I will leave here some of my thoughts on this anime in general and deep meaning in particular. Half of it is purely subjective.
I feel that "need multiple watches to understand its themes and symbolysm" is just an excuse to shut people that wrote bad reviews. I understand, that some of people can't actually understand themes layed in this anime, but I want to call this anime bad and at the same time say that I fully understood all of its themes and still not enjoyed and here is why.
Someone said to me that it's well written and can give more questions than Matrix or Inception.
I don't feel that it was well written. Themes WERE complicated for it's time, I agree, but now themes used in Lain not only simple, but actually overused to a degree where it not even makes me question myself one time because I already have answers to all those questions. Themes are still rare for anime, but I will not separate my anime watch experience from films that I watch and books that I read (and I would not call myself bookworm or guy who watch films every day). Furthermore, not only themes are very simple and were asked and answered countless times, but also story is complete mess of random shots of "nothing happens" or "something irrelevant happens" and bad connecting of these scenes. On top of that, anime has bad acting (again, not a problem for 90s, but problem now) and no sence of storytelling and pace at all (slow pace is good, but when something in the show is actually interesting, but all I see is that "bones" (themes and symbolism) just thrown in my face without "flesh" (actual story connecting these parts)). When I was still watching Lain, I thought "Oh, it's that type of anime where random shit happens, but in the end all makes sence" and while I enjoy this type of shows (FLCL, Mawaru Penguindrum, Ergo Proxy (not in terms of story, but rather world in which story happened), Kyousou Giga, Tatami Galaxy), this type of shows catch viewers interest by developing good subplots, characters, world, etc and Lain does not have anything from this. AND in the end there was no "all makes sence", all I got is random mix of five to ten years old ideas with no good plot to carry it. It's just not interesing to watch.
I give you two examples on how other shows succeded with some of ideas or storywriting presented in Lain.
First is Kuuchuu Buranko. Totally bizzare show with niche and unpopular themes and stories, that vastly differs from on episode to another, which managed to intrigue me and hold till the end because of clever connection between stories, VERY strong main characters and actually good and inventive humor (my score is 9/10 for this).
Ghost in the Shell managed to tell amazing and complete story with actually good voice acting and messages that ARE still ahead of time and still very underused in all types of art (even books), but also had exceptional art, characters and atmosphere. And it was done THREE years before Lain!
I think personal opinions with criticism is not welcomed in any anime discussion forum, but I just needed to express myself from the third "Understood Lain and still hated it" crowd which is usually forgotten (first and second being "Understood Lain and loved it" crowd and "Did not understand Lain and hated it").
tl;dr: Where actually good psychological anime written as a good story with interesting psychological themes and symbolism on top of it, Lain is just making (outdated) themes and symbolism main aspect and adding story just so it exists. For me and for some people out there it just not worked. I see that some people can enjoy any quality of anime while it provides symbolism, but that is not the case for me and should not be the case in general because writing is always core of anime and the most important thing to focus on in a first place. |