Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #96193 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-07-08
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Format: NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 4

Amazon.com
Disturbing, perplexing, sometimes infuriating, Ryutaro Nakamura's serial experiments lain covers some of the same themes as The X-Files and the films of David Lynch. When introverted 13-year-old Lain receives an e-mail from a dead classmate, she gains access to "the Wired," a virtual world that promises unlimited power to those who can exploit it. Gradually the borders between the real and the virtual blur, and Lain's own identity begins to fade and fragment. Her parents tell her that she is not really their child, her online self grows in power and independence, and shadowy organizations pursue her in both worlds. Finally she begins to realize that she is either reality's only hope, or its worst enemy.

Nakamura keeps the pace of serial experiments lain deliberately slow, imbuing the early episodes with a sense of mounting dread that pays off as the plot develops. The anime technique of panning across static images creates a meditative stillness that works perfectly, and the repetition of certain key images gives them a dreamlike significance. Viewers will either love or hate the complex plot, which seems intent on incorporating every possible paranoid conspiracy, from sinister nanotechnology to alien plots. However--unlike many other anime--it somehow hangs together, and frankly not understanding everything is part of the pleasure of this kind of story. Fans of action-heavy anime and people who like every loose end tied up should steer clear, but those who surrender themselves to the slowly unfolding mysteries of the plot will be amply rewarded. --Simon Leake

Customer Reviews

Am I Me?
If this series didn't make you sit down and think about your own perceptions of reality then you definitely didn't get this series. I spent a large portion of this series thinking it was highly influenced by the Matrix... until I looked at the date and found that "Serial Experiments Lain" was out well before the Matrix. Now I wonder if the Matrix was influenced by this. Part of me says it must have been! Ah well, that's what I get for watching things so long after they came out. Either way I did quite enjoy this series' philosophical concepts quite a bit.

The animation and story sequence is very surreal on both fronts. To be honest, I wasn't very into the way it was "filmed". It was very disruptive and always made you question what you were watching. I realize this is pretty much the whole point, but they almost did TOO good of a job blurring the scenes of reality and the virtual, which is basically the whole series concept. Just part of me wishes the lines were a little more well defined, so I wouldn't have to constantly be assaulted with "is this real?" However, it forces you to really think about what you're watching, so my preferences aside this is insanely well thought out! "Serial Experiments Lain" is about questioning the perceptions of reality and how you define yourself as a real person or as a virtual person. I assume this was influenced by the explosion of the internet and how people represent themselves as they'd like to see themselves, not how they are in the real world. So "Serial Experiments Lain" asks the question of it's viewers about how they see their real selves, and which one is, in fact, more real?

The story circles around a girl named Lain and you never quite know if she's a person in the real world, or if she's a construct in the virtual world. But how different is the real world versus the virtual world? I'm not going to claim that I understood every little detail of this series, but it appears to be quite well researched because it references scientists that worked on these concepts, and even the concept of a global conscious network (basically our current connection without the computer hardware). Bizarre occurrences happen when Lain is interacting with the real world, people either go mad, or they die, sometimes both. I imagine this is due to the fact that blurring the two lines that much forces people to wonder who they are and their brains just snap on the pressure. Lain is a real consciousness, of course, but her concept of "self", as it is proposed is just software. An executable file, as the show states. This also brings us to the question of deity, as in who programmed this executable file? God? One thing I loved was that the series proposes that the consciousness of mankind could overcome whatever humanity perceives as deity, because it asks the question of "who made you God?" By what right do you rule our species and world? And also presents the concept that God is only God if that deity has worshippers, even if there is just one. Something very close to a theory I have quite often pondered upon. So what happens if there are no more worshippers? Is that deity still God? If not then what is God? As you can see "Serial Experiments Lain" is definitely designed for those who really want to think about the world around them and their role in it. Lain frequently asks "am I me?" Always trying to define herself, always asking where she belongs.

This review may seem fairly disjointed, but it certainly fits the spirit of the series in my opinion. I imagine that many will be really intrigued by this and this should definitely screw with your mind a little after watching it. It really makes you ponder where you are in life and is that where you belong... is it really you? While some of the filming concepts are kind of annoying I see their point, except for "Infornography", most of that episode annoyed me. Other than that they were all well done, even if a little hard to follow at times. I think some people will outright hate this due to its very bizarre feel and they won't be able to move beyond that. However, I think this is kind of geared towards the techno savvy generation, especially those into hacking and other concepts of free information. If any of these concepts seem appealing to you, then I would definitely recommend you check out this series!

Intriguingly amazing
Lain is one of the most well-developed anime series ever made. What's particularly cool about it is enmeshing a number of fundamental questions (e.g., what is god? what am I? What is real?)and creating a powerful storyline that, unlike some other series, remains consistent and enchanting till the last shot. Great choice of soundtrack, well-chosen characters and lack of redundant episodes with little relevance to the main theme are other points of strength. Highly recommended.

Quick Overview
Fascinating and surreal. Dream intersecting with Reality, flowing into one another with a matrix overlay, until you're left not knowing exactly what's going on... which is exactly how Lain feels.