***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Serial Experiments Lain. Reader discretion is advised.***
Series Synopsis
Lain Iwakura (voiced by Kaori Shimizu) lives an uneventful and unremarkable life. She goes to school. She talks with friends. She goes home to eat dinner with her family. Day in, day out.
Then one day, an unsettling chain of emails make their way through Lain's school. These messages seem to be a bad joke since the sender had committed suicide. Lain has no real opinion on the matter. That is until she receives one of these emails. What it reads goes against the accepted story.
The message tells Lain the sender did not die. They only gave up their physical body. Their consciousness is still very much alive. As it exists in the Wired. The virtual world.
This entices Lain and she beings to delve into the Wired's inner workings. The deeper she goes and the more she sees, the less she understands.
Leaving Lain with one question. Is the virtual reality in fact true reality?
Series Positives
Serial Experiments Lain was avant-garde. Fancy speak for, you will either enjoy this show or you won't. I happen to be the former.
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Retro
This show was weird. I was sober during my viewing and I lost track how many times my brain was on the verge of exploding.
When I reviewed Kare Kano, I mentioned how the visual developed into a nostalgic charm. Serial Experiments Lain did the same thing. Accept super charged.
Serial Experiments Lain’s age added another layer of intensity. Something I doubt was present during its original run. This is a show that looks better with age.
Lain
It’s almost impossible to decipher what was important in this show. Everything seemed relevant and irrelevant at the same time. The exception to this was Lain herself.
There wasn't anything average about this series. Nowhere was this more evident than with our title character. Lain was a perfect balance of contradictions. She was the hero. She was the villain. She was confident. Yet insecure. She was aware. But still clueless. Her tale was both happy and tragic. Your interpretation of Lain is just that, your interpretation.
There is one definite, though. Lain was awesome.
She'll hook you from the moment of her introduction. And she won't let go. It could be her monotonic demeanor. Her low-profile personality. Her actions during the endless barrage craziness. All these factors helped make Lain engrossing.
But to me, it came down to her eyes. Those piercing, blank, soulless eyes. At first, they were terrifying. They felt like they were always there. Watching. Then something happened. As the story went on, they became beautiful.
Lain is one of the best anime characters ever conceived. And I challenge anyone to fight me on that.
Scary Execution
Serial Experiments Lain was legit scary.
It wasn't nightmare educing. Yet there were moments that were hard to look at. No, this was the kind of horror that's addicting. You know you’re going to end up feeling uncomfortable, but you can’t help continuing.
All the fear was the byproduct of the visuals. Things never looked quite right. Everything was off. Movements were unnatural. Faces were contorted and misshapen. Nothing here is for the faint of heart.
Serial Experiments Lain stands tall as a horror anime.
Series Negatives
I like weird. This show was weird. Sometimes it was too weird for its own good, though.
A lot of you may think I'm going to hit this series on how complex it was. I don’t blame you for assuming that. But that’s a moot point this time around.
Serial Experiments Lain's whole goal was to leave you wondering. That said, a better job could have been done.
Inconsistent Details
Things happened in this show that didn't make sense. There was a lot of randomness. Most of these moments felt intentional. But this wasn't always the case.
Part of the show's fun is coming up with your own perspective on how things worked and what they meant. Yet, it’s impossible to draw any meaning if you don’t have the slightest idea on what's being implied. You can’t make much of a guess if what you're seeing doesn't fit anywhere.
For example, Lain had a knack for computers. She built her own even without any prior experience. The computer she made was impressive, to say the least. Then in the course of about one scene, Lain’s desktop PC turned into a room filling super machine. You don’t see her build it. You don't see her order parts. But it showed up nonetheless.
Another instance was when the organization, the Knights, hacked Lain’s system. Causing the whole thing to explode. This group tried to kill Lain. It came as an end of episode cliffhanger. Yet it was never brought up or referred to again.
An Outdated Premise
This series looks amazing. It has gotten better with the passage of time. The same's not true for the premise of the show.
I said the visuals accounted for all the horror. I said that because the events of Serial Experiments Lain are no longer scary.
The story talked about an interconnected world through the power of computers. There's a network that surrounds us. We're all part of it. This isn't an abstract idea anymore. It's our reality. What the show called the Wired, we call the Internet.
The fear of the unknown is no longer unknown. I have friends all over the world who I can get in instant contact with. In a lot of ways, we're connected just as the show described.
Final Thoughts
I'm a little torn.
On one hand, I enjoyed this show. It was a blast. On the other hand, I have no clue what the hell was happening during most of it.
You need to have a taste for this stuff. This series doesn't make sense and that’s okay for what the story is.
Yes, it's dated and there are more than a few leaps in logic. But Serial Experiments Lain is a great series regardless. It’s different, unique, and not like anything out there. Not to mention that this is one of the scariest anime I have ever seen.
It is well worth a look.
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