The story of Serial Experiments Lain appears relatively straightforward. But nothing is what is seems. Meet high school student Lain Iwakura. She’s hardly the type to stand out from the crowd. Lain is beautiful, but shy, isolated and painfully introverted. She was never someone you’d remember after graduation. Rejected by her cold and emotionless mother, coolly rebuffed by her apathetic older sister, and patronised by her creepy father, Lain’s world appears empty. Until a classmate sends her an email. A classmate who killed herself weeks before it was sent. But her letter tells differently. “I have only abandoned my body. I am still alive.” And then, Lain is hurtled into the rabbit hole, down, down into the unimaginable world of the Wired.
The Wired, as it occurs in this anime, is a worldwide computer network, not only like our own internet, but an entirely different world, a world of strange, terrible beauty, all accessible at the click of a mouse. Think Tron, not Matrix. And, given the fact that it was made in 1998, some parts of its depiction of the internet are borderline prophetic. It even briefly touches upon the GIFT of Penny Arcade fame.
The visual design of this anime is utterly sublime. The scenes of the Wired are hives of intricate beauty, and even seemingly nondescript scenes positively ooze subdued nightmares. The animation is crisp and fluid, and the character designs are simple yet sharp and well-defined, particularly that of Lain herself. This anime possesses some of the best use of sound I’ve ever heard in an anime. From the haunting opening theme, to the powerful, dark electronic of the nightclub Cyberia, to the ravaged desperation of its ending, Serial Experiments Lain’s use of sound never fails to create an atmosphere, of beauty, or of terror.
The themes presented in the body of the show are always fascinating and frequently thought-provoking. From reincarnation, cybernetics, schizophrenia, love, Gods, social isolation and suicide, you can expect certain it’s ideas to stay with you long after you’ve finished watching the show. It even touches upon some more mainstream sci-fi tropes, such as van-driving Men in Black, hokey cults, and even the brief yet unforgettable appearance of one such sci-fi archetype that is simultaneously bizarre and disquietingly awesome, if slightly out-of-place. I won’t spoil it for you, but you’ll know him when you see him.
Although Serial Experiments Lain is undoubtedly the tale of a young girl in a strange land, the Alice of this story is, nominally at least, not Lain but her best friend. Her only true ally, Alice, (of Arisu in Japanese), despite seeming initially quite shy, her demure facade belies a fierce dedication to her friends, especially Lain. By far Lain’s most meaningful relationship, Alice is at times her only foothold, holding her back from an unknowable abyss.
And the ending. Oh Primus the ending. I don’t want to give anything away, but in my opinion it was a fantastically powerful, moving and immensely satisfying conclusion. There are some who do not share my view, in fact, some outright loathe it, and I can appreciate their perspectives, but in my view it was brilliantly executed and possibly the best possible ending to such a fantastic series.
Serial Experiments Lain, despite touching on literary and philosophical perspectives hailing from many countries, is a quintessentially Japanese production. It is difficult to imagine it turning out quite the way it did, or even turning out at all, if it had been a western production.
The dub of Serial Experiments Lain deserves special note. Now, dubs are oftentimes stereotyped by some of the more elitist anime fans as poorly acted, atrociously written travesties. And there is certainly no shortage of examples of this to be found (The original Akira dub springs instantly to mind.). But there are also some excellent ones hovering around, such as Death Note, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Boogiepop Phantom. All excellent shows with apposite, well acted dubs which remain faithful to the original without translating too slavishly. But Serial Experiments Lain’s dub is neither great nor terrible. The performances themselves are range from passable to excellent. Bridget Hoffman, despite sounding somewhat too old for Lain, manages to successfully capture the awkward shyness of her character. The performances of the aforementioned Men in Black are also very nice. But the true show-stealer is Kirk Thornton as the enigmatic Masami Eiri. To reveal too much about him would be to give away too much about the show, but he is the closest thing the show has to a villain, and a great one at that. Kirk Thornton infuses the role with such a smooth deliberacy, and later powerful anger. “Like steel wrapped in silk”, I believed Bruce Coville once said. Thornton’s performance is sublime, perhaps even exceeding that of his Japanese counterpart Shō Hayami, who nonetheless is also excellent. But the real errors are not in how the actors say their lines, but in what their lines are in the first place. Some conversations are awkward and strangely paced, there are direct translations where there should have been rewrites, and visa versa. Although Serial Experiments Lain relies sparingly on dialogue, the original Japanese language track is predominantly superior.
My heartfelt recommendation of Serial Experiments Lain does not come without clarifications. If you dislike series with measured pacing, and if you prefer storytelling to be straightforward, you may not enjoy this series as much as I did. And I have no doubt that it will be to dark and strange for some of you. But if you do not mind these qualities, if you do not shy away from works that are bizarre, terrifying, beautiful and magnificent, then I cannot recommend this series highly enough. And although I have seen many great anime, Serial Experiments Lain tops them all. A triumph of imagination.
