The End of the World

[OAVs, Movies and Full Series]

Serial Experiments Lain

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Over-analysis, Yoshitoshi ABe]

My first taste of Ghost Hound has reminded me of an old fave that had led me to it (and Kino’s Journey) in the first place - Nakamura’s Serial Experiments: Lain. It has long held a special place in my collection for being my first experience with ‘arty’ anime and undoubtedly set my viewing on its course that was destined to be littered with headscratcher titles. It was - and in my view still is - a landmark production that leads us to question technology and our perception of reality; at the same time it occasionally gets panned for being obtuse and overrated.

I agree that it’s obtuse but for those of us who dig the whole deep and meaningful thing, Lain is a classic in every sense. A very important aspect to its appeal I think was the involvement of Yoshitoshi ABe in the designs for the characters and other artwork - Nakamura and Konaka provided the cryptic storyline and distinctive narrative structure but ABe’s input added the icing on the proverbial cake. The atmosphere of the show, almost as important as its themes and ideas at times, is largely attributed to ABe’s unique art style; I was so impressed with his skills that I hunted down the recent reissue of the Lain artbook, in hardback no less. His approach evolved independently from the standard methods of learning how to draw and design for anime and manga, which gave an effect akin to a classically-trained musician lending his or her talents to a rock band. The end result is that it’s different, refreshing and it sets itself away from similarly themed efforts.

Lain makes great use of atmospherics in creating a sensation of confusion and unease, which ABe’s artwork is in no small part responsible for. As I recently suggested, it’s almost a horror serial for the technological age; speculation and gossip concerning weird goings-on in the online world of the Wired win out over definite answers, with deaths and disappearances going on without a full explanation. As Dennou Coil recently has done, albeit in a more playful and light-hearted way, Lain explores the possibilities when the online world and the real world collide and the dividing line blurs; as the Matrix trilogy did soon after it even goes as far as challenging how we define what is real and what is the product of our imaginations and technological endeavours.

With the likes of the Matrix movies, Dennou Coil and the Ghost in the Shell franchise famously covering similar territory and doing it so well, it’s easy to dismiss Lain as another pretentious show to jump on the science fiction bandwagon. I disagree. If anything, it sits alongside these titles in highlighting the importance of computers and the internet on modern society; looking back at the state of things back when Lain was first broadcast back in 1998, the ‘net was already well established but had only recently begun to take off in a big way. The mythology, subcultures and the extensive move into everyday life that we see the Wired undertake are not only an observation of the WWW’s impact on our own world, but a prediction that turned out to be strangely prophetic. As with Oshii’s 1995 Ghost in the Shell movie, Lain’s worldview has not become out of date; if anything, it has become more relevant with the intervening years.

As well as being a sci-fi/cyberpunk piece, SE: Lain is also a philosophical and even theological one. Unlike, say, Evangelion, which uses stuff such as religious symbolism and Freudian psycholanalysis in a very simple way to support other ideas, Lain combines issues surrounding introspection and identity, Jung’s Collective Memory, Roswell and other conspiracy theories and a whole myriad of others in a way that is chillingly convincing. You can take away simple messages, such as the importance of family and friends or the motives and consequences of immersing oneself in imaginary environments and walk away satisfied; on the other hand there’s a whole treasure trove of highbrow ideas that are lurking under the surface, ready to be unearthed for people who like to read between the lines. Of all the headscratchers I’ve seen to date, this show offers the most complex array of baffling details and the largest degree of rewatchability - you can see it a number of times and still discover something new.

It is quite simply one of the most important pieces of anime I’ve seen, period. Admittedly the quality of the art is let down a bit by the animation (it comes across as a bit over-ambitious in that sense) and the characters interact in a way that is pretty cold and difficult to relate to. The latter point can probably be explained by the fact that it’s supposed to portray a world that’s more isolated and soulless than our own but there’s no denying some viewers will be put off by this. I never had a problem with the animation though since it comes across as so different - occasional moments are reminiscent of Anno-isms and the soundtrack has a very industrial and minimalist vibe to it. Sometimes the buzz of distant conversation or the ever-present hum of telephone lines says it all - it does a masterful job of portraying its worldview, as frightening and inhospitable as it can sometimes be.

The episodes are referred to as ‘layers’; a term that is perfectly appropriate given the numerous levels of meaning and significance that obscure and conceal; there’s no filler material to speak of and mystery builds upon mystery before the terrifying finale and a startling denoument that follows, reiterating the importance of friendship, communication and sense of who we are. It is alleged that the creative team were surprised and even mildly disappointed that audiences at home and abroad drew similar conclusions from the series. While that is less interesting from a cross-cultural study standpoint (as in: how do attitudes to computers and technology differ in Japan when compared with the West and so on), it highlights how Lain’s themes and ideas are universal. Favouring thought over action, realism over fan service, it’s an audacious and startlingly unique effort that deserves to be widely seen and widely remembered.

[Filed under OAVs, Movies and Full Series]  [Tags: Over-analysis, Yoshitoshi ABe]

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