Serial Experiments: Lain is one hell of a journey. If you don't like having your brain slowly drained through a hole in your temple by cyborg ants, Lain won't be for you. It has a detached, isolated tone, which is a perfect match to Lain's character and life, or rather, her outlook on life.
A lot of the screen time focuses on the visual and audio parts of the experience of the viewer to push the viewer in the direction of explorations of existentialism and consciousness. Lain has more experience than story, and I believe that is where its monumental influence and success comes from.
Story: 40% / 40%
The story was perfectly done. Lain was truly ahead of its time tackling themes like depression, suicide, the internet, cyber bullying, different personalities in and outside the net, etc. For a show made in the 90s when the internet was barely starting it was just insanely ahead of it's time. Almost in direct relation to today the dangers of the online world are real enough to reach you in the real and not in the net (or the wired in Lain's case).
The show was perfectly paced. The first two episodes build upon's Lain's fragile mentality and continue to explore it until it literally reaches the peak of divide in the human mind. We get some mind-bending reveals near the end part of the series which made me actually gasp at times. It was so suffocating I would constantly take smoke breaks to reflect on it. I believe this story perfectly makes itself suffocating and drowning.
Characters: 25% / 30%
Lain is the main character of the series and in an extreme PoV she can be considered the only character. The reason I say this is because most other characters only seem to exist in order to further develop Lain’s character or answer any questions that she has about the world and The Wired. Other characters are very superficial and grounded whereas Lain is the most complex and intricate.
Lain herself as a character is quiet, and antisocial. She has a strong sense of curiosity that drives the show’s events. Her lack of experience with The Wired makes her the vessel for the audience to learn more about The Wired and its relationship with the real world at the same rate as Lain learns the same.
Arisu is Lain’s closest friend. While her role in the beginning of the show is simply to try and get Lain to be more social, she becomes much more vital to the show as the plot progresses. As Lain becomes more entrenched in The Wired, Arisu helps ground the audience in reality. She eventually becomes the character we rely on to question and distinguish what is real and what isn’t. Later on, she becomes a close character to the viewer, although not as close as Lain, she becomes quite important as she is your primary link to reality and humanity.
The reason this section does not get full points is because even though the lack of characters is artistic in nature it is something I can't get behind on 100%.
Music/Sound: 18% / 20%
"And you don't seem to understand..." The show's main focus is both the visual and the audio experience of the viewer. Somehow the opening song Duvet perfectly explains the show: You won't understand anything until it hits you in the end. Both the opening and the ending were simply stunning and perfectly encompasing the show. This is why this is the second series ever I rate full points on music and sound. (The other one is Ergo Proxy). However, this is not to be confused with an epic soundtrack. Lain practically does not have a soundtrack aside from its opening and ending. But the lack of soundtrack also adds on to the unconventional nature of the show.
Art/Animation: 7% / 10%
While i am a big fan of the old school art style and animation the show does lack in both departments at times. There isn't much clarity in what is going on many of the times. Rooms may appear black but they actually have backgrounds some people can't see. Maybe this was a personal problem but the whole show felt like I had sunglasses on. It is obviously part of the intention but it feels to draining. It reminds me much of Perfect Blue which is immediately bonus points from me. I actually very much loved both art and animation, but it still feels lacking when looking at it critically.
Overall: 90% / 100% or 9.0/10
