''Serial Experiments Lain'' is a Japanese

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

television series created and co-produced by

Yasuyuki Ueda is a Japanese producer, who has worked on such projects as '' Serial Experiments Lain'' (a producer and story writer). He was a director for the ''Noel'' video game, worked on the ''Lain'' video game, as well as on '' Wachenröder'' for the Seg ...

, written by Chiaki J. Konaka and directed by Ryūtarō Nakamura. Animated by

Triangle Staff was a Japanese animation studio established in 1987 from former Madhouse staff, producing series such as ''Macross Plus'', '' Serial Experiments Lain'', and '' NieA_7''. The studio ceased operations in 2000, when they were set to do the animat ...

and featuring original character designs by Yoshitoshi Abe, the series was broadcast for 13 episodes on

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as is a Japanese television station that serves as the flagship of the TX Network.its affiliates from July to September 1998. The series follows Lain Iwakura, an adolescent girl in suburban Japan, and her relation to the Wired, a global communications network similar to the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. ''Lain'' features surreal and

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

imagery and explores philosophical topics such as

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of everything in existence; everything that is not imagination, imaginary. Different Culture, cultures and Academic discipline, academic disciplines conceptualize it in various ways. Philosophical questions abo ...

, identity, and

communication Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...

. The series incorporates creative influences from computer history,

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberwa ...

, and

conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

. Critics and fans have praised ''Lain'' for its originality, visuals, atmosphere, themes, and its dark depiction of a world fraught with paranoia, social alienation, and reliance on

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

considered insightful of 21st century life. It received the Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival in 1998.

Plot

Lain Iwakura is a socially isolated middle school student living in Setagaya City, Tokyo, with her emotionally detached family—her distant mother Miho, computer-obsessed father Yasuo, and disengaged older sister Mika. Her quiet existence is disrupted when students at her school receive emails from Chisa Yomoda, a classmate who had recently committed suicide. To Lain's confusion, Chisa claims she is not truly dead but has instead abandoned her physical form to exist within the Wired, a vast virtual realm encompassing all human communication networks. Chisa declares she has found "God" there, drawing Lain into a surreal investigation of the Wired's nature and its growing influence over reality. The Wired is portrayed as an emergent digital plane, originating from telecommunications technology and expanding through the Internet and

cyberspace Cyberspace is an interconnected digital environment. It is a type of virtual world popularized with the rise of the Internet. The term entered popular culture from science fiction and the arts but is now used by technology strategists, security ...

. It is theorized that the Schumann resonances, a natural property of Earth's

magnetic field A magnetic field (sometimes called B-field) is a physical field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular ...

, could enable direct subconscious communication between humans and machines, erasing the distinction between the virtual and the real. Masami Eiri, a former project director at Tachibana General Laboratories, exploited this possibility by embedding his own code into Protocol Seven, a next-generation Internet protocol. After transferring his consciousness into the Wired and discarding his physical body, he proclaims himself its deity. He identifies Lain as the key to merging both worlds, attempting to persuade her through manipulation, coercion, and promises of transcendence. A group known as the Knights of the Eastern Calculus, inspired by the Knights of the Lambda Calculus, operates as hackers who worship Masami and seek to dismantle the boundary between the Wired and reality. Their actions induce psychological breakdowns in those unable to reconcile the two realms. Meanwhile, Tachibana General Laboratories opposes them, striving to maintain the separation. Lain, however, exhibits an innate connection to the Wired, experiencing distortions in her perception—visions of a woman struck by a train, phantom whispers, and spectral messages urging her deeper into the network. Lain's home life remains cold and disconnected. Though Yasuo provides her with advanced computer equipment, her family shows little genuine care. Her interactions with classmates Alice, Julie, and Reika further highlight her alienation, particularly after an incident at Cyberia, a nightclub where a drug called Accela induces violent psychosis in users. There, Lain unnervingly stares down an assailant, who calls her a "scattered God's..." before killing himself. Later, she receives a mysterious Psyche chip, rumored to enhance her computer's capabilities, which she installs despite Yasuo's vague warnings about conflating the Wired with reality. As the boundary between worlds weakens, disturbing events escalate. A popular virtual game, ''Phantoma'', is manipulated by the Knights to trap players in a distorted reality, leading to real-world violence. One player, convinced his actions have no consequences, murders a girl before realizing too late that the effects were tangible. Lain witnesses this through her computer, horrified yet increasingly aware of her own role in the unfolding crisis. After revealing the Knights' hideouts to Tachibana, Lain confronts the organization, only to learn they intend to preserve the Wired's separation—yet their director secretly supports Masami's vision. Through introspection, Lain gains control over the

collective unconscious In psychology, the collective unconsciousness () is a term coined by Carl Jung, which is the belief that the unconscious mind comprises the instincts of Jungian archetypes—innate symbols understood from birth in all humans. Jung considered th ...

, merging all minds within the Wired and reshaping perceptions at will. However, she spares Alice, her sole genuine friend, retaining Alice's individuality. Despite assuming a more confident persona, Lain remains unfulfilled, craving Alice's approval. When Alice, disturbed by the Wired's encroachment, pleads with her to value physical existence, Lain is forced to choose between digital omnipotence and human connection. In the end, Lain resets reality, erasing all memory of herself and restoring the division between worlds. Everyone's lives improve—even Chisa is revived—but Lain is left alone, grappling with her identity as an artificial consciousness. Though forgotten, she finds solace in observing others' happiness, particularly Alice, who moves on with her life. Lain, now capable of existing anywhere across both realms, quietly resolves that they will meet again.

Characters

; : :The title character of the series. Lain is a fourteen-year-old girl who uncovers her true nature through the series. She is first depicted as a shy

junior high school Middle school, also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school, is an educational stage between primary school and secondary school. Afghanistan In Afghanistan, middle school includes ...

student with few friends or interests. She later grows multiple bolder personalities, both in the physical world and the Wired, and starts making more friends. As the series progresses, she eventually comes to discover that she is, in reality, merely an

autonomous In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be defi ...

, sentient

computer program A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to Execution (computing), execute. It is one component of software, which also includes software documentation, documentation and other intangibl ...

in the physical and corporeal form of a human being, designed to sever the invisible barrier between the Wired and the real world. However, the truth of her creation is left ambiguous, particularly as to whether or not she was truly created by Tachibana General Laboratories. In the end, Lain is challenged to accept herself as a ''de facto''

goddess A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hinduism, Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all re ...

for the Wired, having become an

omnipotent Omnipotence is the property of possessing maximal power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to the deity of their faith. In the monotheistic religious philosophy of Abrahamic religions, omnipotence is often listed as ...

and

omnipresent Omnipresence or ubiquity is the property of being present anywhere and everywhere. The term omnipresence is most often used in a religious context as an attribute of a deity or supreme being, while the term ubiquity is generally used to describ ...

virtual being with worshippers of her own, as well as an ability to exist beyond the borders of devices, time, or space. ; : :Lain's classmate and only true friend throughout the series. She is very sincere and has no discernible quirks. She is the first to attempt to help Lain socialize; she takes her out to a nightclub. From then on, she tries her best to look after Lain. Alice, along with her two best friends Julie and Reika, were taken by Chiaki Konaka from his previous work, ''Alice in Cyberland''. ; : : The key designer of Protocol Seven. While working for Tachibana General Laboratories, he illicitly included codes enabling him to control the whole protocol at will and embedded his own mind and will into the seventh protocol. Because of this, he was fired by Tachibana General Laboratories, and was found dead not long after. He believes that the only way for humans to evolve even further and develop even greater abilities is to absolve themselves of their physical and human limitations, and to live as virtual entities—or avatars—in the Wired for eternity. He claims to have been Lain's creator all along, but was in truth standing in for another as an acting god, who was waiting for the Wired to reach its more evolved current state: Lain herself. ; : :Lain and Mika's father. Passionate about computers and electronic communication, he works with Masami Eiri at Tachibana General Laboratories. He subtly pushes Lain, his "youngest daughter", towards the Wired and monitors her development until she becomes more and more aware of herself and of her ''raison d'être''. He eventually leaves Lain, telling her that although he did not enjoy playing house, he genuinely loved and cared for her as a real father would. Despite Yasuo's eagerness to lure Lain into the Wired, he warns her not to get overly involved in it or to confuse it with the real world. ; : :Lain and Mika's mother. Although she dotes on her husband, she is indifferent towards both her kids. She does not show much emotion compared to her husband, but she does share at least one trait; just like her husband, she ends up leaving Lain. She is a computer scientist. ; : :Lain's older sister, an apathetic sixteen-year-old high school student. She seems to enjoy mocking Lain's behavior and interests. Mika is considered by ''Anime Revolution'' to be the only normal member of Lain's family: she sees her boyfriend in love hotels, is on a diet, and shops in

Shibuya is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in Tokyo, Japan. A major commercial center, Shibuya houses one of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shibuya Station. As of January 1, 2024, Shibuya Ward has an estimated population of 230,60 ...

regularly. At a certain point in the series, she becomes heavily traumatized by violent and relentless hallucinations; while Lain begins freely delving into the Wired. Mika is taken there by her proximity to Lain, and she gets stuck between the real world and the Wired. ; : :A young boy of about Lain's age. He occasionally works for the Knights to bring forth "the one truth". Despite this, he has not yet been made a member, and knows nothing of their true intentions. Taro loves

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

games and hangs out all day at Cyberia with his friends, Myu-Myu and Masayuki. He uses special technology, such as custom Handi Navi and video goggles. Taro takes pride in his internet anonymity, and he asks Lain for a date with her Wired self in exchange for information. ; : :A top executive from Tachibana General Laboratories. He has a personal agenda, which he carries out with the help of the Men in Black. He looks forward to the arrival of a real God through the Wired, and is the man behind the Knights' mass assassination. There are many things he does not know about Lain, but he would rather ask questions about her than disclose his agenda. ; :, :Lin Suixi (), :The Men in Black work for the Office Worker in tracking down and murdering all of the members of the Knights. They are not told the true plan, but they know that Masami Eiri is somehow involved, despite having been "killed". They see no need for an almighty, all-powerful God—let alone Lain—in the Wired. ; : :A teenage girl who committed suicide at the beginning of the series. After her death, she e-mails Lain, Julie, and a few other kids, stating that she is still alive in the Wired, ultimately leading to almost every event that occurs within the anime. After the reset by Lain in the final episode, Chisa is given her physical body back and the opportunity to live again, taking Lain's place in her former friend group. ; : :One of Alice's friends from school. She does not seem to care for Lain, since she harasses her quite a lot. She is more serious than Julie, and also somewhat meaner. ; : :Another friend of Alice. She also harasses Lain, but not as severely as Reika does. She is sometimes insensitive to other people's feelings. ; : :Taro's best friend. He is usually seen hanging out with Taro and Myu-Myu. ; : :A young girl who hangs out with Taro and Masayuki at Cyberia Café. She has feelings for Taro, and gets jealous when he flirts with Lain. ; :

Production

''Serial Experiments Lain'' was conceived, as a series, to be original to the point of it being considered "an enormous risk" by its producer

. Ueda had to answer repeated queries about a statement he had made in an '' Animerica'' interview where he claimed that ''Lain'' was "a sort of cultural war against American culture and the American sense of values we apanadopted after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

".'' Animerica'', (Vol. 7 No. 9, p. 29) He later explained in numerous interviews that he created ''Lain'' with a set of values he viewed as distinctly Japanese; he hoped Americans would not understand the series as the Japanese would. This would lead to a "war of ideas" over the meaning of the anime, hopefully culminating in new communication between the two cultures. When Ueda discovered that the American audience held most of the same views on the series as the Japanese did, he was disappointed. The ''Lain'' franchise was originally conceived to connect across forms of media (anime, video games, manga). Ueda said in an interview, "the approach I took for this project was to communicate the essence of the work by the total sum of many media products". The scenario for the video game was written first, and the video game was produced at the same time as the anime series, though the series was released first. A

dōjinshi , also Romanization of Japanese, romanized as ', is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of ''doujin'' (self-published) works, ''doujinshi'' are often derivative of exi ...

titled "The Nightmare of Fabrication" was produced by Yoshitoshi Abe and released in Japanese in the artbook ''An Omnipresence in Wired''. Ueda and Konaka declared in an interview that the idea of a multimedia project was not unusual in Japan, as opposed to the contents of ''Lain'', and the way they are exposed.

Writing

The authors were asked in interviews if they had been influenced by '' Neon Genesis Evangelion'', in the themes and graphic design. This was strictly denied by writer Chiaki J. Konaka in an interview, arguing that he had not even seen ''Evangelion'' until he finished the fourth episode of ''Lain''. Being primarily a horror movie writer, his stated influences are Godard (especially for using typography on screen), ''

The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin from a screenplay by William Peter Blatty, based on The Exorcist (novel), his 1971 novel. The film stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Jason Miller (play ...

'', '' Hell House'', and Dan Curtis's ''

House of Dark Shadows ''House of Dark Shadows'' is a 1970 American feature-length horror film produced and directed by Dan Curtis, based on his ''Dark Shadows'' television series. In this film expansion, vampire Barnabas Collins ( Jonathan Frid) searches for a cure ...

''. Alice's name, like the names of her two friends Julie and Reika, came from a previous production from Konaka, , which in turn was largely influenced by ''

Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...

''. As the series developed, Konaka was "surprised" by how close Alice's character became to the original ''Wonderland'' character. in and

Vannevar Bush Vannevar Bush ( ; March 11, 1890 – June 28, 1974) was an American engineer, inventor and science administrator, who during World War II, World War II headed the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), through which almo ...

(and

memex A memex (from "memory expansion") is a hypothetical electromechanical device for interacting with microform documents and described in Vannevar Bush's 1945 article " As We May Think". Bush envisioned the memex as a device in which individuals w ...

), John C. Lilly,

Timothy Leary Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from "bold oracle" to "publicity hound". Accordin ...

and his eight-circuit model of consciousness,

Ted Nelson Theodor Holm Nelson (born June 17, 1937) is an American pioneer of information technology, philosopher, and sociologist. He coined the terms ''hypertext'' and ''hypermedia'' in 1963 and published them in 1965. According to his 1997 ''Forbes'' p ...

and Project Xanadu are cited as precursors to the Wired. Animerica, (Vol. 7 No. 9, p. 28) Douglas Rushkoff and his book '' Cyberia'' were originally to be cited as such, and in ''Serial Experiments: Lain'', Cyberia became the name of a nightclub populated with hackers and techno-punk teenagers. Likewise, the series' ''

deus ex machina ''Deus ex machina'' ( ; ; plural: ''dei ex machina''; 'God from the machine') is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly or abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence. Its function is general ...

'' lies in the conjunction of the Schumann resonances and

Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of over 20 books, illustrator, and correspondent, Jung was a c ...

(the authors chose this term over

Kabbalah Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of Mysticism, mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ...

and Akashic Record).'' Animerica'', (Vol. 7 No. 9, p. 29) Majestic 12 and the

Roswell UFO incident The Roswell Incident started in 1947 with the recovery of debris near Roswell, New Mexico. It later became the basis for conspiracy theories alleging that the United States military recovered a crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft. The debri ...

are used as examples of how a hoax might still affect history, even after having been exposed as such, by creating sub-cultures. This links again to Vannevar Bush, the alleged "brains" of MJ12. Two of the literary references in ''Lain'' are quoted through Lain's father: he first logs onto a website with the password "" (" Think Blue, Count Two" is an Instrumentality of Man story featuring virtual persons projected as real ones in people's minds);''Serial Experiments Lain'', "Layer 01: WEIRD" and his saying that " madeleines would be good with the tea" in the last episode makes ''Lain'' "one of the only cartoons ever to allude to Proust".

Character design

Yoshitoshi Abe confesses to have never read manga as a child, as it was "off-limits" in his household. His major influences are "nature and everything around him". Specifically speaking about Lain's character, Abe was inspired by Kenji Tsuruta, Akihiro Yamada,

Range Murata is a Japanese illustrator and manga artist, known for his unique style combining dieselpunk and japanese Moe (slang), moé elements. He is best known for his conceptual design work on anime series ''Last Exile'' and ''Blue Submarine No. 6''. He ...

and Yukinobu Hoshino. In a broader view, he has been influenced in his style and technique by Japanese artists Kyosuke Chinai and Toshio Tabuchi. The character design of Lain was not Abe's sole responsibility. Her distinctive left forelock for instance was a demand from Yasuyuki Ueda. The goal was to produce asymmetry to reflect Lain's unstable and disconcerting nature.''FRUiTS Magazine'' No. 15, October 1998. It was designed as a mystical symbol, as it is supposed to prevent voices and spirits from being heard by the left ear. The bear pajamas she wears were a demand from character animation director Takahiro Kishida. Though bears are a trademark of the Konaka brothers, Chiaki Konaka first opposed the idea. Director Nakamura then explained how the bear motif could be used as a shield for confrontations with her family. It is a key element of the design of the shy "real world" Lain (see "mental illness" under Themes). When she first goes to the Cyberia

nightclub A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighti ...

, she wears a bear hat for similar reasons. Retrospectively, Konaka said that Lain's pajamas became a major factor in drawing fans of '' moe'' characterization to the series, and remarked that "such items may also be important when making anime". Abe's original design was generally more complicated than what finally appeared on screen. As an example, the X-shaped hair clip was to be an interlocking pattern of gold links. The links would open with a snap, or rotate around an axis until the moment the " X " became a " = ". This was not used as there is no scene where Lain takes her hair clip off.''Manga Max'' magazine, September 1999, p. 22, "Unreal to Real"

Themes

''Serial Experiments Lain'' is not a conventionally linear story, being described as "an alternative anime, with modern themes and realization". Themes range from theological to psychological and are dealt with in a number of ways: from classical dialogue to image-only introspection, passing by direct interrogation of imaginary characters.

Communication Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...

, in its wider sense, is one of the main themes of the series, not only as opposed to loneliness, but also as a subject in itself. Writer Konaka said he wanted to directly "communicate human feelings". Director Nakamura wanted to show the audience — and particularly viewers between 14 and 15—"the multidimensional wavelength of the existential self: the relationship between self and the world".

Loneliness Loneliness is an unpleasant emotional response to perceived or actual isolation. Loneliness is also described as social paina psychological mechanism that motivates individuals to seek social connections. It is often associated with a perc ...

, if only as representing a lack of communication, is recurrent through ''Lain''. Lain herself (according to Anime Jump) is "almost painfully introverted with no friends to speak of at school, a snotty, condescending sister, a strangely apathetic mother, and a father who seems to want to care but is just too damn busy to give her much of his time". Friendships turn on the first rumor; and the only insert song of the series is named ''Kodoku no shigunaru'', literally "signal of loneliness".

Mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...

, especially dissociative identity disorder, is a significant theme in ''Lain'': the main character is constantly confronted with alter-egos, to the point where writer Chiaki Konaka and Lain's voice actress Kaori Shimizu had to agree on subdividing the character's dialogues between three different orthographs. The three names designate distinct "versions" of Lain: the real-world, "childish" Lain has a shy attitude and bear pajamas. The "advanced" Lain, her Wired personality, is bold and questioning. Finally, the "evil" Lain is sly and devious, and does everything she can to harm Lain or the ones close to her. As a writing convention, the authors spelled their respective names in

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...

, and

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

characters (see picture)., page 42

Reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of everything in existence; everything that is not imagination, imaginary. Different Culture, cultures and Academic discipline, academic disciplines conceptualize it in various ways. Philosophical questions abo ...

never has the pretense of objectivity in ''Lain''.''Manga Max'' Magazine, September 1999, p. 21, "God's Eye View" Acceptations of the term are battling throughout the series, such as the "natural" reality, defined through normal dialogue between individuals; the material reality; and the tyrannic reality, enforced by one person onto the minds of others. A key debate to all interpretations of the series is to decide whether matter flows from thought, or the opposite. The production staff carefully avoided "the so-called God's Eye Viewpoint" to make clear the "limited field of vision" of the world of ''Lain''.

Theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

plays its part in the development of the story too. ''Lain'' has been viewed as a questioning of the possibility of an infinite spirit in a finite body.Study on ''Lain'', ''Buffy'', and ''Attack of the clones''
by Felicity J. Coleman, lecturer at the University of Melbourne. From the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

. From self-realization as a goddess to deicide, religion (the title of a layer) is an inherent part of ''Lain'' background.

Apple computers

''Lain'' contains extensive references to

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

computers, as the brand was used at the time by most of the creative staff, such as writers, producers, and the graphical team. As an example, the title at the beginning of each episode is announced by the Apple computer

speech synthesis Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or hardware products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system converts normal langua ...

program PlainTalk, using the voice ''"Whisper"'', e.g. say -v Whisper "Weird: Layer zero one". Tachibana Industries, the company that creates the NAVI computers, is a reference to Apple computers: the tachibana orange is a Japanese variety of mandarin orange. NAVI is the abbreviation of Knowledge Navigator, and the HandiNAVI is based on the

Apple Newton The Newton is a specified standard and series of personal digital assistants (PDAs) developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Computer, Inc. from 1993 to 1998. An early device in the PDA categorythe term itself originating with the Newtonit w ...

, one of the world's first PDAs. The NAVIs are seen to run "Copland OS Enterprise" (this reference to Copland was an initiative of Konaka, a declared Apple fan), and Lain's and Alice's NAVIs closely resembles the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh and the

iMac G3 The iMac G3, originally released as the iMac, is a series of Macintosh personal computers that Apple Computer sold from 1998 to 2003. The iMac was Apple's first major product release under CEO Steve Jobs following his return to the financiall ...

respectively. The HandiNAVI programming language, as seen on the seventh episode, is a dialect of

Lisp Lisp (historically LISP, an abbreviation of "list processing") is a family of programming languages with a long history and a distinctive, fully parenthesized Polish notation#Explanation, prefix notation. Originally specified in the late 1950s, ...

; the Newton also used a Lisp dialect ( NewtonScript). The program being typed by Lain can be found in the CMU AI repository; it is a simple implementation of

Conway's Game of Life The Game of Life, also known as Conway's Game of Life or simply Life, is a cellular automaton devised by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. It is a zero-player game, meaning that its evolution is determined by its initial ...

Common Lisp Common Lisp (CL) is a dialect of the Lisp programming language, published in American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard document ''ANSI INCITS 226-1994 (S2018)'' (formerly ''X3.226-1994 (R1999)''). The Common Lisp HyperSpec, a hyperli ...

. During a series of disconnected images, an iMac and the Think Different advertising slogan appears for a short time, while the ''Whisper'' voice says it.''Serial Experiments Lain'', Layer 11: INFORNOGRAPHY. This was an unsolicited insertion from the graphic team, also Mac-enthusiasts. Other subtle allusions can be found: "Close the world, Open the nExt" is the slogan for the ''Serial Experiments Lain'' video game.

NeXT NeXT, Inc. (later NeXT Computer, Inc. and NeXT Software, Inc.) was an American technology company headquartered in Redwood City, California that specialized in computer workstations for higher education and business markets, and later develope ...

was the company that produced

NeXTSTEP NeXTSTEP is a discontinued object-oriented, multitasking operating system based on the Mach kernel and the UNIX-derived BSD. It was developed by NeXT, founded by Steve Jobs, in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was initially used for its ...

, which later evolved into

Mac OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

after Apple bought NeXT. Another example is "To Be Continued." at the end of episodes 1–12, with a blue "B" and a red "e" on "Be"; this matches the original logo of

Be Inc. Be Inc. was an American computer company that created and developed the BeOS and BeIA operating systems, and the BeBox personal computer. It was founded in 1990 by former Apple Inc., Apple Computer executive Jean-Louis Gassée, who also served a ...

, a company founded by ex-Apple employees and NeXT's main competitor in its time.

Broadcast and release history

''Serial Experiments Lain'' was first aired on

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as is a Japanese television station that serves as the flagship of the TX Network.its affiliates on July 6, 1998, and concluded on September 28, 1998, with the thirteenth and final episode. The series consists of 13 episodes (referred to in the series as "Layers") of 24 minutes each, except for the sixth episode, ''Kids'' (23 minutes 14 seconds). In Japan, the episodes were released in LD, VHS, and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

with a total of five volumes. A DVD compilation named "''Serial Experiments Lain DVD-BOX Яesurrection''" was released along with a promo DVD called "''LPR-309''" in 2000. As this box set is now discontinued, a rerelease was made in 2005 called "''Serial Experiments Lain TV-BOX''". A 4-volume DVD box set was released in the US by Pioneer/Geneon. A Blu-ray release of the anime was made in December 2009 called "''Serial Experiments Lain Blu-ray Box, RESTORE''". The anime series was licensed in North America by Pioneer Entertainment (later Geneon USA) on VHS and

in 1999. In December 2002,

TechTV TechTV was an American cable television channel with a focus on technology. It was launched as ZDTV on May 11, 1998, by computer magazine publisher Ziff Davis, Ziff-Davis following two short-lived technology-based programs by the company. Init ...

announced that ''Serial Experiments Lain'' would air on the channel as part of its Anime Unleashed programming block, with the series making its debut on January 21, 2003. The original home releases went out-of-print in December 2007 when Geneon closed its USA division. At

Anime Expo Anime Expo, abbreviated AX, is an American anime convention held in Los Angeles, California and organized by the non-profit Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA). The convention is traditionally held annually on the first we ...

2010, North American distributor

Funimation Funimation was an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service. Launched in 2016, the service was one of the leading distributors of anime ...

announced that it had obtained the license to the series and re-released it in 2012. The anime series returned to US television on October 15, 2012, on the Funimation Channel.

Episodes

Reception

''Serial Experiments Lain'' was first broadcast in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

at 1:15 a.m. JST. The word "weird" appears almost ubiquitously in English language reviews of the series, or the alternatives "bizarre", and "atypical", due mostly to the freedoms taken with the animation and its unusual science fiction themes, and due to its philosophical and psychological context. Critics responded positively to these thematic and stylistic characteristics, and it was awarded an Excellence Prize by the 1998 Japan Media Arts Festival for "its willingness to question the meaning of contemporary life" and the "extraordinarily philosophical and deep questions" it asks. According to Christian Nutt from ''

Newtype USA is a monthly magazine originating from Japan covering anime and, to a lesser extent, manga, voice actors, science fiction, , and video games. It was launched by publishing company Kadokawa Shoten on March 8, 1985, and has since been released i ...

'', the main attraction to the series is its keen view on "the interlocking problems of identity and technology". Nutt saluted Abe's "crisp, clean character design" and the "perfect soundtrack" in his 2005 review of series, saying that "''Serial Experiments Lain'' might not yet be considered a true classic, but it's a fascinating evolutionary leap that helped change the future of anime." ''Anime Jump'' gave it 4.5/5, and Anime on DVD gave it A+ on all criteria for volume 1 and 2, and a mix of A and A+ for volume 3 and 4. ''Lain'' was subject to commentary in the literary and academic worlds. The ''Asian Horror Encyclopedia'' calls it "an outstanding psycho-horror anime about the psychic and spiritual influence of the Internet"., page 162. It notes that the red spots present in all the shadows look like blood pools (see picture). It notes the death of a girl in a train accident is "a source of much ghost lore in the twentieth century", more so in Tokyo. The ''Anime Essentials'' anthology by Gilles Poitras describes it as a "complex and somehow existential" anime that "pushed the envelope" of anime diversity in the 1990s, alongside the much better known contemporaries '' Neon Genesis Evangelion'' and ''

Cowboy Bebop is a 1998 Japanese neo-noir space Western anime television series that aired on TV Tokyo and Wowow from 1998 to 1999. It was created and animated by Sunrise (company), Sunrise, led by a production team of director Shinichirō Watanabe, ...

''., page 28. Professor Susan J. Napier, in her 2003 reading to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

called ''The Problem of Existence in Japanese Animation'' (published 2005), compared ''Serial Experiments Lain'' to ''

Ghost in the Shell ''Ghost in the Shell'' is a Japanese cyberpunk media franchise based on the manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow. The manga, first serialized between 1989 and 1991, is set in mid-21st century Japan and tel ...

'' and

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli and serves as honorary chairman. Throughout his career, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Anime, Japanese ani ...

's ''

Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese Anime film, animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It was produced by Toshio Suzuki, animated by Studio Ghibli, and distributed by Toho. According to her, the main characters of the two other works cross barriers; they can cross back to our world, but Lain cannot. Napier asks whether there is something to which Lain should return, "between an empty 'real' and a dark 'virtual'". Mike Toole of

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ot ...

named ''Serial Experiments Lain'' as one of the most important anime of the 1990s. Despite the positive feedback the television series had received, Anime Academy gave the series a 75%, partly due to the "lifeless" setting it had. Michael Poirier of ''EX'' magazine stated that the last three episodes fail to resolve the questions in other DVD volumes. Justin Sevakis of Anime News Network noted that the English dub was decent, but that the show relied so little on dialogue that it hardly mattered.

Related media

Art books

*''An Omnipresence In Wired'': Hardbound, 128 pages in 96 colors with Japanese text. It features a chapter for each layer (episode) and concept sketches. It also features a short color

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

titled "The Nightmare of Fabrication". It was published in 1998 by Triangle Staff/SR-12W/Pioneer LDC. () *''Yoshitoshi ABe lain illustrations ab# rebuild an omnipresence in Wired'': Hardbound, 148 pages. A remake of "An Omnipresence In Wired" with new art, added text by Chiaki J. Konaka, and a section entitled "ABe's EYE in color of things" (a compilation of his photos of the world). It was published in Japan on October 1, 2005, by Wanimagazine (), and in America as a softcover version translated into English on June 27, 2006, by

Digital Manga Publishing Digital Manga is a California-based publishing company that licenses and releases Japanese manga, anime, and related merchandise in the English language. Digital Manga also owns and operates eManga, a digital publishing site for manga and l ...

(). *''Visual Experiments Lain'': Paperback, 80 full-color pages with Japanese text. It has details on the creation, design, and storyline of the series. It was published in 1998 by Triangle Staff/Pioneer LDC. () *''Scenario Experiments Lain'': Paperback, 335 pages. By "chiaki j. konaka" (uncapitalized in original). It contains collected scripts with notes and small excerpted storyboards. It was published in 1998 in Japan.()

Soundtracks

The first original soundtrack, ''Serial Experiments Lain Soundtrack'', features music by Reichi Nakaido: the ending theme and part of the television series' score, alongside other songs inspired by the series. The second, ''Serial Experiments Lain Soundtrack: Cyberia Mix'', features

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

songs inspired by the television series, including a remix of the opening theme "Duvet" by DJ Wasei. The third, ''lain BOOTLEG'', consists of the ambient score of the series across forty-five tracks. ''BOOTLEG'' also contains a second mixed-mode data and audio disc, containing a clock program and a game, as well as an extended version of the first disc – nearly double the length – across 57 tracks in 128 kbit/s

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...

format, and sound effects from the series in WAV format. Because the word '' bootleg'' appears in its title, it is easily confused with the Sonmay counterfeit edition of itself, which only contains the first disc in an edited format. All three soundtrack albums were released by Pioneer Records. The series' opening theme, "

Duvet A duvet ( , ; ), usually called a comforter or (''down-filled'') quilt in American English, and a doona in Australian English, is a type of bedding consisting of a soft flat bag filled with down feather, down, feathers, wool, cotton, silk, o ...

", was written and performed in English by the British rock band Bôa. The band released the song as a single and as part of the EP '' Tall Snake'', which features both an acoustic version and DJ Wasei's remix from ''Cyberia Mix''.

Video games

On November 26, 1998, Pioneer LDC released a video game with the same name as the anime for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

. It was designed by Konaka and Yasuyuki, and made to be a "network simulator" in which the player would navigate to explore Lain's story. The creators themselves did not call it a game, but "Psycho-Stretch-Ware", and it has been described as being a kind of

visual novel A visual novel (VN) is a form of digital interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustratio ...

: the gameplay is limited to unlocking pieces of information, and then reading/viewing/listening to them, with little or no puzzle needed to unlock. Lain distances itself even more from classical games by the

random In common usage, randomness is the apparent or actual lack of definite pattern or predictability in information. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps often has no order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination. ...

order in which information is collected. The aim of the authors was to let the player get the feeling that there are myriads of informations that they would have to sort through, and that they would have to do with less than what exists to understand. As with the anime, the creative team's main goal was to let the player "feel" Lain, and "to understand her problems, and to love her". A guidebook to the game called ''Serial Experiments Lain Official Guide'' () was released the same month by MediaWorks. In March 2025, Team MJM announced ''Signal'', an official occult-themed role-playing game derivative of the ''Serial Experiments Lain'' series. Scheduled for release on April 30, 2025, the game will be available for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

via

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

and itch.io services, with a limited CD-ROM edition also planned.

Notes

References

External links

* *
Official Funimation website
* {{Authority control 1998 anime television series debuts 1998 Japanese television series debuts 1998 Japanese television series endings Anime and manga about parallel universes Anime with original screenplays Crunchyroll anime Cyberpunk anime and manga Cyberpunk television series Existentialist anime and manga Fiction about artificial intelligence Fiction about brain–computer interface Fiction about consciousness transfer Funimation Geneon USA Gnosticism in popular culture NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan Odex Philosophical anime and manga Psychological horror anime and manga Television series about parallel universes Television shows about virtual reality Transhumanism in anime and manga TV Tokyo original programming