People have gone back and forth over the actual story of Lain since its release, and opinions on the matter are more variable now than ever. Being able to follow the story requires constant vigilance, which I think was intentional because it really drives home the show’s message of ontology.
Rather, important plot points are hinted at, implied, or casually glossed over. Very rarely is vital information spoonfed to the viewer. However, Chisa’s mysterious email prompts Lain to further explore The Wired, in search of what her deceased classmate was talking about.Īs Lain delves further into The Wired and learns more about its origins, she begins to have an existential exploration about what is real, what isn’t real, and to what extent does it even matter.Īt the risk of spoiling anything, I’ll stop there and switch from the plot itself to how it’s presented to the audience. The email claims that she is not actually dead, but has instead left her physical body behind and has completely joined “The Wired”, a Virtual Reality world that is basically what we would recognize as The Internet.Īmong the girls to receive this email is Lain, a shy and soft-spoken girl who, at the time of receiving the email, makes very little use of technology. While the event is indeed tragic, the real butt-pincher comes when several girls at Chisa’s school receive a posthumous email from her. Serial Experiments Lain begins with the successful suicide of a middle school girl named Chisa Yomoda. However, factoring in all the thematic elements and influences that we’re about to explore in a second, you’ll soon see how Serial Experiments Lain is eerily more relevant in today’s world than it has ever been. Lain was released when the internet as a household communication medium was still in its relative infancy.
Now, before we go any further, I really want you to pay attention to that release date. This series, of course, is none other than Serial Experiments Lain, released in 1998 by studio Triangle Staff. It is a series that operates on a more philosophical and existential level than your average anime.
Today, I’ll be reviewing one of the most complex and unnervingly relevant works of fiction that I’ve ever seen.
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