Serial Experiments Lain (Ryūtarō Nakamura, 1998)

[Michael Kerpan]

episode 7Show

Lain seems to be in a "variable state". She is still capable of some human connection, at least with Arisu -- but as we see at the end, Wired Lain can manifest in her real-world self. Sister Mika, however, has turned pretty much into a basket case. She never seems to have recovered from her trauma of being at center stage too long. She does not even appear able to utter intelligible words -- as she looks in on Lain in room (what does SHE see there?)

Did VR glasses (or anything like them) exist in the mid-90s. That one individual walking the streets wearing something like them is pretty eerie. He clearly was not using them to see the streets as they actually were.
He came to a bad end -- and it looked like the mother of the game playing boy was involved somehow.(She got some Knight-related component -- and then discarded it at the end. Mysterious. I wonder if she will show up -- or was this just a one-time bit part at the periphery of events.

It was odd how the lighting in the office Lain was taken too completely changed from bright and warmish light when she arrived -- to dimmer, cold and bluish after she put that part in for the guy. I think this shift happened before the questioning as to her family knowledge started. Lain's inability to answer any questions -- even relating to herself -- was certainly disconcerting (to her and to me, as a viewer). But then, even more clearly than before, stress got eliminated as she (temporarily?) became Lain of the Wired.

I really love how this series can sustain and intensify its unstable (and de-stabilizing to viewers) tone -- using visuals and continuously fascinating ambient sounds and seriously off-kilter dialog,

[Mr Sausage]

Episode 6Show

I think one of the most intriguing aspects is the "transformation" of Lain's room. It seems to exist in its own alternal (liminal?) reality. Not only has the amount of computer equipment "exploded", so has all sorts of dubious other items -- like steam boilers). And there seems to be several inches of water on her floor (that nonetheless doe NOT spread beyond her door). One of those (sort of) funny moments -- her father's reaction when he sees what her room has turned into (presumably HE can see it) and his decision to NOT talk to Lain after all.

My sense is that not only is Lain being drawn in to {whatever}, so is Arisu at second-hand. We don't get to hear her say much, but she clearly is worried (and doing some research that makes her even more worried).

The MIB convinced me that they aren't connected with the Knights. However, I am not sure what they DO represent. A secret government organization? Or something else?

The scene between Lain and the dying scientist was intriguing. She found out no answers but he saw her as "the child of God" -- whatever that might mean.

Episode 6Show

The MIB seem to be traditionalists or even reactionaries, don't they? They want to preserve the old world with its traditional boundaries between tech and reality. And the guy in the room refuses to use a new computer. That said, his goons use weird techy goggles, so who knows.

episode 7Show

Lain seems to be in a "variable state". She is still capable of some human connection, at least with Arisu -- but as we see at the end, Wired Lain can manifest in her real-world self. Sister Mika, however, has turned pretty much into a basket case. She never seems to have recovered from her trauma of being at center stage too long. She does not even appear able to utter intelligible words -- as she looks in on Lain in room (what does SHE see there?)

Did VR glasses (or anything like them) exist in the mid-90s. That one individual walking the streets wearing something like them is pretty eerie. He clearly was not using them to see the streets as they actually were.
He came to a bad end -- and it looked like the mother of the game playing boy was involved somehow.(She got some Knight-related component -- and then discarded it at the end. Mysterious. I wonder if she will show up -- or was this just a one-time bit part at the periphery of events.

It was odd how the lighting in the office Lain was taken too completely changed from bright and warmish light when she arrived -- to dimmer, cold and bluish after she put that part in for the guy. I think this shift happened before the questioning as to her family knowledge started. Lain's inability to answer any questions -- even relating to herself -- was certainly disconcerting (to her and to me, as a viewer). But then, even more clearly than before, stress got eliminated as she (temporarily?) became Lain of the Wired.

I really love how this series can sustain and intensify its unstable (and de-stabilizing to viewers) tone -- using visuals and continuously fascinating ambient sounds and seriously off-kilter dialog,

Episode 7Show

Forgot to mention my favourite part of the episode. The kid asks if he can go play with his friend, and his mother asks him why he can't just stay home and play video games instead. Another oddly funny bit.

[Michael Kerpan]

Episode 6Show

The MIB seem to be traditionalists or even reactionaries, don't they? They want to preserve the old world with its traditional boundaries between tech and reality. And the guy in the room refuses to use a new computer. That said, his goons use weird techy goggles, so who knows.

episode 6Show

I assumed that the whole situation was a set-up. It was sort of a test -- and a chance to observe Lain "in the flesh". As soon as she put in that part and the machine was turned on, her Wired self appeared. That seemed awfully "convenient".

Episode 7Show

Forgot to mention my favourite part of the episode. The kid asks if he can go play with his friend, and his mother asks him why he can't just stay home and play video games instead. Another oddly funny bit.

episode 7Show

Even more grimly funny to me -- as soon as she uses the Wired to help the Knights knock off the VR weirdo, she joins her son in playing the fighting game, boasting of her prowess.

[Mr Sausage]

episode 7Show

Even more grimly funny to me -- as soon as she uses the Wired to help the Knights knock off the VR weirdo, she joins her son in playing the fighting game, boasting of her prowess.

episode 7Show

I must've missed that part about her helping them rub out the VR guy. I think I got a bit of information overload that episode and stopped taking things in.

[Michael Kerpan]

episode 7Show

I must've missed that part about her helping them rub out the VR guy. I think I got a bit of information overload that episode and stopped taking things in.

episode 7Show

You see her get a package delivered and get a glimpse of the content. Later you see an encounter the VR guy has with 2 men and a woman (when he demands to be allowed to join the Knights. Later you see him wiped out. Right afterwards, you see the damaged (burned/charred) item she got earlier that day (near the kitchen sink) -- and you see it has a faint trace of the Knights logo.

[Mr Sausage]

Episode 8Show

A seriously creepy and unnerving episode. The surrealism is as strong and masterful as any episode so far. The rows of chattering Lains extending to infinity is a hell of an image.

The episode starts by injecting a new player into the mix, Tachibana General Labs, who is competing for economic superiority of the Wired. There's a funny line: “A company as big as Tachibana General Labs wouldn’t do anything illegal.” Yeah, sure. I'm guessing this thread will become important later, because it's dropped as soon as it's introduced.

The rest of episode follows some serious ontological self-questioning. The voice in the Wired reveals to Lain that she is, indeed, God, but a god defined by omnipresence more than omnipotence since her influence seems limited. God says Lain has always been in the Wired, and that her bodily self is nothing more than a projection, a "hologram", of this godly self that seems to preexist the real-world Lain. Lain rejects this, but is forced to confront its truth when she is brought face-to-face with her worser self, a double who Lain says acts "like the part of me I hate". Lain's jealous, spying, malicious self. On realizing that her worser self has spread malicious gossip, including gossip about Arisu's erotic fantasies, she consciously exercises her god powers and erases the events from reality. This seems to work, but before she can enjoy her ill-gotten fruits, Lain splits again, now into an outgoing, connected, affectionate Lain--a social Lain. Lain, who had previously declared that so long as she was self-aware, she possessed the 'true' Lain inside herself, now slowly fades away. The last image is Lain questioning her identity as she stares into the Wired.

We're given more of a window on Arisu. Arisu is a lovely person. Tho' we eventually learn that Lain has, in fact, peeped on Arisu's most private moments and spread the information, Arisu looks in Lain's eyes and refuses to believe it, chooses instead to see Lain's better self. She's wrong, but she is a wonderful friend. Lain must know this, because when she causes the whole world to scrutinize her, she instinctively calls out for Arisu (and there is a perfectly timed crack in the window glass to signal Lain's fracturing identity). Arisu of course has run off, unable to cope with her teacher knowing her sexual fantasies about him. Lain, unable to find Arisu, has an apocalyptic vision (premonition?) of the world in flames. This whole strand is emotionally painful in a way the show has not explored yet. The moment in Arisu's room is so wrenching, so pointedly painful; and Lain's isolated collapse at school is wracked with its own deep pain. For a show so often distanced and clinical, it has a sure and persuasive grasp of serious emotional pain and an ability to bring the viewer directly into it.

A comment on the visuals: the visuals in the Wired scenes are far more dynamic. The scene in the porn site, for example, uses parallax and complex compositions of layered foreground, midground, and background, all within restless moving shots. Makes a huge contrast with the following scene of Lain walking around the house, getting a drink. It's scenes like the former that show how intentional the otherwise stiff, bare style is.

[Michael Kerpan]

Episode 8Show

A seriously creepy and unnerving episode. The surrealism is as strong and masterful as any episode so far. The rows of chattering Lains extending to infinity is a hell of an image.

The episode starts by injecting a new player into the mix, Tachibana General Labs, who is competing for economic superiority of the Wired. There's a funny line: “A company as big as Tachibana General Labs wouldn’t do anything illegal.” Yeah, sure. I'm guessing this thread will become important later, because it's dropped as soon as it's introduced.

The rest of episode follows some serious ontological self-questioning. The voice in the Wired reveals to Lain that she is, indeed, God, but a god defined by omnipresence more than omnipotence since her influence seems limited. God says Lain has always been in the Wired, and that her bodily self is nothing more than a projection, a "hologram", of this godly self that seems to preexist the real-world Lain. Lain rejects this, but is forced to confront its truth when she is brought face-to-face with her worser self, a double who Lain says acts "like the part of me I hate". Lain's jealous, spying, malicious self. On realizing that her worser self has spread malicious gossip, including gossip about Arisu's erotic fantasies, she consciously exercises her god powers and erases the events from reality. This seems to work, but before she can enjoy her ill-gotten fruits, Lain splits again, now into an outgoing, connected, affectionate Lain--a social Lain. Lain, who had previously declared that so long as she was self-aware, she possessed the 'true' Lain inside herself, now slowly fades away. The last image is Lain questioning her identity as she stares into the Wired.

We're given more of a window on Arisu. Arisu is a lovely person. Tho' we eventually learn that Lain has, in fact, peeped on Arisu's most private moments and spread the information, Arisu looks in Lain's eyes and refuses to believe it, chooses instead to see Lain's better self. She's wrong, but she is a wonderful friend. Lain must know this, because when she causes the whole world to scrutinize her, she instinctively calls out for Arisu (and there is a perfectly timed crack in the window glass to signal Lain's fracturing identity). Arisu of course has run off, unable to cope with her teacher knowing her sexual fantasies about him. Lain, unable to find Arisu, has an apocalyptic vision (premonition?) of the world in flames. This whole strand is emotionally painful in a way the show has not explored yet. The moment in Arisu's room is so wrenching, so pointedly painful; and Lain's isolated collapse at school is wracked with its own deep pain. For a show so often distanced and clinical, it has a sure and persuasive grasp of serious emotional pain and an ability to bring the viewer directly into it.

A comment on the visuals: the visuals in the Wired scenes are far more dynamic. The scene in the porn site, for example, uses parallax and complex compositions of layered foreground, midground, and background, all within restless moving shots. Makes a huge contrast with the following scene of Lain walking around the house, getting a drink. It's scenes like the former that show how intentional the otherwise stiff, bare style is.

Mr S -- I'm really enjoying your comments on this. They remind me (a bit) of my own astonishment -- and joy -- when I first encountered this series.

Episode 8Show

Mika is STILL in a state of incoherent total breakdown -- and Lain's parents, when she goes to breakfast, seem almost as if they have not yet been turned on. Their utter immobility is totally disconcerting. And their change from this to staring wordlessly at Lain (after she talks about whether they are her "real family") is even more disconcerting.

Arisu is very concerned and trusting towards Lain -- but even she seems almost completely unable to tell the "real" Lain from her "fake" versions. Lain's re-set works -- up to a point -- but she is left out as a fake version easily takes her place. I wonder, does this fake version better reflect how Lain actually once behaved . . . before "things started happening"?"

The sound design continues to remain uncanny and awesome. I remain impressed at both how intentional all sound and images are -- and how steadfast the creators are at resisting any attempt to discern some "true meaning" from what we see and hear.

[vsski]

Episode 9Show

- Out of nowhere the episode starts with the Roswell incident and an alien appears in Lain’s bedroom
- The episode then switches between news like information on various American scientists that contributed to the development of what became the Wired (I have no idea which of what is presented as facts are actually correct versus theory or rumors) and Lain trying to come to terms with her alter ego in the Wired
- She goes back to the club to meet the three “children” and asks the boy who previously was rather cocky out on a date and back in her bedroom puts him under pressure to get information about a chip the club’s DJ gave to her as well as to know who the Knights are, since she believes he knows them
- He has some knowledge of them but claims he is not a member and the chip can erase memories in the real world but he doesn’t know which
- Before leaving he kisses Lain showing one of the few human emotional interactions in the series and a quite touching moment with Lain’s surprised reaction
- While all this is going on Lain’s parents are downstairs in the kitchen making out “while they still can” as the mother says, and the older sister finally starts talking again although it’s incomprehensible - this begs the question why does the mother think they have little time left?
- A flashback on Lain’s computer seem to indicate that Lain was adopted and is not a biological family member
- So what’s next? Many questions are raised and if anything they seem to increase from episode to episode, many issues around technology, the role of god and his/her existence, and government conspiracies are brought up, and Lain seems to exist in two different dimensions, but what does it all mean? I’m intrigued to see if we will get answers or have to draw our own conclusions.

Thank Mr Sausage for explaining how to properly code spoiler names and sorry for not figuring it out myself.

[Red Screamer]

I’ve watched through episode five, but I find it hard to talk about the episodes individually since the plotting is so peripheral and discontinuous. I’m blown away by the series so far. This is easily among the most stylistically original shows I’ve ever seen and I’m amazed that the show has stayed so fragmentary and impressionistic for this long.

Others have pointed out the subjective soundtrack and disorienting narrative effects, but I’m also continually surprised by the show’s animation. It subverts expectations of the medium in ways that add to Sausage’s reading of the show’s absurdism. Most obviously, facial expressions tend to be blank. Or, weirder, they’re sometimes depicted subjectively, as in the conversation about the Wired between Lain and her dad in episode four, where her face is blank in the medium shot, a creepy smirk in close-up, and a zombielike, bloodshot exhaustion in the long shot, giving us three different ways to interpret Lain’s new relationship to technology in that scene—neutral, dominant, compulsive. There are also a handful of times in the first few episodes where characters mouth words silently, which is counterintuitive for animation since there’s no chance of ever figuring out what someone is saying, and this adds to the show’s eerie, almost gnostic(?) wavelength. I love this formal playfulness and I’m with Michael that the show is more of a mood piece than it is symbolic sci-fi in the vein of Evangelion. Even the scenes with conventional genre set-ups get emptied out and destabilized in unusual ways. As I see it, the intense emotional and aesthetic effects are “the point”, more so than the themes or psychology, at least so far.

Episode five has one of my favorite bits of inventive staging.

Episode 5 screencapsShow

Another creepy family scene: a silent dinner with Lain’s dad occasionally glancing behind him at a blank TV screen. Lain’s sister Mika breaks the silence by asking Lain a question. It’s the first time the sisters have had an opening for personal connection in the entire show. Lain looks up from her plate, taken aback that someone has spoken to her. Then this shot-reverse shot happens—






—where the “out-of-focus” water glass handed from father to mother blocks Lain’s face, then there’s a cut on the action 180 degrees so the cup is blocking Mika’s face, then it’s pulled away. She says nevermind. The opening for personal connection has closed, as if the sisters' briefly shared bubble was popped by this mechanical dinner ritual.

In general, the show has a great, expressionistic use of objects. Even just sticking with drinks, we have the refraction from a Coke bottle in a club that kickstarts a drug-induced hallucination, the forbidden nighttime snack of orange soda, and the coffee spill in episode five, as well as the great point-of-view shot of Mika looking into a swirling water cup that ends the above dinner scene, kickstarting her own visions of some sort.

Episode 2 / Episode 5 screencapsShow

In addition to these coups of mise-en-scène, the animation also features an unusual mix of textures—both abstract and photographic backgrounds, blown-out film inserts, glitchy CGI, blocky 3D video game animation, simulated VHS artifacts, &c. The palette keeps expanding with every episode.

IIRC the board members who took up my recommendation last time didn’t like it, but Serial Experiments Lain exists in the same mental space for me as We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. That film is much more minimal, but the two works have a similarly vivid sense of digital-age alienation and adolescence, as well as, for my money, definitive portraits of the excitement and terror in the unreality of the internet and all of its possibilities. The other comparison that comes to mind is Twin Peaks: The Return, as feihong also brought up, including the fact that the two shows share the motif of humming telephone poles and power lines, seemingly an all-powerful, near metaphysical image in both shows.

[Mr Sausage]

Great post. You remind me that Lain and Mika have had numerous abortive attempts to connect, and each time something comes between them, either small things like that glass, or major stuff like

spoilers up to episode 8Show

Lain outright disappearing in the street before Mika can embrace her, or Mika's soul, as it were, disappearing in the hallway just before she can urgently communicate with Lain.

Something always seems to stop them right at the point of communicating.

I like how, for such a masculine genre as cyberpunk, so much of the show is focused on female relationships.

[Michael Kerpan]

Welcome to the party, Red Screamer!

It's only been 3 or so years since I last Lain -- and yet I am finding all sorts of things I had not remembered (until reminded now). This is the first time I've done a "watch party" (since the initial one with my sons 22 years ago). I really am being reminded very strongly of just how tremendous an impact this had on me on first viewing. In a sense, I realize that it blocked my reception for most other TV anime (except those involving Yoshitoshi Abe) because almost nothing else I encountered met the standards/expectations set by Lain. It took years and years to become more "relenting".

The repeated blocking of each attempt by Mika and Lain to communicate with each other is one of the saddest aspects of this series (along with Lain's difficulties with Arisu).

[Michael Kerpan]

One thing I remembered distinctly from prior viewings was the (mostly faux) historical "technobabble". So I was surprised at how intermittent it has been -- up to episode 9. Now I realize that it made such an impact here that it seeped through the whole series in my memory.

I'm having to listen to the rest of this series via speakers. I tripped over my headphone cord and wrecked the headphone to computer port adapter.

Episode 9Show

Query: Just who WAS it who pushed Lain into the room where her "family" awaited her. All doubts are now erased on this point. She has been placed in this family -- and not all that long bewfore the point we first see her. She is already wearing the same school uniform we are familiar with.

An interesting parallelism: Mika advances from incomprehensible fractured words to evoking the process of modem connection. Later, Lain similarly evokes the start of the computer boot-up process. Does this MEAN anything. Probably not. But I enjoyed it.

What was it that the Knights were trying to do to Lain? Are THEY now trying to erase HER? Lain's "date" with of the Cyberia kids gets her a little information about the Knights plans about her -- and a parting kiss (with transfer of a wad of chewed gum) from her cheeky acquaintance. One notes that even he was duly impressed by the insanity of her computer set-up. And was finally convinced that this Lain WAS the "real Lain".

What the heck was the deal with the brief appearance of the ET-like critter? FWIW, ETs (of a very different sort) will be a main element of Abe's next show -- Niea_7, which also features Mika's VA as one of its two leads.

We meet (or at least see revealed fully) a new character in the last second or so of the episode...

[Mr Sausage]

Episode 9Show

Interesting structure. The episode is self-contained segments of Lain's story interspersed with vignettes explaining essentially the history of conspiratorial thinking, everything from Roswell to MK Ultra to dolphin experimentation.

Lain learns several things: she learns that Taro, while not a Knight, is Knight adjacent. The Knights are definitely religion, not only believing in one, singular truth, but fighting to make that truth into a reality. “The truth has power because it’s the truth. And because it’s the truth, that makes it just.” A terribly religious sentiment. Lain, using some way of recovering memories by reproducing physical sensations associated with them (how Proustian), recovers what's been happening in Cyberia. The chip she was given is from the Knights, a “non-volatile memory” that’ll overwrite existing memories. What memories, and to what end, we don't know. Taro then kisses Lain, which is unexpected, but in a childish impulse leaves her with his chewed gum. Lain decides that there is indeed only one truth, and that truth is God, ie. herself. That seems like a dangerous solipsism. It's also an irony for a being to declare herself truth, singular, when she is fragmented into so many versions and identities.

Lain uses her Navi to recover hidden memories. She is an implant into the family (if it even is a real family), handed over by what looks like the MIB. She is received without emotion or explanation. Her room is a pink, fluffy paradise, a cliche of a little girl's room. She will have emptied it of everything but the toys before the series starts. Lain's room is rather a symbol of the character: empty and devoid of character at the beginning of the show; a packed, confusing mess of connections and tech when she dives into the wired; a stereotypical design when she is given into her fake family to play a role.

The key takeaway from the info dumps is the idea of neural networks. Tachibana General Labs had conceived of the world as one giant neural network--a great brain whose neurons are people--and one of their employees, to speed that on its way, inserts either tech or code into its Navi products that'll allow people to connect to the wired while essentially wireless. This is crucial for so much of what's been happening. That employee is then suicided by the company, one assumes.

Poor Mika. She sits in a dark corner at the end of the episode, trying somehow to make a connection, raising her hand to her ear like a telephone and trying to speak to someone. She has been wrecked.

The beginning and ending scenes are mysterious: an alien in a Freddy Kruger sweatshirt enters Lain's room and disappears. A vaguely samurai-looking guy shows up in front of Lain's house. Super weird.

[Michael Kerpan]

Lain's immense collection of stuffed animal is impressive. Is there some significance? We never see her interact with them (as far as I can recall) -- but they seem to stand guard -- or something...

[Murdoch]

I'm way behind everybody else

episode 4Show

I didn't pay much attention to it in episode 3, but Lain's half-naked attire as she dismantles the computer shows a definite shift for her. This is the same girl who was chastised by one of her friends for showing up to the club wearing her childish hat and clothes from school. It's apparent that there's changes happening within her - her angry outburst at the kid that asks to see her "wild" side, this attire. Her family notices the change - I liked the father and mother's awkward acknowledgement of it to each other, followed by the mother half-heartedly patting the father's head


The show also seems to draw attention to this in a few ways aesthetically.
In episode 2, the "camera" (or rather the frame) panned between a friend and Lain during their conversation. In that episode, this panning was animated in a way where it seemed the camera was rushing between Lain and the friend speaking, going across a great distance to connect the two speakers despite them only standing a few feet apart. In episode 4, the camera pans normally, there's no rushing of images or speed lines as we shift between Lain and a friend speaking. It's like Lain has reduced the distance between her and her friends, or at least reduced the anxiety and discomfort she appeared to feel around them.

There's also another notable part. At Cyberia, JJ (the club's DJ) calls Lain an adult (although I'm confused over how he heard her voice with her not being there. Has she taken on some kind of psychic powers with her use of the Wired and the Navi?)

The plot is much more clear now. Lain's use of the Wired and her Navi have transformed her. She's taken on confidence and no longer acts like a spectator to those around her. In past episodes, conversations seemed to happen around her or to her but she rarely offered much in responses. Now, she is as much a participant and influencing the conversations she has as the person she speaks with.

The world around Lain is also more clearly defined. There are no empty white spaces or overbearing brightness. Instead, there's Lain either shown in the company of others or isolated with her computer. The visual differences are notable, with Lain seeming to engage more with the world and people around her now that she has the comfort of the Wired to retreat to.

[Mr Sausage]

The discussion is set to end next Monday. Should I extend that by another week? I’d hate for anyone to rush.

[Michael Kerpan]

The discussion is set to end next Monday. Should I extend that by another week? I’d hate for anyone to rush.

I think we need another week, since most people seem to be watching day by day -- rather than bingeing. And I think it might be best to digest this bit by bit.

[Mr Sausage]

Alright. This'll finish up two weeks today.

[Mr Sausage]

Episode 10Show

There are three declarations of love in this episode: from Lain's 'father', from the tall MIB agent, and finally from God, Lain's creator. The first is full of regret, a love that came second to duty. The second is confused, a man who does not understand why or even what he loves, but does so anyway. The last is a demand: a god, a creator needing an eternal witness, declaring love in order to demand it in return--a duty paid. All of these declarations ring hollow in their own ways, and despite the refrain that Lain is not and will never be alone, she seems utterly alone. The theme of the episode is love, but it seems even more about loss.

God reveals himself to be a petty human, a man named Eiri Masami (I think the business man from the previous episode who created the protocol and was killed by a train), who left his bodily form to project his essence into the Wired through a secret protocol containing his consciousness. Now he will rule the Wired through controlling information, unable to die. A God cannot be a god without worshippers, so he created them, the Knights, who are descended from the Knights Templar (another classic conspiracy theory), and who themselves used the collective unconscious as an "invisible human network" long before the creation of the Wired. Most of this is told in the most loopy dialogue scene, where the participants switch roles and voice each other's questions and answers, reinforcing how they are parts of one another.

Lain projects remotely into the Wired and reveals the Knights--we already know them. They are the horny business people, the fat gamer, the mother. The MIB murders some of them, others appear to commit suicide (or were somehow induced to do so remotely). The MIB visit Lain, surprised to find her still alive, and declare their purpose: they work on behalf of a client to safeguard the real. For them, the Wired is there to support the given, not have a special existence alongside it. They are agents of the material world and the systems and norms within it. "We have no need for gods" one of them declares. Indeed, their client is working on a program to wipe Eiri Masami's consciousness from the Wired.

Lain has a final confrontation with God. He reveals himself as her creator and calls her, appropriately, a homunculus. Her world, with her family, friends, and all her cares and concerns, is a lie. There is a shot, framed through Lain's teary eyes, where her house seems to dissolve into nothingness. God is undermining all facets of her reality...but Lain resists. She references the other her, which surprises god, bringing on a swift denial; but overall, the says all of his claims are lies, and psychically repels him with such force the omnipresent power lines split and fall to earth. She ends the episode alone in the street.

This is a mournful episode. The strongest moments are at the beginning, where Lain slowly fades from reality: her desk missing; Arisu in monochrome telling her to cast off reality; her house empty, the plants long dead and the rooms deserted. There are plenty of declarations of love, but little warmth. A gentle sadness permeates everything. And yet, while the Lain at the start of the series barely seemed to exist, in the final stretch she refuses all calls to give up the world, and clings hard to what she figures is her identity. She is growing into self-assertion, the most basic self-assertion: I am. Between the pull of God to leave physical reality behind, and the MIB to turn the Wired into a subsection of reality, Lain straddles both, refusing the totalizing claims of either. Lain's development is not towards transcendence or materialism, but a melding, a true connection, a third state in which Wired and reality merge into a new thing embodied in herself. Lain is a Jesus figure, consubstantial with the father but embodied in the flesh. But unlike Jesus, she so-far refuses an imposed will and desires identity and autonomy. She wants to make of herself what she wants. I'm interested to see what she makes herself into.

[Michael Kerpan]

Episode 10Show

Wow, this IS a pretty brutal episode. Not just for the (now-annihilated) Knights but also for Lain herself. The little boy's mother, head in a pool of blood, as he calls to her to join him in his game was pretty upsetting. But Lain finding she had no place in her classroom (even her desk being gone), and being invisible to all (except Arisu who tells her she is no longer needed) was even more upsetting.

Lain's now abandoned house (left in a state of disarray -- how will she eat, given the state of the refrigerator) is eerie. And her farewell form her "father" is disconcerting. One really wonders just how long she has been in the family? Do we actually see her near the start of her stay there? Did her classmates (including Arisu) all have their memories manipulated to make them believe she had been a long-term classmate (surely they were not also "paid extras" or the like).

The MiB are a lot more vicious than I might have expected. Once Lain blows the whistle on them, they waste no time eliminating the entire group (or at least those who have not committed suicide already). Interestingly, while they check on her status, they had no instructions to finish HER off. We never find out who actually control the MiB, only that they represent a party that wants no competition from the Wired to the "real world" (just a docile servant to that party's notion of reality). The declaration of love by one of Lain's MiB watchers is a bit mystifying (but interesting).

Luckily Taro was NOT officially a Knight, so hopefully he has escaped the purge. But Cyberia is as derelict-looking as Lain's house. Interesting. Was this the home away from home for Lain (or at least one of her incarnations)?

Eiri claims to be the "god" of the Internet -- but it seems he is not any sort of inherent god, just one by having lots of followers (Knights). Now he pins his hopes for continued godhood on Lain who he claims to have created. She goes into "annoyed mode" -- and one assumes that is the end of ex-god Eiri. At the end of the episode Lain seems to belong nowhere and have nobody (just to the Wired, for what that's worth).

[Murdoch]

episode 5 and 6Show

The Knights' philosophy begins to form, viewing the Wired not as merely a virtual space but another plane of existence. I'm reminded of a book I read in law school, titled Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World. It, in part, documents a group that formed in the early days of the internet, mostly programmers, that asserted cyberspace was an entirely separate world, not bound by the regulations or laws of any country or government, and that what occurred within its space was beyond the jurisdiction of any policing agency. That mentality appears to motivate the Knights, albeit with a more theological component at play, and an obsession with an unspecified prophecy.

Episode 5 sees Lain's sister take more of a center role. She and Lain seem more like strangers that live together. Several times the sister sees Lain in public, such as when what appears to be Lain stands in the middle of traffic, but she doesn't approach. Instead, she stares silently, watching from afar without attempting to go to her sister.

Lain's sister is harassed by writings regarding the prophecy - in her spilled coffee, on a wall. Perhaps the Knights are honing in on her because of her proximity to Lain? She's replaced by a doppelganger, the real version disappearing suddenly as her double addresses Lain. Then, in episode 6, the double stares at a TV screen, her face appearing half-dead as her mother comments on how early she's been home recently. Her mother appears oblivious, and her father seems only concerned with Lain's frequent use of her Navi and how much it's taken over her room.

For Lain, she's now more assertive than ever. She wears lipstick, dresses in stylish outfits, and is not afraid to speak her mind (especially to the Cheshire Cat and Dr. Hodgeson while she's in the Wired).

The plot also comes further into focus. The Knights appear to be using some strange technology that draws psychic energy from children and harnesses it. Somehow the game in the Wired is a recreation of Hodgeson's experiments on children.

I'm not quite as engaged as I was earlier in the show. The aesthetic flourishes highlighting Lain's isolation have mostly vanished (for obvious reasons given Lain's sudden confidence). The plot is a bit too convoluted, particularly that around the Knights. As a prophetic vision of the world in the digital age, it's intriguing and I'll keep watching to see how Lain's revelation regarding the Knights alters how she utilizes the Wired

[vsski]

Episode 10Show

- This episode really came unexpected and threw me for a loop
- So many topics that were carefully build up over multiple episodes suddenly got resolved (kind of) in a matter of minutes
- The knights got wiped out by the men in black or committed suicide (the image of the mother lying in a pool of her own blood at her desk while her little boy is playing a game is truly harrowing)
- Lain no longer exists in the real world and she is even told that she never really was real (at least that was my interpretation of the opening scene)- something she has a hard time dealing with
- Her mother and sister have disappeared and the house looks like it hasn’t been occupied for a long time, and the scene with the father, who is the only one still left to interact with her is heartbreaking, as he admits he could have done more but didn’t
- And getting back to the opening scene, she meets another god of the Wired, who turns out to be the embodiment of the conscience of the scientist who killed himself (or was killed) on the train tracks and tells her she is also a god and was never real, only to then go into a conversation that in order to be a god you have to have followers and how to achieve that
- I had to watch the opening several times as I found the changing voices confusing as they were using each other’s voice when speaking (I didn’t fully understand why)
- So Lain is told she is a god of the Wired and doesn’t exist in the real world any longer and she is really struggling to accept this - what’s next?
- Frankly I’m a bit stumped at this stage

[Mr Sausage]

Episode 10Show

- This episode really came unexpected and threw me for a loop
- So many topics that were carefully build up over multiple episodes suddenly got resolved (kind of) in a matter of minutes
- The knights got wiped out by the men in black or committed suicide (the image of the mother lying in a pool of her own blood at her desk while her little boy is playing a game is truly harrowing)
- Lain no longer exists in the real world and she is even told that she never really was real (at least that was my interpretation of the opening scene)- something she has a hard time dealing with
- Her mother and sister have disappeared and the house looks like it hasn’t been occupied for a long time, and the scene with the father, who is the only one still left to interact with her is heartbreaking, as he admits he could have done more but didn’t
- And getting back to the opening scene, she meets another god of the Wired, who turns out to be the embodiment of the conscience of the scientist who killed himself (or was killed) on the train tracks and tells her she is also a god and was never real, only to then go into a conversation that in order to be a god you have to have followers and how to achieve that
- I had to watch the opening several times as I found the changing voices confusing as they were using each other’s voice when speaking (I didn’t fully understand why)
- So Lain is told she is a god of the Wired and doesn’t exist in the real world any longer and she is really struggling to accept this - what’s next?
- Frankly I’m a bit stumped at this stage

SpoilerShow

I didn't think he was another god, but that he was the one god of the Wired and Lain was a part or fragment of him that he'd created. The shooter in episode 2 says as much before killing himself. Lain was 'real' in the sense that she had a real body and real family and attended a real school with real students, but that this was all set up for her by the god who made her. That was my impression, anyway

[Mr Sausage]

Episode 11Show

The first half of the episode is filler, an impressionistic clip show. Two interesting things: it rams home how pervasive the eye motif is. Not sure I have a reading on that motif yet. Also, it contains a short text: “Alice, love needs you…”. Interesting.

The second half makes up for the filler by being extraordinarily dense. The god appears to Lain, who's hooked herself up to her Navi, kneeling on the floor with a blissed out empty expression, and observes she has loaded an emulator of her Navi into her own brain. He warns her that too much information all at once could lead to overflow. Lain asks him not to talk of her as tho’ she is a machine. The God agrees, but only because it's more accurate to call her software rather than hardware, “[a]n executable program with a body.” The God has endless metaphorical descriptions of Lain: a program, a homunculus, some others I don't remember specifically.

Lain wanders the empty streets in her nightdress. She sees a weird Wired blob moving across the street. It reveals the girl who committed suicide in ep. 1, Chisa. Lain declares she finally understands what Chisa told her on that one walk home they had, tho' I forget what that is. The gunman from ep. 2 appears and says dying is easy, while Chisa maintains it's not. Seems like Lain's consciousness is having a dialogue with itself about death, using these figures or fragments to voice the two sides. Lain's inability to choose represents her unwillingness to embrace the totalizing visions of either GOd or the MIB. The two figures then disappear and Lain heads towards a weird technological apocalypse.

The rest of the episode is from Arisu's perspective. It seems like Lain's attempt to erase her big mouth either hasn't worked, or has been forgotten by the show. Lain appears to Arisu in the form of the Roswell alien from a previous episode (does Lain ultimately originate from the Roswell landing?) and explains her attempt to wipe the misdeeds of the other Lain from reality. Lain wants to break down the borders between the Wired and the world, an explicit statement on her decision to inhabit both spaces fully rather than choosing either one. Her attempt to erase the other Lain's misdeeds appears to work, but Arisu decides to confess things anyway to her friends. Before she can fully explain, reality fades, and Lain stands there, staring at Arisu. Reality fades back in, and Lain, still staring at Arisu and co., gives a big creepy smile. This startles Arisu. I wonder--is that Lain the evil Lain, the one who spread malicious gossip? That Lain was certainly fond of creepy smiles. Will the battle be not between Lain and God or the MIB, but between the various unincorporated sides of herself, the parts she refuses to acknowledge? Will the final episodes be Lain's battle for self-awareness and actualization?

An inscrutable episode with an inscrutable title. What is 'infornography' anyway? Information pornography?

[vsski]

Episode 10Show

- This episode really came unexpected and threw me for a loop
- So many topics that were carefully build up over multiple episodes suddenly got resolved (kind of) in a matter of minutes
- The knights got wiped out by the men in black or committed suicide (the image of the mother lying in a pool of her own blood at her desk while her little boy is playing a game is truly harrowing)
- Lain no longer exists in the real world and she is even told that she never really was real (at least that was my interpretation of the opening scene)- something she has a hard time dealing with
- Her mother and sister have disappeared and the house looks like it hasn’t been occupied for a long time, and the scene with the father, who is the only one still left to interact with her is heartbreaking, as he admits he could have done more but didn’t
- And getting back to the opening scene, she meets another god of the Wired, who turns out to be the embodiment of the conscience of the scientist who killed himself (or was killed) on the train tracks and tells her she is also a god and was never real, only to then go into a conversation that in order to be a god you have to have followers and how to achieve that
- I had to watch the opening several times as I found the changing voices confusing as they were using each other’s voice when speaking (I didn’t fully understand why)
- So Lain is told she is a god of the Wired and doesn’t exist in the real world any longer and she is really struggling to accept this - what’s next?
- Frankly I’m a bit stumped at this stage

SpoilerShow

I didn't think he was another god, but that he was the one god of the Wired and Lain was a part or fragment of him that he'd created. The shooter in episode 2 says as much before killing himself. Lain was 'real' in the sense that she had a real body and real family and attended a real school with real students, but that this was all set up for her by the god who made her. That was my impression, anyway

SpoilerShow

Your reading may well be accurate, as the discussion between Lain and the Scientist/God can be read that way. Maybe I was hoping that after all the complexity that the series seemed to build up, the answer wouldn’t just boil down to one person - the scientist - having created everything including Lain. I guess I was hoping that something as complex as the Wired had to be build by multiple entities. As far as Lain is concerned my working assumption was that she was a real person who had an alter ego with a dark side personality created in the Wired that was trying to take over, so to now hear that she was an elaborate fabrication by one man who not only created her but the entire set-up with her family and her school mates seems either too far fetched or too disappointing (likely both for me). But if you are correct and you may well be, why would the Scientist / God go to that length to create her? To build a group of followers? I thought the Knights already played that role?