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Serial Experiments Lain is an anime series by Ryutaro Nakamura and a PlayStation game of the same name. The anime was produced by Triangle Staff, and broadcast on TV Tokyo from July to September 1998. The video game was produced by Pioneer LDC, and released in November 1998. The scenario is written by Chiaki J. Konaka, and the original character design is by Yoshitoshi ABe. Production is signed by production 2nd.
Serial Experiments Lain relies heavily on philosophical subjects, such as Reality, Identity, and Communication, to follow Lain Iwakura, an adolescent girl living in suburban Japan, and her introduction to the Wired, a global communication network. Lain lives with her average, middle class, normal family, composed of her inexpressive older sister Mika, her cold-as-ice mother, and Yosuo, her father obsessed with computers. The first ripple on the pond of Lain's lonely life appears when she learns that many girls from her school have received an e-mail from Yomoda Chisa, a schoolmate who committed suicide. When Lain receives the message later at home, Chisa tells her (in real time) that she is not dead, but has just "abandoned the flesh", and has found God in the Wired. From then, Lain is bound to a quest that will take her ever deeper into the network, and ever deeper into herself.
The anime series has been adapted into English in North America by Geneon (previously Pioneer Entertainment) on DVD and LaserDisc. It has also been released in Singapore by Odex. The video game, that share with it only the themes and main character, was never released outside of Japan.
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Plot
•">Experiments Lain (TV) Screenshot 01.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Lain's neighborhood. Note the spots in the shadows, symbolising the Wired's presence "beneath the surface".•
Serial Experiments Lain deals directly with the definition of Reality, and as such, "it defies ready summaries"• of its (to say the least) complex plot. The whole story is primarily based on the assumption that everything flows from human thought, memory, and consciousness ("if there is no record of it, it has never existed"). Given this setting, events on screen can be considered as hallucinations of Lain, of other protagonists, or even of Lain making up other people’s hallucinations. Furthermore, hoaxes are central to the plotline, so even the offscreen voices or narrations' information cannot be trusted.
Instead of the traditional linear events depiction, the series consists more of a collection of philosophical themes (episodes are named layers), and a cross-reflection on all of them. What follows is intended to depict the “core” story, avoiding interpretation as much as possible.
Serial Experiments Lain describes "the Wired" as the sum of all human communication networks, created with the telegraph and telephone services, and expanded with the Internet and subsequent networks. It is asserted that if this was to be linked to a system that enables unconscious communication between people and machines without physical interface (eg. using the Schumann resonance), it would become equivalent to Reality, as the sum of all consensus. The thin line between what is real and what is possible would then begin to blur.
Eiri Masami is introduced as the project director on Protocol 7 (a successor to IPv6) for major computer company Tachibana Labs. It is explained that he included pirate code to give himself total control of the Wired (through the system described above), then managed to “upload” his consciousness into the Wired, and died a few days after. Although these details are unveiled around the middle of the series, this is the point where the story of Serial Experiments Lain begins.
At some point, Masami explains that Lain herself is the artefact by which the wall between the virtual and material worlds is to fall, and that he needs her to get to the wired and “abandon the flesh” (as he did) in order to achieve his plan. The series see him try to convince her through a number of interventions, using the promise of unconditional love, charm, fatality, and, when all else fails, threats and even force.
In the meantime, the anime follows a complex game of hide-and-seek between the "Knights of the Eastern Calculus", hackers whom Masami claims are "believers that enable him to be a God in the Wired", and Tachibana Labs, who try to retake control of Protocol 7.
In the end, the viewer sees how Lain, after much introspection, realises that she has absolute power over everyone's mind, and so, over reality itself. Her dialogues with different versions of herself show how she feels outcast from the material world, and how she is afraid to live in the Wired, where she has the possibilities, but also the responsibilities, of a goddess. The last scenes feature her erasing everything connected to herself from everyone’s memories. She is last seen still in form of a child, re-encountering her old friend Alice, now an adult, and promising herself to watch over her.
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Characters
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: The main character. She is a 13 year old girl, who uncovers her true nature through the series. She is first depicted as a shy high school student with few (if any) friends or interests, but she quickly grows multiple, bolder personalities, both in the physical and The Wired world.
Voiced by: Kaori Shimizu (Japanese), Bridget Hoffman (English)
: The key designer of Protocol 7. While working for Tachibana Labs, he illicitely included some pirate code enabling him to control the whole protocol at will, and "embedded" his own consciousness in the protocol. Shortly after, he was fired for this by Tachibana Labs and soon found dead on a railway.
: Lain's Father. Passionnate about computers and electronic communication, he is shown as working with Eiri Masami at Tachibana Labs. He subtly pushes her towards the wired and monitors her development until the point where she becomes aware of her own condition, and then leaves her with a cold good-bye, saying "I didn't enjoy pretending to be a family". His exact role in the story is unclear, as he sometimes looks eager to get her in The Wired, and sometimes outright denies knowing things about it, and even warns her not to get "too involved" in The Wired.
: Lain's classmate. Her only actual friend throughout the series, Alice is a devoted friend and has a simple, sincere personality. She secretly has a crush on one of the teachers at her school.
: Lain's older sister, a blasé 16 year old student who casually picks on her little sister's habits and behavior. At a certain point through the series, her consciousness is seriously damaged by a set of violent hallucinations when she asks Lain about a strange scene she witnessed that afternoon in Shibuya.
Taro: A young boy of about Lain's age. Ocasionally works for the Knights, in order to bring forth "the one truth". Loves virtual reality video games and hangs all day at the Cyberia night-club with his friends, Myu-Myu and Masayuki.
The "Office Worker": This top executive from Tachibana Labs has his own agenda that he carries through the use of the Men in Black. He looks forward to the arrival of a real God through the Wired, and he also orchestrated the death of the Knights, although it is not clear as to why. He is aware of many hidden facts about Lain, but is more inclined to ask questions than to reveal anything.
The Men in Black: Karl Haushofer and Lin Sui-Xi work for the above "Office Worker". They track down and murder all of the Knights. Although they are in the shadows as to the real plan, they know that Eiri Masami is involved and say that they "don't need a Wired God".
Karl Haushofer is
Lin Sui-Xi is
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List of episodes
Layer 01: WEIRD - Lain receives an email, and asks for a new NAVI.
Layer 02: GIRLS - Lain makes new friends and goes to a nightclub.
Layer 03: PSYCHE - Lain receives a mysterious computer chip.
Layer 04: RELIGION - Lain begins investigating the Wired.
Layer 05: DISTORTION - Lain asks questions - Her sister has a dream.
Layer 06: KIDS - An image appears in the sky; Lain learns about KIDS.
Layer 07: SOCIETY - Alice worries; Lain goes to Tachibana Labs.
Layer 08: RUMORS - Rumors tear relations apart; Lain takes action.
Layer 09: PROTOCOL - Background is detailed; Taro is exposed.
Layer 10: LOVE - Lain confronts Eiri Masami; The Knights make the news.
Layer 11: INFORNOGRAPHY - After a long "recap", Lain "makes everything right again"
Layer 12: LANDSCAPE - Everyone makes his last move.
Layer 13: EGO - Conclusion of both reflexion and action.
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Reception
Lain was first broadcasted in Tokyo at 1:15AM JST. The word "weird" appears almost systematically in english language reviews of the series,•• or the alternatives "bizarre",• and "atypical"•, due mostly to its almost total absence of sex & violence, but also to its philosophical/psychological context. Critics responded positively to these thematic and stylistic characteristics, and it was awarded the Excellence Prize by the 1998 Japan Media Arts festival for "its willingness to question the meaning of contemporary life" and the "extraordinarily philosophical and deep questions" it asks.•. Both Anime Jump and the Japanese Amazon online store give it 4.5/5, Anime on DVD gives it A+ on all five criteria. The series received an enthusiastic welcome in the USA, very much to the creative staff's surprise (see below, "Controversy").
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Controversy
Some controversy arose after producer Ueda Yasuyuki made the statement in Animerica that Lain was "a sort of cultural war against American culture and the American sense of values we Japan adopted after WWII".[Animerica, (Vol. 7 No. 9, p.29)]
He later explained in numerous interviews that had made Lain with a set of values he took as distinctly Japanese, that he hoped Americans wouldn't be able to understand as Japanese would, and that a "war of ideas"[ between the two publics. He got as far as to express disappointment when he discovered that the American public held globally the same views on the series as the Japanese did.]
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Influences
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Serial Experiments Lain was conceived as a series original to the point of being considered "an enormous risk" by its producer Yasuyuki Ueda.• It is then no surprise that influences are scarce at best.
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Writing
An influence often cited by fans, as much from the story viewpoint as the graphic design, is Neon Genesis Evangelion. This was strictly denied by writer Chiaki J. Konaka in an interview, arguing that he hadn't seen Evangelion until he finished the fourth episode of Lain.
Being primarily a horror movies writer, his stated influences are Godard (specially for using typography on screen), The Exorcist, Hell House, and Dan Curtis's House of Dark Shadows.
Alice's name, like the names of her two friends Julie and Reika, came from a previous production from Konaka, Alice in Cyberland. As the series developed, Konaka was "surprised" by how close Alice's character became to the Cyberland character.
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Research
Lains creators have been said to be "quite well read" and to "draw upon dozens if not hundreds of real-world sources for what seem to be the most outre concepts in the story":[''Seriel Experiments lain'' on tvtropes.org, retrieved on 10/10/2006.]
Vannevar Bush (and Memex), John C. Lilly, Timothy Leary and his 8-Circuit Model of Consciousness, Ted Nelson and Project Xanadu are cited as precursors to the Wired.[Animerica, (Vol. 7 No. 9, p.28] Douglas Rushkoff and his book Cyberia were originally to be cited as such,[ and in Lain Cyberia ended up as the name of a nightclub where "cyber kids" spend their time. Majestic 12 and the Roswell UFO incident are used as examples of how a hoax might still have an impact on history, even after having been exposed as such, by creating sub-cultures.][ This links again to Vannevar Bush, the alleged "brains" of MJ12. Two of the literary references in Lain are quoted through Lain's father: he first logs onto a website with the password "Think Bule Count one Tow"][ ("Think Blue, Count Two" is an Instrumentality of Man story); and his saying that "madeleines would be good with the tea" in the last episode][Serial Experiments Lain, Episode 13, "Ego"] makes Lain "one of the only cartoons ever to allude to Proust".
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Character design
Yoshitoshi ABe confesses to have never read manga as a child, as it was "off-limits" in his household,• so he didn't have manga influences generally expected from anime and manga artists. His major influences are "nature and everything around him". Specifically speaking about Lains characters, ABe was inspired by Kenji Tsuruta, Akihiro Yamada, Range Murata, and Yukinobu Hoshino,• and, in a broader view, by Japanese artists Chinai-san and Tabuchi-san.
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Themes
Serial Experiments Lain is not a conventionally linear story, but "an alternative anime, with modern themes and realisation", with themes ranging from the theological to the psychological, and are dealt with in a number of ways, from classical dialogue to image-only introspection, passing by interrogation of imaginary characters.
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Themes
Serial Experiments Lain is not a conventionally linear story, but "an alternative anime, with modern themes and realisation", with themes ranging from the theological to the psychological, and are dealt with in a number of ways, from classical dialogue to image-only introspection, passing by interrogation of imaginary characters.
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Major themes
Communication, in its wider sense, is probably the main theme of the series. It is explored not only as opposed to loneliness, but as a subject in itself. Writer Konaka said he wanted to directly "communicate human feelings", while director Nakamura wanted to show the audience (preferably between 14 and 15) "the multidimentional wavelength of the existential self - meaning, the relationship between self and the world".Friendships turn on the first rumor; even God is said to need belivers in order to continue to exist. Reality never has the pretense of objectivity in Lain. Indeed, many acceptions of the term are battling throughout the series, such as the "natural" reality, defined through normal dialog between individuals; the material reality; and the tyrannic reality, enforced by one person onto the minds of others. A key debate to all interpretations of the series is to decide whether matters flows from thought, or the opposite. The production staff carefully avoided "the so-called God's Eye Viewpoint" to make clear the "limited field of vision" of the world of Lain. Mental illness in general, and more specifically Dissociative identity disorder is also a significant theme in Lain: She is constantly confronted with alter-egos, to the point where writer Chiaki Konaka and Lain's seiyuu Kaori Shimizu had to agree on subdividing the character's dialogues between Rein, Lein, and Lain.
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Apple computers
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Lain contains extensive references to Apple computers, as the brand used at the time by most of the creative staff, such as writers, producers, and the graphical team.[ This was also due to Apple representing a higher degree of creative freedom through technology, which was going well with the series theme.]
As an example, the title at the beginning of each episode announced by the Apple Computer program "Whisper". Tachibana Industries, the company that creates the NAVI computers, is a reference to Apple computers: "tachibana" means "Mandarin orange" in Japanese. NAVI is the abbreviation of Knowledge Navigator, and the HandiNAVI is based on the Apple Newton, which is one of the world's first PDAs. The NAVIs are seen to run "Copland OS Enterprise" (this was a decision of Konaka, a declared Apple fan),[ and Alice's NAVI closely resembles the iMac computer. During a series of disconnected images, the Apple logo with the Think Different advertising slogan used by Apple appears for a short time, while the Whisper voice says it][ (This was an unconcerted insertion from the graphic team, also mac-enthusiasts.][ "Close the world, Open the NeXT" is the slogan for the Serial Experiments Lain Playstation video game. NeXT was the company that produced NeXTSTEP, which later evolved into Mac OS X after Apple bought NeXT.]
At the end of episodes 1-12 the screen says "To Be Continued." The Be, with the blue "B" and the red "e", is the original logo of Be Inc..
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Playstation game
Serial Experiments Lain was released for PlayStation on November 26, 1998 by Pioneer LDC, and was never classified into a particular genre. Throughout the game, with the assistance of Lain, the player unlocks pieces of multimedia information (Lain's therapy sessions, her diary, notes of her therapist, video segments) to discover what happened to her.
The gameplay consists of travelling through layers of a simulated network collecting audio, video and text files along with pieces of a teddy bear and other objects to assist in your search. The game follows a different series of events than the animated series. It is multimedia intensive and entirely in Japanese.
In the video game, Lain talks to a therapist, a character that doesn't appear in the anime, while most characters from the anime (like Alice) are absent from the game.
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Publications and other media
The Lain franchise was originally conceived to connect across several forms of media (anime, video games, manga). Producer Yasuyuki Ueda said in an interview,[ "The approach I took for this project was to communicate the essence of the work by the total sum of many media products." The scenario for the video game was written first, and the video game was produced at the same time as the anime, though the anime was released first. There was also a short manga produced, but like the game it was only released in Japan.]
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Artbooks
Omnipresence In The Wired - Hardbound, 128 pages in 96 colors with Japanese text. It features a chapter for each layer (episode) and concept sketches. It also features a short color manga titled "The Nightmare of Fabrication". It was published in 1998 by Triangle Staff/SR-12W/Pioneer LDC. (ISBN 4-789713431)
Yoshitoshi ABe lain illustrations ab rebuild an omnipresence in wired - Hardbound, 148 pages. A remake of "Omnipresence In The Wired" with new art, added text by Chiaki J. Konaka, and a section entitled "ABe's EYE in color of things" (a compilation of his photos of the world). It was published in Japan on 1/10/2005 by WANIMAGAZINE Co.,Ltd (ISBN 4-89829-487-1), and in America as a softcover version translated into English in July of 2006 by Digital Manga Publishing (ISBN 1-56970-899-1).
Visual Experiments Lain - Paperback, 80 full-color pages with Japanese text. It has details on the creation, design, and storyline of the series. It was published in 1998 by Triangle Staff/Pioneer LDC. (ISBN 4-789713423)
Scenario Experiments Lain - Paperback, 335 pages. By "chiaki j. konaka" (uncapitalised in original). It contains collected scripts with notes and small excerpted storyboards. (ISBN 4-7897-1320-2)
Serial Experiments Lain Official Guide - Paperback. A guide to the PlayStation game.
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Soundtracks
"Duvet" opening song - Written by the band bôa as their first single. Somewhat unusual for anime, the opening song is performed by an English band, in English.
Toi Sakebi ending song - Lyrics and Composition by Nakaido "Chabo" Reichi.
Serial Experiments Lain Soundtrack - The first OST featuring music by Nakaido "Chabo" Reichi. It features the closing theme song and a number of tracks included in the television series.
Serial Experiments Lain Soundtrack: Cyberia Mix - A second OST featuring a number of electronica songs inspired by the television series, including a remix of the opening theme song.
lain BOOTLEG - 2 CD, Soundtrack, 45+ tracks, limited edition. Contains ambient music from the series and a mixed-mode data and audio CD with a clock program and a game. Released by Pioneer Records. It is ironically often confused with the Sonmay bootleg of itself, which is 1 CD, 45 tracks, some with shorter lengths than the original.
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See also
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Further reading
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