Serial Experiments Lain Review
シリアルエクスペリメンツレイン

Since the Community Anime Reviews site frequently goes down for long periods of  time, I’m republishing some of my OG reviews from there. I have corrected obvious spelling errors though. I will add new notes in parenthesis, labeled “ANB  note.”  😅 I won’t count these as part of the “Back to the Vaults” series as I have not rewatched them.

–> Buy Serial Experiments Lain DVD/BD Collection on Amazon.com!

Community Anime Review of Serial Experiments Lain

(ANB note: This series was originally reviewed on 10-Feb-2003.)

C.A.R. Summary

Lain Iwakura thought she was an ordinary 13-year old junior high school student until the day she received an e-mail from a classmate who committed suicide a week earlier. The e-mail claims that her classmate’s soul had become a part of the wired world. Interested in the contents of the e-mail, Lain gets herself a new Navi (personal computer) so she can research for details regarding the e-mail’s significance. As Lain becomes more involved in the activity of the wired world, she finds herself becoming increasingly well known by online users despite not having been in the wired world for too long.

Review

Ah, another of the “thinking persons” anime titles. You know the type of anime that supposedly challenges your concepts of reality. People and places aren’t exactly what they appear to be. Worlds collide (of computer and RW). Oh, and don’t forget the symbolism ’cause it is everywhere!

I agree with those reviewers who say they don’t see a Matrix connection. Don’t watch this thinking you are getting some sort of anime-Matrix clone.

I won’t bore you with summary since there are plenty of reviews ahead of me with that. (ANB Note: I added the summary from the original review page.) I will tell you that this series did not live up to the hype. If you like anime where you can come up with your own “deep” thoughts, you’ll like this.

Personally, I didn’t care about all that nor did I ever care about Lain. Had I made a connection with her, I suppose my rating would have been higher.

I won’t say “avoid” this because it isn’t that bad. Watch it for yourself and see if it lives up to all of the hype. 🙂