Lain is the bad haircut wearing brainchild of Yoshitoshi ABe, whose Haibane Renmei I watched in entirety despite its hazy, lukewarm effect on me. There were knots in the grain of Haibane Renmei that seemed promising, but none of these extended into a branch sturdy enough to heap much attention or praise on. The series seemed claustrophobic, unwilling or unable to really let itself go and really go for something shocking to reach through a cerebral yet baffling and slow narrative. Serial Experiments, in contrast, does exactly this activity myopically well and surprisingly often.
Some of this is done through the visuals, taking rather bold artistic decisions and focusing on small aspects in ways that are by no means orthodox and not even necessarily in the furtherance of making the series 'pretty.' ABe has an eye for where to mix something scary, interestingly flawed, or even a little ugly into the art to shake up the viewing experience and engender discomfort, unease, or mystery, whether it be stark lighting, texturing in place of shadows, emphasis on small lines or details of the face, or even, yes, characters' eyes themselves. On top of this are aesthetics that really give Serial Experiments a retro-futurism that I adored; the grainy digital voice synthesis that read off episode titles, the bizarre UI and hardware in this cyber-oriented world imagined before the smartphone, the legitimate care in its pornographic depiction of computer hardware and pc construction, etc. Your mileage may vary, though for me these design choices consistently came off as quaint or intriguing rather than corny or antiquated.
All this is all very well and good, but you may find yourself wondering, "what exactly is this series about?" I'll tell you when I find out for myself. It's not an exaggeration to say the series is about Men In Black-style conspiracies, aliens, lethal VR, sociopathic romance, Edward Jessup's sensory deprivation experiments, the structure and history of the internet, augmented reality, the noosphere, and literal Deus Ex Machina, to name a few conceptual hooks. These strands don't always come together to form a coherent tapestry, though there's something about their depth and presentation that makes Serial Experiments Lain one of the first sources I reference on many of these topics.
Serial Experiments reminds me most of the work of David Lynch, the American filmmaker behind such works as Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway, and Eraserhead. The whole thing is off-putting, obtuse, and riddled with scenes that find all the chinks in your expectations to deliver something intensely memorable and unique. All the same, both Lynch and ABe share the same issue, namely I can't tell how much of their work is great and deep art and how much of it is simply in services of producing the atmosphere and mood to allow the scenes of consequence. Are the alien scenes there to punctuate the theme of Roswell that the narrator lays out, or simply because they look cool? Is the memory warping nature of Lain the reason why we seem to be out of the loop with what's happening in the world and why we see Alice be tormented by the inexplicable, or is the story presented in this way to conceal when it'll take the next punch at your viewing sensibilities' kidneys? Does Serial Experiments tie all of its loose ends together without me comprehending it, or as the intent never to nail down a narrative so much as put on screen the moments ABe wanted on screen?
All of this may sound like rather harsh criticism or dissuade you from viewing or enjoying it. I wouldn't blame pretty much anyone for viewing it and deciding it either didn't come together or wasn't trying to make sense in the first place. However, I can say that Serial Experiments Lain is one of those animes that, for me, cleaves a pre-viewing and post-viewing paradigm for my perceptions of anime and what this genre is capable of presenting. It perhaps will always be too esoteric for me to grasp, but the lasting impression Serial Experiments has put on me is well worth the viewing investment and, with a large disclaimer on account of the oddities listed above, I sincerely recommend experiencing it.
