Triangle Staff

7 - Serial Experiments Lain (1998)

Serial Experiments Lain (1998), written by Chiaki Konaka,conveys the singularity in an alienating, disfigured, and disturbed sense. Any pretense of rationality becomes unapparent as segments last for splits or ages; and emotion is the core requirement to understand scenes. Split between character driven and historical segments in its middle half, Lain becomes "resentful" towards the upbringings of technology; which, starting at its main character: is contraditorally hated yet "loved" by the end of the series. The distance between the main character and the world could demonstrate technology in a vaccuum: at its core distant from society yet as close as touch when accessed. The main character, presented as a doll in later parts, demonstrates this doll or shallow copy that others access while at its root disfigured from what it once was. The transformation from the beginning to the ending of the show: Lain herself as well as technology take a drastic turn as those who claim themselves demi-gods attempt to take power. This same juxtaposition can be seen in current corporations controlling the ecoscape. Even the father of the this technological zeitgeist (aka: the main character) abandones their child, leaving any moral pretense behind with them. Lain is excellently restrained by its underwhelming yet perfectly touching ending, leaving enough to the imagination to conceptualize a future potentially awaiting us.