- "Present Day. Present Time. HaHaHahA!"
A rare Serial Experiments Lain fanfic, Nominal Experiments Lain takes a rather unusual take on its source material. It transplants Lain, and indeed, every character to modern, contemporary Americanote . In doing this, Nominal Experiments dusts off a fair bit of the mysticism surrounding the series, and breaks down and recontextualizes its philosophy, sometimes inserting its own at various points.
What this results in is a story where Lain is a fairly typical highschool freshman computer geek. She hangs out on forums with her friends, browses imageboards, and sometimes even engages in a little lighthearted hacking. The other characters from the original are similarly redesigned, and at first, NEL seems like a much lighter take on the source material.
Then things get weird when Lain—who has just gotten into anime—uncovers an obscure cyberpunk series from the late 90s, which causes her to start questioning what she knows about herself and her friends. The fic is heavily referential, both to the source material (minor plot points become incredibly important), to fanworks, and to the internet in general, and it has a fair bit more action than the original too, plus a dash of humor in the earlier chapters. The result is a strange twist on the source material that offers its author's interpretation of the series, and then delves back into ambiguity just as the audience is getting comfortable standing on their neatly-explained rug.
SPOILERS AHOY!
This fic provides examples of:
- Alternate Universe: Much more closely resembles the real present day and time than the mid-90s cyberpunk of the original series. At least, initially.
- Deep-Immersion Gaming: Not even just gaming. Lain's adventures on the—real world, mind you—internet are described in the same terms they're shown in the original series. Making Lain's trips to certain websites very interesting to say the least.
