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Serial Experiments Lain remains a point of reference for me. Whenever the modern world seems especially surreal, I hear it in my head: "present day, present ti

Serial Experiments Lain remains a point of reference for me. Whenever the modern world seems especially surreal, I hear it in my head: "present day, present time!" followed by the mad cackle of laughter. It also deepened my appreciation for the electrical infrastructure when I first visited East Asia.

exelius 9y ago
Yeah, I feel Lain is one of those underrated classics that people really only watched if they were super into anime around 2000-2004. Any later than that and the reaction was kind of "well, duh, of course that's what happens". I feel the same way about much of the societal commentary in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex -- they totally nailed the way groups like ISIS and the alt-right would spread like wildfire over social media, and the way that "fake news" makes finding the truth an exercise in futility. It was so accurate a decade before any of it happened that anyone who watches it now is unimpressed because it seems so topical as to be trite.
- distrill 9y ago
  I saw lain a few years ago for the first time and I wasn't underwhelmed at all, I thought it was great.
  - ZenoArrow 9y ago
    I remember enjoying Serial Experiments Lain back in the day, good to hear it still holds up. If you (or anyone else reading this) enjoy cyberpunk anime, I can recommend checking out the UK dub of Cyber City Oedo 808. Very different from Lain, but has a classic 90s anime feel, and has more of an adult-oriented tone without being unnecessarily graphic. The UK dub has a different soundtrack from the Japanese release, has only been released on VHS, but luckily all three episodes are easy to find on YouTube. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dwBXPsetOHM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dwBXPsetOHM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vCSTGjmRHps https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vCSTGjmRHps https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-NRb_7W0Ffc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-NRb_7W0Ffc
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    I saw Lain this year and... I couldn't understand any of it, even though I tried hard. I found it pretty confusing. Could someone explain to me what were the intended (or unintended, but interesting) messages in that anime?
- sevensor 9y ago
  > people really only watched if they were super into anime around 2000-2004 That's me! My friend who got me into anime had watched Lain in fansub, but he took "not for sale or rent" very seriously and taped over it as soon as it got picked up for US distribution. As a result, it's one of the first things I ever watched on DVD instead of VHS.
elihu 9y ago
For me it serves (alongside Weird Al's "It's all about the Pentiums") as a reminder of what an odd time the 90's were. People were just getting onto the Internet, and computers were really slow and expensive and painful to use, but progress was being made rapidly into totally uncharted territory (both socially and technologically) and it seemed like some sort of singularity-ish event was just around the corner.

exelius 9y ago

Yeah, I feel Lain is one of those underrated classics that people really only watched if they were super into anime around 2000-2004. Any later than that and the reaction was kind of "well, duh, of course that's what happens". I feel the same way about much of the societal commentary in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex -- they totally nailed the way groups like ISIS and the alt-right would spread like wildfire over social media, and the way that "fake news" makes finding the truth an exercise in futility. It was so accurate a decade before any of it happened that anyone who watches it now is unimpressed because it seems so topical as to be trite.

distrill 9y ago
I saw lain a few years ago for the first time and I wasn't underwhelmed at all, I thought it was great.
- ZenoArrow 9y ago
  I remember enjoying Serial Experiments Lain back in the day, good to hear it still holds up. If you (or anyone else reading this) enjoy cyberpunk anime, I can recommend checking out the UK dub of Cyber City Oedo 808. Very different from Lain, but has a classic 90s anime feel, and has more of an adult-oriented tone without being unnecessarily graphic. The UK dub has a different soundtrack from the Japanese release, has only been released on VHS, but luckily all three episodes are easy to find on YouTube. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dwBXPsetOHM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dwBXPsetOHM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vCSTGjmRHps https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vCSTGjmRHps https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-NRb_7W0Ffc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-NRb_7W0Ffc
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  I saw Lain this year and... I couldn't understand any of it, even though I tried hard. I found it pretty confusing. Could someone explain to me what were the intended (or unintended, but interesting) messages in that anime?
sevensor 9y ago
> people really only watched if they were super into anime around 2000-2004 That's me! My friend who got me into anime had watched Lain in fansub, but he took "not for sale or rent" very seriously and taped over it as soon as it got picked up for US distribution. As a result, it's one of the first things I ever watched on DVD instead of VHS.

elihu 9y ago

For me it serves (alongside Weird Al's "It's all about the Pentiums") as a reminder of what an odd time the 90's were. People were just getting onto the Internet, and computers were really slow and expensive and painful to use, but progress was being made rapidly into totally uncharted territory (both socially and technologically) and it seemed like some sort of singularity-ish event was just around the corner.