Logo handmade by Bannister Column by Scott Green
Sorry for the delay, but the results of the Anime AICN - Serial Experiments Lain Contest are finally ready. Winners of the Series Experiments Lain merchandise and anime have been contacted. Thanks again to Geneon for contributing copies of the anime. Johnno and Lain/Di have been awarded copies of the hardcover edition of the art book Yoshitoshi ABe Lain Illustrations ab# rebuild an omnipresence in wired released and contributed by Digital Manga Publishing, for their interpretations of the series. I had hoped to get Harry Knowles' thoughts on Serial Experiments Lain. He was sent a set of the series, but ultimately that aspect of this project pretty much flopped. After abandoning Lain at the half way point, the thoughts were: "It felt like I needed drugs... it made me feel square for not getting it." In most cases prizes have been mailed. The remaining ones will be sent shortly.
Spoilers Ahead...
A compilation of thoughts about 'Serial Experiments Lain' by Johnno
"Everyone is connected." Lain, strikes me as a work that expresses great reservations about the world of the 'Wired.' The Wired representing the growing consumption of the internet by a large number of people worldwide that begin to rely heavily on it and spend a great deal of time with. Is it the reliance that is protested in the show? Or perhaps Lain is a work more concerned with the growing preference for 'devices,' the various electronic pieces of hardware that we use to communicate with each other as text and sound rather than our own bodily devices, as shown in the episode previews belonging to the person that is identified as 'Kaori Shimizu.' A world where a digital avatar would represent us better than our own bodily features. A digital age where even handheld game consoles and cell-phones are capable of connecting to the net through hotspots in airports, colleges, and restaurants. All wireless, and for the most part, entirely free. Will our bodily presence matter anymore in the digital age where we can increasingly connect to others through information that is carried back and forth through cyberspace by a series of wires and other fiber optics? Lain begins to take place in a world extremely dependant and immersed in the Wired. The streets and cities and surrounded by cables and wires stretched out and flowing along a series of electric poles and power lines, an everyday sight that not many people take note of since it's something as common and mundane as stoplights and roads upon which people thread as a normal routine in life in order to go wherever they need and want to. The Wired world is much the same as the real world; we travel through its roads going to virtual spaces to shop, to gamble, to socialize, conduct business, visit museums and info libraries and to be entertained. It has its clubs, its lounges, and offices all within virtual reality, like another imitation of the real world only on a different level. Information in the wired is exchanged based on the IP, the protocol. By the time Lain takes place, the Wired runs on a 6th generation protocol that has already reached its data throughput limit and large companies are racing to complete and establish the 7 th generation protocol and upgrade the Wired to its next stage. One of these companies is Tachibana General Labs, and one of their chief researchers, Masami Eiri proposes a wireless network that plugs humanity in at an unconscious level, using the brain's neural network and synching it with the Earth's own electromagnetic frequency (Schumann Resonance) thus eliminating the need for any sort of electronic device for people to connect to the Wired world. However, the effects this would have in practice upon people's minds are completely unknown… Eiri, against better judgment, decides to encode this ability into the 7 th-gen protocol on his own initiative, and upon discovery is dismissed from his position. A week later he is found dead on the train line. As Lain browses the Wired, most users are either represented by a body part or clothing, but otherwise they are all faceless entities. Just as on forums and talkbacks we only know people by their username or avatar, but never from a bodily presence. Even if a photo is used to give us a clear indication of what their body looks like, they are still being represented by a series of colored pixels that are nothing like their real body. Even webcam video images are only as tangible and warm as the shadowy apparitions and figures that Lain sees around her appearing and disappearing as ghosts, present and yet never there, they can just go right through you. Lain is the only user that can translate her real world form into the Wired much to the amazement of others who find that feat remarkable as usually even skilled people can only manage a part and nothing near the whole. The only others we see who have their whole bodies are Professor Hodgeson, who experimented with the brain electromagnetic waves in children and who now spends his days in the Wired while in the real world his body in dying. The other is Eiri whose dead body was found in the real world, but now he somehow lives in the Wired as a god-like being. And lastly, to some extent, a glimpse of some members of the 'Knights,' who are a group of independent but extremely powerful hackers from various societal groups. Ignoring the powers granted to Lain, is this perhaps trying to tell us that Lain represents ourselves? Though we log into the Wired universe, at the same time we are aware of our body, we can look down on ourselves, see out hands and feet, feel our own body's warmth. In this way it subtly suggests that Lain is you an me by the reassurance that we possess a body despite our consciousness extending out onto the Wired. This however, will bring to light an interesting fact. "I am you. You must have realized that another you always existed in the Wired. You are merely a hologram of that other you. You are just a body." "But you don't think that the you in the real world is the same as the one standing here in the Wired, do you?" There is a term in psychology known as the 'disinhibition effect' that describes how people say and do things in virtual reality that are the opposite of what they would do in the real world. Lain encounters this when she is told about people seeing someone who looks exactly like her but behaves and dresses completely differently. This refers to the Lain seen in Cyberia, a night club that kids go to and hang out at. Perhaps the name also blatantly implies being in 'Cyberspace.' The other Lain look-alike is so unlike the Lain they know that they conclude it couldn't have been her. When her friends ask her if she'd like to go they joke, "I bet when a girl like Lain goes to a club, her personality does a 180." Many of us can probably recall ourselves talking big and acting rude towards others on the net. It's perhaps the safety of anonymity that allows us to say things in reply to others and behave more aggressively especially when we get caught up in a competitive atmosphere, whether in AICN talkbacks or over Xbox LIVE… We can even lie about ourselves. Oftentimes these distinctions are quite remarkable, and we ought to wonder which version of us is the true representation of ourselves? Is it one of our many identities in various net communities? Does the freedom we have on the net really bring out our truer selves? Which one of me is the real me? Lain ponders these same questions when she discovers that other versions of herself are acting independently, even going so far as to betray her dearest friend, Arisu's trust. Does possessing a body automatically make the possessor's behavior the true identity or is the bodiless Wired entity the truer self? Do we secretly despise some of our actions online, is it a place we go to in order to vent our frustrations in a way we wouldn't in the real world? When Lain goes to confront her other, as she chokes her she demands "Who are you? You're not me. I'd never do what you do. Stop it! Why are you acting like the part of me that I hate?" "They're all you. I said that you've always existed in the Wired, didn't I? You're the same as me. You're omnipresent in the Wired. Wherever anyone is, wherever they go, you have always been there. You've watched what they didn't want others to see. You told everyone about it, that's all. It was the right thing to do. The Wired's information should be shared, shouldn't it?" Eiri describes his motivation for proceeding with integrating the Schumann resonance Factor into the 7th-gen protocol, "Mankind is a creature that no longer evolves, is it not? Compared to other animals, the cancer rate is exceedingly small. One theory says that man is a neoteny, and is no longer able to evolve. If this is true, then what an absurd creature man has evolved into. Not knowing what it is that drives them, they keep their bodies merely to satisfy the desires of the flesh. They're worthless, don't you think? That's all mankind is. But it is no longer necessary to remain a wretched human being. Mankind has finally created an exit whereby he may escape. " This exit he refers to is the Wired network. The background for Lain's world in Layer 09 describes the method, "The Earth has its own specific electromagnetic waves. Between the ionosphere and the Earth's surface, there is a constant resonance at a frequency of 8Hz in the ELF band. This is called the Schumann Resonance. The extent of the effect on humans of these "Earth Brain Waves" that the planet constantly gives off remains unknown. The Earth's human population is approaching that of the number of neurons in the brain. Douglas Rushkoff proposes that the consciousness of the Earth itself might be awakened when all humans on Earth become collectively networked. The network's evolution would follow a neural model, and just as neurons within the human brain are connected by synapses, the Earth itself would become a neural network." However Eiri, being far more ambitious, decides to rid the world of its physical bodies altogether. He reveals to Lain that she is actually software that he created. He collected 'her' fragments that existed in all people over the world and gave it an ego. This relates to Gnostic concepts, of ridding ourselves of the body and collectively that the sum of our egos contributes to the birth of a Deus-like being. Eiri hopes to make man evolve in this way through their own power. Lain's purpose was to merge and destroy the barrier that divides the real world and the Wired and thus to connect people as Eiri believed they were originally. This ability gives Lain omnipresent power to see into everyone's lives, she is everywhere, "Present place, present time," as well she has power in the Wired where she could live forever and rule it with information as a god-like entity. "Either way, it's Lain that's saying it. Me. You understand that, right? Oh, right… Lain was never a person, was she? Lain is omnipresent, existing everywhere. Lain watches quietly. Right, Lain is God!" However this collective merging into a god-like being might destroy the entity that truly is Lain Iwakura. Eiri tries to convince her that she doesn't need a physical body but Lain is resistant and wants to remain herself. Lain is afraid, like the other men in black, about the merging of the real world and the Wired. They and her father insist that the Wired must only be a field that functions as a subsystem reinforcing the real world. Karl and his partner, realizing that they helped aid Eiri, become deathly afraid of what is to come when they realize that they can't escape to any place that doesn't have power lines or that is not covered by a satellite, because by this time no place on Earth like that exists anymore… Their client, who turned out to have been in contact with Eiri all the time, is excited at the possibility of what could happen next. Later on, as the borderline continues to erode, Lain looks out into the distance and the same wired poles and power-lines begin to transform into giant dark terrible monoliths thundering in the sky overlooking the city. Throughout the series we see examples of phenomena associated with the Wired breaking through to the real world, sometimes with disastrous results where people accidentally kill others in their fear and ignorance. "Let me give you one little warning. When it's all said and done, the Wired… is just a medium for communication and the transfer of information. You mustn't confuse it with the real world. Do you understand what I'm warning you about?" Here's an interesting observation… If you use a computer very often, have you ever found yourself drawing or writing with a physical pencil or pen and paper, and then realizing you've made an error, discover yourself 'reaching' for the CTRL+Z keyboard shortcut or wanting to 'click' on the Edit menu and select 'Undo'? This is likely because you use that function so often it's become like a habit. Many times you might hear how people become desensitized to violence in films or video games and then a select number of people who commit crimes attempt to blame it on the Matrix films or Grand Theft Auto or Doom games. After the shooting incident in Cyberia, Lain spots Arisu and her friends excitedly talking about being there and everyone wants to know the fine details or joke about it. Was there a lot of blood splattered? Was the shooter cute? Arisu becomes concerned and later comments, "There's something wrong with us. We saw someone die right in front of us yesterday, but we're acting like it's something we saw in a movie." They reply, "I know we were there last night, but it didn't seem real." "I guess it was like that for me too. I don't think you should take it so seriously, Arisu." She corrects them, "No that's not what I mean. I'm saying it's strange that we can't take it seriously." Internet use is sometimes considered a method of altering consciousness on par with drug use, being that they both can alter the normal relationship between oneself and the environment. People can become deeply rooted in it and it can provide them with a very pleasurable experience when they connect in this way. It can be dreamlike and unreal and grow to become an extension of one's consciousness. Lain always sees her world from a very unreal and hallucinogenic view. When the young man in Cyberia comes across the mechanical looking drug 'ACCELA,' his time-sense becomes affected and his brain's operational capacity increases greatly. He appears to recognize Lain, "You are that scattered god's…!" and immediately becomes afraid screaming that he wants nothing to do with her and that, "The Wired can't be allowed to interfere with the real world!" When Lain suddenly changes personality and informs him that he can't escape it, he turns the gun on himself and fires. In Layer 04, a children's online game of tag gets crossed over into the real world killing people accidentally and even into another Dungeon based game that ends with a child's death when the terrified boy that was being chased runs along the rooftops of the city and being unable to exit the game he was caught in, turns around an empties his 'weapon' into his assailant. While there is no evidence of video games causing violent behavior, there are terrible cases where some perpetrators have trouble distinguishing the difference between the realities set in games from reality itself. Another problem is the spread of misinformation, and other sorts of untruths one may encounter amongst the internet. Just because one reads something on it doesn't mean it's automatically true, and rarely does one take the time to thoroughly verify things, so one ought to be use caution and discretion. Knowing the identity of another is also not always accurate because as said before, people can lie about who they are. One could end up in the same situation as Lain's much older sister who finds herself being hit on by a child. Another problem are the rumors that bring shame and hurt people, even if they are truthful, are most of those things really necessary to be discussed and sought after? Amongst the various chatter we hear a person being caught with their secret lover and then blackmailed or else their whole company will hear of it. So what causes many to become so entrenched in the Wired? For one, it's easy to find and connect with people who share our interests in specific locales throughout cyberspace. It's also convenient and useful, and yes, very enjoyable, and we often use it for escapism and pleasure. At the same time, it's because everyone's going there! Lain appears to be quite a loner at the start, being unfamiliar with computers and never even touches her Navi until curiosity prompts her to do so when her classmates start receiving mail from a dead girl. Lain's father excitedly logs onto the Wired with a pure look of joy on his face and happily thinks that Lain finally decided to show interest because her friends are all connected through devices that take them onto the wired while she's being left out. He later instructs her that she can't keep using a children's Navi forever, and that she'll need a powerful system that will mature alongside her relationships with people. "Whether it's here in the real world or in the wired, people connect to each other and that's how societies function. Even a girl like you can make friends right off the bat, Lain. There's nothing to be afraid of. I wonder why your mother can't understand that." When he asks her why she suddenly wants a Navi, she replies that she wants to see a friend, he laughs and begins typing furiously, enjoying who he's chatting with online. Going online does, however, have a profound effect on Lain. Arisu notices Lain looks a lot more relaxed and talkative. Lain says she's spending time on the wired. They're surprised to even learn that Lain is into modifying her Navi, and say she's changed, but can't quite put their finger on it. But at the same time, as Lain becomes more obsessed with the wired, Arisu beings to notice Lain slipping away, they wonder if Lain prefers the Wired to her real friends to the point where being with them as opposed to the Wired might even make her unhappy… Her father's enthusiasm on the Wired is a sharp contrast to how their family behaves together in real life. When they sit down to eat, there's hardly a word of conversation, each person separate and uninterested in each other. Her mother who doesn't appear tech savvy appears dull and uninteresting, very isolated and alone. It appears the only time Lain's parents interact is in a sexual manner. In a show whose theme revolves around the idea of the body's necessity in an electronically connected world, we are also shown many images of couples holding each other or making out, as sexual relations may appear to be the only reason to enjoy having a physical body. Eiri's reason for escaping the body was so that we might 'evolve' into something at a higher level and be reconnected at an unconscious level then raise it to the conscious level. Towards the end when Lain confesses to Arisu that she was her only friend without ever connecting to Lain through the Wired, she then tries to convince Arisu that the body is unnecessary. Arisu, upon hearing this, shares a tender moment with Lain, "You're wrong. I don't understand what you're saying, but I think you're wrong. Your body's cold, but you're alive, Lain. Mine, too. See? See? My heart…it's beating." Lain feels her heart and they both imitate it and giggle. When Eiri appears he tries to convince Lain to proceed with breaking the barrier between the Wired and the real world and to connect with Arisu. Lain becomes hesitant and then defies him by exposing the fact that the body was given to humanity by something far more powerful than the god Eiri made himself to be, by something that existed long before Eiri or the Wired ever came into being. She says that without a body Eiri could never understand this, and perhaps was himself being led along a course the true God who created the world plotted for him. Eiri then furiously tries to reform his physical body but can only manage a grotesque state and then attacks Lain and Arisu. Lain mocks him, "A body doesn't mean anything to you, right?" and uses the machinery and wires around her to crush his flesh. What isn't remembered never happened. Memory is merely a record. You just need to rewrite that record. Towards the end Lain, having deeply scarred Arisu's mind by what she witnessed in Lain's room cries that she always messed up everything she tries to do for Arisu. Lain, then having her godlike ability in the newly merging Wired and real world, decides to hit the 'Reset' button on everything, taking everyone back to period in which Lain never existed by wiping out her memory from everyone. Lain had done this once before when her other self had betrayed Arisu and revealed Arisu's secret concerning a teacher at her school out onto the Wired. Lain having destroyed the barrier between the Wired and real world for herself could go onto the wired without a device. Lain also knew that she was created from and is a part of everyone, so she was able to undo and erase all memory of what happened from other people's minds. Arisu arrives at school only to discover that Lain really did accomplish it! However, Arisu misinterprets Lain 's intentions, "I… I thought I had gone crazy. But I didn't. Lain why did you leave only me? Why did you only leave my memories alone? Why do I always have to remember all those horrible things? Do you hate me that much, Lain?" Lain is taken aback by Arisu's reaction. Earlier she had, for the first time, tried deleting other's memories of knowing the ' Lain was a peeping Tom' rumor. Although she satisfactorily did do, a scene takes place where upon returning to school to see everyone had happily forgotten, the moment she runs towards Arisu, another Lain emerges from her and runs towards them and nobody notices Lain. This is perhaps to signify that the guilt or actions of whatever you commit still remain with you despite others forgetting about it, so in effect the reality is one that wouldn't truly belong to you… unless of course you erase them from your memory too! In creator Yoshitoshi Abe's illustration book 'ab# rebuild an omnipresence in the wired' there is a short but very intriguing manga of Lain entitled 'The Memory of Fabrication' which can sum up a large portion of what 'Serial Experiments Lain' is all about. It tells us a story of Lain once again dealing with the issue of erasing her memory and the trauma and confusion that it could bring if done inefficiently… In the new world that Lain has reset we see familiar characters going about their business. Her family eats a meal and there's quite a bit more natural conversation amongst them this time compared to what we've seen before. Arisu appears as Lain usually does and meets up with her friends and they plan to go to Cyberia again. Eiri appears angry and convincing himself to quit his unappreciative job while walking home. The erasure Lain did is not altogether perfect… Mr. Iwakura, her father, looks at the spot where lain usually sat at the dining table and is struck by some odd feeling as if someone used to be there. Eiri glances at some light fixture men who turn out to be the same men in black and for a brief moment wonders about something familiar. Arisu raises her phone to call someone to go with them to Cyberia but then can't remember who, but suddenly has a revelation, "If you don't remember something, it never happened. If you aren't remembered, you never existed." "I… I'm confused again. Am I here? Or am I there? Over there, I'm everywhere. I know that. I'm connected there, after all. Right? But where is the real me? Oh, right… there is no real me. I only exist inside those people who are aware of my existence. But this me that's talking right now… It's me, isn't it? This me that's talking… This me… Who is it?" The idea behind Lain's omnipresence was that she was a fragment part of the unconsciousness of everyone on earth. However this is also significant of something else. It is the idea that our 'omnipresence' is that within everyone's minds we believe there exists a version of ourselves as others see us (This will be familiar to those who have seen Neon Genesis Evangelion's psychological breakdown of the characters in episodes 25 and 26. "This is the version of me that exists in the mind of Asuka Soryu." "And at the same time, this is the me that exists in Shinji Ikari's mind." The concept of leaving our physical bodies and merging into a divine being through Human Instrumentality is also similar). We are always concerned about what others think of us that sometimes this self consciousness can be a source of sorrow and worry. This also brings us back to the appeal of the Wired world. Where we can save, delete and edit experiences and information or simply leave places we don't want to remember. If we could apply this to our lives we could avoid these situations of hurting others and avoid having others hate us. In essence, we ought to forget about bad memories and bury them, then we'd feel better about it because we wouldn't remember. However even at the end, Lain is still uncomfortable about this idea despite that it's what she wanted. However, though she cannot solve her problem of being uncomfortable about her decision to erase herself from everyone's memories, she may have realized her motivation for doing so and accepting it she starts over deciding to make new memories for the present and the future because memories don't stand still and is information in constant motion. Despite unhappiness and mistakes humanity overcomes it and goes forward, Lain then goes to meet an older happy Arisu for the first time (again). Although it is probably an unsavory attitude to forget about bad memories, and Lain's actions may not agreeably be the noblest, it could be the motivation that truly matters. We can step back to examine why we went through the trouble and we'll realize at the core that it's because we don't want others to separate from and hate us. That despite that you often cause trouble and misunderstand and hurt others… as soon as you bring that hidden portion of yourself that motivates those actions out into the safety of the light, and remove the hood that hides it… you might've really done all this because, "You love them? Isn't that right?"
Interpretations from Lain/Di
So ...what would you like to know Mouth? Everything!! Everything is a lot. Can you be more specific? Who is Lain? Who is Deus? Who are the Knights and what happened to Lain and her family? Ever read any King? Have you read the last book in the "Dark Tower" series ....all the way to the end even after King suggested you not do that? Well ....yes. Figures. Very well. Let's take this one step at a time. You want it explained. How much space/time do you have? Do you understand that when you like or love something it is not always helpful to have the object of your affection explained? Do you really want to know that I think Lain is a designer child and that her family is not her family? Do you want to know that the MIBs (and Lain herself) really do work for Tachibana? Do you know that one difference between Lain and the MIBs is that while she is unaware of who she works for, the MIBs think they DO know who they work for? Do you want to know that Mika is an innocent bystander in a battle between two elitist powers wherein the concept of right and wrong ceases to have any real meaning? How about who "evil" Lain is and how she is just one of many Lains created by Tachibana but used and turned by Eiri Masami? How about the Knights being the tools of a would be god named Deus/Eiri? How about the idea that SEL is a bunch of little stories made into one big story to keep your attention? Well... I'll get to them ...quiet you!! Episode one "Weird" concerns itself with the loneliness of being young and unwanted. It's about feeling alone and miserable and looking for a release from those feelings. It is about how sometimes a young person can take their own life when they are only beginning to live. It is a visualization of the desire to exist in a better place and of worshiping a god that you can actually talk to and touch. That's it???? Well ...it does introduce the characters. This is the episode when the first of many lies occurs in that a young woman named Chisa is told of a better alternative. Chisa is the bait (or tool) used to hook Lain. There are some commonly missed clues like the one shown on the board during Lain's English class such as "I came Home. Mother was cooking." This is more important than the "Come To The Wired" messages which remind me of the practice of showing the same commercial over and over until the viewer buys in hope of making it stop. I also like the crows in the opening. They are considered by some in Japan as a symbol of transition. I think the words in the opening song "Help me to breathe" are also significant; it ties into the idea of needing others to continue our existence. Episode two "Girls" examines the other ways of killing oneself; slower ways that people use as opposed to more direct methods. It looks at finding different things to amuse yourself with while still waiting for it to be over such as: drugs, music or maybe a new computer. I call it retail therapy. As much as the first episode is about giving up I find the second episode is about trying to live with the perceived futility of life. It is also about growing up fast. Maybe too fast. An example of this is becoming sexually active when you really aren't ready for it but because your life is so boring you go with it. Oh Mouth I so like this episode for its substitution of drugs like Accela, getting wasted and doing anything to make yourself feel SOMETHING. The two methods of suicide, fast and slow, are contrasted at the end of the episode. Episode two is about feeling about anything but yourself ...maybe someone else. ...but what about Accela? Oh right ...you want to talk about Ritalin and other drugs that normalize us or help us adapt to the needs of society. Well okay then. Which Lain do you think is more effective and/or pleasing? The meek one or the one with attitude? Lets face it - if you have a disability the medical system, in this country and others, is geared to fix you to the point that you are more accommodating to the needs of society and the abled people around you. There is a lot about duality in this episode in that we are forced to decide to please other people or to please ourselves and then use that decision in how we present to the world. Episode three "Psyche" - are you keeping up here Mouth? Good, shut it. Psyche -The mind functioning as the center of thought, emotion, and behavior and consciously or unconsciously mediating the body's responses to the social and physical environment. Read that and think about it. This episode examines how we all react and relate to the world consciously or unconsciously. Wouldn't you just love to have a chip like that? Just insert it into your brain to be able to automatically grin at your sister and say "welcome home" the moment you install it! Pretty nifty gift eh? It's also about making a good friend - even one can make all the difference. Visually, points are made concerning the moment of discovery that your parents are their own people and have their own lives. Boy do they. They aren't even home when you sleep. Mom makes you breakfast and feeds you but you know her heart isn't really in it. Oh yeah then there is the fact your sister is jealous of you. It is also about how people perceive you and that in everyone you know there are little people who look like you but may not fit your own self image. Did you catch the fact that Mika thinks Lain has manipulated her Father to get the new Navi? She even implies that Lain smells bad. ..but aren't the Knights mentioned here? Mouth ...you are bothersome. Yeah they are a major plot device. It is suggested that the "Psyche" chip is produced by the Knights. They do a lot of the grunt work in the real world that Deus/Eiri can't. The most important thing to the story is the developing friendship that Lain has with Alice/Arisu. You do know there is a nod to "Alice in Wonderland" here right? Oh ...and the MIBs are in this one. They are watching her for Tachibana because Tachibana is using her to look for those very same Knights. Lain and the MIBs do not know this; neither should the viewer (more fun this way) at this point. The MIBs are employed only for this one task and told stuff on a need to know basis. Ever been treated like that when asked to do a job? Nasty stuff. Episode four is named "Religion". This one examines the idea of taking a belief system so seriously that what is real and what is unreal (or faith based) tend to mix. See ...anything can be taken as a way of life or a set of rules for living. Anime, Star Trek, games or computers. As humans it seems we all need something to believe in order to help us make sense of the non-sense. It can become such an obsession that a person can lose view of the (so awfully) big picture. People can suffer if you do that and people frequently die because someone else is suffering from a blind obsession. It is about taking responsibility for your actions and accepting that what you do has consequences for others as well as for yourself. Even Lain's "Father" warns her of this and Lain in her "I know better" rebellion of youth lectures him. In spite of the situation he finds himself in he still comes to care about her ...and this may help little Lain in the future. ...star trek? Forget I said that. I guess the point is that with all the stuff going on Lain is interacting pretty well with both worlds now. She feels much better. How bad is Eiri and the Knights? This thing with the game "Phantoma and "Tag" being connected is pretty bad. Children are dying and it's all part of the Knights testing the protocol. They can do this and observe the results. It's fun for people like the Knights to be in control of other peoples games. The "Big Bad" always enjoys the suffering of others. In the last scene Lain doesn't seem to be enjoying the game she is viewing so ...how bad can she be? Episode five "Distortion" could be called "Lies". Eventually we learn to discern between the truth and the "beautiful" lies we hear. It is also similar to the religion thing in that if you become too intrigued with these "distortions" you may lose track of what is happening around you. Lain is kept busy with these twisted tales while Mika is being destroyed. A statement is also made about just how worthless we humans are since we are such a stagnant and dead-end species. Someone really should do something about it don't you think???? Well I.... Ok you got me here. It is hard to talk about things like ...neoteny. You know ...the idea that humans are a sexually mature species still in its larval stage. Where does a judge have to sit to make a judgment like that? That idea makes us all worthless and sort of a waste to some people. Then there are comments about what can define a god and god's relationship to linear time. It is stated in this episode that time is a series of events connected (or forced to connect) by a line. Did you play god (not so easy is it) when you watched this episode? If you did that is why you are confused by it. It is not linear and takes place over two days. What happens to Mika ....takes place during the first day. She becomes insane due to the fact that her time sense is destroyed by Eiri and the Knights. Taro gave her the reason to open the wipe cloth. I don't believe in co-incidence - the wipe contained something that made Mika vulnerable. She also comes to believe she has died and has nowhere to go; hence the "It's nothing" or "not much. Just dead and wandering" reply to Lain when she is asked "what's up?" at the end of the episode. Best line in the show and it is only implied! Poor Mika. She is the main target in the sequence. She is a connection to reality for Lain and she is a convenient tool for Eiri to keep an eye on Lain. Hey ...it is only fair - Tachibana got their MIBs and Eiri got his MIKA. Oh - was that your life we walked on? Sorrrreeee!!! You were just a neoteny anyway. I hate Eiri now more then at any other point in the show. Episode six "Kids" concerns a couple of things. Lain has her new belief system and her new friends. Don't worry about your family or old friends because we got your wallet ...I mean ...your back. :) Episode six shows Lain being used by other people who really don't have her interests in mind but only their own. One moment she is asking her new friends why they like her; in the next she gets the bill when she sees her face plastered in the sky. Lain's image is being used to lure children to the Wired. Beware strangers who act like friends because sometimes all they want is to move into your apartment, smoke dope, take over your place and leave you footing the bills. Oh all right ...it is also about the scientific method. Propose a theory and conduct experiments to see if the theory is valid or not. Have firm objectives and firm goals and try to make money. Matter of fact make sure you think up something that has profit potential first and then do your science because you will get grants and funding and all sorts of things if the profit potential is there. Of course irresponsible science is just doing something to see what will happen and profit is accidental. The first is hopefully better because you are using existing things to make money but the second may be more creative. It may fail more often than not but sometimes something wonderful/dreadful comes out of it. Profit science or pure science - take your pick. Oh and if you mess up (both types) hide the evidence really well or you could go down in history. This episode shows Lain crying after hearing the explanation from Hodgeson. This is about the time that Lain is connecting the KIDS technology and Knights. It's hard to realize your new friends are not so nice. See ...maybe Eiri didn't start all this (or Hodgeson for that matter) but these "fires" do start someplace. ...like at the beginning of time in 2001? Don't get smart with me!! ;) Episode seven. Society is an exclusive club and you only get to belong if you got something it wants or needs. Do not knock on society's door otherwise. Another thing - don't go around talking about other people and their heritage with your smug face or maybe someone will sit you down and tell you about yours. Hey it happened to my Aunt/Cousin. She had it coming. So do we all. ...is that guy really from Tachibana? Oh probably, but like all the others he is a tool and only knows that Lain is not to be hurt physically. His job is to get to the Knights and he has been told she is a link. He'd lose more than a finger if he allowed her hurt by the MIBs. It also serves to show how diverse the Knights are - A brain, a delinquent, a beauty queen ...and so on. This is the episode when Alice/Arisu apologizes to Lain on the roof of the school and cements their friendship. This is very important for later on. Episode eight "Rumors" is all about the danger of spreading a rumor and how it can become perceived as truth. Sometimes that rumor you start can come back and bite you. Once a rumor is out there and actively hurting you or others it is not so easy to undo ...so watch what you say. Another thing to remember is if you meet someone calling himself god be skeptical because if you believe that one - you will believe it all. (Especially when they tell you who you owe your existence to and who can break you.) You know ...Without Me you are nothing. Nuthin!! Right Mouth? ...geez you didn't even say anything about the evil Lain on Alice's bed!!! Oh that. Well ok it is important I guess. Remember how Eiri is attacking Lain's connections to the world? Well here is the attack on Alice. It serves two purposes. It is an attempt to cut one more of Lain's links and provokes her into trying her power in the Wired. This kid is irresistible to Eiri and he wants her to use those abilities. The evil Lain may be a hologram of the type that Eiri has spoken of when he refers to real Lain's body. She did just kind of appear there on the bed. Today this kind of spying is conducted with spyware or by accessing the camera or microphone of a user without permission. Some companies are even asking for those permissions in order to serve us better. Right! I, for one, would have noticed her a lot sooner before getting down with myself. It is important in that Lain has to confront the other version of herself. The evil Lain may also be one of the other Lain "type" children that Eiri has succeeded in turning. Either way it is important because Lain's friend Alice is attacked. Lain tries to fix everything by erasing memories of the peeping but only succeeds in erasing herself and allowing the evil Lain out and into her life. Evil Lain could be a reflection of how Lain is perceived by Julie and Reika (and Alice) at that point in time. Our personal reality can be greatly affected by how others perceive us. ...so why is everything back to "normal" in the next episode? Do you not back up your DATA? If you try to debug something by deleting data and it does not have the desired effect and you have not made a backup ...where are you? Nowhere. Lain learns fast ...she did a restore. Episode nine "Protocol". Not counting the poor, there are two types of people in the world. There are people who like it like it the way it is; people who are content to maximize their wallets. Then there are those with big ideas that decide that as a race we are bound for bigger and better things. Neither side cares if you get a choice in that decision. In fact most of the people in charge of the two sides have already decided the issue for you because they are smarter than you and you cannot be trusted to decide what is best for you. They are smart and can be trusted and you should thank them for taking on that awesome responsibility. It is so hard to decide things for people, sigh, but someone has to do it and I'd rather it be ME!!! Don't let other people decide your fate. M'kay? Anything to say Mouth? Ok. It is common in anime to have a section devoted to educating the audience or a long speech from the "Big Bad" to explain his/her point of view. At least in SEL they did not use the usual "Voice of Doom." In Eiri's case it would have been the "Voice of Dumb" anyway. It gives you some history and reveals the man who would be god - Eiri Masami. It serves to provide a plausible back story to the supposition that we need to evolve as a species. Why? Well ...so we can talk to Aliens instead of doing all that fleshy stuff we think we like. It really is about playing god and how people do it all the time based on what they think are their own perfectly perfect ideas. The more important thing is the encounter with Taro in her room. Lain is given a circuit board with non-volatile memory and questions Taro about it. (She gets her first kiss too!) ...is Taro a Knight? No. He is just a kid being used and paid by them. Lain gets him to co-operate by playing her own "Cyberia" program right there in her room. This implies that Cyberia itself is a "solid" hologram environment. Did you notice how empty Cyberia is after the Knights lists are made public? So he tells her what he knows and says that the Knights are for "Truth". Even though he does not know what "Truth" the Knights are talking about, it still has power because it is true. Remember blind faith? Truth is something she needs and even though it has the Knights mark of approval on it she has a look see. She views herself being introduced to the false family. She knows it is only a little bit of truth after she asks about the identity of the people who placed her in her home. The memory self says "I would not know because I am you." A little truth goes a long way when it is mixed in with a lot of lies. It also helps to severe Lain from the false family and that is what Eiri wants. Lain also thinks that she can fix things for Alice if she just deletes the memories of the people at Cyberia. Episode ten "Love" is all about being aware of being used. People have evolved to use tools and sometimes other people are tools. When a tool is no longer useful it is thrown away. People can and do throw other people away. Is that it? Well a lot of it. Lain feels the Knights are responsible for her problems as well as the existence of her evil twin so she goes and gets a list together. This also necessitates her falling further into Eiri's Wired. Anyway ...the Knights are killed all over the world at the same time by various versions of the MIBs. She also has this long conversation with Eiri but remember that they are role playing as each other here. Lain already knows most of these answers. This is also around the time when the false Father leaves but lets Lain know that he did come to care for her. I sometimes wonder if the Father in occasionally breaking the restrictions put on him regarding Lain resulted in helping her become a little stronger than the other "Lain" children. Another connection gone and who does it serve? Eiri. The key point is that in this episode, near the end, Eiri almost has her but she is still concerned about the other her making trouble for Alice. In frustration she tells Eiri to go away. He does. She should not be able to tell god to go away and make it stick ...and she knows it. Why did the MIBs not kill her? It was not their decision to make. They were not allowed to. Their job was to get rid of the Knights. The people who created the Lain children (Tachibana) designed them to track down Eiri and his Knights. The hope was that one of them could stop/delete him. Lain is like a bit of software (antibody?) meant to track down a virus. Eiri probably never believed a flesh person could act in such a way against him. Finding the Knights and enabling their elimination was quite a feat in itself. As long as she still functioned in the real world there was a chance of her getting Eiri as well. Not all tools are destroyed after use and some are left to crumble or die on their own. I feel so sorry that a person could be created to be used like this and not even be considered important enough to be told they are being used. I doubt Lain was designed to live long in any event. Episode eleven "Infonography" shows what happens when information becomes so mixed up, messy, meaningless and plentiful that it ceases to have meaning; information in this state has the effect of being nothing more than stimulation. This much information can cause a person to mistake it for something it is not. Try driving down a busy street and pay attention to all the information in the form of signs, buildings and people. If there is no way to sort it into meaningful and meaningless piles it all becomes very confusing. If pornography can be looked at as an assault on the senses (assuming it is unwanted) then too much unwanted information can be also compared to an assault as well. Another point to be made is that if all your sense of self is in one external person then you had better take care of that person. If that person is not you then you may not have a self to come back to. They may have themselves to take care of and then where are you? but... Yeah you are right there is more. Lain is still looking for meaning. She comes across the information about Tachibana analyzing the human genome. ...on the DVD it says mapped. I know and in the script it says analyzed. It is a big translation point. The way I look at it is that the events in SEL take place in the near to far future. We don't know how far because we only see a small piece of the world. We do know that Traffic Control systems exist in individual vehicles as well as the overall grid. It is also implied that Cyberia benefits from solid holographic technology. If we are to take the reference to Rushkoff concerning planetary awareness seriously, the number of people/neurons needed to make his celery consciousness idea come true must be at least 10 billion. By 2050 we should still be only at the 9 billion mark with most of the increases being in underdeveloped countries. I have looked at studies that suggest that the human brain has between 10 and 100 billion neurons or more. It is also indicated that these people must be connected and that indicates a world population that is well fed and living at a certain standard. If we have achieved that by 2050 as a species we will be lucky. I think "analyzing" is a better interpretation and it suggests a much higher level of understanding of what makes a human a human then the term "mapping" does. CELERY CONSCIOUSNESS??? Yeah ...it was talked about by Arlo Guthrie during a concert I went to while playing hookie from work ...I mean Planetary Consciousness. The event that brings Lain out of all that mess of information is when she becomes aware that Alice is looking for her. It is a message of friendship in that Alice still believes Lain did not spread the rumor/info about her and the teacher. After two deletes and restores Alice still believes in Lain. Lain tries one more time and erases everyone's memories about the rumor but Alice's. After all that has happened ...Lain only really needs to exist in Alice's memory to have meaning. Episode twelve is called "Landscape". If you must listen to someone proclaiming to be god then watch for the lies. Anyone calling himself/herself god is bound to be lying and a lie is harder to keep straight than the truth. Such a person will eventually tell so many lies that they will forget which lie they are going on about at the moment and be caught. If given a choice between a loved one and someone claiming to be god always take the loved one. Also ...when you make a mistake with friends trying to fix it can make it worse for both of you because, usually, you are really trying to make it better for yourself and not your friend. Make sure you know who you are trying to help. A note about the history of GOD. It has been observed that when a GOD creates another GOD sometimes the old god is forgotten. The Japanese culture has lots of forgotten Gods. Don't do this if you are GOD. Sage advice wise one... Don't get on my BAD side Mouth you might not like me. :) Lain told Alice she had broken the barrier and could go anywhere she wanted in either world. Alice is very bothered by the fact that while everyone else has forgotten the rumors she has not. She goes to the source. She goes to Lain's home to see what has happened to her friend. It is here that Eiri makes his final mistake and tells Lain again that he has given her flesh in the real world. He has also said previously that he is in fact Lain and at another time that Lain is the same as him. Armed with the knowledge that she caused god to get lost in a previous episode and that he says a lot of conflicting things about just who she is ....she calls his bluff. She says if you gathered me and gave me flesh then how about doing the same for yourself. He now says "I am different." She says..."You were a god in the Wired but before the Wired appeared...You were only a proxy god of someone who was waiting for the appearance of the Wired." She calls this all powerful self proclaimed computer god genius a proxy server. Think about that computer friends. How would you feel about that were you in his place. ...ummm Now what Mouth? What about the MIBs? Why were they killed? The MIBs are killed by Eiri. They became vulnerable after they were paid off. This is when their Tachibana protection is removed. I suspect Eiri made his own list as they began killing his Knights. When the two are in the car talking they are speculating about why they are still alive when events are still moving toward the connection of the real world and that of the Wired. The thought is that their boss was not the only party who was ready to be rid of the Knights. They were wrong about the reason why they were still alive. Eiri knew that if his Knights were found and killed then at the same moment he would have the opportunity to find all the MIBs. Tachibana knew this as well and was content with the exchange. The MIBs did not expect to be paid off and set lose. They had the idea that they were in for the long haul when in fact their only job was to kill the Knights. They are in a game of which they have limited knowledge. Such is the nature of tools. but.. The MIBs are the pieces one sacrifices to gain a perceived advantage. Think about chess here but do not assume we are ever shown the true players of the game. We only see the pieces being moved about. Next episode Mouth ...I have taken my fall Eons ago so that I could be here now ....oh yeah wrong show. Episode thirteen "Ego". Instead of asking for your reality and worth to be found in others, find it in yourself first. Find it in the place that it is most precious and that is where it will be most safe. Make your memories as you go and cherish the people around you. Love yourself. ...but but but Oh yeah. Loser god guy implodes on himself after creating a really shitty monster body that could not kill two little girls. Alice does go insane though and Lain realizes that the last attempt should be to erase herself entirely from everyone's memories. The reset is made back at the point well before her own existence and takes care of the KIDS information before it goes out on the Wired. This does not happen and everyone dead is now risen and happy in their fleshy lives except for Eiri who is a grumbling loser ...so not much difference there. Then Lain has a conversation with herself about the nature of where she belongs. She tries an option or two but finally comes to believe that maybe all she really needs to do is take care of the Wired for the people and try not to wonder who/what the Wired is really connected to... she is just a human after all. She does not see herself as a goddess although she does talk to herself about it. I feel she has learned a thing or two from her experiences with Eiri in that she knows this idea to be a dangerous one. See above - look for your sense of self and love in yourself first and when you find it you can start from there. Gaaahh? Oh very well.. do you really want to go further with this...? Eiri was a researcher dissatisfied with his job. He figured that if he could write a code that would enable the Wired to be used without devices it would aid in the evolution of the human race. As the smartest person alive he figured he had a right to do that. He also thought while he was at it he would put himself into the code as data so that he would be available as god. When the company found out he had done this they decided that this was BAD FOR BUSINESS and they fired him. He then jumps in front of a train and ends up in 13 major pieces. Ironic. Tachibana was a computer company selling devices to people to interact with the Wired so that Tachibana and other people could make money. They didn't know that Eiri had also written himself into the code and probably discovered this as their protocol started to spread itself. Wishing to maintain the status quo Tachibana tried to get rid of Eiri in a number of ways. One of these ways was through the use of children designed to find Eiri and his fleshy Knights. This is the method we are shown and we are shown the story of the only Tachibana child to succeed. In episode 8 a hint of these other children is given when our Lain is shown two lines of kneeling "Lain-bots" by Eiri. These could be representations of other Tachibana children already snared by Eiri. I don't think these kids had to look the same or needed to be clones for that matter. They just had to be enhanced in the areas of the brain that would enable them to detect the Eiri protocol. Looking alike would be unnecessary and TOO WEIRD. SEL could also be looked at as a metaphor for the hardships of growing up and the difficulty of developing a sense of self in a world quite willing to sell you one if you have the money. It could also be a commentary on the new pressures that children are dealing with around the world. I have found that when watching SEL it is best to watch it from Lain's point of view as she is confronted with one mystery after another. Like any good detective she attempts to solve the mysteries and finds more questions. Sometimes I wonder if there had been more episodes perhaps we would have seen some of the things I've written about. The fact that SEL only has 13 episodes limits the story time and forces the creators to cut to the bone with the material. It may be because of this, and the unanswered questions left for our interpretation, that we can enjoy the series over and over. SEL does not have the physical time to explain itself; that makes it fun to watch and gives it its ability to be appreciated over time. It simply does not allow itself to belong to any one time period and can be differently interpreted as we and the technology around us change. Now how about a little Haibane Renmei? It is too cool. Or how about Haruhi Suzumiya's SOS Brigade. It is so much fun. Move on silly little Blue Earth Men. :)
