Serial Experiments: Lain. Volume 1 - Navi
(Geneon Region 1 DVD)
(1998)
review by Big McLarghuge

Present day! Present time!

Such is the opening weirdness of Serial Experiments: Lain. This
enigmatic anime debuted in 1998 and hasn’t lost any of it’s bizarre
tone to the passage of time. One part Japanese new-wave horror film, one part cyberpunk story, one part coming of age tale, with bits and pieces throw in from Akira and Ghost in the Shell, Serial Experiment: Lain follows a 13 year old girl around as she becomes more and more involved in “The Wired”.

The Wired, for what it’s worth, is technospeak for the Internet and
World Wide Web…

Anyway, apparently the real world has become unusual, at least so that Lain has noticed. When school acquaintances begin committing suicide it only gets weirder. See, the dead are sending post-mortem e-mails.

When Lain lets her dad buy her a new computer, called a Navi, the most powerful civilian computer in Japan (at least in this world) Lain
begins prowling around The Wired. It seems though, that someone or something wants Lain to do more. She is constantly mistaken for another girl, also named Lain, who seems 180 degrees opposite of the Lain we spend our time with. Our Lain is nearly silent for the first three of the four episodes on this DVD. But she changes after installing some special doo-dad into her new Navi.

To try and unravel anymore of the plot after only 4 episodes is
fruitless. I have almost no idea what the hell I was watching, but I
loved every minute of it. The character design by Takahiro Kishida is
beautiful and stylish, but not grotesque, the people look a lot like
people. In fact, the character design of Lain is an exercise in
minimalism, and that really works well to amplify the importance of the story.

If you’re looking for lots of action, Lain isn’t for you. Serial
Experiments: Lain is a cerebral adventure where each event leads to ten other events and they to ten other events. Mind you, I am making this claim based on the first four episodes, so for all I know it could turn into a Kung Fu slugfest… but I’ll have to wait for the next installment to find out.

Lain really kicks into high gear when at the club Cyberia our 13 year
old protagonist is instrumental in the suicide of a deranged man. In
fact, as the series spools out there are more and more and more
deranged people. It seems that their common thread is an online
Dungeons and Dragons type game.

Anyway, Lain is weird and interesting.

A few months ago I reviewed the Lain soundtrack by Chabo Riieci, and I am glad to say all the promise that his soundtrack presented was here in the show. I really liked the way Ryutaru Nakamura worked the guitar driven music into the show without overstating the imagery. The mix, reworked by Les Claypool (yes, that Les Claypool), is just as vibrant and interesting as the original Chabo mixes.

Pioneer/Geneon are releasing a series of older anime under the banner Pioneer Signature Series, and what’s great is these are not stripped down one-dub cheapies. Though, the price for the Signature Series is almost 30% less than the original releases they don’t lack the features of their older incarnations. This is great for attracting a new audience to the titles.

Geneon releases Serial Experiments: Lain with Japanese and English language tracks, English subs, and a bunch of promos and other goodies. Don’t look for in depth production goodies though, this is after all a budget title.