As I mentioned last week, one can view Serial Experiments Lain as the story of a machine learning to become human, though unlike most series, Lain puts the audience in a position where we don’t know that the “machine” isn’t a human at first. Episode 11 goes a step further as Eiri explains to Lain… Read More Serial Experiments Lain Revisited: Episode 11
At the series beginning, Lain exhibits few personality traits. She’s even keel, slow to speak, and doesn’t drift to any extreme. Through the course of the show, her personality has become more pronounced, like a robot learning what it means to be human. Unfortunately, that means with highs there will be lows, and Lain, learning… Read More Serial Experiments Lain Revisited: Episode 10
When I was younger, Serial Experiments Lain made me very uncomfortable. I was neck deep in my religion, and as a passionate but young believer that was part of a conservative congregation, I was quick to judge those around me and even the pieces of art I watched. Lain troubled me so much that I… Read More Serial Experiments Lain Revisited: Episode 09
It’s hardly a surprise that in a country where Shinto temples and belief in kami run alongside Buddhist precepts and practical atheism that the concept of god as presented in Lain is very different from that of a Christocentric view. Lain’s “God of the Wired” is omniscient, but not omnipotent; he is all-knowing, but unable… Read More Serial Experiments Lain Revisited: Episode 08
A couple of our faithful readers pointed out after episode four that it’s difficult to tell what’s real and what’s not in Lain, what the truth is and what isn’t. It’s a tricky series, one that keeps you guessing and, if we didn’t already know how acclaimed the show is, at times makes you wonder… Read More Serial Experiments Lain Revisited: Episode 05
Serial Experiments Lain famously delves into topics like communication, technology, and social constructs, and we’ve seen all those expressed in the first few episodes. But as we continue our dive into Lain for the show’s twentieth anniversary, we’ve hit an episode with another theme that hasn’t yet been explored, and a title that matches. Episode… Read More Serial Experiments Lain Revisited: Episode 04
As we continue our rewatch of Serial Experiments Lain, 20 years after it first aired, we arrive at episode three, perhaps the first one in which decisions and actions are made which will have an ultimate impact on how the series turns and ends. Layer 03 12-year olds are supposed to be concerned with school… Read More Serial Experiments Lain Revisited: Episode 03
Lain is both a very current series and a relic of the past. The questions it asks are still as significant today as back then, though the answers and context may be different. The animation is obviously of its time, but I can still appreciate it today. The storyline, direction, and structure is of a… Read More Serial Experiments Lain Revisited: Episode 02
Twenty years ago this summer, a series premiered in Japan that tackled the complex topics of communication, reality, depression, and even theology. Serial Experiments Lain, the brainchild of a number of individuals but most closely associated with Yoshitoshi ABe for his character designs, became an influential series both in Japan in the west. Mesmerizing in… Read More Serial Experiments Lain Revisited: Episode 01
My favorite series of the season, and one of my favorites of the year, is Everything Becomes F: The Perfect Insider. As I told Japes in our last podcast, the show is what I like: it’s really smart and is a little pretentious, but not so pretentious that it loses me. I love it. But… Read More Lain and Dr. Magata: (g)oddesses Reflecting (G)od