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Lain was an incredible anime. It blew away all the anime stereotypes by creating a story with almost no romance, action, or comedy. It was a story of a girl who got so in touch with her virtual identity that she essentially broke the border between reality and virtual reality. Without giving away too many spoilers, I'll try to elaborate on what the anime is really about.

It's basically putting reality into question;
What really gives us our identity? Memories? Because if no one remembered us, how would we be identified?
But memories can be lost, destroyed, changed. Meaning that our identities themselves can be lost, destroyed or changed. So do we even have real, defined identities, or do we simply exist as the current memories of others?
But it is basically saying that reailty happens according to how we remember it. If you remember something happening, then - as far as you know - that's what happened. You can't deny your memories until something else can change them or prove them wrong. So if you don't remember something, who's to say it happened? You can't prove it did, and until you change your mind, it remains a truth. Because you live in your world, and your world alone. People are as you see them, they are seen by your eyes, your mind. If your mind is "wrong", then you see them "wrong". But who's to say that it's wrong? And how could you ever possibly know if your mind is wrong? You can't understand your mind's "errors" with an erred mind. And those errors are defined by another's mind, so their mind could be erred instead of yours. Or maybe we simply all have different minds, and none of them are wrong.
Sorry, I'm getting confusing again, I hope that's understandable enough though. It's really something worth thinking about.

The other concept brought up is God. The anime poses the question: what is God? Does it even exist, and if it did, what would it be?
Do we create a God? Or does it exist without us? Could it exist without us? Because, what is a God without its people? It holds no status if there is nothing for it to be higher than. People define their God, and create their God, and without them there would be no God.So then, is God perfect? If it exists in us, because of us, and is created by us and how we want it to be, what power does a god hold? When the physical reality we all take for granted turns out to be different than we thought, than what happens to God? Can a regular person become God?

Serial Expirements Lain is refreshing to watch, because instead of tackling a bunch of moral conflicts through "determination and fighting spirit!!!" like way too many other anime/manga out there, it doesn't really work on morals at all. It just tries to make the viewer take a step back and look at the world around him; reality isn't always what it seems and we aren't what we always think we are. It's not a moral message, its a message of awareness. read more

I read SWOT all the way through, up to its extremely abrupt ending. It was your average shonen manga, lots of action and goofy romance. I liked it, the art was okay, I would have stuck with it had it gone for as long as it seemed to be planning on (50-100 chapters, it seemed). But then it just ended out of the blue, which was saddening. It could have been pretty good, but I guess that was it.

I wouldn't tell anyone not to read it, its a fun 21 chapters, just prepare yourself for it to end out of nowhere. That's why it's only a 5/10 for me. It just didn't work out, I guess. read more