Serial Experiments Lain
What is reality?
Something is wrong with the way we perceive our world… Or is it that we’ve outgrown our perceptions?
Our story begins with Lain, a slightly withdrawn school girl in a more than ordinary atmosphere that is punctuated by strange suicides, abandonment of reality and an inescapable connection to the wired.
Characters (Lain on the lower right)
The Internet has been interwoven into the very fabric of society and, encouraged by her father, Lain ventures into the connected world herself only to come into contact with God himself.
Parts of the story bare a striking similarity to Ghost in the Shell, however these similarities can be easily overlooked within the context of Serial Experiments. The one down side is the animation, which does a pretty good job of conveying the emotionlessness of the Wired with the unlimited power it displays, but lacks refinement seen in comparable series. I don’t think this does a lot to take away from the story, and at times, the vagueness actually adds to the atmsophere that blurs the line between fantasy and reality.
What lies behind a seemingly bizarre mix of cultism, technology, relationships and anarchy is a deeply philosophical standpoint that, in many ways, typifies how the Japanese view their world.
Serial Experiments Lain is a venture into the examination of these ideas. And series producer Yasuyuki Ueda, screenplay writer Chiaki J. Konaka and director Ryotaro Nakamura do no disappoint.
This is not a series for easily confused or those who lack a certain threshold in attention span, so viewer beware!
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