Anime: Serial Experiments Lain (overview)

Content warning: Suicide, homicide, child death, drug use, surreal images, and weirdness

Serial Experiments Lain is a series that deals with reality, perception, identity, and technology, and how they can intermix. That might sound familiar as there was something about the late 1990s and early 2000s and these concepts. While more philosophical, as well as having a Hollywood blockbuster style, The Matrix delved into some of these. At the same time, so did Dark City, but with Noir styling. Lain is something uniquely Japanese in how it views things and the concepts it explores. 

The show begins with a young girl jumping off of a building to her death. That's a hell of a way to kick things off, let me tell you. But this what triggers our inciting incident. It's not the death of Lain's classmate but the email that was sent from the girl's account. After she was dead. This gives us a chance to learn a bit about Lain, mostly that she seems disconnected from the world around her. I don't even think of the girls she talks with as her friends, just her classmates. But this event also causes another change: Lain begins to use her computer and the Wired. I'm not sure if this was suppose to be set “30 minutes into the future” or an alternate reality. There might be an answer at the end of the series, I'm not going to spoil it for you now.

As the series progresses, the episodes are titled “Layers” and it is very apt. We are introduced to the world around Lain, people, places, and things. There's a great deal of mystery in the first few episodes. Not just odd people but there are things that I'm still not sure if they're hallucinations or visions that Lain experiences. As we meet people, some of them seem to know Lain but not her exactly. Is it some kind of dark mirror version or her or is it something she's forgotten? There's also little things that seem like we temporally skip into a different reality. That one is hard to explain but you'll know it when you see it.

Lain, as a character, is somewhat hard to get a grasp on. She's introduced without history, no sense of who is and where she's come from. All we really know is that she's a girl beginning to cross the threshold into womanhood. I find this is best exampled in the first few episodes. At night, Lain gets into a rather cute set of teddy bear pajamas before bed. In one episode, her “friends” (the girls she goes to school with) go out to an underage club and invite her along. While the other girls are clearly trying to show off their sexuality, Lain turns up in a long dress and wool cap. She's laughed at but I think it shows how different she is. She has an older sister that's clearly part of the rest of the world, but the relationship between the two is very fuzzy. If this show was being made now, people who probably say that Lain is Autistic. I don't know if she was suppose to be but I can, in hindsight, see that she was coded that way. I'm assuming it wasn't the intent of the creators but it's there if you want it to be.

I honestly have a lot of trouble trying to communicate just how good this show is. Part of it is not wanting to give out spoilers and part of it is that you really have to see this stuff to understand it. Or perhaps you don't understand. When I finally finished the show, I still had a few lingering questions. The conclusion feels complete and not at the same time, like if it had maybe just one more episode, there could have been a bit more to tell. I do not regret the time I spent watching it at all but do regret not buying the whole series when it came out on DVD. But back in those days, an anime DVD was $30. Which is better than it was on VHS, where it was $30 for subbed (assuming you could find it subtitled) but only $25 for dubbed, as most Americans don't like subtitles.

If there's one great thing about this series, it the opening credits. The song, Duvet by Boa, is fantastic and fits the feeling of the show so well. If you like it, I strongly recommend the acoustic version over the techno remix. If you're wondering if you want to watch this show, see if you can track down the opening and watch it. If it doesn't sell you on this series, after this review, nothing else will.

Rating: 4 out 5

Suggestion: Watch it at least once.