aka Mitchell says "however" too many times because he isn't used to writing long essays Script: mynameismitchell.wordpress.co... Serial Experiments Lain: myanimelist.net/anime/339/Ser...
FOR REAL THOUGH she discovered she wasn’t who she expected to be and then her family was real?? Then she spiraled into despair and the only moments that present tranquility or at least relief is when Arisu reaffirms her existence or when she has her dad when she feels lonely and desperate
This series was so far ahead of its time. In the late 90's when it was being created, the idea the Internet/Wired would be "integral" and tied to outside life wasn't even a dream (or nightmare) for most people, much less a foregone conclusion... yet we are LIVING in that time NOW.
@@Alex918YT i agree. I watched perfect blue and then i was recommended Lain. I then stepped back and looked at the world around me. Everyone on their phone. Taking selfies. Making Tik Toks. Its a nightmare that left mea bit fucked up for weeks.
Col not agree, though. In the series the world shown is at some different, higher, level, compared to what we got here now. It will take years and years, or maybe will never happens in reality at all.
This anime give me such a strange feeling when i was watching it, something like a fear, but not like in horror movies... I cant even explain it... And i just feel amazed how can something cause such a deep feeling, this is a masterpiece
yeah, its a bit confusing and this anime brings anxiety sometimes... that's why i can't watch it till the end, i just feel so confused, but i still think this anime is interesting in it's own way
For me when watching it, its like a fear of our reality breaking, everything we ever knew was wrong or imagined, and realizing we have zero control, etc. Its definitely a existential fear.
It would be great if film theory had an intro to a 'Lain' video that starts with that lyric, and then Mat Pat would narrate and say, "I do now - more or less, I think? Welcome to Film Theory!"
i guess it's a deep anime which is you have to watch it several times to understand, its just like EOE or Ergo proxy, i have to watch it repeatly and thus a bit understand whats happening
@@tillum7593 in interviews they basicaly said they wanted viewers to come to their own interpretations. I cant post the link here because youtube will delete the comment
@@antigraphein943 O dia que a consciência humana depender de uma pessoa que mostra caixas de cloroquina para emas e que mal consegue argumentar qualquer coisa, a humanidade está perdida!
@@tailsondelima335 Eu não creio que tem gente falando do Bolsonaro até em um vídeo americano, sobre um anime que não tem nada a ver com a situação. Você deixa o Twitter, mas o Twitter não deixa você.
My favorite thing about the idea of Lain being the earth's consciousness is that, ultimately, if she is all of us connected, she longs for the same things most humans do. The entire reason why she wants to be loved and understood is because all of us do - she's the embodiment of all our desires, fears, rights and wrongs. Honestly one of my guesses was that she created the "evil Lain" so that she didn't have to manifest those parts of personality into her real life body - when she manifested herself she basically wanted to erase the "id" part of herself so she created another her and gave her "id" to her and locked her in the wired. That's why she's different from other human beings - part of what being human is was missing. But your explanation that knights created the evil Lain sounds more plausible. I love how there are so many way to explain this show. An incredible video, thank you!
Yeah I think it plays the concept of how human can be fundamentally both good and evil. We only try to show our good and socially accepted side to the world and especially the internet where we can create a perfect persona. but even though we hide (anti-lain) the things we hate about ourselves or considered immoral and unacceptable behavior or opinions in society doesn’t mean it’s not there. I love how he explain the 3 lains because their in all of us w
Lain is pretty much what Hegel referred to as the absolute in his phenomenology of spirit. The story of Lain is a story of her discovering she is this absolute akin to how Hegel discovered his dialectical in which he proposes this absolute is the final form history will take.
I actually had a different interpitation of the ending. I don't think she erased Protocal 7. It's still there. She just removed the information on how to use it. Her visiting her friend as her friend was an adult shows she can still manifest herself any time she pleases. But she also knows now the conquinces of humans having access to P7. So she keeps her distance and remains as a watcher over humanity. She becomes a true trinity. Human, God, and machine. Existing in all electronics, able to take flesh, but also knowing now what happens when she takes a heavy hand in the affairs of humans. So she keeps things gentle and guiding. Rather than firm and controlling as the Knights wanted her to be.
Nice interpretation, however, there is no Trinity. You shouldn't forget the existence of "god", who was the one to manipulate the whole thing and create Lain. Lain is just the byproduct of a being who abandoned his body for his wish to be loved. She just choose to destroy him and isolate herself from the world, cuz she doesn't want to be what her creator wished the to be, she defied the will of her alter ego, that's it, wired Lain, and supressed her by making everyone forget about her.
Serial experiments Lain is a story which talks about a girl who defied her destiny by contradicting even the wish of her creator. She didn't want to destroy her physical form because everyone trough that her wired form was more fit to be Lain, she wished for a existence where she doesn't need to make anyone suffer because her existence and ability to modify everyone's memories trough the wired, that's why she made everyone forget about her.
As the anime itself says, we only exist in the perception of others. If no one can see us, we doesn't really have a connection with anyone, however, we still exist somewhere. If someone dies, his remnants transform the reality in a way or another, however big or small, even if no one notices that. Even trough Lain can't die and can't be see by others, she will still be here, and will return to reality if she ever sees the need for that.
In short, she's a NOBODY. No one knows she exists and she can't participate in any human affairs, nobody cares or remembers her. Some sad existence. And, no. God doesn't exist. Not in that way this movie thinks anyway. The real thing is: We are all our own individual gods. And we each are powerful beings able to make our own fates. So this concept of "big brother is watching" has always been kinda dumb for me. These themes are so common in anime and game at that era (before Y2K, where people were so dumbly excited about the world ending just as year 2000 hits, the conspiracy theory that all systems are going to crash and the world went into chaos, etc. And HELLOOO??? Today is 2023 and nothing of that sort is happening. In fact, life is just easier. More connected, but IN A GOOD WAY), so every anime studio kinda compete for the trophy of the weirdest, heaviest, psychological bullshit they can muster up. Let's hire the mentally sickest story creator to do so, if possible. And ramp up the angst. Wanna know something funny? You'll find that today's generation of Japanese youths DON'T CARE ANYMORE about these kinds of anime. They're all into the more relaxed and laid back genshin impact thingys. Afterall, it's more realistic. Life is already so hard as it is. No need to complicate them further with scifi Psychological babble. They don't care for fridge logic anymore when getting steady jobs are harder than being an omnipresent E-girl. Its only people who got their on their late trains in ANIME exposure who think this is great stuff. Well, as in all case of "seeing it as the 1st time.. Awe". I was unfortunate and get exposed on one too many copycats/similar themed anime. And I realized that it's dumb all along. It's like complicated diet routines that seems smart but only ruins the body instead. And I thought major Kusanagi was cool as a 5 year old. Now I think she's just a damn bland and boring lesbian piece of junk. Cheers.
Best explanation of Serial Experiments Lain I’ve seen on CZcams. Literally NO ONE else picked up on the fact that Lain’s original existence, prior to existing in the Wired by way of Protocol 7 and in physical form by way of Erie, was that of the collective unconscious of the earth and all the people in it. I was so happy when those “????” turned into “Earth’s planetary consciousness,” I was just like, “Yes, YES somebody GETS IT!” And thank you for clearing up Lain’s family were hired to act as surrogates by the Tachibana Corporation. That was not clear to me when I watched it at all.
About lain family acting weird and the "dad" coming back to say goodbye when he was told not to in the show as well as being questioned if her family is real or not it kinda exposed it at least for me also the strange suit men stalking her who seemed to be able to get away with stuff it was definitely suspicious
Throughout the show theres a recurring theme of "you are the sum of others memories of you". I thought sundress lain was the result of deleting herself from everyones memories. The only person with memories of her, is her. Sundress lain might be her own perception of herself
Ah, so Lain is the manifestation of the Earth's consciousness rendered in order to bring about the evolution of humanity by merging the Wired and the physical world in order to get humans to abandon their bodies and evolve past their physical beings, my brain hurts lol.
To me Lain is all of us. We only exist in other people's perception of us, so that there are multiple us. We are as omnipresent as Lain is. But that omnipresence goes away once people forget us. (This is what I thought when watching Lain, I don't mind if it is a refutable argument, its just an interpretation)
That is what I came away with. The real lain is the lain that exists. While information of you does exist in others, and a general concept of you has always existed, the only true existence is you. Throughout the story they try to get the real lane to destroy her body so that the lain in the wired takes her place, but she rejects that idea and continues to anchor the many versions of herself around the real her.
@@Shadow_Play3r Kind of but its told in a much more raw, visceral way rather than how lain does it, mainly due to the fact that Anno was extremely depressed and suicidal when making Eva
@@MIWRISOT if you substitute your reality with an imaginary anime one for long enough, you are bound to blend the two and find both element blending into each other. e.g., weeb kids that watch too much naruto and start doing the handsigns with the intention of accomplishing something outside of rp, or kids who watch dbz attempting to go super saiyan. autism amplifies it all.
Who is Lain? “Real world” suggests Lain is human (body). “God” suggests Lain is program (soul). “Bolder self” suggests Lain is transcendent goddess (Seer). But Lain rejects all of these suggestions. Lain is not personal subject. Lain’s True Self Is Absolute.
That's a really interesting theory on the first episode in particular; for as many times as I've watched Lain, I hadn't at all thought of the possibility of the "teleporting", hazy lettering, and smoke from her fingertips as being indicative of her getting acclimated to her body. I believe the vast majority of people are looking at those events from a much more "outside-the-box" viewpoint, such as "well these are common symptoms of schizophrenia so Lain is schizophrenic lol", but I'm totally on board with this idea as it's more consistent in-universe and doesn't require headcanon (for lack of a better word) to be explained. Also, liked and subbed. Let's all love Lain.
R. D. Laing, the person Lain was named after, said that schizophrenic people are the first ones to awaken to the true nature of reality. Lain being schizophrenic doesnt mean the narrative is wrong and all those supernatural things arent real, its the opposite!
So basically... Gendo starts the human instrumentality project that is a forced evolution that merges everyone into one perfect being- wait no wrong anime about how it’s good to be alive....
Lain is the Earth experiencing itself. She is the culmination of all human subconscious, put in a human body, and made to *live* . An entity made entirely of the subconscious; made conscious.
its scary how the show predicted a lot of what we're going through now with the internet being an integral part of our lives nowadays. It's like a reminder to how it can make or break someone, and how you can't live solely online. That there's always the world you live in, that too can make or break you. Honestly this show could last as long as the internet itself. It really is amazing that way
This is the best review of Lain I have ever seen. Impressive. I like his scientific way of dissecting Lain. Rather than spouting personal/emotional interpretation, he explained Lain from a quite objective view point, referring to phrases in anime as much as possible.
Lain has always been one of my favorite anime. I first saw it in high school around the time it was released and I've owned the DVD box set for almost twenty years. I've been rewatching it lately and I feel like with fresh eyes as an older adult, and with the way technology and our relationship with the internet has progressed since its release, I've understood it better. For example the Knights storyline was much clearer to me than its ever been in the past. I've heard this often in discussions of the series as of late but I'm still skeptical of the idea that Lain willingly sealed her own memory. My perception has always been they managed to get a piece of what she was into a body, into "hardware", literally personifying her and then set up a fake family for her as an experiment. And Lain's actions from there are an attempt to reconnect with the rest of her higher self. Maybe that's wrong but I find that impression hard to shake. But I think you hit the nail on the head with her being the Earth's consciousness/the collective consciousness. Otherwise they brought that up and seemingly didn't follow through with it beyond and explanation of why people were doing things like the KIDS experiment. It's seemingly forgotten about. Except, if we accept this idea, it wasn't. And if her actions are an attempt to reconnect to her higher self she would then in turn connect with all humanity as she does in the end. But the end result which was my first revelation about what story is actually being told is that the Wired either connected to what some might call "god" or Lain became a god through all of this and struck down Eri who was a pretender. The Christian-like "savior has to become human to save humanity" angle many people go to is also a temptingly easy one, but doesn't really play from a Japanese perspective.
Well, that has to be the best explanation of Lain I had the privilege to witness, hat off to you good sir. Still though, as a die-hard fan of the show I can tell that there is still one of two things you’re missing, like the fact that episode 13 tells us pretty explicitly that protocol 7 resonance technology and the collective unconscious are just not enough to explain Lain. That there is something beyond even the wired that nor Eiri nor her were conscious even existed until it prevented her from deleting herself completely from all existence. I don’t want to explain it here because visual story-telling doesn’t translate well into words but if you rewatch SEL, lookout for orange light/lighting like the one at 16:20. Then it should become at least a little clearer. Also, another interesting point is that it’s actually hinted pretty hard through text in the background that Tachibana has the technology to create artificial human and used it at least to create Mika Iwakura and perhaps even Lain body. Finally, in the last we see of Taro and his friends, we can see that the brat handheld navy now functions with an OS named “Kids technology”, and it somehow manage to catch a glimpse of Lain outside reality. So protocol 7 technologies is still clearly around under one form or another, which is probably why those damn electric line are still humming and the creepy shadows still have color spots in them ^^
@@tillum7593 The “beyond the wired” stuff pretty much all hinge on the discussion between Lain and herself in episode 13. Now, the translation is a little iffy and kinda change from version to version but as best as I understand it, when Lain ask where she is after failing to delete herself, the other Lain more or less says that “it can’t be the wired or the collective unconscious because no human structure could store such a vast amount of memory”. Lain then remark that “the wired was just connected to something else, but what?”. The “what” is never elaborated on, but we can still logically deduce what it isn’t and some of its properties: - As plainly said, this isn’t the wired nor the collective unconscious but something much, much bigger. - It probably isn’t the Schumann resonance either, as Lain is well aware of its existence and effects on the wired since it was used by Eiri. So it wouldn’t make sense for her to be surprised by it. - It contain memory, and a tremendous amount of it at that. It is more or less suggested that at least all the information created by humanity is in there, including memories from the future. - Being there is making Lain effectively omnipresent through both space and time. With all of that we can deduce that we are dealing with an everywhere, everywhen kind of dimension that contain at least all of humanity memory. So, a pretty nifty place, but also a very lonely one, or so it would seem until “father” appear out of the orange ^^ Now the first thing to note about this apparition is that Lain make a clear point of distinguishing it from Yasuo, her fake human father. She always called Yasuo “Papa” while she refers to the apparition with a much more formal “father”. The implication here, I think, is that “father” is the “true god” that Lain and Eiri refer to in their final confrontation in episode 12. The entity that started it all by inspiring Eiri into rewriting protocol 7 and Lain true “creator” of sorts. But what interest us here is that the guy seems to be quite fond of the dawn/twilight as he hang out above the clouds in a sky bathed in orange light. And this is not the first time in the show that kind of lighting was used. The most obvious from a cinematography stand-point is that scene in episode 5 where infant Lain sit in the part of her room bathed in twilight while “puppets” spout Knights propaganda at her from the shadows. The allegory here being pretty clearly that the Knights and Eiri are detouring Lain from her “father” and whatever he represent. Other scenes include Hodgeson final moments and the meeting with the Tachibana executive. Overall, orange lighting seem to represent the presence or the influence of “father” in a scene, a pretty smart way to include his character in the entire show while only revealing him in the last episode.
@@Robin447absolutely correct. The wired in the end was directly attached to the spirit world. Very few people understand this part of the show as well
@@ratecyanbasically the concept of the "watcher" in eastern philosophy. The idea of reality and illusion being the same thing is obvious across the east, tracing it's way all the way back to the idea of our reality being Vishnu's sleeping dream. If we take new perspectives the universe as a sort of functioning mind a la Bateson and Jung, then the reason why we exist is because we're a part of someone else's imagination.
I knew their were some sort of Freudian philosophy references in this anime, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what the different versions of Lain truly represented. Thank you so much for this incredible insight!
Thank you for making the show make more sense. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations.
i have a love/hate relationship with these types of shows AHHH i loved analyzing them and trying to figure everything out but at the same time, watching these types of shows makes me paranoid. tysm for explaining it more in depth
Same, I love Lain a lot but I never recommend it to anyone. Just because most people will not be able to understand unless they watch one of these videos.
@@kenmahyu exactly! i get hesitant whenever someone asks me if animes like this are good because while they are, i'd rather not put the stress of understanding everything on them
@@steiwe5648 i get that ur brain's so tiny it's barely capable of understanding anything let alone why people like s.e.l. but people have different opinions
Damn, I've spent like 5 hours for searching some explanation on this anime, reading reddit, watching other vids on youtube .. and I finally found this video, thanks a lot dude, you did some incredible work, all that you said in the video makes at least some sense to me and puts the picture together, what a relief.
Lain is the creator inside their creation, becoming aware of their game. their pieces all scattered aiming for their specific pieces goals. eventually coalescing on Lain as their owner. Lain being both sides not the one who made the game while also being the absolute entirety of it all. The science and acts that led up to the events in the anime, are what led Lain to becoming "aware". The spread consciousness becoming manifest in a form unexpected, but also expected. as in, something grand will exist, but what exactly it was, was unknown. And so trying to shift that being (Lain) into the mold that they believe she should have fit (their version of their god, or their end goal, the spread consciousness). This is why she is so connected to the phenomena before even touching the Wired. Her existence was the result, or more accurate, the revelation of, the truth. As if nothing and everything could exist with or without Lain herself. But that also means she would also be there and not there, as if she MUST exist, but even if she didnt, that some part of her would have to exist.
Serial experiments lain reminds of Coraline, they both resonate with me as they are open to interpretation. They both have very very deep and philosophical meanings or messages, and they have an amazing amount of theorise-ability, they are both about control, reality
I feel irritatingly sad that I can't be smart as you. I always dreamed to create complex stories but how if I'm so stupid that can't comprehend this video. I don't blame you, instead wanted to thanks you for evoking feeling within me.
The mind is like anything else: skills, talents, muscles etc.......You keep using, practicing, pushing your own limits, and in time you'll see great amounts of growth.
Writing like this isn't made to be 100% understood since a good protion of it comes from concepts and vague ideas that are presented to invoke certain feelings, not understanding the certain parts is not a bad thing either. That's why even the authors of such pieces are open for different interpretations, they knwo nobody can see it from their view, but other views are not wrong. i'm not a writer myself, but maybe you should start with thinking of concecpts and an atmosphere you want to convey instead of a clear plotline first, adding more until it takes form. Pretty sure complex writing is never a straight way from start to finish.
you aren't stupid my friend. this is really complex as the topic lain is. it's good to admire people for things they are capable of but please stop talking yourself down. when you lack of one thing, other things in you are therefor stronger. start looking for those, enhance them and be proud of them instead of being angry of something you think that lacks in you. sorry if i can't bring over my point, english isn't my mother language but i hope you got what i want to say. never talk so bad about yourself kay? :)
Don't tell yourself that you're stupid. For one, I don't agree with everything sad in this video, but this does not make me stupid, nor does it make the person who made the video seem stupid. If you look me something and you would like to invest time and energy into that activity, then simply do it. Start with baby steps, focus on the present and try not to be so judgemental with yourself. Remember, most great things star of as being small things.
Ohh THAT'S why there was liquid coolant all over Lain's floor. I thought it was due to her cooling system leaking and her not caring enough to clean it up unless it could harm her massive nightmare Navi.
This video/theory/explanation is godlike dude you said and prove everything in the best possible, and understandable way. What an absolute unit you are dude, amazing. and before I even watched this video I already thought about lain as a worldwide self conscious represented as a human being. wow man just wow Keep the Great Work. :)
I absolutely loved this explanation! I watched the series after my bf recommended it, but I was left super confused. This video genuinely helped me understand both the show and why he likes it so much :)
Wow this is an excellent explanation of the series. I can't even call this a theory, everything lines up so well in a concise way that can be easily understood. Great work
This video helped me out a lot! I could figure out some stuff I didn't understand and rewatched the series while putting pieces together. Definitely needs more views, I'll share it with everyone I know who watched Lain.
I love your explanation on explaining Serial Experiments Lain. I've seen a lot of videos trying to explain this but your explanation was by far the best one.
Outstanding. Well done. I loved Serial Experiments Lain so very much, and your analysis makes so much sense of the other pieces I couldn't connect. I especially enjoy your perspective of the series having an ultimate message/assertion that humanity is much more than just cold bytes and bits. Just excellent excellent work breaking this multi-layered masterpiece down.
Dang, this is like the best Serial Experiment Lain analysis you can hope for, it cleared all my question I had after watch the anime. Good job analyzing it and thank you!
Thank you so much for your work! The idea of Lain being Earth spirit amazed me! Before that i was sure she was some kind of a heavily bugged software created by Eiri (and her other selves being alternate versions of the program). But your idea makes a lot more sense and i can't make myself think otherwise from now on :D Also your explanation of alien-Lain really helped me to stop spitting "wtf was that anime?!". In general, beautiful analysis. Love such art pieces as SEL that are rather a riddle than a show.
Damn.. I'm really distraught at my inability to have uncovered these hidden meanings and themes in this amazing show. Props to the creator for deciphering the story for us. I will use this analysis as motivation to develop my investigative skills.
Hahaha im distraught at my inability to even put in effort to seriously try to uncover these hidden meanings and just straight away go to explanation videos.
@@hypermecha3040 *The entity known as Lain has ascended to a higher level of cosmic understanding than Magi-Chan, and knows that the dimensional merge cannot happen due to unpredictably destructive consequences.* *Lain has not only become one with the Earthly collective consciousness that is the internet, but her understanding of the universe is now the equivalent of a school child knowing 2 + 2 = 4. In other words, she understands reality better than any of us can.* *She came to me in a dream once. I sort of forgot what she looked or sounded like, but I know it was her because of the existence of a Japanese anime based off of her. She is warning numerous people about the consequences of the "Dimensional Cataclysmic Event" as she calls it, and hopes that spreading the word will help prevent it.* *She even showed me visions of the merge actually happening in an alternate timeline, and all the abhorrently weird and terrifying things that would happen to me and everyone else as a result. It is something that I wish I could unsee, and also something that I pray does not happen in real life.* *Lain may be beyond human comprehension, but she is far more grounded in reason and logic than the insane Magi-Chan.*
i think lain is a god. not 'the god' in the sense of creator of all things known and unknown to man, but a different kind of god. a being (not physical) with infinite existence, so no beginning and no end. like consciousness itself, or an omnipresent idea. i think eiri is just a man who suffered some form of divine intervention which lead to him giving lain a form in the wired and a physical body in the real, human world. but that's all he did - he gave lain a form and a body under her own guidance, without knowing it. he believed he not only created this incredibly powerful being, but that he also gave it purpose. that's why he regards himself as a god and why the knights follow and worship him as one. the point of lain being in the human world was for her to bridge and eventually destroy the border between the real world and the digital one. however, upon entering the human world lain realises that she herself wants to live as a human, among humans. whether intentionally or unintentionally, she uses her ability to alter memories to alter her own memory. that's why she's confused about her existence. that's why in the beginning we see her as just a shy schoolgirl who knows nothing about technology or the wired, yet mysteriously has an innate connection to it, which is why she's able to grasp it so quickly and naturally. the knights and eiri wanted lain to insert herself into the subconsciousness of the entire world's population, so that when she eventually commits suicide, leaving her physical body behind, her consciousness and therefore her entire existence would be transferred into the wired, and the whole world would follow suit. because lain refuses to succumb to this plan, the knights and eiri do all sorts of things to try and break her and drive her to insanity, so she would kill herself. in the end, lain realises that she is actually the all-powerful one, which enables her to destroy eiri and the knights and change the world, because she realised existence is only confirmed by memory.
This video was absolutely incredible, your analysis and explanations were top-notch (Dropped u a sub u deserve it). Knowing what Lain went through when she just wanted to love humanity makes me tear up and the ending of this anime was perfect.
Just one thing I want to add to your theories for clarification: This Schumann Resonance is actually not "Earth humming", those are not soundwaves, those are electromagnetic waves. And in the show, the big idea of Eiri, was to use it as basically free worldwide wi-fi, but that kind of wi-fi, that has all human minds connected to it by default. And that means they can transfer any data they want, if nearby there is any source of electromagnetic waves, they can remotely modulate etc. I'm pretty new to the show, just finished it yesterday, but damn, the plot goes so deep.
The way Lain of the wired jumps out as a coping mechanism and to how Lain reacts to mentions of her reminds me a lot of Dissociative identity disorder/DID, coming from someone with DID. While Lain canonically isn't written to have it, that part of her character is heavily coded as such in my opinion.
@@electricfishfan7159 yup, huge agree. Altough I do think that perfect blue is a little more general about the dissociation, Lain can be read as a story with/about DID while perfect blue can't. No question that they both involve a lot of dissociation though
Meant to make this like a year ago whoops, but I did talk about the game and its relation to the anime too in "Explaining Iwakura Lain: Site B | the 'serial experiments'" - czcams.com/video/0QmygteRYVo/video.html
And now I seem to understand.
lmao
Lol I get it 😂
Lol no we don’t 😂
you are an honest man
'seem'
The only thing I truly understand about this show is that Lain needs a hug.
FOR REAL THOUGH she discovered she wasn’t who she expected to be and then her family was real?? Then she spiraled into despair and the only moments that present tranquility or at least relief is when Arisu reaffirms her existence or when she has her dad when she feels lonely and desperate
In the ps1 Canon she builds a giant dad-bot just to hold her. It's so sad
True
@@boscorner is her dad even that good tho?
Let’s all love lain…
This is actually kinda a crazy anime because in 2020-21 we are seeing the internet/algorithms control peoples perceptions of reality on a mass scale.
yeah the stupid ones
@@tapsofosiris3110 U ain't safe bruh
@@tapsofosiris3110 The stupid ones? Dude, that means everyone!
Yeah this shit is deep!
@@rumfordc LOL!!!
This series was so far ahead of its time. In the late 90's when it was being created, the idea the Internet/Wired would be "integral" and tied to outside life wasn't even a dream (or nightmare) for most people, much less a foregone conclusion... yet we are LIVING in that time NOW.
Perfect Blue is the exact same way.
Present day heh, present time hahahahaha
@@Alex918YT i agree. I watched perfect blue and then i was recommended Lain. I then stepped back and looked at the world around me. Everyone on their phone. Taking selfies. Making Tik Toks. Its a nightmare that left mea bit fucked up for weeks.
Col not agree, though. In the series the world shown is at some different, higher, level, compared to what we got here now. It will take years and years, or maybe will never happens in reality at all.
@@JebAlert I was looking for this comment
Everyone always asks, “What is lain?”
This video explains, “How does lain?”
But nobody asks, "How is lain?"
@@applebottomjeansss i do
This anime give me such a strange feeling when i was watching it, something like a fear, but not like in horror movies... I cant even explain it... And i just feel amazed how can something cause such a deep feeling, this is a masterpiece
It's called Psychological Horror. The movie "Get Out" is a good example of it.
yeah, its a bit confusing and this anime brings anxiety sometimes... that's why i can't watch it till the end, i just feel so confused, but i still think this anime is interesting in it's own way
@@kanitmann946 How can you compare Lain with such... movie?
For me when watching it, its like a fear of our reality breaking, everything we ever knew was wrong or imagined, and realizing we have zero control, etc. Its definitely a existential fear.
I think the phrase you're looking for is existential anxiety.
"And you don't seem to understand" i do now. more or less i think?
It would be great if film theory had an intro to a 'Lain' video that starts with that lyric, and then Mat Pat would narrate and say, "I do now - more or less, I think? Welcome to Film Theory!"
A shame you seemed to be a honest man
i guess it's a deep anime which is you have to watch it several times to understand, its just like EOE or Ergo proxy, i have to watch it repeatly and thus a bit understand whats happening
The awesome part about this anime was that the Creator wanted everyone who watched the anime to figure out everything there selves.
Did they never publish an official explanation?
@@tillum7593 in interviews they basicaly said they wanted viewers to come to their own interpretations. I cant post the link here because youtube will delete the comment
Thanks. Everyone has videos explaining what they think lain means but, no one explains what actually happened in the story.
Precisely
Because trying to explain the story from the beginning after watching the whole thing is really damn hard.
I really didn't get the anime am i dumb or it just very confusing in the way it tells its story
oofingberg just finished it and it’s a very big mind fuck I gurante you over 95% of the viewer base was lost on their first watch.
@@mranimetalks8168 99% was. You arent guaranterable
Holy crap
you did it
you explained EVERYTHING it has to offer
hats off to you my friend
I'll explain it in 2 words... higher conscience! 😎
@@hapwn i can explain it in three: Jair Messias Bolsonaro
@@antigraphein943 O dia que a consciência humana depender de uma pessoa que mostra caixas de cloroquina para emas e que mal consegue argumentar qualquer coisa, a humanidade está perdida!
@@tailsondelima335 triggered
@@tailsondelima335 Eu não creio que tem gente falando do Bolsonaro até em um vídeo americano, sobre um anime que não tem nada a ver com a situação. Você deixa o Twitter, mas o Twitter não deixa você.
This is the best Lain video/explanation I’ve seen so far.
You got likes thought I'd tell you
@@Nayhan123 whats her ap scale?
My favorite thing about the idea of Lain being the earth's consciousness is that, ultimately, if she is all of us connected, she longs for the same things most humans do. The entire reason why she wants to be loved and understood is because all of us do - she's the embodiment of all our desires, fears, rights and wrongs. Honestly one of my guesses was that she created the "evil Lain" so that she didn't have to manifest those parts of personality into her real life body - when she manifested herself she basically wanted to erase the "id" part of herself so she created another her and gave her "id" to her and locked her in the wired. That's why she's different from other human beings - part of what being human is was missing. But your explanation that knights created the evil Lain sounds more plausible. I love how there are so many way to explain this show. An incredible video, thank you!
Yeah I think it plays the concept of how human can be fundamentally both good and evil. We only try to show our good and socially accepted side to the world and especially the internet where we can create a perfect persona. but even though we hide (anti-lain) the things we hate about ourselves or considered immoral and unacceptable behavior or opinions in society doesn’t mean it’s not there. I love how he explain the 3 lains because their in all of us w
I swear, it’s like every small thing in the show has multiple interpretations that can all be right at the same time
Lain is pretty much what Hegel referred to as the absolute in his phenomenology of spirit. The story of Lain is a story of her discovering she is this absolute akin to how Hegel discovered his dialectical in which he proposes this absolute is the final form history will take.
The same Hegel who was right?
I mean wrong... no, he was right. No, not right. He was wrong, definitely. I think he was right, however.
@@baltofarlander2618 lol
I love that the series was shown not told
Right brain hemisphere thinks in images after all, and it is the one possessed by God
I actually had a different interpitation of the ending. I don't think she erased Protocal 7. It's still there. She just removed the information on how to use it. Her visiting her friend as her friend was an adult shows she can still manifest herself any time she pleases. But she also knows now the conquinces of humans having access to P7. So she keeps her distance and remains as a watcher over humanity. She becomes a true trinity. Human, God, and machine. Existing in all electronics, able to take flesh, but also knowing now what happens when she takes a heavy hand in the affairs of humans. So she keeps things gentle and guiding. Rather than firm and controlling as the Knights wanted her to be.
This is also how i interpreted it
Nice interpretation, however, there is no Trinity. You shouldn't forget the existence of "god", who was the one to manipulate the whole thing and create Lain. Lain is just the byproduct of a being who abandoned his body for his wish to be loved. She just choose to destroy him and isolate herself from the world, cuz she doesn't want to be what her creator wished the to be, she defied the will of her alter ego, that's it, wired Lain, and supressed her by making everyone forget about her.
Serial experiments Lain is a story which talks about a girl who defied her destiny by contradicting even the wish of her creator. She didn't want to destroy her physical form because everyone trough that her wired form was more fit to be Lain, she wished for a existence where she doesn't need to make anyone suffer because her existence and ability to modify everyone's memories trough the wired, that's why she made everyone forget about her.
As the anime itself says, we only exist in the perception of others. If no one can see us, we doesn't really have a connection with anyone, however, we still exist somewhere. If someone dies, his remnants transform the reality in a way or another, however big or small, even if no one notices that. Even trough Lain can't die and can't be see by others, she will still be here, and will return to reality if she ever sees the need for that.
In short, she's a NOBODY.
No one knows she exists and she can't participate in any human affairs, nobody cares or remembers her. Some sad existence.
And, no. God doesn't exist. Not in that way this movie thinks anyway.
The real thing is: We are all our own individual gods. And we each are powerful beings able to make our own fates.
So this concept of "big brother is watching" has always been kinda dumb for me. These themes are so common in anime and game at that era (before Y2K, where people were so dumbly excited about the world ending just as year 2000 hits, the conspiracy theory that all systems are going to crash and the world went into chaos, etc. And HELLOOO??? Today is 2023 and nothing of that sort is happening. In fact, life is just easier. More connected, but IN A GOOD WAY), so every anime studio kinda compete for the trophy of the weirdest, heaviest, psychological bullshit they can muster up. Let's hire the mentally sickest story creator to do so, if possible. And ramp up the angst.
Wanna know something funny? You'll find that today's generation of Japanese youths DON'T CARE ANYMORE about these kinds of anime. They're all into the more relaxed and laid back genshin impact thingys. Afterall, it's more realistic. Life is already so hard as it is. No need to complicate them further with scifi Psychological babble. They don't care for fridge logic anymore when getting steady jobs are harder than being an omnipresent E-girl.
Its only people who got their on their late trains in ANIME exposure who think this is great stuff. Well, as in all case of "seeing it as the 1st time.. Awe".
I was unfortunate and get exposed on one too many copycats/similar themed anime. And I realized that it's dumb all along. It's like complicated diet routines that seems smart but only ruins the body instead. And I thought major Kusanagi was cool as a 5 year old. Now I think she's just a damn bland and boring lesbian piece of junk. Cheers.
Best explanation of Serial Experiments Lain I’ve seen on CZcams. Literally NO ONE else picked up on the fact that Lain’s original existence, prior to existing in the Wired by way of Protocol 7 and in physical form by way of Erie, was that of the collective unconscious of the earth and all the people in it. I was so happy when those “????” turned into “Earth’s planetary consciousness,” I was just like, “Yes, YES somebody GETS IT!”
And thank you for clearing up Lain’s family were hired to act as surrogates by the Tachibana Corporation. That was not clear to me when I watched it at all.
doesn't make much sense though
It's the thing about the Earth's population approaching the same as the number of neurons in the brain too
About lain family acting weird and the "dad" coming back to say goodbye when he was told not to in the show as well as being questioned if her family is real or not it kinda exposed it at least for me also the strange suit men stalking her who seemed to be able to get away with stuff it was definitely suspicious
Throughout the show theres a recurring theme of "you are the sum of others memories of you".
I thought sundress lain was the result of deleting herself from everyones memories. The only person with memories of her, is her. Sundress lain might be her own perception of herself
oh wow i never thought about it like this ...!! very interesting
Ah, so Lain is the manifestation of the Earth's consciousness rendered in order to bring about the evolution of humanity by merging the Wired and the physical world in order to get humans to abandon their bodies and evolve past their physical beings, my brain hurts lol.
But she ultimately rebels against Protocol 7 and Eiri in order to let humans just be well....human.
so like instrumentality in evangelion
Very similar to Christian mythology, which is also similar to Egyptian mythology.
@@SocialKidmusic dude. Do you even read the bible?
@@jonasjasikevicius8780 Yes I do.
To me Lain is all of us. We only exist in other people's perception of us, so that there are multiple us. We are as omnipresent as Lain is. But that omnipresence goes away once people forget us. (This is what I thought when watching Lain, I don't mind if it is a refutable argument, its just an interpretation)
Concluding ; since we have watched the show lain exists, therefore lain is.
This is same idea tackled in NGE hmm
That is what I came away with. The real lain is the lain that exists. While information of you does exist in others, and a general concept of you has always existed, the only true existence is you. Throughout the story they try to get the real lane to destroy her body so that the lain in the wired takes her place, but she rejects that idea and continues to anchor the many versions of herself around the real her.
@@Shadow_Play3r yes it is, but nge is a little bit more confusing imo
@@Shadow_Play3r Kind of but its told in a much more raw, visceral way rather than how lain does it, mainly due to the fact that Anno was extremely depressed and suicidal when making Eva
If you watch enough anime, you never need to take hallucinogens.
because rabid consumption of the internet and/or anime induces schizophrenia
@@sjuvanet impossible
@@thomasdilfurd4176 nope
@@sjuvanet Can't say I can prove you wrong but in my experiences it's been the other way around.
@@MIWRISOT if you substitute your reality with an imaginary anime one for long enough, you are bound to blend the two and find both element blending into each other. e.g., weeb kids that watch too much naruto and start doing the handsigns with the intention of accomplishing something outside of rp, or kids who watch dbz attempting to go super saiyan. autism amplifies it all.
Who is Lain?
“Real world” suggests Lain is human (body).
“God” suggests Lain is program (soul).
“Bolder self” suggests Lain is transcendent goddess (Seer).
But Lain rejects all of these suggestions.
Lain is not personal subject.
Lain’s True Self Is Absolute.
Agree... I'm me
Is this a hegel refrence?
Lain is Lain
Cool and good
@@lainiwakura4678 I'm me she says
That's a really interesting theory on the first episode in particular; for as many times as I've watched Lain, I hadn't at all thought of the possibility of the "teleporting", hazy lettering, and smoke from her fingertips as being indicative of her getting acclimated to her body.
I believe the vast majority of people are looking at those events from a much more "outside-the-box" viewpoint, such as "well these are common symptoms of schizophrenia so Lain is schizophrenic lol", but I'm totally on board with this idea as it's more consistent in-universe and doesn't require headcanon (for lack of a better word) to be explained.
Also, liked and subbed. Let's all love Lain.
Tyler lain od’s on acid and disassociates for a week
Serial Experiments Lain, is closer to our universe than you'd think. This is the future
R. D. Laing, the person Lain was named after, said that schizophrenic people are the first ones to awaken to the true nature of reality. Lain being schizophrenic doesnt mean the narrative is wrong and all those supernatural things arent real, its the opposite!
@@YY-ln1ol
by communicating do u mean your bussy actually "receives" the message ??
So basically... Gendo starts the human instrumentality project that is a forced evolution that merges everyone into one perfect being- wait no wrong anime about how it’s good to be alive....
Get in the Lain, Shinji!
...they are both 14...
They're basically the same anime except one has cool mechs and one has kawaii girl in bear suit.
@@chunliisthebest the original evangelion never had a problem with that
almost red icon
My middle name is lain. It WAS based off this anime.
@W0RLD W1D3 4P47HY Ikr?
ITS CRAZY
Your parents are Lain fans huh? Tell them they are cool.
You are cool :)
B r o
Fascinating video so far, but I need you to know that when you say “anti-Lain”, the auto-generated captions interpret it as “Aunt Elaine”
😂😂😂 lmfao
Yeah, i'm french and i put english subtitles to better learn the language but when it's auto generated by youtube it's a real mess
Lain is the Earth experiencing itself. She is the culmination of all human subconscious, put in a human body, and made to *live* . An entity made entirely of the subconscious; made conscious.
"No matter where you go,
everyone is connected."
God. This level of convolutedness reminds me of xenogear.
its scary how the show predicted a lot of what we're going through now with the internet being an integral part of our lives nowadays. It's like a reminder to how it can make or break someone, and how you can't live solely online. That there's always the world you live in, that too can make or break you. Honestly this show could last as long as the internet itself. It really is amazing that way
This is the best review of Lain I have ever seen. Impressive.
I like his scientific way of dissecting Lain. Rather than spouting personal/emotional interpretation, he explained Lain from a quite objective view point, referring to phrases in anime as much as possible.
Lain has always been one of my favorite anime. I first saw it in high school around the time it was released and I've owned the DVD box set for almost twenty years. I've been rewatching it lately and I feel like with fresh eyes as an older adult, and with the way technology and our relationship with the internet has progressed since its release, I've understood it better. For example the Knights storyline was much clearer to me than its ever been in the past.
I've heard this often in discussions of the series as of late but I'm still skeptical of the idea that Lain willingly sealed her own memory. My perception has always been they managed to get a piece of what she was into a body, into "hardware", literally personifying her and then set up a fake family for her as an experiment. And Lain's actions from there are an attempt to reconnect with the rest of her higher self. Maybe that's wrong but I find that impression hard to shake.
But I think you hit the nail on the head with her being the Earth's consciousness/the collective consciousness. Otherwise they brought that up and seemingly didn't follow through with it beyond and explanation of why people were doing things like the KIDS experiment. It's seemingly forgotten about. Except, if we accept this idea, it wasn't. And if her actions are an attempt to reconnect to her higher self she would then in turn connect with all humanity as she does in the end.
But the end result which was my first revelation about what story is actually being told is that the Wired either connected to what some might call "god" or Lain became a god through all of this and struck down Eri who was a pretender. The Christian-like "savior has to become human to save humanity" angle many people go to is also a temptingly easy one, but doesn't really play from a Japanese perspective.
Well, that has to be the best explanation of Lain I had the privilege to witness, hat off to you good sir.
Still though, as a die-hard fan of the show I can tell that there is still one of two things you’re missing, like the fact that episode 13 tells us pretty explicitly that protocol 7 resonance technology and the collective unconscious are just not enough to explain Lain. That there is something beyond even the wired that nor Eiri nor her were conscious even existed until it prevented her from deleting herself completely from all existence. I don’t want to explain it here because visual story-telling doesn’t translate well into words but if you rewatch SEL, lookout for orange light/lighting like the one at 16:20. Then it should become at least a little clearer.
Also, another interesting point is that it’s actually hinted pretty hard through text in the background that Tachibana has the technology to create artificial human and used it at least to create Mika Iwakura and perhaps even Lain body.
Finally, in the last we see of Taro and his friends, we can see that the brat handheld navy now functions with an OS named “Kids technology”, and it somehow manage to catch a glimpse of Lain outside reality. So protocol 7 technologies is still clearly around under one form or another, which is probably why those damn electric line are still humming and the creepy shadows still have color spots in them ^^
can you elaborate on the significance of the orange lightning and what there is beyond the wired? it sounds extremely interessting
@@tillum7593 The “beyond the wired” stuff pretty much all hinge on the discussion between Lain and herself in episode 13. Now, the translation is a little iffy and kinda change from version to version but as best as I understand it, when Lain ask where she is after failing to delete herself, the other Lain more or less says that “it can’t be the wired or the collective unconscious because no human structure could store such a vast amount of memory”. Lain then remark that “the wired was just connected to something else, but what?”.
The “what” is never elaborated on, but we can still logically deduce what it isn’t and some of its properties:
- As plainly said, this isn’t the wired nor the collective unconscious but something much, much bigger.
- It probably isn’t the Schumann resonance either, as Lain is well aware of its existence and effects on the wired since it was used by Eiri. So it wouldn’t make sense for her to be surprised by it.
- It contain memory, and a tremendous amount of it at that. It is more or less suggested that at least all the information created by humanity is in there, including memories from the future.
- Being there is making Lain effectively omnipresent through both space and time.
With all of that we can deduce that we are dealing with an everywhere, everywhen kind of dimension that contain at least all of humanity memory.
So, a pretty nifty place, but also a very lonely one, or so it would seem until “father” appear out of the orange ^^
Now the first thing to note about this apparition is that Lain make a clear point of distinguishing it from Yasuo, her fake human father. She always called Yasuo “Papa” while she refers to the apparition with a much more formal “father”. The implication here, I think, is that “father” is the “true god” that Lain and Eiri refer to in their final confrontation in episode 12. The entity that started it all by inspiring Eiri into rewriting protocol 7 and Lain true “creator” of sorts. But what interest us here is that the guy seems to be quite fond of the dawn/twilight as he hang out above the clouds in a sky bathed in orange light. And this is not the first time in the show that kind of lighting was used.
The most obvious from a cinematography stand-point is that scene in episode 5 where infant Lain sit in the part of her room bathed in twilight while “puppets” spout Knights propaganda at her from the shadows. The allegory here being pretty clearly that the Knights and Eiri are detouring Lain from her “father” and whatever he represent.
Other scenes include Hodgeson final moments and the meeting with the Tachibana executive.
Overall, orange lighting seem to represent the presence or the influence of “father” in a scene, a pretty smart way to include his character in the entire show while only revealing him in the last episode.
@@Robin447 Thank you so much for writing this!
@@Robin447absolutely correct. The wired in the end was directly attached to the spirit world. Very few people understand this part of the show as well
@@ratecyanbasically the concept of the "watcher" in eastern philosophy. The idea of reality and illusion being the same thing is obvious across the east, tracing it's way all the way back to the idea of our reality being Vishnu's sleeping dream. If we take new perspectives the universe as a sort of functioning mind a la Bateson and Jung, then the reason why we exist is because we're a part of someone else's imagination.
Really sad that she was brought into existence just to be forgotten...
I knew their were some sort of Freudian philosophy references in this anime, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what the different versions of Lain truly represented. Thank you so much for this incredible insight!
Freud sucks, lain sucks, both cringe-lord crap
Now I seem to understand. Thanks you seem an honest man.
BEST COMMENT
Now THIS is quality content. Keep up the good work my dude. Can't wait to see more!
Thank you for making the show make more sense. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations.
is that a nge reference?
i have a love/hate relationship with these types of shows AHHH i loved analyzing them and trying to figure everything out but at the same time, watching these types of shows makes me paranoid. tysm for explaining it more in depth
Same, I love Lain a lot but I never recommend it to anyone. Just because most people will not be able to understand unless they watch one of these videos.
@@kenmahyu exactly! i get hesitant whenever someone asks me if animes like this are good because while they are, i'd rather not put the stress of understanding everything on them
@@drainyourlife It's not good lol. its edgelord cringe and bad
@@steiwe5648 i get that ur brain's so tiny it's barely capable of understanding anything let alone why people like s.e.l. but people have different opinions
@@steiwe5648 I bet you watch shit like rent a girlfriend
Damn, I've spent like 5 hours for searching some explanation on this anime, reading reddit, watching other vids on youtube .. and I finally found this video, thanks a lot dude, you did some incredible work, all that you said in the video makes at least some sense to me and puts the picture together, what a relief.
*blinks*
That actually makes sense.
Thanks
Lain is the creator inside their creation, becoming aware of their game. their pieces all scattered aiming for their specific pieces goals. eventually coalescing on Lain as their owner. Lain being both sides not the one who made the game while also being the absolute entirety of it all. The science and acts that led up to the events in the anime, are what led Lain to becoming "aware". The spread consciousness becoming manifest in a form unexpected, but also expected. as in, something grand will exist, but what exactly it was, was unknown. And so trying to shift that being (Lain) into the mold that they believe she should have fit (their version of their god, or their end goal, the spread consciousness). This is why she is so connected to the phenomena before even touching the Wired. Her existence was the result, or more accurate, the revelation of, the truth. As if nothing and everything could exist with or without Lain herself. But that also means she would also be there and not there, as if she MUST exist, but even if she didnt, that some part of her would have to exist.
yay you got it.
Amazing
@@akiradkcn lets love lain
Serial experiments lain reminds of Coraline, they both resonate with me as they are open to interpretation. They both have very very deep and philosophical meanings or messages, and they have an amazing amount of theorise-ability, they are both about control, reality
I feel irritatingly sad that I can't be smart as you.
I always dreamed to create complex stories but how if I'm so stupid that can't comprehend this video.
I don't blame you, instead wanted to thanks you for evoking feeling within me.
The mind is like anything else: skills, talents, muscles etc.......You keep using, practicing, pushing your own limits, and in time you'll see great amounts of growth.
Writing like this isn't made to be 100% understood since a good protion of it comes from concepts and vague ideas that are presented to invoke certain feelings, not understanding the certain parts is not a bad thing either. That's why even the authors of such pieces are open for different interpretations, they knwo nobody can see it from their view, but other views are not wrong.
i'm not a writer myself, but maybe you should start with thinking of concecpts and an atmosphere you want to convey instead of a clear plotline first, adding more until it takes form. Pretty sure complex writing is never a straight way from start to finish.
You are NOT stupid. If you want to write you’ll need to practice and sharpen your skills.
you aren't stupid my friend. this is really complex as the topic lain is. it's good to admire people for things they are capable of but please stop talking yourself down. when you lack of one thing, other things in you are therefor stronger. start looking for those, enhance them and be proud of them instead of being angry of something you think that lacks in you. sorry if i can't bring over my point, english isn't my mother language but i hope you got what i want to say. never talk so bad about yourself kay? :)
Don't tell yourself that you're stupid.
For one, I don't agree with everything sad in this video, but this does not make me stupid, nor does it make the person who made the video seem stupid.
If you look me something and you would like to invest time and energy into that activity, then simply do it. Start with baby steps, focus on the present and try not to be so judgemental with yourself. Remember, most great things star of as being small things.
Been saving this in my playlist for right after I was finished watching this for the first time, and boy am I glad I did.
Ohh THAT'S why there was liquid coolant all over Lain's floor. I thought it was due to her cooling system leaking and her not caring enough to clean it up unless it could harm her massive nightmare Navi.
what was the liquid? or why was the liquid there?
huh so y was there liquid?
@@tillum7593 13:12
@@nutsafiso7609 13:12
@@tillum7593 It's a cooling agent made so the navi doesn't overheat
This video/theory/explanation is godlike dude you said and prove everything in the best possible, and understandable way. What an absolute unit you are dude, amazing.
and before I even watched this video I already thought about lain as a worldwide self conscious represented as a human being. wow man just wow Keep the Great Work. :)
and we don't seem to understand... a shame you seemed an honest man.
Fantastic explanation! Thank you for sharing your insights on this show that has had me scratching my head for about 15 years now.
Wow, this story is actually kind of sad
The most 90s Anime that I've ever watch
あなたの構造分析を支持します。 素晴らしいビデオをありがとう。
I absolutely loved this explanation! I watched the series after my bf recommended it, but I was left super confused. This video genuinely helped me understand both the show and why he likes it so much :)
Wow this is an excellent explanation of the series. I can't even call this a theory, everything lines up so well in a concise way that can be easily understood. Great work
"Let's Love Lain !"
When you were narrowing it down it all clicked at I was like " SHE IS THE EARTHS UNCONSCIOUS FREQUENCY! " and then you said it and I felt so smart.
This is one of the best analysis of the material I've seen, friend. Love the work.
This video helped me out a lot! I could figure out some stuff I didn't understand and rewatched the series while putting pieces together. Definitely needs more views, I'll share it with everyone I know who watched Lain.
The most underappreciated channel.
Thank you so much for your amazing effort in making this video! It connected the dots for me and now I appreciate the show even more.
I love your explanation on explaining Serial Experiments Lain.
I've seen a lot of videos trying to explain this but your explanation was by far the best one.
29:30 and this is why I loved Lain
Excellent stuff. Stellar job in explaining this muddled masterpiece.
Cheers.
Wow... 10/10 video. A lot to unpack here. I'll enjoy my next rewatch more from this video!
Outstanding. Well done. I loved Serial Experiments Lain so very much, and your analysis makes so much sense of the other pieces I couldn't connect. I especially enjoy your perspective of the series having an ultimate message/assertion that humanity is much more than just cold bytes and bits. Just excellent excellent work breaking this multi-layered masterpiece down.
Thank you for this. A wonderful summation of a complex show,
Damn, he's smart.
This is an absolutely brilliant analysis, no nonsense spot on information and deductions. Truly an achievement man.
Dang, this is like the best Serial Experiment Lain analysis you can hope for, it cleared all my question I had after watch the anime. Good job analyzing it and thank you!
Japan must have some insane subsidies for science projects.
Let’s all love Lain
This is really what we should be doing. There's no need to understand her.
Very thorough explanation, i couldn't have dreamed for a better video! Great Work and Thank You!
Thank you so much for your work!
The idea of Lain being Earth spirit amazed me! Before that i was sure she was some kind of a heavily bugged software created by Eiri (and her other selves being alternate versions of the program). But your idea makes a lot more sense and i can't make myself think otherwise from now on :D
Also your explanation of alien-Lain really helped me to stop spitting "wtf was that anime?!".
In general, beautiful analysis. Love such art pieces as SEL that are rather a riddle than a show.
Damn.. I'm really distraught at my inability to have uncovered these hidden meanings and themes in this amazing show. Props to the creator for deciphering the story for us. I will use this analysis as motivation to develop my investigative skills.
Hugely autistic comment
Hahaha im distraught at my inability to even put in effort to seriously try to uncover these hidden meanings and just straight away go to explanation videos.
I absolutely loved your video explaining serial experiments lain.
I only wish I had seen this video before watching serial experiments lain.
This is an amazing video, it answers pretty much any question someone might have about the show
I absolutely loved this, bravo bravo bravo what a valuable essay. thank you for making it!
So basically she’s Earth-Chan?
Yes, but she _prevented_ the dimensional merge. Maybe CC is still evolving.
@@hypermecha3040 *The entity known as Lain has ascended to a higher level of cosmic understanding than Magi-Chan, and knows that the dimensional merge cannot happen due to unpredictably destructive consequences.*
*Lain has not only become one with the Earthly collective consciousness that is the internet, but her understanding of the universe is now the equivalent of a school child knowing 2 + 2 = 4. In other words, she understands reality better than any of us can.*
*She came to me in a dream once. I sort of forgot what she looked or sounded like, but I know it was her because of the existence of a Japanese anime based off of her. She is warning numerous people about the consequences of the "Dimensional Cataclysmic Event" as she calls it, and hopes that spreading the word will help prevent it.*
*She even showed me visions of the merge actually happening in an alternate timeline, and all the abhorrently weird and terrifying things that would happen to me and everyone else as a result. It is something that I wish I could unsee, and also something that I pray does not happen in real life.*
*Lain may be beyond human comprehension, but she is far more grounded in reason and logic than the insane Magi-Chan.*
@@eliesh3833 What the fuck dude
@Eli Esh now there’s my man of the hour. Someone besides me ACTUALLY saw and read the prophecy....nice.... ^_^
@@eliesh3833 so we can't travel and are stuck forever?
everyone asking who is Lain but no one ask HOW is Lain.
I really enjoyed your work on this. Thank you for sharing.
This helped me appreciate the show alot more, and answered alot of the questions i had, thank you.
when i finished the anime i was confused but thanks to this video i finally get it thanks man
i think lain is a god. not 'the god' in the sense of creator of all things known and unknown to man, but a different kind of god. a being (not physical) with infinite existence, so no beginning and no end. like consciousness itself, or an omnipresent idea. i think eiri is just a man who suffered some form of divine intervention which lead to him giving lain a form in the wired and a physical body in the real, human world. but that's all he did - he gave lain a form and a body under her own guidance, without knowing it. he believed he not only created this incredibly powerful being, but that he also gave it purpose. that's why he regards himself as a god and why the knights follow and worship him as one. the point of lain being in the human world was for her to bridge and eventually destroy the border between the real world and the digital one. however, upon entering the human world lain realises that she herself wants to live as a human, among humans. whether intentionally or unintentionally, she uses her ability to alter memories to alter her own memory. that's why she's confused about her existence. that's why in the beginning we see her as just a shy schoolgirl who knows nothing about technology or the wired, yet mysteriously has an innate connection to it, which is why she's able to grasp it so quickly and naturally. the knights and eiri wanted lain to insert herself into the subconsciousness of the entire world's population, so that when she eventually commits suicide, leaving her physical body behind, her consciousness and therefore her entire existence would be transferred into the wired, and the whole world would follow suit. because lain refuses to succumb to this plan, the knights and eiri do all sorts of things to try and break her and drive her to insanity, so she would kill herself. in the end, lain realises that she is actually the all-powerful one, which enables her to destroy eiri and the knights and change the world, because she realised existence is only confirmed by memory.
This video was absolutely incredible, your analysis and explanations were top-notch (Dropped u a sub u deserve it). Knowing what Lain went through when she just wanted to love humanity makes me tear up and the ending of this anime was perfect.
Thank you for this. I actually understand and appreciate the series now
This should be the mandatory 14th episode of the show, haha. Thanks for the video, it helped me a lot!
Just one thing I want to add to your theories for clarification:
This Schumann Resonance is actually not "Earth humming", those are not soundwaves, those are electromagnetic waves. And in the show, the big idea of Eiri, was to use it as basically free worldwide wi-fi, but that kind of wi-fi, that has all human minds connected to it by default. And that means they can transfer any data they want, if nearby there is any source of electromagnetic waves, they can remotely modulate etc. I'm pretty new to the show, just finished it yesterday, but damn, the plot goes so deep.
Amazing video, the time and effort you put into this really shows.
this video explains what happened in lain more than lain does
The way Lain of the wired jumps out as a coping mechanism and to how Lain reacts to mentions of her reminds me a lot of Dissociative identity disorder/DID, coming from someone with DID.
While Lain canonically isn't written to have it, that part of her character is heavily coded as such in my opinion.
@@electricfishfan7159 yup, huge agree. Altough I do think that perfect blue is a little more general about the dissociation, Lain can be read as a story with/about DID while perfect blue can't. No question that they both involve a lot of dissociation though
This entire show was just the last two episodes of evangelion
Seems like you're just obsessed with evangelion lmao
@@bloomerrr1 it happens to us all eventually
@@Ratcatcher_jpg can confirm
It's interesting you mention the id, ego, and superego but not its relationship to the concept of the holy trinity.
This is so helpful. It makes me love the anime even more!
This explanation is really perfect. Thanks.
at first I thought Lain had hallucinations, then I just got lost in the complexities
absolutly brilliant analysis
This is already bonkers as hell and I'm only 8min in
Meant to make this like a year ago whoops, but I did talk about the game and its relation to the anime too in "Explaining Iwakura Lain: Site B | the 'serial experiments'" - czcams.com/video/0QmygteRYVo/video.html
This is the best video i've watched in months, thank you for allowing me to truly understand this piece of art
Lets all love lain!!
Really good video. I was so confused piecing things together but this really helped.