Where to begin with this series…
Serial Experiments Lain is a 1998 experimental anime focused on student Lain as she braces for the interconnection of digital community. I think.
Honestly, I didn’t like this series.
Word jargon is something I don’t appreciate in my media. Words should have a point. Lain is the type of series that entertains mindless listeners,
people who can be told “the plot is moving,” without witnessing it and be happy with that. I am not one of those viewers.
This series is baked in and out with carelessness. Concepts are presented then discarded an episode later. Characters exist without relation to each other.
Lain doesn’t feel like a part of her family, or schoolmates, or even her world. You could argue this is an effective piece of the plot, but the series acts,
consistently, like she is.
I find myself wondering, still, what this show was really about. It seems devoid of commentary, nothing but a 90’s prophecy of brainrot. “Everything is always connected,”
touted in a show where nothing connects. Where nothing matters.
This show with its stellar online reviews was truly baffling. I have yet to understand what upholds these shining ratings if not general relatability- relatability
to an ai characterization, relatability to a non-human experience, character, and realm. To see such a mass audience calling this series art when it’s no more
than word salad and conceptual throwaways is ultimately disappointing.