoops, sorry, I meant Mika, Lain's sister.

[Red Screamer]

And, now that I look, the classmate’s name is Chisa. I blame the dastardly Knights.

[Michael Kerpan]

Mr. S -- I wasn't certain which you meant....

It was odd that you hear Mika and see evidence she had apparently been at breakfast but never see her.

[Murdoch]

episode 7Show

What immediately stood out to me this episode was the humming. The bleached-out daytime of the residential neighborhoods was a silent white void before, now the sky is overcome with a golden hue, a mechanical humming of cables filling the air.

The episode also branches out beyond Lain's use of the Wired. A strange man wears a VR set and walking through the streets creeps out passersby as he vies for the attention of the Knights. A horny businessman, a housewife and a NEET are also shown, the Wired seeming to be an everyday part of their lives, demonstrating the broader reach of it beyond kids and teens.

The show confirms that Lain is indeed split in two; between the reserved and the assertive (I considered the possibility that both were the same Lain, but she was simply hiding her true self in front of her friends). For the first time, she shows fear in this episode, after seeing herself in the Wired and the mysterious nameless man asking about the Knights. It's a tragic moment. The real Lain's expressions happen so rarely that they make them all the more poignant. To see her visibly shaking at the nameless man's assertions demonstrates a quiet child whose world is crashing down around her.

Is your sister your real sister? Are your parents your real parents?

This immediately sparked a light bulb for me. I didn't even think of the possibility that Lain's parents were doppelgangers, replaced much in the same way her sister was. It would explain the father's obsession with tech and pushing Lain in that direction, the mother's emptiness, their forced affection. Or were her parents always products of the Wired rather than doppelgangers? Lain seems to have no family history, no birthdays, no remembered dates.

After these questions, the Wired Lain re-enters the girl's body as a defense mechanism to the real Lain's revelations. The plot thickens! The boundary between the Wired and reality is dissolving

Last thought: I liked the line about the Wired not having political borders but how it's filled with nonsense spouting anarchists. This show really was on the money in its prophecy of the internet.