Category: Serial Experiments Lain

Welcome one and all to the finale of Serial Experiments Lain, perhaps the oddest of the series done for Throwback Thursday yet. This week Lain moves on, Arisu grows up and everyone just… goes back to normal. Lot’s going on, none of which I am qualified for, but let’s jump in.

Now before we get into the meat of the series, I want to talk about “enjoyment”. You see, I am not entirely sure that I “enjoyed” Lain. Don’t get me wrong, it was incredibly interesting, and very evocative. Lain made me feel a lot of emotions throughout its run. Think about a lot of topics anime normally doesn’t. Yet, were they positive emotions? Was it… enjoyable? I don’t think it was, though I don’t think that’s necessary either. You don’t need to enjoy something for it to have value. For an extreme example, I never enjoyed textbooks, yet the information was valuable. I don’t enjoy many of my favorite moments in Berserk, because of their tragic nature. Yet they have value and cause me to feel emotions I normally don’t. For someone as unexpressive as myself, that’s an accomplishment. Enough about me though, onto the finale itself.

Continue reading “Serial Experiments Lain 13 – [Ego] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome, one and all, to the penultimate episode of Serial Experiments Lain! This is a weird one, yet I feel like I got it on some level. As Lain questions peoples perception, her place in the world, and Masami’s words, let’s just dive right in.

Starting off, I haven’t been bringing it up as much recently, but I want to draw attention to Lain’s production. This was a really good week visually, rivalling 8 even. The outstanding finish aside, which was incredibly fluid, the presentation of Lain’s house and Masami were great. Lain really nailed the atmosphere of the virtually abandoned home. The entire thing trashed and dirty, Mika sitting upstairs and droning on like a modem. It was incredibly creepy and disconcerting, with only simple stills and a locations history to really go by. Meanwhile, the aforementioned final scene was the episodes capstone. Really belying the fact that Lain is from the late 90’s. None of this is even mentioning the sound design. So yeah, I suppose the only thing to say is Lain had a good week production wise. Now let’s take a look at the story.

Continue reading “Serial Experiments Lain – 12 [Landscape] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome one and all to a 2 parter for Serial Experiments Lain! Apologies for missing last week. Between end of season reviews, first impressions and a boxing match, I was a bit busy. But we are back on track with some Lain weirdness, so lets dive right in!

Starting off, I once again was forced to appreciate how good Lain looks and sounds. It’s nothing flashing, like your modern sakuga showcases. Lain doesn’t show off the same way Mob Psycho or Attack on Titan do. With huge showcases from big name animators. Lain does much better with pointed imagery and interesting composition. So my eye roams the screen during the stills, and I don’t notice the lack of animation until it’s moved on. At the very least, it succeeds here more than Paranoia Agent did. The sound design also caught my attention. Specifically episode 11’s opening, with the sink and dishes, the dripping water. I don’t know what it stood out to me, such a simple thing. But I still remember it a week after watching the episode. I wonder what happened to get this kind of effect. Still, enough with production. Onto the madness!

Continue reading “Serial Experiments Lain – 10/11 [Love/Infornography] – Throwback Thursday” →

I will admit, this episode of Serial Experiments Lain was difficult to get through. This week we learn about History, both of our and Lain’s world, and get more information on the Knights. So lets just jump into it!

Starting off, this episode felt… weird. I don’t want to say it was a waste, as it introduced the series endgame with Masami. But it feels like beyond that, not much happened. Like a lot of exposition and additional information got thrown at us solely to setup the ending of said episode. That isn’t to say there wasn’t some progress, I think Lain demonstrated Lain’s deteriorating mental state well. With her difference in personality when dealing with Taro, or the Alien who came into her room. It’s making a very clear point that Lain feels isolated from society now. Just like she was, if not more so, at the start of the series. It’s just the conspiracy stuff surrounding that which I felt really broke up the episode for me.

Continue reading “Serial Experiments Lain – 9 [Protocol] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome to another episode of Acid Trip Weekly, also known as, Serial Experiments Lain! This week is one of the most confusing, yet simultaneously coherent episodes of anime I have ever watched. It’s impossible to summarize, so let’s just dive in.

Starting off, like I said, this episode was an acid trip, both visually and narratively. From the crazy colors and sequences, to crazy metaphorical representation for ideas/situations. In particular I loved the fiery explosion of Lain when she was just done with everything. Now, I started the episode having only the faintest idea what was going on. One could argue I ended the episode not much better, but personally, I at least feel more informed. Some of it no doubt went over my head. However I think Lain did a very good job of getting the core of the episode across. The specifics of rumors, acknowledging your true self and anonymity on the internet were clearly shown. Both through visuals and dialogue. To show this, let’s move on to the actual story and take a look at some of these moments.

Continue reading “Serial Experiments Lain – 8 [Rumors] – Throwback Thursday” →

Hello all and welcome to another episode of Serial Experiments Lain! Apologies for the lateness and brevity on this one, was/am feeling rather sick as this week wrapped up. Oddly enough, the addled state of mind may have helped me understand Lain better. As this week we get a lot of answers, the Knights become more active and the line between Reality and Wired gets even thinner. Lets dive in!

Starting once again with Production, Lain did a lot of interesting things this week. Not that Lain isn’t interesting normally, but it got really experimental with it this week. Specifically, I am talking about the homeless man and his VR headset. Lain tried a lot of different filters to this, experimenting with odd changes to the footage. Whether it be taking real life footage and applying some kind of filter over it or just screwing with reality. It was a lot of fun to look at, and I really enjoyed the homeless man, even if he wasn’t a lead character. Basically, we got to see a lot of the tech/Wired aspect of the show, and I thought that was good. Now though, onto the actual story content of the episode.

Continue reading “Serial Experiments Lain – 7 [Society] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome one and all, though its a day late and no longer Thursday, to the episode where Lain truly begins. I think. Really, I am not sure anymore, but this week Lain becomes a God, her room becomes a cave cave and dresses nice for once. Lets dive in!

Now normally I open these up with the production aspect, but you know what I think at this point. Lain is a very static show visually, that has more interesting shot composition and visuals than it does animation. Instead I want to ask a question about how every episode starts. That same street, that same line of “Present day, present time”. Is this supposed mean that Lain is occurring right now? Under our very noses, without society noticing? Grand events playing out while the wider world is unaware? Its the only explanation I can think of, at least that’s positive. Because Lain generally overlays a speech of some kind over it. Whatevers related to the episode. It could just be part of an extended OP, with no greater purpose. But that would be disappointing after what the series has shown thus far.

Continue reading “Serial Experiments Lain – 6 [Kids] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome one and all to perhaps the weirdest episode of Lain yet. This week we get preached at, Lain’s sister gets lobotomized and Lain herself becomes a National terrorist. Lets jump in!

Starting off, the production. Lain got, to put it simply, weird this week with the visuals. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it was definitely very striking. From the flashbacks (?) with Lain, to the Sister’s slow fall into the Wired. In some cases this was incredibly interesting. I loved some of the visuals at the end. With the Sister, and Lain herself staring into the monitor. Those were cool! In other cases though it was just weird and I couldn’t follow what was going on. This is mainly aimed at the flashbacks, which are my biggest problem with the episode. We will talk about those in detail later. Visually, they weren’t terribly complex. But they came from nowhere and were so disconnected with everything else going on, that they really confused me. Because of this, and their story beats, they really halted the pace of the series for me.

Continue reading “Serial Experiments Lain – 5 [Distortion] – Throwback Thursday” →

Hello all and welcome to another week of Throwback Thursday, posted on a Friday, for Serial Experiments Lain! This week Lain answers a lot of questions, introduces a lot more and dives into the surreal. So lets jump in!

Starting off, like I said Lain answers a lot of questions this week. Addressing the drugs, Wired, Lain’s prevalence in the world and how they all fit together. All without explicitly tying them together with direct callouts. Meanwhile it also introduced many more questions in regards to the Knights, and the line between the Wired and reality. Yet with all of this ground covered, it all felt like natural consequences of the story. Saving spoilers for after the break, I was very impressed with how so little managed to connect so much. Giving so much relevance to an episode title or the smallest grin from a character. I said last week I have to be in the right mind to watch Lain. This episode reinforces that belief for me. Enough dancing around the spoilers though, let’s talk about suicide, woo!

Continue reading “Serial Experiments Lain – 4 [Religion] – Throwback Thursday” →