Serial Experiments Lain, Anime Recommendation of the Week!

Article at a glance:

• Serial Experiments Lain explores themes of reality, identity, and consciousness through the journey of a 14-year-old girl navigating a mysterious virtual world.
• The anime deeply focuses on the protagonist Lain, with side characters primarily serving to develop her complex character arc.
• Despite its age, the animation holds up well, and the haunting soundtrack enhances the psychological depth and atmosphere of the series.

So for this week’s anime recommendation, I picked this totally normal, fun, and wholesome anime, Serial Experiments Lain. It definitely will not make you question your existence, it won’t make you question what’s real or not, and it definitely won’t send you down a random rabbit hole of psychological research. Oh, believe me, I am speaking from personal experience. I definitely didn’t sit 15 minutes in complete silence doing nothing but thinking after watching the ending of this anime.

So yeah, welcome back to another edition of our anime recommendation series! This week we are talking about Serial Experiments Lain. Fair warning, this anime is not for everyone because of how wholesome it is. So let’s get started.

Introduction

Serial Experiments Lain is an original anime written by Chiaki J. Konaka and made by Triangle Staff. It is quite old. It aired from July 1998 to September 1998. Back when the internet was fairly new, the time when it was written is important because of how the story itself views the internet. I’ll speak more about it in just a moment. But, Lain just has 13 episodes and I don’t think that it was adapted into other forms of media.

Plot

Overviewing the plot is simple enough, Lain is an introverted 14-year-old girl who also is kind of a technophobe. One day, she along with the rest of her class, receives an email from a girl called Chisa Yomoda. Now this is weird because Chisa self-terminated recently. Through this email, Lain is dragged into this weird virtual world of all communication networks, Wired. Similar to the internet but different. Lain starts to encounter all kinds of weird stuff once this happens.

Now, every decision she makes affects her in both the physical and virtual worlds. Her sense of separation between the real and virtual world quickly starts to disappear. The plot will make you think. It raises some very interesting points about reality, identity, consciousness, perception, and existence. And you should think about it, because the more you do, the better it gets.

Characters

Other than Lain herself, most of the cast doesn’t really matter since the anime is so focused on Lain. Yes, certain characters do impact her but overall, it is about Lain and her mental issues through and through. Like Shinji in Evangelion, Lain is a way for the plot to present all those complex concepts I mentioned. So her character is very interesting, her character arc doesn’t stop and she is incredibly well-written.

Side characters like Lain’s father, Alice, and Mika are only there to further progress Lain’s character. Yes, they have importance and they are written well, their main purpose is to propel Lain’s character arc forward.

Animations and Soundtracks

While dated, the animations still look fairly good. I’d say my only complaint with the visuals isn’t even related to the animations. I’ll let you guess what that issue is. As for the soundtracks, they’re pretty good. There are some haunting BGMs in this anime and they definitely add to the feel.

Summing Up

Here’s why you should watch Serial Experiments Lain:

• Amazing plot
• Deep, the more you think about it, the better it gets
• Loads of rewatch value
• Lain herself

That is all for now. Let me know what you guys think in the comments, check out this week’s manga recommendation here and I will take my leave. See ya!