I really liked this, and I can see why people were confused by it back in the day, but honestly Lain is fucking great, Its short, sweet, and doesnt come off pretentious.
I dont watch a lot of anime but this one really stuck with me, is there much else like it? I have already seen Paranoia Agent which I loved. I just really like these type of stories, and anime seems to be the only ones really doing them.
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well I also wanna talk about Lain
I know you mean it sincerely, but you're not going to get positive responses asking for anything here regardless of whether you're supplementing your post with discussion about something or not. If you want to ask for recommendations, you should do it in the request boards, and if you want to talk about Lain, it's probably better to have a thread dedicated to that and that alone. "I don't watch a lot of anime" is also a red flag for people to shitfling at you here. All in all, lurking is always the best idea.
well ive been on Sup Forums since 2006, but mostly Sup Forums Sup Forums and when /x/ was good(also /ck), so I know of supreme shitposting, but I cant shit up Sup Forums with Lain
I mean Lain is super interesting, its a Matrix before the Matrix and since it was 97 or 98, at the real infancy of the internet, while BBS and shit existed, id say 99/2000 was when the internet really took off for everyone. The series did a good job at predicting the overall theme of the internet where your internet personality, while still you, is a whole separate ego in a way.
As you rewatch it, you might see how little it actually has to do with the internet
> Sup Forums
You're not doing yourself any favour if you just want to talk about Lain.
well from I gathered, Lain is a software protocol created by Eiri, as some kind of test, and the world itself unknownigly has some electrical resonance that is trying to make the subconscious and unconscious merged into conscious and this started being possible with the Wired/internet and computers and that crazy CPU addon. Then Lain essentially becomes aware and a goddess.
The show honestly has more to do with internet culture than the internet itself. More specifically the power of memes, anonymity, the unconscious, ect. Lain continues to exist as long as the viewer remembers her, despite nobody in her universe remembering her. This is how memes last throughout ages, they get remembered and passed down. Lain exists as long as we watch the show and convince others to watch the show.
To add on to this, the alternate personalities of Lain are created by other people to serve their purposes. Lain is seen by many as a sort of "holy symbol" online, where other users basically worship her. So like any religion, of course bad people would use her for bad intentions. She wipes out the knights because they just use the alternate her they created for their purpose of controlling the human unconscious, aka the memes. So Lain is essentially a meme, who deletes herself because her existence caused nothing but trouble.
fuckin crossboarders I swear
And you would be (mostly) right about those things. What I mean is that its themes exist independent of the internet, and aren't trying to say anything about the internet. For example, take this excerpt from an interview with one of the people who worked on in from a 2006 interview with Anime Jump. A lot of theories I read from people claim that Lain was some sort of "warning" about the internet, but Ueda seems pretty optimistic about it. Instead, I would look at what else Lain seems to be saying. There's plenty of metaphysical ideas discussed in the last episode for example. When you look at the game as well, you see a lot more about feelings and loneliness, and we have lots of stuff related to this - "make me mad, make me sad, make me feel alright", the need for connection, people kissing and interacting in the OP of the anime, etc.
You're worse
It's great, but I can't help but find all the instances where there is nothing but a still image and silence/background noise as pretentious. It made the show longer than it actually is, and I've heard other anons here say that watching it twice back-to-back is kind of daunting. I wanna watch it again, so thanks for posting this thread, I guess.
But yeah, you're right that it's fucking great.
oh I never bought into it was making the internet seem bad or a warning, but how it got the split ego aspect so right and how invested people tend to be with it.
I haven't found anything quite like Lain, it's very unique. In addition to everything that's been said already I would encourage you to look at it through the frame of Buddhism, specifically the concepts of detachment and ego-death. There's a fair bit of Christianity as well but that's easier for western audiences to notice.
The most similar show I've found is Texhnolyze, but that is much darker and relatively straightforward in its plot. The mostly quiet presentation and muted emotional reactions are similar though. Also watch Haibane Renmei. Both have art by Abe who also worked on Lain.
>I can't help but find all the instances where there is nothing but a still image and silence/background noise as pretentious
There really isn't enough of it for it to be a problem, and even then, I struggle to understand why it would be "pretentious" other than people using that word to mean "different".
This thread made me wanna rewatch Lain. I have the origional box set on VHS. Question is, should I try to find a vcr or just stream it online?
I find it pretentious because I believe there is meaning in those instances (maybe I was tired when I watched them, but god, they felt long). I want to think that those shots are in there for a reason, be them visual symbolism or metaphors, and I've never been a fan of this kind of thing when it's as obtuse/arcane as it is in Lain. They come across as pretentious to me because they aren't as easy to pick up as, say, the shadows throughout the city, that I interpret as the amalgamation of the Wired and the real world (essentially making it harder for the viewer, and Lain by extension, to tell what scenes happen where), nor do I find them anywhere as effective. And honestly, I struggled to find meaning in them, but I just don't want to think that they're there just because.
Maybe I'm too much of a pleb? I dunno.
Several are stylistic, and I don't consider them intrusive or obnoxious enough to be pretentious. Powerline humming is important, as are the people walking around at the start of each episode. Nothing else is specifically coming to mind because I never found them jarring enough to be anything but appropriately stylistic.
I think the more pretentious aspect of Lain is the fact that it doesn't explain its basic plot structure until near the end of the series, but honestly there might not be another way to tell this kind of story. I think those long shots are somewhat effective at establishing the moody atmosphere of the show (and some are very meaningful), but you also have to consider the limitations the creators were under. Likely the reason there is slow animation at points is because they didn't have the money to animate things in a more engaging way visually. So they made the best with what they had. Like I said, I think it gives the show a unique atmosphere because they had to think about what shots to hold on and what shots to invest animation into, but it is definitely slow paced especially compared to modern anime/TV.
What would be mysterious aabout it if you told what was going on early instead of building tension for a cool documentary infodump?
That powerline humming is one of my favorite sound effects in any TV show. Iconic as hell.
Also here's an acoustic version of the theme song which is real good:
youtube.com
Like I said I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. But a lot of the plot of Lain happens off-screen, and the mystery is drawn out a very long time with almost no info given to the viewer. Additionally, there's little human interest in the story, it's very hard to put yourself in any of the characters' positions because you know so little about them and what is going on, and Lain is basically mute most of the time so it's hard to find her engaging until you understand what she's going through. It's more an issue of keeping attention-deficit audiences interested than an actual statement on the show's quality (which is obviously incredibly high). It's less important on the rewatch, and I don't think Lain was ever intended to be a show you only watch once. I don't think the show is perfect, but it does what it sets out to do almost perfectly.
die teen
I might grow to appreciate them more on my rewatch. I've never really had an eye for detail; words engage me on a much deeper level than images can, usually. And yeah, the powerline humming is hard to get out of your head after a while.
I don't quite agree with your opinion on why you think it's pretentious, but you brought up a very good point concerning the financial situation of the show. Maybe I can grow to see them as a marriage between what the user above said, and monetary limitations.
Amazing find, user.
I do feel like there was too much for them to fit into the anime with their vision. The game is Lain's heart.