Serial Experiments Lain Review

Released in 1998, Serial Experiments Lain cemented itself as a late-cyberpunk, thought-provoking and cryptic animation show with its deep existential questions and self-realisation. It's a show that details the slow decent of humanity into the Wired; a universe built on top of and inside technology: a cyberspace.

Starting with an introverted young adolescent named Lain Iwakura, her world becomes riddled with obscurities after a former student and classmate commits suicide, yet somehow sends everyone an email weeks after her death.

Rumours regarding the student begin to arise: is she now confined to the walls and laws of cyberspace? Has she abandoned her physical body in death but transcended into a higher form within the Wired? For Lain, this begins her deep interest in the Wired, constantly spending nights alone with her hardware, modifying and enhancing it to the best she can.

The show's themes extend beyond the technological side of the Wired, and into reality; it does so by suggesting that the Wired is very different to reality, after all, what even is reality? If two different realities exist, are neither real? Does this reality really hold any weight compared to the greatness of cyberspace, where people can essentially act as gods?

The show often teases themes of what may happen if someone does discover the ability to upload their consciousness to the Internet; the powers they would receive, and how they might go about using them. For Lain, she discovers that all that power actually resides within her, yet she is unsure about joining those within the Wired, for good. Ultimately, her perception of reality disappears. Reality and the Wired are one.

Outside of its narrative, for a show in 1998, it predicted the heavily reliance modern humankind has on technology, it's slow abandonment of nature, and descent into cables, circuitry and pixels.