Serial Experiments Lain 

Strange events begin to occur as a withdrawn girl named Lain becomes obsessed with interconnected virtual realm of "The Wired".

Stars:

Kaori Shimizu, Bridget Hoffman, Dan Lorge

Cast

Series cast summary:
Kaori Shimizu	...	Lain Iwakura 13 episodes, 1998
Bridget Hoffman	...	Lain Iwakura 13 episodes, 1998
Dan Lorge	...	Additional Voices 13 episodes, 1998
Randy McPherson	...	Additional Voices / ... 13 episodes, 1998
Ali Moriizumi	...	DJ (Present Day announcer) 13 episodes, 1998
Ayako Kawasumi	...	Mika Iwakura 12 episodes, 1998
Yôko Asada	...	Arisu Mizuki 12 episodes, 1998
Patricia Ja Lee	...	Mika Iwakura 12 episodes, 1998
Emilie de Azevedo Brown	...	Arisu Mizuki 11 episodes, 1998
Chiharu Tezuka	...	Reika Yamamoto 10 episodes, 1998
Manabi Mizuno	...	Juri Kato 10 episodes, 1998
Alexis A. Edwards	...	Juri Kato 10 episodes, 1998
Lenore Zann	...	Reika Yamamoto 10 episodes, 1998
Ryûnosuke Ôbayashi	...	Yasuo Iwakura 10 episodes, 1998
Mary Elizabeth McGlynn	...	Lain's NAVI / ... 9 episodes, 1998
Barry Stigler	...	Yasuo Iwakura 10 episodes, 1998
Rei Igarashi	...	Miho Iwakura 8 episodes, 1998
Brianne Brozey	...	Taro 8 episodes, 1998
Petrea Burchard	...	Miho Iwakura 8 episodes, 1998
Keito Takimoto	...	Taro 8 episodes, 1998
Shô Hayami	...	Deus / ... 7 episodes, 1998
Takumi Yamazaki	...	Lin Sui-Xi / ... 7 episodes, 1998
Kirk Thornton	...	Deus / ... 7 episodes, 1998
Kuniko Yoshioka	...	S 7 episodes, 1998
Jamieson Price	...	Karl Haushofer / ... 7 episodes, 1998
Jôji Nakata	...	Karl Haushofer / ... 6 episodes, 1998
Bob Buchholz	...	Lin Sui-Xi / ... 6 episodes, 1998
Sandy Fox	...	Myu-Myu / ... 7 episodes, 1998
Sora Tôma	...	Masayuki 6 episodes, 1998
Yuki Yamamoto	...	Myu-Myu 7 episodes, 1998

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 Hearing rumors fly at school, a quiet withdrawn girl named Lain goes home that day, turns on her dusty Navi computer for the first time and has a conversation with the dead girl.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".

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Plot Keywords:

cyberpunk | girl | suicide | computer | lynchian | 

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Taglines:

Close the world, open the nExt. (aka "Close the world, .txEn eht nepo")

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Genres:

Animation | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Official Sites:

Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. [United States] Geneon Entertainment, Inc. [Japan]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese English

Release Date:

13 July 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

Serial Experiments Lain

Company Credits

Production Co:

Pioneer LDC, Triangle Staff

Technical Specs

Runtime:

316 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The girl in the "Devices" segments is the voice of Lain herself, Kaori Shimizu. Also, Lain's character design was based in part from Ms. Shimizu's physical appearance.

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Quotes

Lain Iwakura: [gasp]
Miho Iwakura: The wired might actually be thought of as a highly advanced upper layer of the real world. In other words, physical reality is nothing but an illusion, a hologram of the information that flows to us through the wired.
Lain Iwakura: But ma...
Miho Iwakura: This is because the body, physical motion, the activity of the human brain is merely a physical phenomenon, simply caused by synapses delivering electrical impulses.
Lain Iwakura: But mom, I...
Miho Iwakura: The physical body exists at a less evolved plane only to verify one's existence in ...
[...]

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Connections

Featured in AMV Hell 3: The Motion Picture (2005)

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Soundtracks

Duvet
Composed and performed by Boa
Vocals by Jasmine Rodgers
Courtesy of Polystar Records

User Reviews

One of the most strange Japanese anime serial

Generally speaking,Japanese anime products,as its by-product known as "otaku" culture, are full of contradictions. First of all, anime's "artistic" level has never been adequately estimated in its homeland(namely by audience, critics and mass medias) and usually "discovered" by foreigners(most sad example is "Inoccence--Ghost in the shell", Mamoru Oshii's best and probably last artistic film). Secondally, anime's highest level in dramaturgy had been achieved before it was "discovered" by world film festivals and foreign audiences(French people is said to have believed "Candy Candy"'s not a Japanese serial, because it was so sophisticated).

"Serial experiment Lain" is a accidental postmodern masterpiece,made after anime's classical achievements("accidental", because no one had intended to make a work of art). "Lain" uses plenty of postmodern devices: citation from purely historical materials,stylish eclecticism,"open" ending or circular structure and showing its own media's limitation(many scenes are openly "two dimensional" and look like rather abstract "picture").

Having been made in the time of imitation and citation of past anime "classical "serials of 80s and later 70s, "Lain" is superb in its originality and the sense of the contemporary.After seeing this serial, "Evangelion" seems to be boring and too long(experimental works must be not so long as ordinary "genre" works,it is the rule from the time of silent era).

I recommend to compare this serial with "Kairo" by Kiyoshi Kurosawa,the latter will seem to be some kind of a little out-dated remake of this serial.