I got interested to watch the show for its timeless approach, topic of discussion even almost 20 years after its release. It truly deserves its position as referring of the genres Cyberpunk and Psychological, but it has flaws which can mess up the experience and keep it from being great.
The story is a double-edged sword. Its brilliance is because of the complexity of the blend of theology, existentialism and communication and to this are added word games with the name of the main character, recurring places and objects in the foreground. Everything you see, every second is important to understand the story. Then, Why is it a double-edged sword? Why isn't it perfect? Simple, the argument structure is a hot mess. It's easy to lose the thread of the story most of the time and you probably will have to take a break many times to think about you saw. Also, you will have to relate certain things between past and recent episodes because everything is messy. But the most irritating thing is that when you manage to order all the facts and draw your own conclusions, you will realize there are still too many unanswered questions and it's frustrating to deal with that after all the mental effort you had to do.
The characters are mostly good, but they're overshadowed by the story and only two people manage to shine. Lain seems flat at first sight but her dissociative identity disorder make her great and Arisu stands out for her sense of friendship and her youthful personality with her own fears and sexual desires. Other good point is that all the characters are realistic and while most don't develop a backstory, at least they fulfill their function.
The show has high quality values. The art is dark, beautiful and it manages to transmit the feeling of being overwhelmed, the obsession with the online world and the trash of the collective consciousness of the society. The weak point is the design of the characters, unoriginal. About the animation, it was good, but there were better exponents at the time as Cowboy Bebop and some facial expressions failed to transmit what they were supposed to. However, there are some marvelous scenes as the materialization of Masami, which I can point out as one of my favorites. The soundtrack is one of the highlights, each track fits the perfect time and both the OP and ED are beautifully done.
Serial Experiments Lain is hard to digest and probably you'll be driven more by curiosity than enjoyment itself, but it's a different experience that deserves to be seen and analyzed patiently. Who knows and you can solve the mysteries that still keeps the series.
