I just watched Lain. Lets talk about it.
I wish I took notes on the show so i could talk about it better, but whatever.
There was a ton I liked about the show: The representation of red being the real world, and purple being the wired; The stock city footage at the beginning changing/playing in reverse and other things throughout the series. And a ton of other shit i don't remember.
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There was one main thing I liked about the show.
Lain is beautiful.
I'm here, so I'll be with you forever.
Lain is the biggest pretentious tryhard pile of garbage that I've ever seen. A 4/10 at best, if you have utter shit tastes.
A lot of good sound design too, especially the fuzzy sound of wires and especially the club Lain goes to. The OST was quite good too, when it actually decided to show up, especially in the recap episode.
recap episode?
lol you're dumb
Never watched it, because it seems to be just what you said.
oh, i didn't think of it as a recap episode. Moreso showing the previous epsiodes through the lens of Lain as she is in episode 11. An all-seeing omniprescent being. Watching the scenes from earlier episodes taking place.
I think this is further exemplified with the scenes saying "im am lain" and the static image of lain being interposed throughout the scenes.
Also i'm not sure what the alien is supposed to be, i guess in the context of the narrative it's what gave human being The Wired, or the ability to create a Collective Unconscious. But I think if you're looking at it through the lens of it/'s symbolic representation I think it's more about feeling lonely isolated and literally "alienated". Which is why Lain is wearing the striped sweater (Freddy krueger refence) and has alien arms in the scene where she is talking to aitsu on the bed and lain is peeking in through the doorway.
what a terrible way to live life. you must miss out on a lot of fun things.
Mind explaining why you think that? I'm interested as someone who enjoyed the show and never found it particularly pretentious or 'tryhard'.
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I Don't know what user thinks, but i've talked to lots of people who think similarly about similar shows and artsy "pretentious" things. And from what i get it's just that these people don't believe that shows can be artistic and be more than just their narrative. so they look at it only through it's narrative and push any artistic merit the show may have as things that "are in your head" "aren't really in the show" or something like that. And since the narrative of Lain is sort of pulled along by it's symbolic ideals the show is trying to portray, it loses a bit of sense if you look at it from a purely narrative perspective.
For example the episode where Lains sister sees Lain on the street and God Lain on the TV screen, yet never mentions it to Lain. Or the whole entire sequence where she is killed and replaced by the Wired version of her and subsequently becomes a representation of Lains desire to connect to the real world. (Why she's going 'briiiing briiiing and getting a dial tone like shes on the phone)
It sucks because there are shows that are pretentious and do deserve to be called out on it (Ergo Proxy, Psycho Pass). Not that these shows are terrible because their a bit pretentious. But they do make other shows with more artistic merit be seen as pretentious too. imo.
>oh, i didn't think of it as a recap episode.
Yea, it's one of the better recap episodes, wherein it is half of a recap, half of a different perspective. A lot has happened to Lain so revising and re-jogging the memories is quite effective, especially for the climax of the series. The only other show to do something like this is Sora ga Seiyuu, a completely different kind of show lol.
yeah. I love this show. I'm gonna hafta rewatch+write about it. but i feel like Sup Forums doesn't give a fuck about those sorts of write-ups. so ill post it somewhere else.
Lain was very good as a thought provoking piece for its time. Nowadays most of the stuff presented on it is merely interested from a historical point of view, while at the time although they weren't mind blowing for some intellectuals and people interested in the area, they were certainly ambitious for a piece of media, especially an anime.
So I think that it lost some value as a philosophical/social commentary, although its messages sure looks more relevant than ever, but It remained as a a very good anime in terms of atmosphere, art style, sound editing and creative plot in my opinion.
I do think that Lain is overly confusing though, there was no reason to make things so convoluted other than to confuse viewers.
merely interesting*
Well it had interesting ideas, and decided to relate/explain these ideas in a very interesting manner. The end goal probably to have these ideas stick around with the audience. It couldn't do this in a manner that was just like a lecture or a research journal article, since that would be boring and the viewer would lose interest (ultimately not taking away the themes, and thus failing in the greatest degree of any work -- not being memorable).
The combination of everything, story, plot, cinematography, etc. allows it to be engaging and ultimately explore these ideas from a relatable and emotional perspective too, other than just saying these are the effects of the Internet, but rather show us. Like the we share the confusion Lain has throughout the show.
Well of course, after all it is a anime, not a philosophical article or book. My point was that the ideas were very innovative for the time, but will look like common knowledge for someone watching It now.
I still like to believe they are still innovative now. Although people know about the ideas that Lain approaches, being able to actually relate to these themes, since we are living in the future (or atleast part of it) that Lain predicted.
Why do you think Lain is only interesting from a historical perspective? Because the internet wasn't as social media ridden as it is today? And that it sort of predicted that?
And how do you feel that it lost some value as philosphical/social commentary?
And i don't find it overly confusing or confusing for the sake of being confusing, i was following it pretty well while i watched it, and i think on a rewatch the more confusing parts would be less confusing. and like said, i think the confusion was there for the viewer to better understand Lains confusion. i mean it would be a bit weird if the main character was confused and the audience knew exactly what was going on.
I love Lain
Let's All Love Lain!
I love her more
Whats the best way to make love to Lain ?
Note she'd be wearing a bear suit in the beginning.
Everything is pretentious for that people. It´s a shame because this show deserves more atention.
It´s a shame that everybody can´t love Lain
Just keep spreading her word and evangelizing the Wired until everyone becomes a hivemind united in their love for our goddess.
The best way to love Lain is by making other people love her as much as you do.