Inspired by @NovaZero review on Steins;Gate
# Present Day, hahaha
# Present Time, HAHAHA
I’m going to split this review into two parts.
The first part will be for those on their first watch of this anime.
The second part will be for those on their second watch or fans of the anime already.
You’ll understand why, newcomers, in a moment.
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# Part One: Newcomers
Serial Experiment Lain is quite an infamous anime. Known for being a favourite among elitists, it often gets tossed along with other anime like it (Evangelion, Welcome to the NHK, Ghost in the Shell, etc. )
Though, unlike those anime, it is very different from them in a sense it is something you have to go into wanting to find a deeper message. Unlike those anime, they are usually some “surface level” enjoyment at first before you dive into the complex themes.
Lain is like a car that is already accelerating to the highest point it can go.
Because of this, I find it hard even to explain what it is about because the first episode is filled with symbolism and random meanings.
Serial Experiment Lain is tricky, but I will try my best to pitch it to the newcomers to this show.
The anime is about a 14-year-old girl called Lain Iwakura.
She isn’t exactly the most normal Japanese student. She seems very distant; hears voices, unable to read what is being written on the board and has trouble socializing with the few friends she has. Her family seems to ignore her a lot but provides for her. Her only real hobby is putting on teddy bear pyjamas while staring off into the void.
Yep, this is our protagonist.
But then, one day, a girl that goes to her school committed suicide.
If that wasn’t awful news enough, emails are being sent by her to many students in the school.
Oddly enough, Lain receives one.
When she opens it, the girl, Chisa Yomoda, seems to be able to talk to Lain in real time despite no longer living.
When Lain asks, why she killed herself, Chisa simply says, “God is here.”
From there, Lain becomes curious about computers, and The Wired, something similar to the internet in our world.
By the end of episode one, the whole world literally seems to tell her to come to The Wired for whatever reason.
So begins thirteen episodes of Lain becoming curious, and discovering The Wired.
One small note: Everything I told you may or may not be true.
You may be perplexed by that statement, but allow me to explain.
Serial Experiments Lain loves to do that.
It loves to confuse you by placing events that occur in an episode and then make you wonder if that’s even the case later on.
The biggest appeal of this anime is watching it, and trying to figure out the message and deeper meaning.
Which lies its biggest strength, but biggest weakness.
While it’s a lot of fun to discuss what the show could mean, a lot of it only comes down to that.
It’s hard to say if it has any other strengths because everything could be worked into a deeper message. But what I can objectively say is the anime feels like an art student tried to be so different, you can’t even tell if what they made is art or not.
A lot of this anime can be dismissed, and that could be the message to you.
It’s like a box of legos. It can be anything you want it to be even if the legos come from certain sets.
I use that example because there are commonly agreed-upon overarching messages, but that could also be completely wrong.
You just don’t know unlike Evangelion, Welcome to the NHK, Ghost in the Shell, etc.
Regardless of that, this anime does have a lot of charm.
The art style is very unique and cute, adding this sense of innocence to everything, but can easily turn dark and disturbing. The soundtrack fits the vibe of the show greatly with the opening song, Duvet being such a fire track. (There’s also a Cyberia mix that is even better than the soundtrack.)
Now the voice acting and animation is where it becomes up to interpretation.
A lot of the animation is pretty bland, and sometimes, just repeated shots or still images.
The voice acting works the best when the emotion starts to get high, but, when those scenes aren’t at play, it seems like a person trying their best to not wake up their parents.
Again, those aspects are up to interpretation.
I had a great time with this anime for my first watch since I do like figuring out my message. I can’t lie though, sometimes, I got extremely bored during episodes because of the randomness of it all. But if you’re a fan of that type of stuff or the fact my explanations may or may not be true intrigues you, I totally recommend you watch it.
When I first realised my message for the show, I was in such a weird mood like I had realised a dark truth.
My score for this anime is a
81/100
No need to look at the second part, just go watch it or exit the tab.
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# Part Two: Experienced Viewers
Are the newcomers gone now?
Okay, fans of the anime and second-time watchers.
I will tell you what I think the message is.
However, let me just say, this sucks to rewatch.
A lot of the charm gets completely lost on you as you realise how random some scenes are. Some scenes are fucking there for no reason at all.
For example, in episode four, Religion, that whole episode was a drag.
You start to realise how the episode directors must have added things in because they thought it was cool or interesting only for the next episode to disregard it.
It started to get mind-numbing to take my notes as I kept watching along only to have to figure out how on earth children looking at the sky fit into my message.
However, I did figure one out.
First, here’s a quote I found on the Wikipedia page for the show from an interview by the main director:
"a sort of cultural war against American culture and the American sense of values we [Japan] adopted after World War II".[10] He later explained in numerous interviews that he created Lain with a set of values he took 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 he discovered that the American audience held the same views on the series as the Japanese, he was disappointed
Keeping this in mind, I concluded this.
The Wired is something like Heaven. It is a place where you can do and say whatever you want, and become your true self. Realistically, you can become something so different that your online and real-life selves are two different people. The anime tries to show how dangerous a place that humans can access would be. That’s who the black suit guys are: The government trying to stop the danger coming from that place.
Then, the Knights are people who reach this twisted version of truth for the Wired. The Wired and the real world are one and the same in that has a God. So, they attempt to merge the two by doing twisted games for children from past experiments to have the next generation accept that truth. Although, they want the same pleasures from the real world to enter Wired as they can still see a difference.
Now Lain is someone that gets to that message but in a worse way.
Lain wants to be normal and accepted in life. She wants to be that cool girl for her friends, and for her family to care about her. She just naturally doesn’t know how. But the Wired helps her be happy. It helps her be in a reality that accepts her.
Unfortunately, this requires her to ignore reality itself.
At some point, I think the characters closer to her become representations of reality like her sister is how her reality is indifferent to her turning into this distorted version that shows Lain is ignoring reality.
By episode 5, everything after is Lain messing up her reality to the point she questions her own being because she has no idea what even is real.
But here’s what I think is real.
Lain is in her room and becomes hikikomori.
Her family, who adopted her, regrets their decision and leaves the house to her.
Accidentally or on purpose, she finds information about her only true friend and spreads it over the school resulting in that friendship being broken.
Thing is, Lain doesn’t see it like that. Instead, she sees it like an innocent child would and thinks she did nothing wrong but has to fix it somehow.
She starts to lose herself slowly with multiple parts of her personality coming in and out, and the pressure of being the head of this giant conspiracy gets to her.
Eventually, she meets “God” someone that help create the Wired and tries to use her to create an actual God, and acquire the Knights’ goal as Lain killed them out of spite to prove she is a God.
But she soon realises how miserable she has become.
Her life is now connected to this computer, becoming like a machine and wants to even commit suicide, but thinks that won’t even help because of her newfound knowledge.
So, what does she do?
Create a false reality in her head.
In this reality, she tries to help Arisu get rid of the rumours and succeeds in doing so. Though she had Arisu exactly like how she is in the real life.
Perhaps she wanted some reality after all?
Arisu visits her and sees the mess Lain is in only to realise that she is being used.
That’s when she creates another false reality where no one knows she even existed.
Everyone she loves, including the “God” lives happily, but Lain is even more miserable.
But, she is stuck in the Wired and reality that she doesn’t know if resetting would even work.
The show ends with her meeting Arisu as an adult, who doesn’t remember her.
But I think Lain is still in that false reality.
Because the whole theme of this show is a warning to the nations, Japan and America.
America, to not try to be this God, all-knowing being.
Japan, to not be absorbed in their own false reality.
But Lain as a character is a warning to everyone on the internet.
To save our reality before it’s too late.
There are a lot of moments that hit me when she is talking to online friends, and they feel straight out of my memories.
How she complains about reality but does nothing to change it.
How she feels accepted, yet realises how little she means to them.
How she regrets her actions, for she was too late to realise the truth.
Expect, Lain never got out of that, and now has to live with the consequences.
So Lain is Japan while “God” is America, and their relationship is how America treats Japan.
But on a wider scale, Lain is how people who are different in both countries are treated.
Lain ain’t a God.
She’s as human as one can be.
It's a lot to take in, I know, but that's what I think Serial Experiment Lain is about.
A cautionary tale about reality and fiction.
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# Time to wrap it up!
I would add more of my notes or even how this anime was ahead of its time, but I rather not because how this rewatch bored me.
You really feel those episodes the second time around that you start to question why you’re doing it. The themes of the show start to speak to you more as you wonder why you’re spending your time on it.
For that reason, I have to give it a 69/100 for this part.
Therefore, my final score, to compare them, would be 73/100.
It’s a great show if you’re the type to enjoy stuff like this, but on the second watch, it’s like doing homework.
Have a good day and keep trying to enjoy life
-Kishbokai