This is really good

This is really good.

>pretentious shit
>good

how is it pretentious when its all spelled out if you arent fucking retarded?

I only had shit internet on my parents' PC back then, so I had to actually buy the series in form of cheap Chinese bootleg DVDs. I actually still have that set in my basement. First anime to give me a long lasting mind fuck because it made me feel too stupid to fully understand the events towards the last 4th of the series.

I think the series is way easier to understand in todays internet age, and especially since the Matrix. Was probably a major mindfuck and near non-sense at release, kinda like MGS2.

Texonolyze was better

Not an argument

It's not really about the internet. Most of what the internet does in Lain is provide a medium for the story to take place in, and it lets the idea of blurring information play out nicely. It's main themes exist independently of internet usage.

When you just say something is pretentious, and give no other reason for why something isn't good, you reveal yourself as a brainlet.

I would agree with you if Lain was actually pretentious
But it's not pretentious at all, you're just a brainlet that needs spoonfeeding

When then I really missed the point.

I feel like it started out really confusing but slowly made more sense as the series progressed and it actually revealed stuff. Kind of like a reverse-NGE.

no it isn't because I'm a contrarian moefag and if it was up to me every anime would be about little girls talking about crepes or some shit because I'm an actual child and I weigh 400 pounds

People tend to think that just because it had some realistic portrayals of internet usage that it was all about predicting the "dangers of the internet" when it wasn't. Ueda at least has gone on record dismissing that it was trying to predict things and was optimistic and encouraging in regards to the internet and how it can provide access to information. Don't forget what it was at heart that Eiri was trying to do and the specific details that are given to you about what's going on in the plot.

>audiovisual medium
>constant lack of sound or barely any sound at all
>constant use of quasi-still shots
Maybe it's good as a book but it's shit as an anime. I fell asleep and dropped it after 4 episodes.

>Texonolyze was better
Texhnolyze was good, but not as good as people make it out to be. The whole 'Yoshii causing chaos' plot of the first season is pretty weak. Also, I know I was supposed to care about the seer girl and be sad when she became a head attached to a bug body, but she was such an emotional non-entity that I barely gave a fuck. The protagonist isn't much to speak of, either. For the entire first season he does nothing but scream and punch stuff. The setting was cool, and it was definitely well directed, but the show really needed better drama to anchor it.

I just started watching this. It's surprisingly comfy.

and is for people like you that modern anime is mostly moe shit

>constant lack of sound or barely any sound at all

So you ignored the buzzing of the lines, the guitar based soundtracks, the techno based soundtracks, and the synthy ambient based soundtracks while you were watching? There were two full length disks of soundtrack material released for this series that were actually used in the episodes. Purposeful silence in parts =/= bad. You might just be impatient.

>if you don't like stills and silences being overused then you don't like characterization at all and you only care about eye-candy
k

Lain is pretentious because themes is all it has to offer. It has no good plot, characterization or development or even interaction much. It doesn't accomplish anything on its own besides a cool atmosphere I guess (which gets ruined by being incredible boring in all other aspects) because the themes sure as hell weren't invented by the writer.

it does have a plot:

bad guys try to harness the power of God through the internet by turning God into a girl with a computer

God gets lonely, realizes that she's got superpowers and starts fucking with the world.

God realizes that it's a bad thing and that her friend doesn't want the world to be fucked with, so she decides to reboot the world.

S'pretty simple. The thing is that, since it's a mystery show, none of that stuff is told in a very obvious way.

all the weird shit in Lain happens because magic is real.
It posits that electromagnetic waves have spiritual properties and that god and spirits can influence reality through electricity, radio waves, stuff like that. Very commonplace sci-fi trope. Not too different from the pseudoscience in Ghostbusters and Ghost in the Shell.

Just replace electricity with more traditional ritual stuff and the exact same story can happen in medieval times. Instead of being a computer geek, Lain could be a recluse shrine maiden or something....

More like
>programmer discovers Godhood
>makes technology to pursue it
>tries to ascend but cucks himself realising he couldn't make it all the way
>decides to be God of the internet
>other factions realise his mistake and use his tech to emulate God, first as a computer program and then later downloading it into a body so that it's compliant and malleable
>human god is autistic because it doesn't naturally relate to the things around it
>all the factions who understand godhood notice her and start vying for attention- even the original guy who is now God of the internet
>this tips human God off that something is up
>more importantly however, once they made a program of God and later a human version regular God started connecting to people (including the human version) and exploring them as a concept
>many killed themselves, were driven insane and so on
>most were given a feeling of happiness as God reflected the individual to themselves
>the human version of god figures most of this shit out and tries to ascend
>it succeeds and is surprised that it isn't just God of the internet
>the mortal God comes into contact with the God phenomena (un-tampered God) who appears as her father
>the mortal God now a more focused and developed being unlike the reflexive God phenomena takes over
>it resets all of the events in the series and removes its existence from the mortal world instead opting to eternally watch over it

my account was detailed enough, all that stuff is extra detail

>Instead of being a computer geek, Lain could be a recluse shrine maiden or something....
A historical 'Lain' story is Jesus. Like it's more or less the same shit, devil temptation, betrayal and persecution.
Lain isn't all about magic though. Take out the religious iconography and it speaks to psychosocial concepts like those posed by Jung and others.

The best part about Lain is that it uses religious terminology, psychosocial academic references and transhumanist/singularity themes and tones to create a story that can be wholly interpreted or accepted as any single one, a combination of all three or something completely different by rejecting the main narrative as the purpose of the series in lieu of a deeper symbolism referencing other concepts entirely

It was. I just feel that due attention needs to be given to the often glossed over visions of lain. That she drove people to suicide and pranked people with alien masks. Lots of popular theories and interpretations completely ignore that stuff instead just talking about LotW and human Lain

>i dun like lain cos it pretenshus

lad that's not rare in scifi

the best part about Lain is figuring out the plot and finding out if Lain is gonna turn out to be a bad guy or a good guy.

You know like any decent mystery plot with an ambiguous protag

read nick land

>that's not rare in scifi
a) I didn't say it was 'rare'
b) name 3 that are anywhere near as good at interweaving 3+ themes into one approach. Not multiple layers (which lain does as well) but with the surface layer that is functional through multiple approaches
I mean, matrix for example does religion/technology but not only is it poorly done and on the nose (especially in the last two) it's not as interconnected. There's the technology part and the religious part.

Just started watching this about an hour ago. Lain is cute

>a show that's about pure unfiltered suffering needs romanticized drama