Serial Experiments Lain

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: シリアルエクスペリメンツレイン
English: Serial Experiments Lain
More titles

Information

Type: TV
Episodes: 13
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Jul 6, 1998 to Sep 28, 1998
Premiered: Summer 1998
Broadcast: Tuesdays at 01:15 (JST)
Producers: Genco, Pioneer LDC
Licensors: Funimation
Studios: Triangle Staff
Source: Original
Genres: Avant GardeAvant Garde, Award WinningAward Winning, DramaDrama, MysteryMystery, Sci-FiSci-Fi, SupernaturalSupernatural, SuspenseSuspense
Theme: PsychologicalPsychological
Duration: 23 min. per ep.
Rating: R - 17+ (violence & profanity)

Statistics

Score: 8.091 (scored by 317589317,589 users)
1 indicates a weighted score.
Ranked: #5162
2 based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity: #246
Members: 810,198
Favorites: 29,482

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Streaming Platforms

8.09
Ranked #516Popularity #246Members 810,198
Add to My List
Episodes: /13

Synopsis

Lain Iwakura, an awkward and introverted fourteen-year-old, is one of the many girls from her school to receive a disturbing email from her classmate Chisa Yomoda—the very same Chisa who recently committed suicide. Lain has neither the desire nor the experience to handle even basic technology; yet, when the technophobe opens the email, it leads her straight into the Wired, a virtual world of communication networks similar to what we know as the internet. Lain's life is turned upside down as she begins to encounter cryptic mysteries one after another. Strange men called the Men in Black begin to appear wherever she goes, asking her questions and somehow knowing more about her than even she herself knows. With the boundaries between reality and cyberspace rapidly blurring, Lain is plunged into more surreal and bizarre events where identity, consciousness, and perception are concepts that take on new meanings.

Written by Chiaki J. Konaka, whose other works include Texhnolyze, Serial Experiments Lain is a psychological avant-garde mystery series that follows Lain as she makes crucial choices that will affect both the real world and the Wired. In closing one world and opening another, only Lain will realize the significance of their presence.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Background

Serial Experiments Lain won the Excellence Prize in the 1998 Japan Media Arts Festival. It has been subject to commentary in the literary and academic worlds such as the Asian Horror Encyclopedia and The Problem of Existence in Japanese Animation by the American Philosophical Society.

Characters & Voice Actors

Yomoda, Chisa

Supporting
Mutou, Sumi
Japanese

Haushofer, Karl

Supporting
Nakata, Jouji
Japanese

Taro

Supporting
Takimoto, Keito
Japanese

J.J

Supporting
Chikada, Wasei
Japanese

Sui-Xi, Lin

Supporting
Yamazaki, Takumi
Japanese

Staff

Cook, Justin
Producer
Ueda, Yasuyuki
Producer, Planning, Original Creator


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Opening Theme

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Spotify
Apple Music
Amazon Music
Youtube Music
"Duvet" by Bôa
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Ending Theme

"Tooi Sakebi (遠い叫び)" by Reichi Nakaido

Episode Videos




Reviews

Mar 11, 2008
Review for Serial Experiments Lain by John Kim

Introduction: I find myself typing this review thinking more about the conceptualization of existence, than the anime itself. Above all, there are two standards I hold true for anime. There are anime that simply entertain for the sake of enjoyment, and there are anime that stretches the boundary of human imagination. Serial Experiments Lain falls in the latter category and for this reason Serial Experiments Lain stands out as a true classic. Serial Experiments Lain pushes the envelope of what the perceived notion of what can be done with television as a medium. The show doesn’t just provide ...
Jul 2, 2014
Mixed Feelings
Serial Experiments Lain is a psychological horror, sci-fi, cyberpunk drama anime written by Konaka Chiaki and developed by Triangle Staff. On one hand, I've seen enough things claim to be psychological with virtually no psychological content that I'm a bit skeptical. However, I've also seen plenty of anime with legitimate psychological horror elements foremost among them being the absolutely stellar Perfect Blue. This will be the only anime produced by Triangle Staff that I've seen so I can't provide an educated hypothesis based on that. I will say that I've seen some other anime that Konaka Chiaki was involved with, though not the head writer ...
Jun 1, 2015
"Pretentious", according to google dictionary is: "attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed." honestly that definition very simply describes the anime serial experiments lain.

serial experiments lain's story can honestlty be described as a random collection of 'deep' ideas like human concsiousness and existentialistism and its relation to the web, full of forced 2deep4u moments and random exposition supposed to be 'clues' to figure out the needlessly confusing storyline, wich is only made worse with long periods with no dialog and only the sound of a computer humming, which makes for a very boring and uninteresting watch.

the characters aren't ...

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Recent Forum Discussion

Poll: Serial Experiments Lain Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )
StabbyPWNS - Oct 11, 2008
309 repliesby Dienen »»
Oct 6, 8:33 PM
Poll: Serial Experiments Lain Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )
nini - Dec 30, 2008
393 repliesby sailorneptunelvr »»
Oct 6, 2:13 AM
This is the first anime to truly mindf*** me
mydaddy - May 22
23 repliesby Bhanu_LAW_196K1A »»
Sep 27, 7:33 AM
Poll: Serial Experiments Lain Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 )
_k1_ - Feb 7, 2009
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Sep 25, 1:04 PM
Poll: Serial Experiments Lain Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 3 )
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