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| It's not as confusing as I thought it'd be,but there's still something I'm not really sure about.Didn't Lain reset everything at the end?No one remember her or knows of her existence anymore (before meeting her friend again that is) and there is no wired anymore,so how does she exist?with all the talk of something not existing/never happening if no one has no memories of it I'd think she wouldn't exist anymore.Unless I'm talking it all too literary,or if her own memories count too,idk. I have to say I find it hard to agree with that anyway,even if you have no memories of something it still happened,even if no one remember you it doesn't change your existence etc.I understand its importance to the story and the idea of memories being only information but I still can't change how I feel. Other than that this show was good.Unlike many other people I didn't find it boring but very interesting.I'm glad I watched it. 7/10 |
| I truly love this anime. I won't claim to understand everything in the show, but I definitely got 90% of it. It definitely helps to re-watch (this was my 2nd time). It was deep, but not pretentious. It didn't cram nonsense down your throat half the time like NGE. Not to mention, although I hate to admit it, that ending had me crying like a baby. I've watched the ending itself like 4 times and it always makes me tear up. I just grew so attached to Lain and was really sad to see she had reset the world and everyone's memory of her just to repay Alice, who was the only person that truly cared for her. I'm starting to ramble. So bottom line, amazing series. And after re-watching it: 10/10. |
| Okay. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. So, the software created by the acting God, deleted all memories of what the acting God did, and in itself, had the chance to become God? But,she chose to do the opposite (as this show said a couple of times; A god needs to be worshipped by people). Since everyones forgotten about her,but she is everywhere... What truly is she? Lain, i understand your actions, but will you forever live with no connection to anyone? Airsu seems to have forgotten her, maybe they might become friends later on. This ending really was bittersweet.I mean, EVERYONE seems to have gotten a good end. Though Lain... I'm guessing that the 'father' she saw, the one that she had tea with in the clouds was 'God'. You know, 'father' is a term used by most religions for God, and in SEL, multiple 'bodies' can arise. I mean, Lain had one in the wired and real world. To say i'm not confused would be a lie, but to say that i think this show used to deep plot devices is a lie too. I enjoyed watching this show, and yes, the wired doesn't like a word we'd use now; but changing that to the 'net' wouldn't make the plot change too much. This show truly is a classic, will need to re-watch it just because of how awesome it was. I really want to give it a 10, but i'll be honest and give it a 9. Its amazing, but that one question of what Lain's true purpose was should've been answered more clearly. Though Mr.Director, thank you for this show. |
| This...was...just............odd. Sent with Mal Updater |
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| Great anime , a bit confusing though... Lain restarted the world, nice! Maybe ill rewatch this series, just to get rid of some questions -q Like...what happened to Lain's Sister? She just get retarded , or i've missed a thing? O.o I'll give this series 8/10, it was really awesome :D |
| Awesome, but i am not sure i lke the reset button. So 8/10 |
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| Always gonna remember Lain. |
RGBName said: Evangelion is still better, Lain is rather easy to understand if you pay the attention. Indeed, this was exactly what I was thinking. I liked NGE's take better, however NGE was lacking in execution. |
RadiGenNov 3, 2013 3:59 AM
| :/ not so fair making an happy ending by resetting everything (almost everything) but at least the stalker guys are still alive definitely a rewatch is in order |
 Fixes to make the Profile more bearable after "the Modern★Profile★Update★★Rip★Profile★" |
| This anime has pretty much mastered the art of making everyday stuff feel really psychologically scary. I was especially fan of the noises the telephone lines made, and the two mysterious agents. Really liked the whole cyberpunk horror atmosphere of this show. I was just a tad disappointed with the ending, I kinda wanted something more sad, because the whole show until this point had this very "sad" feeling to it. Still, best psychological horror I have ever seen, anime or not. Solid 9/10. |
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| 10/10. To manage covering up the plot and answering ALL of my questions in 13 episodes...this show is brilliant. To fully understand this show, I have to place my full consciousness AND unconsciousness into it, having some prior conspiracy theorist knowledge and psychological studies to understand this. |
| "If you reject me, I'll blast a hole in you!" Kanzaki H. Aria Just kidding.  |
| Overall, rock solid 8/10. |
| Nothing much to say about this episode. Lain realize that the world is better without her, then she feels lonely and comeback in another timeline, because she can, there is no reason to not rewrite everything as you want when you are a god. Awful ending but a great show overall |
| なんとかなる |
| This show is so realistic its actually creepy lol, Felt like a huge puzzle in the beginning but the last episodes made it clear with a nice happy kinda ending. |
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| Ok,I'm surprised,this was better than I expected. I think that the main problem in Lain are the characters,just Lain is decent.So I will give a 8 or 9,the themes are great,the mystery is very good,and the atmosphere is similar to Texhnolyze(which is good). |
| The incredible isolation she will live in the rest of her days. Kind of sad. No doubt a classic. The reset ending used here was later used by many other anime. |
| "Perhaps there is a universal, absolute truth. Perhaps it justifies every question. But that's beyond the reach of these small hands." Mamoru Oshii There is a cult of ignorance (...) nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Isaac Asimov |
| What the fuck i feel violated |
yeslelno123Mar 4, 2014 2:19 AM
| Oh I finally get it! SPOILER ALERT Now it all makes sense! |
| I just finished this series for the first time and was blown away. The atmosphere this series created is indescribable and was masterfully executed. This is the first series I have ever marathoned from start to finish in one day. Definitely will re-watch this on the weekend, I managed to make my own interpretation on the first viewing but a second should help me catch things I missed the first time. Marzan said: The incredible isolation she will live in the rest of her days. Kind of sad. No doubt a classic. The reset ending used here was later used by many other anime. ikr, them feels ;_; And yeah, kind of lowered my opinion on a lot of anime when I realised this was the source of those endings. |
Have you worshiped our Empress today? |
| Well, I still don't understand many of the finer points of the story, and that ending wasn't the best... Still, this show had some great atmosphere, the characters were interesting, it had really nice art, and a fantastic soundtrack. I'll have to write up a full review at some point. |
::End of Transmission:: What have I been watching? Click here and find out on my viewing blog, "Vigorous Viewing" |
| "Present day, present time! Hahahahaha!" Anyway, I still can't believe this anime was released in 1998... it's way ahead of its time, particularly in terms of the ideas it presents. The different Lains could be alluding to how our personalities change when we're online (as compared to when we're "offline"). Which one is the real you? And how do other people view you when they can't physically see you? A fantastic show and work of art. It was confusing at times but well worth the watch. |
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| Yeah, at the end I didn't understand shit. It was a fun ride tho. |
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| I should probably rewatch the anime. I thought I don't really care that much about the anime,but I kind of do. The show is on my mind for a while now. |
| Good ending. You don't have to be remembered to exist, memories exist in the past present and future. I guess Lain found her own way of existing. Now I say hi to Lain every time I walk past a telephone pole. Now just going to go to rehab for getting the theme song out of my head.. |
| I think i got most of it. Still - confused as hell. Amazing anime, hard to believe its '98. Really enjoyed it! |
| the fuck was the dad doing near the end |
| Yo |
| I gave this a 7 just because I didn't understand the true meaning of it all. Although I did get the single parts when they were explained, I can't seem to properly connect the thousands of dots. I feel like I should rewatch it (not in the near future, though). It took me forever, but it was a cool and rationally irrational ride. |
MTM3016 said: the fuck was the dad doing near the end I think that was Lain's real dad, God. At least some metaphorical father figure. |
| This show was 2deep4me. 5/10 |
| This episode pretty much answered all the questions of the series. The cool things about this series and others like it, ex: Texhnolyze, are that the show builds on itself in such a way that if I were to rewatch them someday, it would be a totally different experience and I would walk away with a better understanding of what the creators had in mind and I would have more to theorize about. I have to say this series was quite impressive, I rate it an 8/10. I very much enjoyed the general atmosphere and direction of this series. It gave the viewer so much to take in and think about. This whole week that I've been watching Lain, I've been non-stop thinking about the ideas that this show presented me with. It was quite interesting that Lain ended up being completely omnipresent and how she changed everyone's memories to be as it was at the beginning of the series. She revived that girl who died at the beginning from the wired. After all, Lain was the one who started all this uproar across the wired and started connecting the wired to real world more than before and when everyone's memories of her were erased, the wired sort of quieted down and stopped consuming the world. I like that Lain was content with her new state of being at the end and how she could still hang out with her only friend, Arisu. I like how it left you with a look at those electrical pole wires, symbolic of how the Wired is there, has been there, and will always be there, and will one day rise and consume humanity and the world itself. Overall, very good series. To those of you who enjoyed this series for the greatness that it is and appreciate the depth and overall attention to detail in this series, then I highly recommend that you watch the anime Texhnolzye. It is made by the same two guys as Lain and it deals with similar ideologies and things but it takes to a whole other level of depth and depression. Those of you that are reading this, please give Texhnolyze a try because it isn't as well known as SEL and I think it deserves more popularity. This was fun leaving my thoughts, predictions, and theories on these forums on SEL and Texhnolyze. I will most likely do this on Haibane Renmei next because I've heard good things about it and of course, its made by the same two guys yet again. I also hear from a lot of people that it is the best of their 3 works, SEL, Tex, and Haibane, so I look forward to watching it in the near future. |
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| Great series,though it was confusing at times and could have used some explanations here and there.I'll have to rewatch this series at some point to get a better understanding of it. The ending with Lain restarting the world & erasing her existence/everyone's memory of her was a little ehh,but I guess it was better off for the world if she didn't exist. 8/10 |
VanishingKiraFeb 4, 2015 5:55 PM
| Well I'm glad it's over, I really did wanted to enjoy the show cause I'm really into mystery genres but this just wasn't for me. |
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| This was a real mindfuck... Oh well it was still good. |
| loved itt finally i found my favourite type of anime i really enjoyed everything about this |
qpqApr 2, 2015 10:26 AM
| What about Lain's sister ?? She was the only reason why i completed this anime. Anyway, It was good while it lasted. |
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| So it seems Lain has resetted the world and removed herself from everyone's memories but somehow Alice has memories of her. Her father probably too. Eiri and the girl who sent ou the mails in ep1 are alive again. In the end Lain accepts her fate and doesn't tell Alice anything. Poor Lain. Good series but nothing special for me. 2deep I guess. 6/10 |
AizixApr 5, 2015 9:39 AM
| What even. I'll need to rewatch this to understand it further. That was just weird and really deep. |
| Though I think it would have been better if it ended by episode 12.. I don't get why this episode was needed, if it ever was about Lain coming to know her self (not herself) in the Wired, the social network, then I think it should have ended by episode 12. |
| Great anime! Btw, The Matrix writers was probably greatly inspired by this show. |
| Dub = fake crap. Always. |
| My take... Who is Lain? Lain is many things. She is human. She is software. She is omnipotent. What she isn’t is God. Lain is Lain. As long as she perceives herself she exists. Lain of the Wired only existed because others perceived her. The same way different people interpret God different ways, Lain of the Wired appeared different to others. She was distorted like the real God is today. Upon entering her body, or better yet, assimilating with it, Lain now substance, a beating heart that reverberates existence. While others may continue to carry on her image in the Wired, Lain is still, and forever, Lain. What is the Wired? The Wired is easily comparable to the internet. It is altered when Masami writes the Protocol 7 code to synch with the Earth’s characteristic frequency and create a collective unconscious. It is in this network in which he created Lain. The purpose of Lain was to destroy the barrier between reality and the Wired, creating a collective conscious in which he was God. How did this fail? Lain pointed out the obvious. Masami was not a God. God is truly omnipotent, present in all of existence, and in all fields of being. Masami was restricted to only the Wired. The Wired was also a result of human evolution, and thus cannot be home to God. Upon realizing this Masami attempts to take human form, which fails. Lain too cannot be a God, for the same reason in the Wired, and because she has a body in reality. What happened in the end? Lain erases herself from reality to save Arisu from suffering. Arisu is the only friend Lain ever made without connecting through the Wired. Lain loves Arisu. By removing herself from the memories of others, Lain is omnipotent. But she is not God for she has a human body. Because she has a body, she can perceive herself and thus still exists, on a higher plane and the human plane. This allows her to traverse time and interact with future Arisu. “I’m here, so I’ll be with you forever”. Who were the Knights? The Knights were a group of hackers who worshiped Masami, thus giving him existence. They used Lain as a front for their organization to provoke her into altering reality. This deteriorated the barrier that separates the Wired. Masami was also behind Tachibana General Labs, whose purpose was to create Lain’s body, update Protocol 7, and monitor Lain in reality, which was the reason for the MIB and the fake family. They also revealed crucial information that too provoked Lain. Opinion. Serial Experiments Lain brought so much to the table. I feel the next time I watch this show I can take my analysis even deeper. Themes regarding technology, God, society, etc. are crammed into this 13 episode drug trip of a mindfuck and I have to say, it made one hell of an experience. 10/10 from me. |
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