Serial Experiments Lain (Ryūtarō Nakamura, 1998)

[Mr Sausage]

DISCUSSION ENDS MONDAY, February 6th


What we're watching::

-All 13 episodes of the anime series Serial Experiments Lain, broadcast from July 6th - September 28th 1998.


How it works:

-Members new to the series can watch the episodes and record their thoughts and impressions as they go and comment on each other's posts to create a sense of a shared viewing experience. Old hands can comment on those posts or post their overall thoughts on the series.

-This discussion is spoiler-free. All spoilers should be spoiler tagged with a brief indication of what episodes are being discussed, eg.:

episodes 1 and 2Show

All the main characters turn into giant squid and have a tea party.

The code for this is:

Code: Select all

[spoiler="episodes 1 and 2"]text[/spoiler]

Where to watch:

-PM Michael Kerpan for details.

[Mr Sausage]

Episode 1Show

Ok, wow, this is an avant garde work. It has an absurdist and dreamlike atmosphere, something spare and cold with long pauses in the dialogue that feels perceptibly 90s in a way that's hard to articulate. The plot is minimalist: a girl kills herself and, a week later, sends classmates emails. Maybe a total of 3 minutes are dedicated to this. The rest is spent working up the show's themes, symbolism, and atmosphere.

The immediate theme seems to be social disconnection and the role played by technology. The episode is blunt about this: a family dinner where the father is absent, bent on his own preoccupations; the older sister excuses herself from the family ritual in a dismissive fashion; and the mother ignores Lain despite the unusual content of Lain's speech. There's then a scene where Lain approaches her father about getting a new computer, and as he explains the wondrous ability of technology to connect us all he ignores Lain while staring rapt at images of people with absent heads.

Death also permeates the episode. Not just on the plot level, but in other blunt effects, including many of the compositions being spattered with what looks like blood, and dream images (portents? visions? symbolic reenactments?) of a suicide on a train that seems to grow out of both the immediate situation, the train suddenly stopping and a passenger wondering aloud if someone's been hurt, and the previous classmate's suicide. It’s like Lain's emotional state is colliding with some metaphysical force to produce portentous visions strewn with symbolism that are so powerful, they fracture her actual life into a seeming dream state. She wakes up, as it were, several times in the midst of activities, unaware of how she got there. Her reality seems to be crumbling.

The show's other theme seems to be the conjunction of metaphysics and technology. The email from Lain's dead schoolmate works the common cyberpunk idea of uploaded consciousness, but relates it in the language of spirituality. I'm guessing the show will explore spiritual ideas of transcendence and the nature of the soul, with technology as the leading metaphor. We'll see. The episode is heavy with technological symbols, like ominous shots of humming telephone wires, and the show's final image: Lain in a technological womb.

One of the most striking elements of the show's style is its use of silent-film-esque title cards, done in psychedelic swirls, to relate information from an unidentified voice. The voice can ventriloquize character thoughts and feelings, eg. when the student kills herself; but it also relates disconnected, gnomic phrases that contribute to theme or atmosphere instead. Whose voice is it? A character's? The filmmakers'? Dunno. The one that stood out read: “What’s it like when you die? It really hurts. ”. How weird and creepy.

I feel like I know where this is going without having a good sense of how it'll get there. I'm intrigued. Also, what kind of name is Lain? I've never seen a Japanese person with that name. Is it Japanese? Is it short for something? Very odd.

[Michael Kerpan]

I've re-watched the first three episodes. One thing I am doing for the first time is listening to this through headphones. I have to say this makes the journey even more disconcerting (and fascinating). The sound design for this is as stunning as the visual design. I initially picked this up solely because I was so struck by the character designs (and artwork) shown on the four VHS set boxes. To me, the Lain art (even in this form) was in a whole different universe from that displayed on any other VHS box.

One hint for first time viewers -- if the "technobabble" ever seems to be overwhelming you, treat it as pretty much part of the aural soundtrack rather than anything you have to strain to understand....

[Mr Sausage]

I have to say this makes the journey even more disconcerting (and fascinating). The sound design for this is as stunning as the visual design.

I'm also watching with headphones, and the use of ambient room sound was really disconcerting. It made a lot of scenes feel empty. The low humming of electric wires also stood out.

[Michael Kerpan]

Botanical note. It is very hard to tell the season at the start of this series -- given the primarily urban setting and the stylized artwork. However, as far as I can tell, one definitely sees batches of higanbana (red spider lilly) along the path Lain walks to school. One also sees bushy red and purple flower clumps -- which would likely be chrysanthemums. This would put the start point at the middle to end of September.

"Lain" is definitely NOT a common Japanese name, but it is a legit name (and is written in kanji) as 玲音. The first kanji (independently) means "sound of jewels", the second means "sound" or "noise". FWIW, her last name "Iwakura" means "rock (or cliff) storehouse".

[Michael Kerpan]

episode 1Show

“What’s it like when you die?" "It really hurts." -- I always felt this was part of Lain's online conversation with her dead classmate.

A lot of the imagery in THIS series shows up again in Abe's subsequent work -- especially in Haibane Renmei (and especially crows and a non-infant in a womb).

I had forgotten that, at the start of this series, Lain was radically DISconnected from technology.

Lain's family IS pretty disconcerting, right from the start, isn't it? Interestingly, the VA for her sister (who is given short shrift here) will turn up as one of the leads in Abe's next series Niea_7).

[vsski]

I’m watching this with headphones as well (although in my case because I didn’t want to disturb the apartment neighbor in the middle of the night), but given the sound design I would definitely recommend it this way, as one does pick up nuances one otherwise might miss.
In terms of the plot Mr Sausage summarized Episode1 well, but I couldn’t help but immediately think of it in terms of:

SpoilerShow

A society known for isolating individuals through the use of technology and being one of the problems of teenage suicide (significant in Japan at the time of its show and even today), especially those at odds with the prevailing system and culture, which Lain seems to be.
This is very well expressed through the use of visuals, sounds and the overall coldness of the image to show how alienating the society has become.

When put in context of its time it seems to foreshadow technological advances yet to come, which we take for granted today, such as time stamping emails, living beyond our physical bodies, etc., but maybe I’m simply not remembering well enough what was possible and used at the time and seem to associate it with a period later than the show’s origin.

I did have some immediate questions though:

• Given this is my first anime series, is the use of images with virtually completely static backgrounds caused by a lack of budget or was it a stylistic choice or is it typical of anime? It doesn’t distract from the story, but does add a cold and alienating environment to the story that emphasizes the world of technology and lack of inter human relations very well, but at the same time wondering if this is driven more by budget than anything else.

• The opening title song is in English on the version I’m watching whereas the end title song is in Japanese - is this because I’m watching an export version (although I’m choosing Japanese language not English) or is the opening song in English on all versions?

[Michael Kerpan]

The art style here is utterly intentional. Probably very little that is not quite deliberate.

The state of the internet (as experienced by "consumers") in Lain is WAY beyond its state in the "real world" at the time the show was made -- especially insofar as to the omnipresent "social media" aspect.

The opening song is supposed to be in English. Original opening/closing songs may be all or partly in English.

[Murdoch]

One thing that stood out to me as I watched the first episode was the color scheme of daytime, full of bright whites and muted colors. When there is shadow, it's striking, immediately grabbing the viewer's eye with the colors permeating the blackness. The interior of Lain's home is full of sharp whites that feel overwhelming in their brightness, her commute on the tram has a similarly bleached-out appearance. There's one scene of Lain walking down a set of stairs, with the structure of the stairs and her surroundings completely invisible in the white and only apparent from shadow. It's as if the world is trying to erase itself.

SpoilerShow

As Sausage has already mentioned, the disconnect created by technology is an obvious theme. Lain seems to travel through the world as if she's sleepwalking, everything around her vague and ill descript. She even has to be reminded of the news of a classmate's suicide. Lain's mother is unresponsive to her daughter telling her she received mail from the dead girl. Lain's father is hidden behind of wall of computers as he speaks to her, a creepy, obsessive grin on his face as his glasses reflect the many glowing monitors. His and Lain's conversation is more involved, but he is more interested in what's happening on the monitors than his daughter. Lain is often alone, is a passive participant in her conversations with others, and lacks much in the way of expression, other than an occasional look of surprise.

I miss this era of anime. The medium has become much more frenetic in the last 15 or so years, and it's nice to return to a series like this that's slower paced and methodical in how it progresses its plot.

[Michael Kerpan]

Murdoch -- while thoughtful, slower paced shows may not be the norm today -- they exist. And were such shows ever anything but rare? Granted, Lain is an exceptional masterpiece (IMHO), but I have gradually learned not to demand that every show match it -- lest it be dismissed.

[Murdoch]

Very true, Michael. There's certainly plenty of contemporary anime worth seeking out, although the metaphysical aspects of Lain felt a bit more commonplace to me in the in the late 90s, early aughts (Paranoia Agent and Evangelion being other notable examples).

[Mr Sausage]

One thing that stood out to me as I watched the first episode was the color scheme of daytime, full of bright whites and muted colors. When there is shadow, it's striking, immediately grabbing the viewer's eye with the colors permeating the blackness. The interior of Lain's home is full of sharp whites that feel overwhelming in their brightness, her commute on the tram has a similarly bleached-out appearance. There's one scene of Lain walking down a set of stairs, with the structure of the stairs and her surroundings completely invisible in the white and only apparent from shadow. It's as if the world is trying to erase itself.

SpoilerShow

As Sausage has already mentioned, the disconnect created by technology is an obvious theme. Lain seems to travel through the world as if she's sleepwalking, everything around her vague and ill descript. She even has to be reminded of the news of a classmate's suicide. Lain's mother is unresponsive to her daughter telling her she received mail from the dead girl. Lain's father is hidden behind of wall of computers as he speaks to her, a creepy, obsessive grin on his face as his glasses reflect the many glowing monitors. His and Lain's conversation is more involved, but he is more interested in what's happening on the monitors than his daughter. Lain is often alone, is a passive participant in her conversations with others, and lacks much in the way of expression, other than an occasional look of surprise.

I miss this era of anime. The medium has become much more frenetic in the last 15 or so years, and it's nice to return to a series like this that's slower paced and methodical in how it progresses its plot.

Your post made me think:

SpoilerShow

given the nondescript, barely-shaded world, and Lain’s own confused passivity and ill-sketched personality, could we say Lain is undeveloped or awaiting development? I mean, the final image is her (looking more adult) in a kind of womb. Lain’s visions certainly have more presence than anything in her social reality. Perhaps the classmate’s suicide and ascension to the non-physical realm was brought on by the same thing or same feeling. Indeed, her suicide is precipitated by images of cruelty and lust: the cackling girls and the randy salaryman, depicted within an urban setting composed mostly of featureless black. That is, moments of selfishness that spoil true connection within a world grown indistinct.

[therewillbeblus]

My reaction to the first episode was largely cerebral rather than sensory. I agree that these are strengths of the series so far- but I'm not sure they're unique enough to this specific anime, and my impressions from readings reactions from folks new to this medium is that you're going to love some of the more popular (which are often, but not always, some of the best) animes if you continue to pursue them.

Episode 1Show

I realize this is more of a prediction of where the themes are heading than an evaluation of the information we already have, but I think the enigmatic surreal horror aesthetics we get following the plot device literally intruding on Lain's complacent existence is 'enough' to read deeply into its themes barely-presented pertaining to technology and spirituality. I liked how our protagonist descended into an acute crisis so quickly under conditions one might initially expect to be the most comfortable methods of ingesting this spiritual information. Lain is essentially given tangible ‘proof’ of God from a fellow human spirit, communicating in the same language and via a known modality in email. This strips away much of the alien, nebulous barriers to belief, and allows the skepticism to reveal itself as built upon both innate and social constructs like distrust in systems, technology, fellow man, and ourselves to be able to cope with said information. Faith typically requires more leaning into something broad and invisible, but in providing a bunch of information to make it more streamlined, accessible, and specific, the show exhibits the nature of man to prevent themselves from accessing answers to the questions they seek, while simultaneously striving for these answers in action through engagement with technology. Connection, discovery, and catharsis may be goals in an idealized form, but in practice, they're something we run from in fear, since it’s in the secure spaces of the search that we can issue control, and not in the endpoint of what we might find. After all, what are we going to do once we achieve this final catharsis, other than die and cease to 'be'?

The episode demonstrated very well how the destabilizing effects of otherworldly ideas will occur regardless of setting conditions, and offered the beginnings of an incredibly disconcerting thesis: that perhaps it's more comfortable and easier to have faith when we have more distance from the 'thing' itself; blind faith being safer than having faith when you're placed close to being able to grasp the thing itself. Is this because of the death drive- we are so afraid of dying that when we are in closer proximity to endpoints/answers/god, we become caustically intimate with that part of us easier to dilute, feed, and shield from with psychological defenses, and mediums of distraction? I realize this is all very abstract and redundant stream-of-consciousness, and not necessarily rooted in the evidence of the text, but it's where my mind went. Though plenty of other animes have touched on existentially-stirring material like this, so maybe I'm just projecting.

[vsski]

My reaction to the first episode was largely cerebral rather than sensory. I agree that these are strengths of the series so far- but I'm not sure they're unique enough to this specific anime, and my impressions from readings reactions from folks new to this medium is that you're going to love some of the more popular (which are often, but not always, some of the best) animes if you continue to pursue them.

Episode 1Show

I realize this is more of a prediction of where the themes are heading than an evaluation of the information we already have, but I think the enigmatic surreal horror aesthetics we get following the plot device literally intruding on Lain's complacent existence is 'enough' to read deeply into its themes barely-presented pertaining to technology and spirituality. I liked how our protagonist descended into an acute crisis so quickly under conditions one might initially expect to be the most comfortable methods of ingesting this spiritual information. Lain is essentially given tangible ‘proof’ of God from a fellow human spirit, communicating in the same language and via a known modality in email. This strips away much of the alien, nebulous barriers to belief, and allows the skepticism to reveal itself as built upon both innate and social constructs like distrust in systems, technology, fellow man, and ourselves to be able to cope with said information. Faith typically requires more leaning into something broad and invisible, but in providing a bunch of information to make it more streamlined, accessible, and specific, the show exhibits the nature of man to prevent themselves from accessing answers to the questions they seek, while simultaneously striving for these answers in action through engagement with technology. Connection, discovery, and catharsis may be goals in an idealized form, but in practice, they're something we run from in fear, since it’s in the secure spaces of the search that we can issue control, and not in the endpoint of what we might find. After all, what are we going to do once we achieve this final catharsis, other than die and cease to 'be'?

The episode demonstrated very well how the destabilizing effects of otherworldly ideas will occur regardless of setting conditions, and offered the beginnings of an incredibly disconcerting thesis: that perhaps it's more comfortable and easier to have faith when we have more distance from the 'thing' itself; blind faith being safer than having faith when you're placed close to being able to grasp the thing itself. Is this because of the death drive- we are so afraid of dying that when we are in closer proximity to endpoints/answers/god, we become caustically intimate with that part of us easier to dilute, feed, and shield from with psychological defenses, and mediums of distraction? I realize this is all very abstract and redundant stream-of-consciousness, and not necessarily rooted in the evidence of the text, but it's where my mind went. Though plenty of other animes have touched on existentially-stirring material like this, so maybe I'm just projecting.

SpoilerShow

Your rambling thoughts as you call them are not dissimilar to where I felt this may be heading after watching Episode 1, although I wouldn’t be able to express them this articulate. I had the immediate feeling that Lain who initially seemed very disinterested and even inept at the use of technology compared to her class mates would be come more and more drawn to it and given the lack of any authority figures in her life as her parents seem to not be there for her and communication isn’t taking place, that technology would become a higher force for her guiding her actions and ultimately ruling her life. Now having watched ahead - I’ve currently seen the first 3 episodes - my initial feelings seem to not be off the mark, but I don’t want to jump ahead too quickly especially if folks haven’t yet seen more than #1.
I also feel a slight change in animation which I’m closely observing, but maybe I’m paying too much attention to this, given my unfamiliarity with the medium.

[Michael Kerpan]

I guess I respond totally differently to this from TWBB, very little "cerebral" response -- almost entirely sensory and "emotional". I can't really reconstruct my initial response 22 or so years later -- but I suspect it was not dissimilar to my response now. I also know that things like Evangelion had little or no appeal to me then -- in terms of either art style or story. While I had liked the Ghibli films I had seen, this struck me as utterly different from Miyazaki (though perhaps not so much from Grave of the Fireflies).

[Boosmahn]

I don't think I'll get to a complete rewatch of Serial Experiments Lain before this watchalong closes, but I will toss in an anecdote from when I first watched it: I was so invested in it that I ended up watching all of the episodes over the course of one day while on winter break. I don't think I've done that with any other show, as I tend to like to pace a season/series out.

Watching at a slower pace would probably be better for first-time viewers, though. Or maybe not?

[Michael Kerpan]

Boosmahn -- I don't think I could have handled that. The VHS version was issued as 4 sets. That's how I first (and second -- and third, probably) saw it. That worked fine for me.

[Murdoch]

episode 2Show

Episode 2 begins much like episode 1, showcasing the nighttime underworld. Rather than sexual aggression though, a strange drug takes focus. The Accella larvae-like nano-mechanism being cut out of its egg shell looked like something out of a Cronenberg movie, the organic merged with the synthetic. I'm excited to see how the series explores this drug. It's apparent the writers are interested in addiction, introducing a stimulant into the mix after focusing on Lain's father's obsession with computers.

There's a moment at approximately 6 minutes 40 seconds where Lain stands between shadows, hers and that of some structure beside her. The former spotted with red, the latter with purple, they're striking against the surrounding white, like windows into the cosmos. At this time, Lain encounters a strange man staring at her and flees. Cut to Lain suddenly standing with her classmates, a conventional, welcoming sight of school uniforms and greenery replacing the danger and isolation felt in the black and white. The scene with Lain's friends is comforting at first, with it's bright greens and reds, the friendly chatter replacing the silence of her encounter with the strange man. But that comfort soon vanishes as Lain's awkwardness emerges, the divide between Lain's experience and her friends emphasized by the frame rushing back and forth from Lain to them, as if passing over a great distance to bring their dialogue together.

Episode 2 also examines computers and people as codependent. Lain's father says she needs a computer that "matures alongside your relationships with people." Technology is not merely an inanimate device, but something that informs the depth of one's interactions, a companion even.

I'm not sure quite yet what to take of the phantoms in the hallway. Their shadows are colorfully spotted like those of the everyday structures that populate Lain's isolated walks, but I took little else from it, for now anyway.

"No matter where you go, everyone's connected." The final line suggests a kind of surveillance state/Big Brother vibe to the Wired (which I'm assuming is the series' name for the internet, or some variation of it). It can't be escaped, it's around you, no matter how much you try to avoid it. Viewed in this lens, it's as if Lain's father was indoctrinating her - introducing her to the concept of her new computer as an inescapable truth - you cannot develop/communicate unless you do so within the confines of the digital world.

[Michael Kerpan]

Murdoch --

episode 2Show

I don't (and don't think I ever did) view the Wired as the work of a "surveillance state", but rather an oppressive (and almost inescapable) social collective -- rather like today's Twitterverse and the like.
Mind you, government entities and anti-government ones presumable can and do make use of this resource.

One thing that puzzles me still -- after all these years -- how did the "other Lain" begin to make her appearance at Cyberia (and possibly elsewhere) even before Lain took her first steps to actually use her My First Navi on more than a very rare basis?

I wonder DOES Lain actually have any real "friends" at school beyond (seemingly) Arisu (Alice)? The other two members of that trio seem more like "mere acquaintances" (possibly the only other connections she has at school).

Those swallowable nano-devices creeped me out when I first saw them -- and they still do. No way I would EVER consider swallowing something like that. Interesting that the one the guy swallowed early on took a while to cause him to go berserk. Also interesting that some other entity seemed to take control over Lain when she interacted with that guy as he threatened her and Arsiu.

[therewillbeblus]

episode 2Show

Episode 2 begins much like episode 1, showcasing the nighttime underworld. Rather than sexual aggression though, a strange drug takes focus. The Accella larvae-like nano-mechanism being cut out of its egg shell looked like something out of a Cronenberg movie, the organic merged with the synthetic. I'm excited to see how the series explores this drug. It's apparent the writers are interested in addiction, introducing a stimulant into the mix after focusing on Lain's father's obsession with computers.

There's a moment at approximately 6 minutes 40 seconds where Lain stands between shadows, hers and that of some structure beside her. The former spotted with red, the latter with purple, they're striking against the surrounding white, like windows into the cosmos. At this time, Lain encounters a strange man staring at her and flees. Cut to Lain suddenly standing with her classmates, a conventional, welcoming sight of school uniforms and greenery replacing the danger and isolation felt in the black and white. The scene with Lain's friends is comforting at first, with it's bright greens and reds, the friendly chatter replacing the silence of her encounter with the strange man. But that comfort soon vanishes as Lain's awkwardness emerges, the divide between Lain's experience and her friends emphasized by the frame rushing back and forth from Lain to them, as if passing over a great distance to bring their dialogue together.

Episode 2 also examines computers and people as codependent. Lain's father says she needs a computer that "matures alongside your relationships with people." Technology is not merely an inanimate device, but something that informs the depth of one's interactions, a companion even.

I'm not sure quite yet what to take of the phantoms in the hallway. Their shadows are colorfully spotted like those of the everyday structures that populate Lain's isolated walks, but I took little else from it, for now anyway.

"No matter where you go, everyone's connected." The final line suggests a kind of surveillance state/Big Brother vibe to the Wired (which I'm assuming is the series' name for the internet, or some variation of it). It can't be escaped, it's around you, no matter how much you try to avoid it. Viewed in this lens, it's as if Lain's father was indoctrinating her - introducing her to the concept of her new computer as an inescapable truth - you cannot develop/communicate unless you do so within the confines of the digital world.

Episode 2Show

Interesting, I didn't grasp an interest on addiction itself, moreso a habitual behavior pattern of suppression via tangible distraction (just a slightly amplified version of our own world's), which is how some addictions manifest. But I hope you're right, and I'll definitely be looking for this connection as the series progresses.

This episode gave me much more of a visceral response to the material than the first. I think introducing greater details of how Lain's introversion plays out at odds with her social environment made for some rich exposition. You could really 'feel' the fatalistic pull to disengage, and the bouts of silence mimic Neon Genesis Evangelion's meditative moments more than any show I can think of offhand. It's interesting you bring up the final line "No matter where you go, everyone's connected" under your interpretation of ubiquitous suffocation and destined imprisonment, because I had a very different interpretation of the line, but during its first mention earlier in the episode. The part of the episode that had the strongest effect on me was when Lain's classmate invites her to attend the club, and Lain thinks, "Everyone's connected" after fearfully rejecting the offer. I took that moment to indicate a lamenting that 'Everyone but me is connected to each other' - your typical egocentric-inferiority complex blend, where Lain feels thwarted belongingness and retreats from opportunities that may prove that core belief right or wrong. Either way, it's too intimate, too tangible, too real. This sorta contrasts with your interpretation of the final line and some of the breadcrumbs of plot that get spliced in there at the climax of the episode, but I do wonder if there's a double meaning or ambiguity: both a literal plot element that's true, and also an indication of the impact on what's 'missing' for Lain in the wake of this information.

Our interpretations don't have to be at-odds though, since Lain's feelings of isolation and identification with the status of a deterministic outcast are only possible in reference to her subjective schema that she's "abnormal," because "normal" is to be participating and feeling like a member of the inescapable connections we're forced into. So Lain cannot escape the world swallowing her up -whether in dreams or reality apparently- but she also can't bring herself to engage, because she doesn't possess the skills, confidence, motivation, etc. that she's being reminded repeatedly she "should" possess and utilize. That seems to be a source of the phantasmagoric aesthetic and narrative devices populating the series so far: Yes, they are likely effects of actual forces beyond her control within the greater narrative, but they also allegorically stand in for how Lain is trapped between uncontrollable forces drowning her with relentless stimuli as she's displaced from her complacent lifestyle of detachment, and the conditioned impulse to continuously avoid this conscious contact and return to that state of detachment. I think the sobriety to these two gravitational poles tearing at her psyche are causing the disturbances to some degree. Or maybe not within the plot, but within the subtext. Really looking forward to see if or how subtext informs text here.

[Mr Sausage]

Episode 2Show

That final line, "No matter where you go, everyone's connected”, is interesting, because it does imply an inability to escape or avoid connection. That fits, because this whole episode, Lain is unable to be alone. The central dramatic action is her friends, if they can be called that, accosting, needling, and then compelling Lain to do things she's uncomfortable with. It's an unbalanced, overbearing interaction. Her sister lurks outside her door, commenting on strange presences. But even walking down empty streets or hallways, Lain's accosted by presences, be they weird staring people or static-projecting phantasms. Lain is imposed on endlessly here. She's unable to be alone, in contrast to episode one, where she seemed alone even in public.

So a doppelganger theme is introduced, with the traditional trapping of that doppelganger being a kind of satirical opposite. Lain seems to channel her more confident doppelganger at the end, making the only forcefully stated line she's uttered so far. But I'm intrigued by what the gunman says. He says, “You’re that scattered god’s…”. Scattered god's what? Manifestation? Byproduct? Agent? Contrary? She is in someway connected to a god that has fragmented. Could be an oblique reference to the internet, where everything has been scattered around in a million places. I dunno. But both the doppelganger and imposed connection themes link nicely together.

This show is so offputting in its ability to render domestic commonplaces strange and uncomfortable. That totally static kiss Lain witnesses for example. It seems filled with cold sexual menace on the one hand, and on the other, seems fake, a staged moment. Lain's mom disappears the moment she's spotted; she's like a ghost in the house. Her sister seems full of a mysterious agenda; she senses the doppelganger in an early scene, asking/interrogating Lain on potential imaginary friends; but otherwise she seems to lurk about Lain's door with an abstracted demeanor. Lain's father is the most engaged of the family, but he's certainly not engaged with the family. Only technology seems to animate him, to the point that he cannot have a father/child moment of advice-giving about friendship and maturity without turning it onto a pitch about the proper use of technology. 'How can you grow up without the right products'.

[Michael Kerpan]

Lain's family is definitely ... discomfiting, each member in his or her own way.

[Murdoch]

Murdoch --

episode 2Show

I don't (and don't think I ever did) view the Wired as the work of a "surveillance state", but rather an oppressive (and almost inescapable) social collective -- rather like today's Twitterverse and the like.
Mind you, government entities and anti-government ones presumable can and do make use of this resource.

episode 2Show

I think "surveillance state" was poor phrasing on my part. I don't see the Wired as an organization monitoring an unaware populace, and think you're social media analogy is right on the money. But I said surveillance because the Wired feels to me like some type of consciousness in and of itself, one that watches and studies its users somewhat like the planet from Solaris. This may never come to pass and I may very well be far off the mark. However, each time one of those disconnected kaleidoscopic intertitles appears, it's unlike anything else visually, it looks completely alien to the stark contrasting palettes of Lain's life, and the snippets contained within the intertitles feel like a singular expression rather than a collection of users' posts and messages. That these extractions from user content are pulled from different, sometimes unknown sources, and suspended in isolation from any image of computers or typing suggests they're more than random bits of dialogue used to splice up the episodes.

I'm intrigued to see how the Wired continues to develop through the series, especially with the sinister elements now manifesting.

[Mr Sausage]

The show is unsettling, but is anyone else finding a strain of absurdist black comedy in it? The first conversation between Lain and her sister had it especially, with the absurd dialogue and big reaction shots. Maybe it wasn’t intentional, but I laughed.

[therewillbeblus]

I'm not sure if this necessarily complicates or is relevant to your question, but it might be: are people watching this with the English dub or in Japanese with subs? Like many English-language natives, I gravitate towards dub on anime while I wouldn't dream of applying that logic across any other international medium, because I tend to find anime dub tracks uniquely textured and well-integrated into the tone of the content. There's obviously a range of quality across anime, and some are controversial (the mannerisms across the two divergent Evangelion dubs completely changing the nature of the characters is the most famous recent example), and I have no idea where this one falls as far as comparing the English dub to the subs versions, but it's worth exploring when asking about subtle hints of dark comedy or other tonal nuances we pick up on.

I'm actually deviating from my norm and watching this with subs because the version I found didn't have an English dub option, but I may try to locate another source to compare if I have the time and energy