Serial Experiments Lain is definitely a classic cyberpunk anime. But it’s also incredibly slow. This isn’t an action anime, it’s a psychological anime. And I wonder just how dated it feels. Aside from the CRT monitors everywhere, are the themes still applicable today? I think the anime was enamored with the idea of what The Internet could become. But now, in 2023, does that message still hold up?
What do you think? For those who have already watched Lain, would you recommend it today to someone who has never heard of it?
Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5y4nQ5Y1V8
It’s streaming on Funimation. For some reason it isn’t on Crunchyroll yet, even though Crunchyroll and Funimation were supposed to merge libraries over a year ago.
frosch@lemm.ee 1 year ago
With social media, the message is more relevant than ever.
It’s not an action anime, it’s basically 13-part video essay but people should challenge themselves from time to time. And especially anime fans.
identity_disc@lemmy.villa-straylight.social 1 year ago
I’m not disagreeing with you, this is simply me probing for more details.
Why do you think social media makes Lain more relevant? I thought Lain focused more on the wonder and magic of what The Internet could mean for humanity, rather than the social problems that can arise from actual internet usage. They definitely touch on someone portraying a different personality online compared to the real world (which is absolutely relevant regarding social media) but I thought that was more a function of Lain’s deteriorating mental state than a cautionary aspect of The Wired. Granted, it’s been a while since I’ve watched Lain, so I could be misremembering.
frosch@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I don’t think that Lain actually had an overarching theme. This is only my personal opinion but to me it was like a series of loosely connected musings on how the Internet might transform individuals and society.
There’s a lot of stuff there about the nature of hypertext (the references to Memex and Vanevar Bush) and the concepts of addressability and indexicality — this is the theme of connection and identification. But these also intimations of how the Internet could be used for control and surveillance…
If there’s one place where it all intersects I’d say it’s in the concept of technique as explained by Jacques Elul. Essentially, technology is not a neutral thing. It reshapes the world and society and makes us adapt to it.
I feel that’s a prescient warning about what smartphones and social media ended up doing both to individuals and society.
Just to be clear I am not saying this is **the interpretation ** of Serial Experiments Lain, just mine.
In the end people should watch it precisely because it’s so provocative and can be read in many ways.