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)
Studios: Triangle Staff
Source: Original
Genres: Avant GardeAvant Garde, Award WinningAward Winning, DramaDrama, MysteryMystery, Sci-FiSci-Fi, SupernaturalSupernatural
Theme: PsychologicalPsychological
Duration: 23 min. per ep.
Rating: R - 17+ (violence & profanity)

Statistics

Score: 8.081 (scored by 272023272,023 users)
1 indicates a weighted score.
Ranked: #4822
2 based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity: #253
Members: 701,579
Favorites: 24,870

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8.08
Ranked #482Popularity #253Members 701,579
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Episodes: /13
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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.

Episode Videos


Related Anime


Characters & Voice Actors

Iwakura, Lain

Main
Shimizu, Kaori
Japanese

Mizuki, Arisu

Supporting
Asada, Yoko
Japanese

Eiri, Masami

Supporting
Hayami, Show
Japanese

Iwakura, Yasuo

Supporting
Oobayashi, Ryuusuke
Japanese

Yomoda, Chisa

Supporting
Mutou, Sumi
Japanese

Karl

Supporting
Nakata, Jouji
Japanese

Iwakura, Mika

Supporting
Kawasumi, Ayako
Japanese

Taro

Supporting
Takimoto, Keito
Japanese

J.J

Supporting
Chikada, Wasei
Japanese

Sui-Xi, Lin

Supporting
Yamazaki, Takumi
Japanese

Staff

Ueda, Yasuyuki
Producer, Original Creator, Planning
Maseba, Yutaka
Producer
Nakamura, Ryuutarou
Director, Episode Director, Storyboard
Ueda, Shigeru
Director


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Opening Theme

Preview
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Amazon Music
Youtube Music
"Duvet" by BOA
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Ending Theme

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



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 ...
Jun 16, 2015
Spoiler
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

Serial Experiments Lain is a paragon of many dimensions, and completely unparalleled in many more. It's a masterpiece of intellectuality, and utterly unparalleled in providing a mind-warping trip into extreme psychological and philosophical themes whose impact lingers and haunts like nothing I've ever experienced.

This is going without saying that Serial Experiments Lain is one of the most inaccessible creations of art to grace the medium of Animation, and it is difficult to even describe its complexity. There is a broad range of ideas, all of which have massive depth in their facets, which could all be focused on as a main point. ...
May 1, 2017
What really scares us? Death or the oblivion? Of course, the oblivion. It is not dying itself that frightens us the most, but rather knowing that we will lose everything we loved and cared for. All of the memories we've treasured, the choices we've made and the people we've touched; everything will cease from existence. So why do we treasure our past so much? Is that just a collection of memories the nostalgia bounds us to, or is it the part of who we are?

Serial Experiments Lain is not your average show, and definitely not something you run into every day. It is a unique ...

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Recent Forum Discussion

Poll: Serial Experiments Lain Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )
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