serial experiments lain (シリアルエクスペリメンツレイン) was an anime that aired for thirteen episodes in 1998. The characters were designed by yoshitoshi ABe, who would go on to do NieA_7, Haibane Renmei and Texhnolyze, and the script was written by Chiaki J. Konaka, who also wrote Texhnolyze and would go on to do Hellsing. Lain's plot is irregular, but the point is mediocre Lain Iwakura discovers the world of The Wired, where she discovers that she has always been omnipotent and popular in this world despite being mostly ignored in the Real World. She begins to lose her sense of self as the series progresses and questions why, where and who she is.
Why do I like Lain?
At first, when I started watching it, I questioned why the series was so popular and revered, because it just seemed like a bunch of vague and mysterious information thrown at me that I thought I was supposed to understand but I didn't, until recently when I felt this random attraction to the anime, saying that I had to finish it, and all of a sudden I really like Lain? I think it's because I like that I don't know what's happening, plus my love for sci-fi media made me invested in the anime. But there were a lot more factors that contributed to my love for Lain.
Favourite things about the anime
The anime basically predicted future internet. Real World Lain () is a completely different entity from Wired Lain (), in the same way that we nowadays have online personas that are completely different from us as people in the Real World. The concept of the Wired and the Real World becoming one is also highly applicable in the 2nd decade of the 21st century; we're practically already in the future, so it would make sense for integration of AI, AR, VR and reality becoming one thing. Lain shows us the possible dangers of this and could somehow work as a guide to help us prevent these dangers as the total integration nears. This is also prevalent in episode two, when Lain visits Cyberia for the first time and finds out from Taro and his gang that she's been there before, but it wasn't her, it was Wired Lain instead. I enjoy that as old as the anime is, it can still apply to our real world scenario.
I had seen NieA_7 before Lain, and I knew they were both by ABe, so I wanted to actually watch Lain because of that. I love his art, and I love the range of anime that he designs for; NieA is a completely different anime from Lain, and I enjoy that the art style stays consistent.
It's not a part of the anime, but I had always known about Wired Sounds for Wired People because I like watching YouTube videos on strange websites, and Wired Sound was one of them. I eventually found out Wired Sound was about Lain and that's how I found out about the anime for the first time. Then while watching the anime, I discovered another Lain Neocities call Mebious. There's a page for each episode and I've looked at the site as I watched the anime, looking at each page per episode I watched. It was honestly a better website than Wired Sound because it was a bit more structured and had actual information about Lain and other kinds of links, so it's my favourite.
Defeats the purpose of the anime warning us of the internet, but everytime I watch Lain, I watch it with the lights off at night and kinda just lie there and let my focus be totally on the anime. I just let myself get sucked in and my thoughts are empty except for Lain. In that moment, all that matters is Lain. I love Lain. Let's all love Lain. レインを好きになりましょう.
Soundtrack
- OPENING: Duvet - boa
This song is beautifully ethereal. Too bad TikTok took it and ruined it, and now there's even an official "sped up" version of the song. This is why we can't have nice things. - CLOSING: Cry in the Distance - CHABO
I like it because it's super similar to NieA's opening, Come On Over Here by SION. the gravelly voice, the guitar aspect, it's perfect.