Lain's influence is readily apparent on Texhnolyze. Both are slow, contemplative cyberpunk series which make heavy use of ambient music and visuals. Texhnolyze takes this a little further than Lain did though. If you like your anime fast-paced and uncomplicated, this probably isn't the series for you.
Texhnolyze is an anime that doesn't really care too much for words, and often prefers to let its images do the talking. This idea is taken to its extreme in the first episode, where there is almost no dialogue throughout, rendering it rather indecipherable and unfriendly to anyone who might want to watch the series. Fortunately, later episodes are not quite so avant-garde, but the series remains a somewhat "quiet" anime, limiting the amount of dialogue spoken and instead making use of implication and symbolism.
Given this lack of dialogue, it helps that the ambient music is absolutely astounding, contributing enormously to the dark and moody atmosphere. The OP (Guardian Angel by Juno Reactor) is well chosen, fitting the cyberpunk theme perfectly. In fact the music in Texhnolyze is some of the best ever seen in an anime.
As well as the music, the tone of the series is also made apparent in its art. Lux looks suitably dirty and downtrodden, with a colour palette consisting mostly of browns and greys, and the occasional use of overexposed scenes gives it a menacing look.
There's loads of violence and despair, and at times it's not the easiest story to follow. Sometimes it can be a bit difficult to work out what's going on, though in fairness it's not the most complicated storyline ever, just difficult to decipher. Unfortunately, although the series has a strong set of characters, we never really get to know them as well as we could have. Also, the pacing is a little too slow at times, particularly at the start of the series. For the first few episodes it almost feels like the series is going absolutely nowhere, but fortunately it picks up the pace after about five episodes or so. Basically, this is not a series for everyone, but if you're willing to accept its flaws then Texhnolyze is a great anime series, recommended to fans of the science fiction and psychological genres in particular.
