Top-Rated Episodes
S1.E10
Lain encounters a man who call himself the "god" of the wired, and members of the Knights all across the world log on to participate in a cryptic mass suicide.
S1.E13
Lain's guilt over the havoc caused by her interaction within the wired provokes her to take drastic - and irreversible - action.
S1.E12
"God" preaches that our bodies are simply an obstacle preventing the evolution of mankind. An exhausted Lain appears willing to sacrifice her own flesh and blood until Alice convinces her to take a ...
"The Punisher" star loves anything David Attenborough narrates, and Disney movies.
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Title: Serial Experiments Lain (1998– )
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Storyline
A week after Chisa committed suicide, her classmates begin to receive emails from her. Hearing rumors fly at school, a quiet withdrawn girl named Lain goes home that day, turns on her dusty Navi computer for the first time and has a conversation with the dead girl. Chisa's message reads that she killed herself because she didn't need her body anymore, and she now exists in The Wired. When Lain asks why someone would do something like that she gets a response: "Because God is here". Written by Anonymous
Taglines:
A visionary existential classic. See more »Parents Guide:
View content advisory »
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Details
Official Sites:
Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. [United States] | Geneon Entertainment, Inc. [Japan] | See more »Country:
JapanRelease Date:
13 July 1999 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
Serial Experiments Lain See more »Company Credits
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IMDbPro »
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Color:
ColorAspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1
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Composed and performed by Boa
Vocals by Jasmine Rodgers
Courtesy of Polystar Records
See more »
Did You Know?
Trivia
There are numerous references to Macintosh and Apple Computers: The phrase "To Be Continued", with a colored "Be" is shown at the end of most of the episodes. This is a reference to BeOS, whose logo has similar coloring. The Be company was founded by Jean-Louis Guasse, a former Apple executive. The Navis use an operating system named Copeland, which was the codename for Apple's MacOS 8. Navi's operating system has a graphical user interface (GUI) similar to that of MacOS. Arisu's Navi resembles the original Apple iMac. The series slogan "Close this world. Open the NeXT" is a reference to the NeXT company, founded by Steve Jobs in the late '80s and purchased by Apple Computer in December 1996. All of the Navis shown in the series use one-button mice as Macintosh computers do. The electronic voice heard saying the episode titles is the "Whisper" voice from the MacOS Speech Control Panel, a program that permits text-to-speech. The child's Navi that Lain used to use was modeled after the 20th Anniversary Macintosh. The HandiNAVI, the handheld computers which both Lain and Arisu used was based off the Apple Newton, the first PDA. Navis and Macintoshes are both built by companies named after fruit, Tachibana (a type of orange) and Apple, respectively. See more »Soundtracks
DuvetComposed and performed by Boa
Vocals by Jasmine Rodgers
Courtesy of Polystar Records
See more »
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"SE: Lain" is a great anime series. It's not godly perfect or anything, but it gets up there...way up there. From the killer opening title sequence (with a great opening song, by the way) to the strange "previews" (they only consist of a girl talking and her body parts - I'm not kidding) for the next show, "Lain" certainly has a fairly unique style. But it goes beyond style and gets into substance.
The story is simple at first and seems half-predictable in these post-"Matrix" times. After a classmate seemingly commits suicide, Lain gets e-mail from the dead girl. Apparently, her consciousness is still on the net...or is it? From then on, things get weird, complicated, and interesting.
Splicing in elements of Matrix-style cyberpunk, X-Files conspiracy, and the David Lynch-esque surreal, "Lain" is, like the Wired world it portrays, a synthesis of disparate ideas and personas, all thrown into a blender for the viewer to interpret. The interpretation's the thing, and those looking for action or comedy may come away slightly disappointed. After 13 episodes, there will probably be more questions than answers, but isn't real life like that, anyway?