Kozahk
03-08-2011, 12:25 PM
http://www.kawapaper.com/d/4515-3/Kawapaper_SELain_0000071_1024x756.jpg
Serial Experiments Lain, first aired 1998, is an anime directed by the acclaimed Ryūtarō Nakamura, who would later go on to direct the highly successful Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex. The story concerns Lain Iwakura, a teenage girl living with her mother, father and sister in urban Japan. One day, a fellow student commits suicide by jumping off a building...only to send an email to all her classmates the day after claiming that she 'has only left the physical world, she still exists within The Wired'.
The Wired can best be described as the next evolution of Internet, Lain decides to respond to that email and ends up having a real time conversation with a dead person. As she continues to explore The Wired, she is drawn into a conspiracy to link The Wired to physical reality, carried out by a virtual?/real?/imaginary? Doppelganger who manifests herself as a God within both The Wired and Reality. The series focuses on Lain's search for identity (which of her is real?), a commentary on the nature of reality, and philosophical insight into the role of communication as part of the human condition, and its relationship to both identity and reality.
http://www.animethemes.net/data/media/127/Serial%20experiments%20Lain%200022.jpg
Head hurts? Each episode focuses on each of these three main themes, as well as giving a massive amount of detail on the history of the Internet, computers and communication in general. Naturally, there is a lot of thinking involved and, let me tell you now, you will NOT understand it until after the end. (I'll explain later)
Artistically, it is absolutely gorgeous, heavy reliance on symbolism helps draw out the main themes of the story. One particular note is the shadows, in that within each shadow there are pools of blood. No character notices this, but serves to show the dualism between reality and The Wired; showing The Wired as the world underneath the 'world'. Bright, vibrant use of colours gives the whole series a kind of LSD feel to the world. Constant tearing, uncertainties and inconsistencies within Lain's world, never leaves the viewer to be entirely sure if what they are watching is Reality, The Wired, an illusion, a memory or a nightmare, or perhaps something beyond human comprehension.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_AMTB4op3MmY/SN_zHUtHR-I/AAAAAAAAAS4/92RsPpDxlaY/s400/lain_016.png
Narratively, it flies all over the place. You can get the basic understanding of the story, but jumps around so much it can become very hard to follow. Particularly when the aforementioned reality warping comes into play, just have faith in the fact that you will understand by the end of the series. Which leads me to this point: you will not get it. You will watch the entire series and have very little clue as to what to make of it. The true values comes after you finish watching it, you can't help but ponder everything that you saw and in time you will come to your own conclusions about the story after finishing it. Personally, I did not come to my own conclusion about the story until about a week after I finished watching it, at which point it elevated from 'weird mind screw' to 'masterpiece'.
http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/protectedimage.php?image=KevinGilvear/lain1.jpg
Can I recommend it? I am not sure, I hated watching it. I hated every second of watching it, however once it is finished: everything sinks in and you draw your own meaning from it. The creators themselves admitted they themselves had no clue as to what it is supposed to be about, in a sense you will get 'it', but not get 'it' at the same time because 'it' is a dynamic concept that varies from person to person. If you're in the mood to think and willing to suffer for a really rich experience, by all means watch this. If you do not have the patience to watch the entire thing before enjoying it, or easily disturbed. Give it a miss, however I must say you will be missing out on one of the most thought provoking series' of all time.
Kozahk will never hear white noise the same way ever again, so creepy :(
Serial Experiments Lain, first aired 1998, is an anime directed by the acclaimed Ryūtarō Nakamura, who would later go on to direct the highly successful Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex. The story concerns Lain Iwakura, a teenage girl living with her mother, father and sister in urban Japan. One day, a fellow student commits suicide by jumping off a building...only to send an email to all her classmates the day after claiming that she 'has only left the physical world, she still exists within The Wired'.
The Wired can best be described as the next evolution of Internet, Lain decides to respond to that email and ends up having a real time conversation with a dead person. As she continues to explore The Wired, she is drawn into a conspiracy to link The Wired to physical reality, carried out by a virtual?/real?/imaginary? Doppelganger who manifests herself as a God within both The Wired and Reality. The series focuses on Lain's search for identity (which of her is real?), a commentary on the nature of reality, and philosophical insight into the role of communication as part of the human condition, and its relationship to both identity and reality.
http://www.animethemes.net/data/media/127/Serial%20experiments%20Lain%200022.jpg
Head hurts? Each episode focuses on each of these three main themes, as well as giving a massive amount of detail on the history of the Internet, computers and communication in general. Naturally, there is a lot of thinking involved and, let me tell you now, you will NOT understand it until after the end. (I'll explain later)
Artistically, it is absolutely gorgeous, heavy reliance on symbolism helps draw out the main themes of the story. One particular note is the shadows, in that within each shadow there are pools of blood. No character notices this, but serves to show the dualism between reality and The Wired; showing The Wired as the world underneath the 'world'. Bright, vibrant use of colours gives the whole series a kind of LSD feel to the world. Constant tearing, uncertainties and inconsistencies within Lain's world, never leaves the viewer to be entirely sure if what they are watching is Reality, The Wired, an illusion, a memory or a nightmare, or perhaps something beyond human comprehension.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_AMTB4op3MmY/SN_zHUtHR-I/AAAAAAAAAS4/92RsPpDxlaY/s400/lain_016.png
Narratively, it flies all over the place. You can get the basic understanding of the story, but jumps around so much it can become very hard to follow. Particularly when the aforementioned reality warping comes into play, just have faith in the fact that you will understand by the end of the series. Which leads me to this point: you will not get it. You will watch the entire series and have very little clue as to what to make of it. The true values comes after you finish watching it, you can't help but ponder everything that you saw and in time you will come to your own conclusions about the story after finishing it. Personally, I did not come to my own conclusion about the story until about a week after I finished watching it, at which point it elevated from 'weird mind screw' to 'masterpiece'.
http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/protectedimage.php?image=KevinGilvear/lain1.jpg
Can I recommend it? I am not sure, I hated watching it. I hated every second of watching it, however once it is finished: everything sinks in and you draw your own meaning from it. The creators themselves admitted they themselves had no clue as to what it is supposed to be about, in a sense you will get 'it', but not get 'it' at the same time because 'it' is a dynamic concept that varies from person to person. If you're in the mood to think and willing to suffer for a really rich experience, by all means watch this. If you do not have the patience to watch the entire thing before enjoying it, or easily disturbed. Give it a miss, however I must say you will be missing out on one of the most thought provoking series' of all time.
Kozahk will never hear white noise the same way ever again, so creepy :(