Serial Experiments Lain

Present day, Present time! HAHAHAHAH-

Yeah. Watching this for the first time. And though I really like the overall creepiness and drama and all, wow, the animation and character details are weird as hell. I'm on episode 8.

So I just started watching this series, finished the first episode. Don't see wht the whole commotion is about, seems like your typical Girl Meets Technology type story with a somewhat dark suicide. Nothing really "mindf*ckery" about it.

Hoping it gets better over time.

edited 10th Apr '12 1:27:00 PM by Mattonymy

I don't think it gets any better.

One or two parts were confusing, but unfortunately the obtuse confusing rather than the deep confusing.

If this is all people call a Mind Screw then I honestly can't say it's worth the effort (I think Utena is the same at least, can't say about NGE - there's no way I'm watching that).

The only thing I could appreciate about this show is if it has half as information rich as the Serial Experiments Lain page implies.

But I'm not really a technology buff so all I can say is that the story falls somewhat flat. Though the ending is all right.

edited 11th Apr '12 4:55:40 AM by UltimatelySubjective

Considering this was 1998, maybe some Seinfeld Is Unfunny is in effect.

It depends on the person watching I guess.

If you're looking for enjoyment, it may not be a good show to watch. However, if you're looking for intellectual stimulation, this show definitely delivers and more. I admit that the delivery could have been less obtuse, but I've come to accept it as the show's unique way of delivery.

Personally, this show will always remain among my top five anime for the sheer volume of ideas it evoked when I first watched it. It added several new insights on relatively mundane concepts like communication, existence, and the human consciousness into my ever-expanding world view.

The remarkable thing about it is that it doesn't force it down your throat. It leaves the viewer to come up with his/her own interpretations, which then leads to unique ways of viewing the series.

While the characters here may be painfully bland, the depth and ambiguity of the series leads to a journey to discover new perspectives for those willing to make the effort to seek it.

everytime i want to watch this anime. i never get past th eOP

dunno why

can't see why.

the OP is awesome.

I was disappointed by the art quality, but overall I really liked it...definitely need to give it a rewatch at some point.

This is the kind of work that gets better over time and rewards repeated viewings. Granted, this is my favorite anime hands down, and I really loved it even the first time seeing it. But the more you revisit it, the more you catch details, bits of information that you didn't get the first time around.

And I think it actually gets more and more understandable with each viewing. First time around I understood nothing about the ending, and I'll admit it may not be easy to get into at first, but it's really much more coherent and well put together than it appears to be.

Odd, I thought the ending was the easiest part to understand.

As for the ideas, I'm sure there's nothing this show does that I haven't seen before. It may have influenced early cyberpunk, but now we take those ideas in stride.

Well, it's the same thing with a lot of old influential works. Again, I'm going to say Eva's probably the same.

I know I just reiterated what post 4 said in a trope.

I don't know... When I first encountered the analogy between the internet and the Jungian collective unconscious in Lain a year ago, I thought it was pretty novel.

But I guess that has more to do with my limited exposure to good cyberpunk than anything else.

edited 17th Apr '12 10:08:05 AM by qilin

Giving this a bump...I picked up the new box set a little after Christmas and finally made the time to plow through it yesterday. For those not in the know, the set has the series on both 2 Blu Ray and 2 DVD discs, a tankobon-sized book of character and set designs, and a booklet of production notes/creator commentary for each episode. The Blu Ray transfer is really good; the colors are very crisp, the sound is fantastic, and I like the disc interface. You don't get much in the way of extras, though, it's almost all trailers along with the opening and closing themes sans text.

Knowing how it ended, I was able to make more sense of everything that was going on, but I was still too out-of-the-know on all the computer history references for everything to make sense.

I just started this show. So far I'm on episode 1 and I'm very creeped out already. Pretty enjoyable though.

It's subbed on Crunchyroll now, fyi.

I finally watched it after 12+ years of having it on my to-watch list and... Ah, man, it was a Mind Screw all right. I almost feel the need to re-watch it already, but I doubt I'll watch it again for a decade.

Serial Experiments Lain has one of my favorite intro sequences. It's so good.

Ohhhh, it gets so much creepier later on...and that makes it all the more intriguing.

It's one of my favorites, too.

I really love the OP to this series. <3

Lain fans rejoice!

"Lain Time To Live Open Source Project".

From what i understand, from 2019 to 2028, fans can create Lain sequel works like anime, manga, games, etc as long as you don't use existing material. However, there's a catch: the Lain open source project is for Japanese users and the creators prefer fans not create anything they judge as inappropriate material.

Some explanations over here and here.

"prefer"

That doesn't quite sound like they'll actually stop you from making porn though.

I don't really know what this accomplishes. The only time I've heard of a fanbase genuinely trying to contribute new content to the "canon" was Half-Life, and Valve shut down what few attempts at continuing/rebuilding the game that there were.

Lain though? While I never finished the last 2 episodes I've not heard of anyone seriously attempting to continue it or make new stories out of it. It seemed like a series that said what it wanted to say and did what it wanted to do.

Though if this really does create some surge of activity/fandom there are anime I'd like to see become "open source" like Haruhi Suzumiya, Big O, or FLCL.

So I found this anime up for free on Youtube and it is a real trip. I'm on Episode 5 and I think its the episode where the sister starts losing her mind.

What on earth is going on.