"Back in 2003, Tech TV got its hands on one of the trippiest, most deeply psychological cyberpunk-y anime ever created: Serial Experiments Lain. Saying that those questions I just asked you are thoughtfully considered by Lain would be an understatement: these are PAINSTAKING pontifications. In 13 episodes, the characters go DEEP as to what it means to exist and difference between existing and being human.
This episode of RetroNado is gonna explain what Serial Experiments Lain means, how the concept of Lain and the Wired came to be and the people behind this emotionally visceral and psyhological anime originally envisioned as a PS1 video game. We'll also be discussing how Lain impacted its viewers and its lasting legacy in animation as a whole.
Serial Experiments Lain was conceived as a multimedia series existing in several different forms of media: a PS1 video game released by Pioneer LDC, a dojinshi produced by manga artist Yoshitoshi Abe called “The Nightmare of Fabrication” and of course, the Serial Experiments anime. Though the game released 5 months after the anime premiered, they are intrinsically linked as they were being produced at the same time.
The “game” isn’t described as a game, but as “Psycho-Stretch-Ware” where the player collects information in a random order by unlocking and viewing them with very little or no puzzle mechanics. The aim of the game’s creators: Yasuyuki Ueda and Chiaki J. Konaka, was to let the player “feel” Lain and “To understand her problems and to love her” [character].
Yasuyuki Ueda is the chief creator and producer of Serial Experiments Lain as a whole and has gone on to produce animes like Hellsing and Hellsing Ultimate, serve as a music producer for Ergo Proxy and became an executive producer for Danganronpa in 2013.
Ueda recollects his conception of Lain by saying: “…the approach I took for this project was to communicate the essence of the work by the total sum of many media products.”
The video game’s other creator, Chiaki J. Konaka, served as the chief writer of the series. Having worked on original manga and screenplay for Armitage III and scriptwriting for Big O and Parasite Dolls, Konaka went on to have a big hand in writing some niche, independent anime series called DIGIMON TAMERS; and honestly, this is only a few of his writing credits.
Ueda also brought in Ryutaro Nakamura to direct Lain. Nakamura’s directorial portfolio includes animes like Sakura Wars, Kino’s Journey and Ghost Hound.
In writing for Lain, Chiaki J. Konaka cited influences from works like “The Exorcist” and “Dan Curtis' House of Dark Shadows”. The screen typing motif used throughout the series was lifted from the film “Godard”.
The anime’s chief theme seems to be communication or lack thereof. Lain is almost always asking herself questions about her place in the world, whether she exists as herself or someone else, is she even a “someone”, what reality even is and if it’s worth participating in the ‘reality’ of other people or if she could just ‘manifest’ her own. Does matter flow from thought or is it the opposite? [example Lain clip] The series doesn’t ever give a concrete answer to any of these questions, but offers several different perspectives: sometimes presenting monologues from unseen characters debating over the difference between reality and artificiality. The creators want the viewers to work this information out for themselves because for this case, reality mirrors the fiction of Serial Experiments Lain in the sense that there are no “correct” answers to these inquiries in “the real world”. In seeing that, the viewer then has to question if the world they’re living in is the “real” one.
Having a crisis, yet?
While Yoshitoshi Abe was also the chief character designer for the series, her left forelock of hair was requested by Ueda to provide a feeling of asymmetry in Lain: giving her a sense of instability. Lain's moe bear pajamas were a request from character animation director Takahiro Kishida as a symbol of Lain's shyness. You can see this in several episodes where she appears more childlike and innocent: for example, she wears the bear hat to the Cyberia nightclub because she's so nervous about being there.
Yoshitoshi ABe also created the dojinshi Haibane Renmei and is known for collaborating with Chiaki Konaka on several occasions, another being an artist on Texhnolye (yes, Konaka wrote for that too!) ABe previously signed his works under the pen name “AB” in case you’re wondering why I capitalized those two letters when I showed his name. ABe was also once a graffiti artist that used to get in legal trouble for his art. He uses this time in his life as inspiration for the dark themes showcased in his designs. As it turns out, you can’t stop an artist from arting.
I can’t go any further into this without talking about Lain’s opening theme: “Duvet”
Ahhh! It still gives me chills and feels to hear that sentence! This theme was written and performed by Jasmine Rodgers and Boa (the british band, not the K-pop singer). I highly recommend listening to the full version if you haven’t heard it or if you’ve only heard the TV Size version. Hell, even if you’ve heard it already, I recommend listening AGAIN!
Serial Experiments Lain’s ending theme is one of my favorite anime EDs because of how “grungy” it sounds. Listen to how it swings! [song clip] The song is called “Tooi Sakebi” and it’s written and composed by Reichi “Chabo” Nakaido of RC Succession fame. “Chabo” started a band in high school name Furuido, which eventually became a duo. Their song “Nantoka Nare” was featured as the opening theme for the 2005 anime adaptation of Akagi.
The only two characters I’m going to take the time to define for this particular video are Lain Iwakura, the main protagonist; and Alice Mizuki, the BESTEST GIRL to the main protagonist. Regardless of where we are taken in the plot, the story is chiefly around the relationship between these two. As Lain’s reality crumbles, Alice is the one constant: as Lain questions what reality is, she sees it in Alice because Alice is a REAL friend. Their character dynamic also stands as one of the only questions that is definitively answered by the end.
From the first episode, the people around Lain are often preoccupied with what they’re doing in their own lives to really understand what she’s going through. And in her group of friends, they often resort to shallow judgments of other people (Being teenagers), Alice doesn’t participate in those things.
I’ll be mostly focusing on the English voice actors this go around because I don’t want this video to get toooo long and because that’s the version I saw when I was a teenager and it’s also the version I rewatched to prep this retrospective. However, I do have to point out that Lain’s Japanese seiyuu, Kaori Shimizu, also voiced Boogiepop in the Boogiepop Phantom Japanese dub and I just think that’s cool for some reason.
Anyway, Lain is voiced by voice actress “Ruby Marlowe”…which is the alias of ADR director and voice actress Bridget Hoffman! You may know her as:
[ Belldandy (Ah! My Goddess Movie)
Mima Kirigoe (Perfect Blue)
Irisviel von Einzbern (Fate/Zero) ]
Alice’s voice actress is Emilie Brown and if you watched Toonami, you have most likely heard her voice:
[ Melfina (Outlaw Star)
Annie Labelle (Robotech)
Aina Sahalin (MS Gundam: 08th MS Team) ]
Lain is at first characterized by her innocent, shy personality in contrast to her friend group and you could say her arc is about coming out of her shell with the help of people (or in this case, just Alice) who really want the best for her. Alice…doesn’t really have much of a personality, but it’s forgiven because of how deep the series delves into Lain and the questions she asks herself and the viewer.
I’m obviously treading light on any spoiler territory, but the last scenes of Lain reminded me of Madoka Magica. You’ll see why if you watch them both. They end in very similar places as far as where the characters end up and how they view the future. (I’m not counting that Madoka Magica Rebellion because…no.)
Serial Experiments Lain aired on TV Tokyo on July 6, 1998 at 1:15 AM JST. Imagine staying up and watching the first scene without knowing about it beforehand…did I mention that the first scene is a student ending her own life?) Lain finished airing on September 28, 1998. It was awarded the Excellence Prize by the 1998 Japan Media Arts Festival for "its willingness to question the meaning of contemporary life" with additional support from a notable fellow mangaka: Lupin the Third’s late creator Kazuhiko “Monkey Punch” Kato. Lain and its creators also received much praise from several organizations like Newtype, Anime Jump and Anime News Network for years long after it’s gone off the air.
For your infotainment, I’m about to say each of the one-word episode titles in order as they’re the only obvious pieces of the Lain puzzle:
Weird (spelled W-I-E-R-D on the TechTV Broadcast)
Girls
Psyche
Religion
Distortion
Kids
Society
Rumors
Protocol
Love
Infornography
Landscape
Ego
Again, the most obvious thing about these titles is that they are the subject of each respective episode. That’s the only leeway the creators gave us because the content IN the episode itself forces the viewer to dig DEEP.
"present day..." "...present time"
As it stands, Serial Experiments Lain is regarded as classic at least and prophetic at most. One of the only things the show predicted incorrectly was the teacher not taking Lain’s phone when it went off in class. Remember though, that in 1998, smartphones didn’t exist, so the phones in the anime were 20-something years ahead of their time: something many cyberpunks saw coming. The series also saw fit to reference Macintosh computers as many times as they could muster! Apple computers were extensively used by the creative team during production.
As of the writing of this script and most likely the publishing of this video, NBC Universal Japan owns the rights to Serial Experiments Lain and recently gave full permission to fans to create derivative works based on the original Serial Experiments Lain anime, PS2 game, manga, etc. I think this is a next-level, Lain-tier idea and it matches many of the themes in the series.
It’s a win-win all around, the fans don’t have full control over the series or its contents, nor are they allowed to promote adult good or services using Lain (doujinshi’s cool, though). But it does mean that you can create your own Lain art and sell it without consequence as long as you’re CREATING it and not just taking a screencap from the show and printing it on a shirt.
The open source guidelines appear to be in place only until July 6, 2028, thirty years after Serial Experiments Lain premiered its first episode. So if you’re interested, become a fan and get crackin’! Becoming a fan is one of the requirements set forth by Ueda and NBCUniversal, actually.
Ryutaro, Konaka and ABe would later reunite in 2009 with plans to make another anime, eventually named Despera: about a girl name Ain (no L) and set in an alternate Tokyo during the Taisho era one year before the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake. The story is described as a “spiritual successor” to Serial Experiments Lain. The Japanese magazine Animage published the graphic serialization of Despera from July 2009 – July 2010, with plans for a proposed anime to follow.
These plans would be put on hold, however, as Ryutaro Nakamura’s health declined. Nakamura eventually died of pancreatic cancer on June 29, 2013, leaving behind an impressive legacy of directorial experience.
In 2014, Yoshitoshi ABe confirmed that production on Despera’s anime would continue and during a live drawing demonstration, ABe announced that the project would continue with a new director.
As of the writing of this video, there has been no news thus far nor has there been a graphic novel released for Despera, but one very generous Redditor by the name of Resistyson compiled a few scans and other interesting information about Despera including translations and plot themes. I’ll link that below this video for your convenience. The thread is six years old or older by now, but it’s fun to dig anyway!
I first watched Lain on Tech TV’s Anime Unleashed block. Something about the empty, whining landscapes gripped me immediately…I remember spending the night at my uncle’s house and only half-watching it with my extended family as it was on. When I was able to catch it alone (by the way, I suggest watching it with a friend your first time), I didn’t really understand it, but I knew I was interested in the themes it inquired about. I wouldn’t fully understand it until after growing up playing dystopian video games like Deus Ex and unconsciously enjoying the cyberpunk aesthetic through Back to the Future Part 2 and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. In fact, while other middle schoolers were bumping Wayne and Jeezy at the time, I was bumping (AND YOU DON’T SEEM TO UNDERSTANNNNND)
It’s been years since then, but I’m starting to find myself living in the kind of world that was foretold by those stories…and I still enjoy them! If you have never seen Serial Experiments Lain or just haven’t seen it in a while, I implore you to finish your grind, clear your mind and make some time to join us in the Wired.
Oh wait…you’re already here.
I’m Jon Fox. This is RetroNado. Thanks for reading."
