Jeez I forgot how jarring Lain's suicide at the end of the game was. Also the car just driving by her dead body makes this 10 times more depressing. It just reiterates how Lain was utterly and truly alone in that world.
@@tristanraine that's what gives it such a big Juxtaposition from the Anime, most of the time they don't show the deaths entirely, but in the Game they did.
The "serial experiments" refers to the serial suicides happening throughout Japan throughout the series. Chisa, the club guy, Masami, it's even hinted at that Lain's father is a suicide victim and that's what causes the family to implode and sends Lain into her spiral of seeking out comfort from the internet.
Could it possibly be the series of experiments that led to the manifestation of Lain? From figuring out the earth's frequency to the Kids System to Protocol 7 to Lain. Hence her being the Serial Experiments Lain.
@@chunkymilk Bingo. Lain was conceptualized first an foremost as a mixed media project. All the collaborators bringing in their own piece to it in an entirely new format and interpretation is what made them "Serial" and "Experiments", they made manga, PC games, console games, even tried to write novels, produced the anime, produced original animation independently, and art books where you can read the process of just coming up with some loose ideas and a central character that united it all; Lain herself.
>it's even hinted at that Lain's father is a suicide victim I know this is an old comment, but how is it hinted that Lain's father is a suicide victim? I must've missed it
In Software Engineering, "serial" is a way to describe events that take place one after the other. We often serialize code-blocks that need to be executed sequentially with the use of mutexes and such. Though serialization can mean many things in that context, (serialization of a packet of information for example) - when used with a noun like "experiments"; the way I see it - serial experiments - means a series of experiments that occurred sequentially - one after the other. I mean... I don't think one needs to reference Software Engineering for this interpretation, but what the hell, I'm all for the shits, giggles and thematic continuity. What this tells me is that maybe there have been multiple Lains... the Lain from the anime is the only "successful" Lain (and hence the only one to whom Eiri reached out), but there were many more Lains being kept in similar fake foster homes by the evil guys before; who all probably met similar grisly ends like our Lain from the game. I am new to this franchise, so maybe it doesn't make much sense... but it is possible that all the previous Lains were not "perfect" in encapsulating the essense of the planet's sentience for some reason... causing the bad guys to repeat the experiment multiple times. Every Lain that was a failed experiment then ends up in the Wired (after... deleting... themselves from real existence) and merges into an amalgam of depression and sadness called Anti-Lain. And yes - this interpretation means that the events of the game are all happening in the same timeline / universe but just at some time in the past.
That tracks, actually, especially considering that the game was being developed before/during the anime (contrary to the video). They probably intended both to be played/watched in sequence. I would even go so far as to say they intended the game to be first, as its more comprehensible and down-to-earth story could then be expanded upon to new heights in the anime. That said, "serial" is meant to be sequential in any meaning, if I'm not mistaken. But the fact that there's a term specifically in programming is a pretty neat tie-in.
Depressing though it is, stopping would be pointless, really. She's dead; one can call the police and report that from their car down the road. Stopping would be traumatic - would for me, at least - and there's certainly nothing you'd be able to do. But this is also me looking at the glass half full; far more likely it was meant to demonstrate the cold, callous nature of the world.
I disagree with a point you made. Yoshitoshi ABe said in an interview they were working on the game before the anime. It was simply a matter of the anime finishing production first.
Again: If you just take into account that Eiri has betrayed Tachibana, put himself into Protocol 7 and commited suicide, you'll know that Tachibana, Lain's "dad" (who was also Eiri's coworker before his death) are working against Eiri's plans. Eiri is not actually behind Lain's programming in the real world. He (and his knights) merely work on the version in the Wired. They have some access to the real world, but they require Lain's abilities in order to achieve their goals. Tachibana works against that. Lain works against that. And while Tachibana ultimately fails/gives up, Lain succeeds in the series.
yes!!! for years ive thought that "serial experiments" refers to the act of "dropping" lain as a program-turned-person into different environments, and your analysis of that is so thorough and perfect!!!!! both this and your previous video are outstanding. perfectly explains everything and on top of that explains things i didnt realize (lain being the earths frequency itself!! thats so smart!! it makes perfect sense and its in plain sight!!!!) both of these videos are perfect essays on the show and games main plot and message !!!!
I would love for one day to find someone with the patience to be able to compile all this information into a watchable, chronological form, like with what "This House Has People In It" does. Great video btw. Love that the guys at LainGame managed to recreate the entire game in a browser now, subbed and all.
I feel like Misato did exist. Touko was going insane when she interviewed Kyoko, and Kyoko was unreliable anyway (claiming Lain wasn't bullied, also she wasn't a part of her class that year?) I want to believe. Also I believe Touko could've helped Lain if she didn't start using that headset, I think. It was probably the lab's intervention that made everything start going downhill. Never watched the anime so this video helped me understand the game a lot. thank you.
After having watched it for the first time recently, I thought I had somewhat of a grasp of what was going on, after seeing your videos I realize I wasn’t even remotely close lol. It’s honestly crazy how much detail was put into all of it.
@@covereye5731 that's unfortunately true, her therapist loses it and commits suicide, her father goes/dies, she loses her friends, her mother hates her. There's simply nothing left for her.
When I watched the Lain anime I liked the idea behind it way more than the actual show itself. I think the game is perfect, it lets you engage with the characters and the theme of mental health while dropping hints that let you look into and come up with your own theories about the world outside of Lain herself.
I think the girl who commits murdercide at the mall is Misato. It's not that Lain tells her to keep killing, I think she just says "Mi-Sa-To" and she keeps going to fulfill the prophecy. Another point is that she is wearing lipstick, Lain and Misato were discussing lipstick for some time, according to Lain's diary. Another is Lain mentioning that she vists her only when her parents drive her there. And her high school uniform, of course. And Lain saying she is seeing things when she notices Misato in the alleyway. Only point that makes no sense here is the kids in the class saying there never was any Misato. But then again, Toukou talked only to Kyoko and Kaori about it as far as Im aware. Kyoko is spiteful, however, as evidenced by talking to other children behind Lain's back in high school, so she may have been using the "disappear" treatment to Misato. And something feels very off with Kaori. Before she starts talking there is a loud static noise unfamiliar to the rest of the files. Misato is real 2023
My goodness, I didn't notice you followed up the previous vid not long after our discussion. I gotta say, I really like this take. It's much more grounded and supported by in-game evidence, and you really did this narrative justice.
Haha yeah, originally I planned to leave it at that but then after a few days I felt the itch to replay it and dive into the Site B draft. On that note, a few months ago I actually started working on another Lain script where, contrary to my usual style, I just wanted to try rambling about things and perhaps readdress some points from these two videos. Faking a sort of pseudo-podcast, since I'm a literal baboon if I don't have a script. Off the top of my head it was primarily just redefining a few more unique instances of Lain, asserting that episode 1's warping is not Lain's first time being physical but rather her first time awakening to ego and therefore suggesting that the reason everyone on the Wired knows her already is because prior to this the Knights had been testing her online, and lastly that Protocol 7 was active since the beginning but Lain was simply rejecting it, which is why Deus attempts to try and once again eliminate her personality and return her to being a control terminal for it. But as with all video essays I got lazy, and this one in particular I was less than amused by the idea of having to narrate it since it was 14,000 words long - twice the length of Explaining Iwakura Lain which is currently my longest piece. As an addendum to my own points I ended up trying to look at your theory a bit more properly. I quite enjoy the idea conceptually, but I ultimately still don't think I subscribe to the "anime as sequel to game" idea since (iirc) it creates a few needless narrative loops such as turning Deus' plan into a two-step repetition or requiring him to be a true god. Or if we were to read PS1 Lain as the same protagonist in the early stage before she severs her inner violence and resets her memory, that presents a character incompatibility where I refuse to reconcile the idea that the same unhinged Lain who had allegedly just been murdering people left and right in the game finale would then feel any sort of remorse over the Cyberia gunman's death. It's late and I'm too lazy to boot up my desktop to check the script, but iirc I concluded that the turquoise sundress Lain is the only one that truly fits if we were to want any of them to be the ascended PS1 protagonist, but placing it that way offers no functional difference. In my redefined perspective Protocol 7 is already active before the anime begins, the "Lain seen on the Wired" is understood as Iwakura Lain pre-ego, and the turquoise sundress Lain is simply Iwakura Lain's missing Id, so reading it to be the game protagonist doesn't amount to much more than empty reference. It does make a surprising amount of _sense_ but it does so for seemingly no _reason_ . I find that the way their storytelling intersect is best understood as an essay (anime) and its critical response (game). Maybe I'll get back to work on that draft, who knows. Also nice Arle profile pic haha. Coincidentally enough over the past couple months I've just gotten into Madou Monogatari myself. So far I've played everything on Game Gear.
@@skapbadoa Hah, glad you noticed. The thing about Deus is that the short manga was additional content that came quite a bit later to make *some* connection between the game and show, which obviously wasn't there before since both were in production at the same time by different teams. Then again, that also kinda shoots down my sequel theory...
Imo, Misato is 100% real. It's pretty clear to me that the rumor about her plagiarism was spread to force her to transfer to make Lain loose her only friend, then her classmates were made to forget her, which doesn't sound too hard considering she spent most of her time with Lain. Also sounds pretty similar to how rumors were spread about Arisu being with her teacher. We never see it, but Anti-Lain may have also showed up to taunt Misato about the rumors, which could explain why she left without saying anything to Lain. Asides from all that I just find it hard to believe that Lain hallucinated an entire person with a complete personality and random interests that Lain doesn't really have any connection to (violin) alongside (iirc) to her coming over to Lain's house for dinner, then driving her home and having Lain's dad exchange a few words with Misato's mom, did she hallucinate the ride home? Their entire relationship? If she was capable of hallucinating that much on side A then literally anything could have been a hallucination and to me it's pretty obvious her mental state just wasn't that bad in side A.
Wonderful video. I really like it, even love it and think you really get the difference between experiments. But I think you might be missing some important pieces of the puzzle. Piece one: Ghost girl who haunt anime Lain (LainA) in first episode is a spirit of the girl with the gun from the game (Dc1041). That's mean it's not two different timelines, LainA have seen victim of LainG, it's the same reality and killing/suicide happened earlier. Piece two: It's looks like LainG in her visions had seen LainA. Lda209 - The me in the hallucination has grown. She is in elementary school. But she’s different from the person I was then. She had conviction in her eyes. Was the me that I was then me? Lda225 - That girl become a junior high school student. Her height is the same as mine. It’s like I’m looking in the mirror. But I don’t think anyone will see this girl. She couldn’t be seen up till now. There’s nothing to be concerned about. It's clearly NOT the naked Lain from the final of the game, it's other schoolgirl with the same look but different behavior. (In Ere010 we even have rumors about LainG's sibling being taken from the family to hospital, so they can be sisters, but she can see the future aswell) Piece three: Dc1049 - Touko finds a note from the future in the files about the experiment, something from two years in advance. If it's Lda237 then in two years internet will became Wired. If not - Tachibana was just preparing the second experiment and notes are for second Lain. World in the game stays on the brink of technological level up, Navi already hit the market (Lda106) they just are rare. Wired is internet after Navi and Protocol7, give them few years and it will be the same world as in the anime. Piece four: Words from Cyberia shooting scene are similar with words from killing of Touko scene - "I want to connect with the entire world." Then WHO take control of LainA body in that scene? We know that Lane from the Wired has that power (episode 7) and that Tachibana staff were really afraid of her when she shows up. Why? She was still a small girl, but she behaved like a total danger in the flesh. I don't think LainA changes her memory about this accident, she was protected by someone else, and that someone was cold-blooded killer. So I think there were THREE players in second experiment. Game ends not with a suicide, it's ends with Lain of the Wired learning backstory of her suicide. Gameplay is a hacking of Tachibana filebase and main story happened before it. So LainG is lurking in the shadows of the anime, just as Eiri and Tachibana are lurking in the shadows of the game. She protects LainA, but has her own agenda and she tries to convince LainA in the episode 13 to join her. She is calm, confident, knows much more but has less power. Wears her beloved dress from childhood "memories", gently laughing, thinks as Eiri and is extremely dangerous. A minor goddess. Maiby net became wired because of the first experiment?
These are definitely intriguing suggestions. I have been sitting on another rambling Lain thing for like a year because I've been too lazy to work on it or narrate it (you have no clue how much I actually hate narration lol), but in there I did somewhat work through someone else's comment about the anime being a sequel to the game. So I've considered it a bit before. Regarding Piece One, I've always felt that the identities of each ghost in episode 1 and 2 aren't especially important, content to simply read them as an example of "dead people's information leaking out of the Wired". The differing art style makes it problematic to try and concretely commit to the idea of the ep1 ghost girl being that same green-haired girl who killed herself in the game. The extent of them looking alike is that they both have long hair, and if we want her to be a specific character from the game then for the sake of narrative integrity it would also require the short-haired ghost in episode 2 to be someone significant as well, but she has no potential counterpart that I could recall. The evolution from Network > Wired in the game, plus the distinction that the game implements Protocol 7 during its runtime whereas the anime already begins on it, is definitely one of the strongest pieces in favour of connecting the two imo. The anime frequently makes the claim that LainA had been there since the Wired's inception. I like the idea in Piece Two about LainG's hallucinations showing her LainA however. I like it a lot. It's a super cool reading. In the time since making this piece I have come to feel that there were discrepancies between the naked Lain, Lda delusion Lain and "that" which I failed to address (in fact looking back I actually didn't hone in any of the three at all). But one of my big hangups with this and the idea of it being the same continued reality, except the anime (the second experiment) happening later, is that the way I see it LainG has fallen to Eiri's wishes in the finale. Her ego is shattered (will & existence, the rest mere data)and she abandons the flesh for the newborn Wired (in the same way he himself had done to become Deus), where Deus lies in wait to manipulate her broken mind as a control terminal for the Protocol. Ergo he should already have LainG and her Protocol powers in his hand, and if so then what's the point of the second experiment (which has to have been started after the game's end due to the Internet>Wired shift) at all? There's no purpose when he has already won. If we somehow assume they happen simultaenously then that invalidates the game anyway since it totally destroys any potential meaning its story may carry, since it'd only a be a temporary disraction before LainA destroys him anew. I glossed over it in this video since idk I guess I just didn't realise, but the final naked Lain in the game is confusing as hell anyway. My usual stance is as stated above, Lain abandons the flesh to become a digital ghost in the same way Eiri did. That backup is probably what's being represented by the naked Lain, since she welcomes Lain's suicide and then prances off into the digital abyss. But we supposedly get explicit confirmation that LainG had already "killed" the AI backup and Father robot she makes in the late game. Noawadays I agree that it shouldn't the delusion or "that" mentioned in Lda, and certainly not any doppelganger equivalent to Anti Lain. But I'm undecided on what she actually is or where she actually comes from, since the story implications hinge on that being Lain's digitized consciousness about to enter the Wired and become eternal in the same method as Deus. I'd have to give that more thought. I am in agreement that if LainG were to be anywhere in the anime it obviously has to be that last girl in the turqouise sundress. The iconography of the dress shared between the two works is difficult to ignore, and her detached personality does align with how Lain had become in Lda237. However at the same time I think this is just as likely a possibility: Lain begins the series relatively unhinged since even despite being given Ego she's still learning what it means to be human. Protocol 7 is already active at that point and she is already in control of it (one of the things I've since seen the need to readdress is how the Protocol was always active in the anime rather than awaiting a specific awakening - the Protocol itself used to rend reality when she kills the gunman or explodes the school shed). In the Cyberia incident She uses Protocol 7 to hijack the gunman's subconscious and cause him to commit suicide. With her fledgling heart perhaps she didn't recognise this as bad yet, but upon seeing Alice's panic she realises her mistake and thus severs the violent part of her own ego. This violent part becomes understood as the Id of Iwakura Lain, the ruthless and unfeeling self that cares little of affection and removes threats on pure instinct. Despite saying that Anti Lain was the standin that enemy can't actually be it since she's an external construct to Iwakura Lain. So the only real Lain persona left to be the Id is the sundress girl, and that description honestly fits her way better since she just seems innately selfish and uncaring rather than straight evil as Anti Lain is. Her sundress-wearing Id remains dormant until LainA pulls every bit of herself back into complete being for her final battle with Eiri,and as a result it's only after this event that we see the girl in the turqoise sundress visually appear. In this way there's no game connection needed. In such a reading there's no functional difference between LainG and the severed Id from episode 3. My biggest roadblock at the moment with a lot of 'the game and anime are directly connected' thought lines are that although they usually make a surprising amount of _sense_ I kind of feel like they do so for no _reason_ . You can connect them in that way and it's neat - but not quite necessary. The theorycrafting is rewarding but doesn't quite redefine the experience in as significant a way as it should. The anime doesn't _need_ to reach beyond the textual border and make that LainG when it being Lain's Id already fills a missing blank within its own presentation. Both stories are written in a way that doesn't have to have the backing of the other to work. Regarding Piece Four, I'm not certain I'd say the recurring "everyone is connected" line has to be read as direct linkage. Basically I believe there is a very distinct behavioural divide between Lain before and after the Cyberia incident, which as stated above I'd argue is due to locking memories/severing her Id. Before this happens Lain's ego is still young and when faced with the potential of her and her friends being killed her defense instincts kick in. Such a situation doesn't require LainA to be controlled by the hidden LainG. Also as far as Tachibana being afraid of Lain of the Wired, arguably the largest retcon I've made since then is about the location-hopping in episode 1. In these videos I stated the Lain's warping and the ectoplasma escaping her fingers must have been indicative of her first time being given physical form, but I think it makes more sense to hone that in and say that was Lain's first time awakening to ego. The nuance slightly different. Prior to this Lain had been given body as an empty homunculus (surrogate flashback) 'and her 'test phase' had seen the Knights deploying her on the Wired. This is why Eiri considers Lain a program or 'software', and is also why such huge volumes of Wired forum members recognise her before the conscious LainA had ever logged onto it. Since she had no self yet, when she was not being used as a 'program' on the Wired she was basically just going off biological autopilot (which potentially can be read as the time period we see in the OP animation - Lain fierce upon the screen yet simply walking and reacting to external stimulus offline). So now that LainA has independent ego, Tachibana - who had worked with Eiri on her development - know exactly what terrible things her Protocol is capable of should they incite her temper. Thanks for sharing though, I always love reading and writing SEL like this. My favourite comments are definitely always the ones where people tell me I'm wrong and weigh in with their own well-realised theories! Even in spite of what I just said there is a large part of me that does still think the two could very well connected directly after all anway, but for me I haven't found the right angle to truly submit to that yet. There are some conclusions in here that agree with ones I've also reached independently the last time I was writing about Lain and that's always great to see since Lain is so dang confusing haha.
@@rtheletter6337 To be honest, for somebody on the spectrum SEL is like a gift from heaven. An art masterpiece and extremely difficult puzzle at the same time. Something that you can love without proper understanding and then will try to understand because you already in love (I have no idea how many times I had seen the "Inner Vision" scene and it's still giving me katarsis every time.) The day and age are not so important, my first attempt to break that code was 18 years ago, in wonderful times of web 0.1. There was a cool Russian forum on the lain.ru site. Of course we failed and I gave up, without the game we were lost in the labirint. I am old enough now to try again.
@@skapbadoa P.P.S. I think in the previous conversation we both missed a couple of clues. First - LainA on the Cyberia shooting scene was clearly not afraid. She behaves with a cold smile, so it was something different. Of course both Lains from the beginning had the power to fiddle with human mind, "that's the sort of being they were". Even on the first part of the game LainG has changed memories of some of her classmates (Ere002 and Ere003). But even if you have the weapon, it's quite unusual to use it without hesitation and with a smile, telling philosophical maxims to the victim. It's not a fear, it"s the personality. Second. If LainTD is only Id of LainA, then how does she know so many thing about the inner structure of the wired? Even more then Eiri, who was supposed to be one of creators. What's more, she's explaining it in the Jungian terms, which were part of LainG's theoretical approach to the idea of neural network in the final part of the first experiment. LainG in the Dc1036/Dc1037: The concept of a neural network is a relatively old idea, but the arrangement of neurons by any system may not necessarily make the system work(...)But even if it is assumed to be complete, there will definitely be an unknown network that connects people. It might be one of many things, like Jung’s ideas of the subconscious. There are many ways to say it, but no one can prove its existence now... LainTD in the layer13: "The Wired isn't an upper layer of the real world. That's what that man was mistaken about. A network is a field to pass along information. Information doesn't stand still there. Information functions by always being in motion. People's memories aren't just personal or one part of the history of humanity. No, not even the shared unconscious. Do you think that humans could create something that could store... memory that's that vast?" And only then LainA got it- "The Wired was just connected to something else..."
I find this show was more enjoyable the second time watching as a viewer playing into all of the potential delusions that lain may or may not have been having.
Good video, but I think you are missing the meaning behind Lain’s suicide and I’m not convinced the ‘that’ Lain was referencing is herself. Lain killing herself doesn’t in trigger anything in the protocol instead it would have given Eiri free reign to do what he wants. Eiri wants both a virtual singularity but he still wants a body with an identity so people can pray to him. Since Lain killed herself before the implementation of IP7, the experiment would have been a failure. And the reason I’m skeptical of anti lain always being in the wired is because Lain actually says that she copied herself into the Wired. You also didn’t mention how Lain either invaded or merged with Touko which is communicated by the voice acting for both Lain and Touko changing TaK to TaK or sometimes mid sentence. A more reasonable explanation is that before Lain killed herself, she had a copy in the wired and merged Touko. The instance on the Wired starts getting a following with The Knights, and the other Lain is wandering around Tachibana Corp server and intranet. Also considering that Lain is 11 to 14 in the game, 14 in the anime; “Serial” in the title; I’m pretty sure Tachibana saw that emotionally tormenting Lain didn’t get what they wanted and decided to try again. Tachibana and the men in black want singularity but don’t want Eiri to kill Lain and run the risk of destroying the experiment again. Eiri just wants to become a god and has an iteration of Lain that doesn’t really give a shit about anything, so he is trying to recreate the scenarios from the game so Tachibana’s Lain kills herself after IP7 is implemented. Granted this explanation doesn’t explain what the ‘that’ lain was referring to was. But it could just be that she is seeing more and more dead bodies in the Wired and didn’t want to talk about it. And just a bit of a stretch, but I wonder if Mika in the anime is also a product of Tachibana corp. After Lain was merged with Touko, Tachibana most likely wouldn’t want to create any unknown variables for the experiment. So Tachibana divided their version of Lain into two, the human emotions into Mika; and inquisitive nature and power into Lain. It would explain why the Knights targeted Mika both to take control of her humanity but also fulfill the prophecy and recreate the scenario from the game.
I am unsure whether or not Lain actually has any mental illnesses. If we're to believe the anime then the auditory hallucinations are Deus talking to Lain through the wires, just as it happens at the start of the anime. And the visual hallucinations are revealed to be of another version of herself on Side B, which I'd hardly call a hallucination since it's most likely real. In fact I'd go as far as to say that the only person who clearly suffers from schizophrenia in the game is Touko. Asides from that final visit from Lain and the few times she sees Anti-Lain or Net-Lain (not sure which one she's seeing, she might actually be hallucinating these times) on the internet, she does seem to have real hallucinations about her coworkers and crushes. She even starts questioning whether or not the professor actually killed himself or if she killed him. But then again this may be intentional just so that the last friend Lain has completely breaks. Yoshida may have been setup intentionally, he is introduced as a guy that kind of randomly treats Touko better than anyone without much context, and his experimental glasses seem to have a bad effect on her mental health. I speculate that if she hadn't already gone pretty much insane, Yoshida would have been instructed to break up with her at some point to force her breakdown if needed.
Lain is a good representation of a person with DID and depersonalization and derealization. I am saying that bc i experienced that and other people with DP, DR and DID saw it too. The anime can show it perfectly. And, yeah, DID can go with other mental conditions bc it's a coping mechanism.
@@AnnaGreenMoon yeah I was wrong tbh. I kind of forgot about the video files when writing this and focused too much on Lains own diaries, when the video files clearly show Lain is way more fucked than you'd think if you only read the diaries
From level 1. I believe level 0 were just bonus data scrambles with no real implication, other than a segmented video file which might suggest the game's file system avatar is the digital backup Lain mentions. Been a while since I played it but none of it affects the story iirc, and you could probably read it at the end of each site.
"Falling and fading, but no one to help her breathe."
Smart word play.
Honestly. It hurts to watch this lain go down this spiral.
Missed opportunity to say it hurts to watch this lain go down this lane
Jeez I forgot how jarring Lain's suicide at the end of the game was. Also the car just driving by her dead body makes this 10 times more depressing. It just reiterates how Lain was utterly and truly alone in that world.
The scariest part is that it doesn't cut away and show the aftermath. It's just purely the suicide, it just hovers, with no one caring she's gone.
@@tristanraine that's what gives it such a big Juxtaposition from the Anime, most of the time they don't show the deaths entirely, but in the Game they did.
The "serial experiments" refers to the serial suicides happening throughout Japan throughout the series. Chisa, the club guy, Masami, it's even hinted at that Lain's father is a suicide victim and that's what causes the family to implode and sends Lain into her spiral of seeking out comfort from the internet.
Could it possibly be the series of experiments that led to the manifestation of Lain? From figuring out the earth's frequency to the Kids System to Protocol 7 to Lain. Hence her being the Serial Experiments Lain.
no, the serial experiments refers to the show and its supplemental material itself being a series of experimental art.
@@chunkymilk Bingo.
Lain was conceptualized first an foremost as a mixed media project. All the collaborators bringing in their own piece to it in an entirely new format and interpretation is what made them "Serial" and "Experiments", they made manga, PC games, console games, even tried to write novels, produced the anime, produced original animation independently, and art books where you can read the process of just coming up with some loose ideas and a central character that united it all; Lain herself.
>it's even hinted at that Lain's father is a suicide victim
I know this is an old comment, but how is it hinted that Lain's father is a suicide victim? I must've missed it
I found some old vhs tapes at my grandpas house decided to look them up and fell down this rabbit hole. Oh my this Lain content is amazing.
your gramps was a lain fan? wild
Holy helll that’s awesome.
holy fuck
can I buy those tapes
Jesus that is the coolest way to fall in love with lain I'm so jealous
Nice.
Missed opportunity to title this video "Explaining Lain Iwakura: Layer 02"
I think Site B is way more appropriate given the story.
In Software Engineering, "serial" is a way to describe events that take place one after the other. We often serialize code-blocks that need to be executed sequentially with the use of mutexes and such.
Though serialization can mean many things in that context, (serialization of a packet of information for example) - when used with a noun like "experiments"; the way I see it - serial experiments - means a series of experiments that occurred sequentially - one after the other.
I mean... I don't think one needs to reference Software Engineering for this interpretation, but what the hell, I'm all for the shits, giggles and thematic continuity.
What this tells me is that maybe there have been multiple Lains... the Lain from the anime is the only "successful" Lain (and hence the only one to whom Eiri reached out), but there were many more Lains being kept in similar fake foster homes by the evil guys before; who all probably met similar grisly ends like our Lain from the game.
I am new to this franchise, so maybe it doesn't make much sense... but it is possible that all the previous Lains were not "perfect" in encapsulating the essense of the planet's sentience for some reason... causing the bad guys to repeat the experiment multiple times. Every Lain that was a failed experiment then ends up in the Wired (after... deleting... themselves from real existence) and merges into an amalgam of depression and sadness called Anti-Lain.
And yes - this interpretation means that the events of the game are all happening in the same timeline / universe but just at some time in the past.
That tracks, actually, especially considering that the game was being developed before/during the anime (contrary to the video). They probably intended both to be played/watched in sequence. I would even go so far as to say they intended the game to be first, as its more comprehensible and down-to-earth story could then be expanded upon to new heights in the anime.
That said, "serial" is meant to be sequential in any meaning, if I'm not mistaken. But the fact that there's a term specifically in programming is a pretty neat tie-in.
@@anachibi You are not mistaken. It appears I forgot about basic English before realizing this halfway through the comment. 😂
@@dhruvsharma6826 LOL that's fine!
Love how that car just drove past Lains body on the side of the road
somehow it's even more depressing than her suicide. god damn.
Guy in the car: meh, must be a cat
Depressing though it is, stopping would be pointless, really. She's dead; one can call the police and report that from their car down the road. Stopping would be traumatic - would for me, at least - and there's certainly nothing you'd be able to do. But this is also me looking at the glass half full; far more likely it was meant to demonstrate the cold, callous nature of the world.
@@ms.pirate Guy in the car: Just another thursday. This kind of shit happens all the time.
I disagree with a point you made. Yoshitoshi ABe said in an interview they were working on the game before the anime. It was simply a matter of the anime finishing production first.
I love Lain, I wished there were more content after 1999.
Let's all love Lain.
She was Seele's backup plan in case Gendo didn't go forth with the human instrumentality.
nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
as if the mindfuck wasn't already sufficent !
That explains all the fan art I've seen of Lain and Rei being besties
Ohhhhhh yep.
Again: If you just take into account that Eiri has betrayed Tachibana, put himself into Protocol 7 and commited suicide, you'll know that Tachibana, Lain's "dad" (who was also Eiri's coworker before his death) are working against Eiri's plans. Eiri is not actually behind Lain's programming in the real world. He (and his knights) merely work on the version in the Wired. They have some access to the real world, but they require Lain's abilities in order to achieve their goals. Tachibana works against that. Lain works against that. And while Tachibana ultimately fails/gives up, Lain succeeds in the series.
yes!!! for years ive thought that "serial experiments" refers to the act of "dropping" lain as a program-turned-person into different environments, and your analysis of that is so thorough and perfect!!!!! both this and your previous video are outstanding. perfectly explains everything and on top of that explains things i didnt realize (lain being the earths frequency itself!! thats so smart!! it makes perfect sense and its in plain sight!!!!) both of these videos are perfect essays on the show and games main plot and message !!!!
I just want to point out, the pose in which she's laying when she dies is the same as an angel ascending to heaven is often portrayed
I would love for one day to find someone with the patience to be able to compile all this information into a watchable, chronological form, like with what "This House Has People In It" does.
Great video btw. Love that the guys at LainGame managed to recreate the entire game in a browser now, subbed and all.
Shinji, Misato? i mean the philosophies of NGE and SEL are pretty similar it’s pretty cool they threw in little nods to Evangelion
I feel like Misato did exist. Touko was going insane when she interviewed Kyoko, and Kyoko was unreliable anyway (claiming Lain wasn't bullied, also she wasn't a part of her class that year?) I want to believe.
Also I believe Touko could've helped Lain if she didn't start using that headset, I think. It was probably the lab's intervention that made everything start going downhill.
Never watched the anime so this video helped me understand the game a lot. thank you.
Misato? She's from another anime...
At 21:20 nice little reference to the opening, can never forget it
After having watched it for the first time recently, I thought I had somewhat of a grasp of what was going on, after seeing your videos I realize I wasn’t even remotely close lol. It’s honestly crazy how much detail was put into all of it.
Every iteration lain gets is her looking at her loved ones from outside of a box in the end.
Can she just get one truly good ending?
In the case of the game - Which loved ones?
@@covereye5731 that's unfortunately true, her therapist loses it and commits suicide, her father goes/dies, she loses her friends, her mother hates her. There's simply nothing left for her.
ending where she uses her powers to somehow turn herself into a regular human
When I watched the Lain anime I liked the idea behind it way more than the actual show itself. I think the game is perfect, it lets you engage with the characters and the theme of mental health while dropping hints that let you look into and come up with your own theories about the world outside of Lain herself.
I think the girl who commits murdercide at the mall is Misato. It's not that Lain tells her to keep killing, I think she just says "Mi-Sa-To" and she keeps going to fulfill the prophecy.
Another point is that she is wearing lipstick, Lain and Misato were discussing lipstick for some time, according to Lain's diary.
Another is Lain mentioning that she vists her only when her parents drive her there.
And her high school uniform, of course. And Lain saying she is seeing things when she notices Misato in the alleyway.
Only point that makes no sense here is the kids in the class saying there never was any Misato. But then again, Toukou talked only to Kyoko and Kaori about it as far as Im aware. Kyoko is spiteful, however, as evidenced by talking to other children behind Lain's back in high school, so she may have been using the "disappear" treatment to Misato. And something feels very off with Kaori. Before she starts talking there is a loud static noise unfamiliar to the rest of the files.
Misato is real 2023
My goodness, I didn't notice you followed up the previous vid not long after our discussion.
I gotta say, I really like this take. It's much more grounded and supported by in-game evidence, and you really did this narrative justice.
Haha yeah, originally I planned to leave it at that but then after a few days I felt the itch to replay it and dive into the Site B draft.
On that note, a few months ago I actually started working on another Lain script where, contrary to my usual style, I just wanted to try rambling about things and perhaps readdress some points from these two videos. Faking a sort of pseudo-podcast, since I'm a literal baboon if I don't have a script. Off the top of my head it was primarily just redefining a few more unique instances of Lain, asserting that episode 1's warping is not Lain's first time being physical but rather her first time awakening to ego and therefore suggesting that the reason everyone on the Wired knows her already is because prior to this the Knights had been testing her online, and lastly that Protocol 7 was active since the beginning but Lain was simply rejecting it, which is why Deus attempts to try and once again eliminate her personality and return her to being a control terminal for it. But as with all video essays I got lazy, and this one in particular I was less than amused by the idea of having to narrate it since it was 14,000 words long - twice the length of Explaining Iwakura Lain which is currently my longest piece.
As an addendum to my own points I ended up trying to look at your theory a bit more properly. I quite enjoy the idea conceptually, but I ultimately still don't think I subscribe to the "anime as sequel to game" idea since (iirc) it creates a few needless narrative loops such as turning Deus' plan into a two-step repetition or requiring him to be a true god. Or if we were to read PS1 Lain as the same protagonist in the early stage before she severs her inner violence and resets her memory, that presents a character incompatibility where I refuse to reconcile the idea that the same unhinged Lain who had allegedly just been murdering people left and right in the game finale would then feel any sort of remorse over the Cyberia gunman's death. It's late and I'm too lazy to boot up my desktop to check the script, but iirc I concluded that the turquoise sundress Lain is the only one that truly fits if we were to want any of them to be the ascended PS1 protagonist, but placing it that way offers no functional difference. In my redefined perspective Protocol 7 is already active before the anime begins, the "Lain seen on the Wired" is understood as Iwakura Lain pre-ego, and the turquoise sundress Lain is simply Iwakura Lain's missing Id, so reading it to be the game protagonist doesn't amount to much more than empty reference. It does make a surprising amount of _sense_ but it does so for seemingly no _reason_ . I find that the way their storytelling intersect is best understood as an essay (anime) and its critical response (game). Maybe I'll get back to work on that draft, who knows.
Also nice Arle profile pic haha. Coincidentally enough over the past couple months I've just gotten into Madou Monogatari myself. So far I've played everything on Game Gear.
@@skapbadoa Hah, glad you noticed.
The thing about Deus is that the short manga was additional content that came quite a bit later to make *some* connection between the game and show, which obviously wasn't there before since both were in production at the same time by different teams. Then again, that also kinda shoots down my sequel theory...
@@Spaztron64
I think we have to invite you to the our discussion above. By the way, I'm on "The anime is the sequel of the game" side.
Just watched the anime and it's some very interesting stuff. Glad there's someone who can explain all this in a clear and concise manner.
Deserves more views, thanks for the content!
Lets all love Lain
I am so glad you made a video about this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Your videos on Serial Experiments Lain are excellent! I feel weirdly connected to them :)
Damn, I wish there was a translation of the scenario experiments lain. Can't we start a petition?
Are you a narutaru fan
Narutaru, long time without reading that name
Love narutaru
Imo, Misato is 100% real. It's pretty clear to me that the rumor about her plagiarism was spread to force her to transfer to make Lain loose her only friend, then her classmates were made to forget her, which doesn't sound too hard considering she spent most of her time with Lain. Also sounds pretty similar to how rumors were spread about Arisu being with her teacher. We never see it, but Anti-Lain may have also showed up to taunt Misato about the rumors, which could explain why she left without saying anything to Lain.
Asides from all that I just find it hard to believe that Lain hallucinated an entire person with a complete personality and random interests that Lain doesn't really have any connection to (violin) alongside (iirc) to her coming over to Lain's house for dinner, then driving her home and having Lain's dad exchange a few words with Misato's mom, did she hallucinate the ride home? Their entire relationship? If she was capable of hallucinating that much on side A then literally anything could have been a hallucination and to me it's pretty obvious her mental state just wasn't that bad in side A.
I have abusive divorced parents, and no friends. Where is the part where I become god?
Soon you shall see.
Wonderful video. I really like it, even love it and think you really get the difference between experiments. But I think you might be missing some important pieces of the puzzle.
Piece one:
Ghost girl who haunt anime Lain (LainA) in first episode is a spirit of the girl with the gun from the game (Dc1041). That's mean it's not two different timelines, LainA have seen victim of LainG, it's the same reality and killing/suicide happened earlier.
Piece two:
It's looks like LainG in her visions had seen LainA.
Lda209 - The me in the hallucination has grown. She is in elementary school. But she’s different from the person I was then. She had conviction in her eyes. Was the me that I was then me?
Lda225 - That girl become a junior high school student. Her height is the same as mine. It’s like I’m looking in the mirror. But I don’t think anyone will see this girl. She couldn’t be seen up till now. There’s nothing to be concerned about.
It's clearly NOT the naked Lain from the final of the game, it's other schoolgirl with the same look but different behavior. (In Ere010 we even have rumors about LainG's sibling being taken from the family to hospital, so they can be sisters, but she can see the future aswell)
Piece three:
Dc1049 - Touko finds a note from the future in the files about the experiment, something from two years in advance. If it's Lda237 then in two years internet will became Wired. If not - Tachibana was just preparing the second experiment and notes are for second Lain. World in the game stays on the brink of technological level up, Navi already hit the market (Lda106) they just are rare. Wired is internet after Navi and Protocol7, give them few years and it will be the same world as in the anime.
Piece four:
Words from Cyberia shooting scene are similar with words from killing of Touko scene - "I want to connect with the entire world." Then WHO take control of LainA body in that scene? We know that Lane from the Wired has that power (episode 7) and that Tachibana staff were really afraid of her when she shows up. Why? She was still a small girl, but she behaved like a total danger in the flesh.
I don't think LainA changes her memory about this accident, she was protected by someone else, and that someone was cold-blooded killer.
So I think there were THREE players in second experiment. Game ends not with a suicide, it's ends with Lain of the Wired learning backstory of her suicide. Gameplay is a hacking of Tachibana filebase and main story happened before it.
So LainG is lurking in the shadows of the anime, just as Eiri and Tachibana are lurking in the shadows of the game. She protects LainA, but has her own agenda and she tries to convince LainA in the episode 13 to join her. She is calm, confident, knows much more but has less power. Wears her beloved dress from childhood "memories", gently laughing, thinks as Eiri and is extremely dangerous.
A minor goddess. Maiby net became wired because of the first experiment?
These are definitely intriguing suggestions. I have been sitting on another rambling Lain thing for like a year because I've been too lazy to work on it or narrate it (you have no clue how much I actually hate narration lol), but in there I did somewhat work through someone else's comment about the anime being a sequel to the game. So I've considered it a bit before.
Regarding Piece One, I've always felt that the identities of each ghost in episode 1 and 2 aren't especially important, content to simply read them as an example of "dead people's information leaking out of the Wired". The differing art style makes it problematic to try and concretely commit to the idea of the ep1 ghost girl being that same green-haired girl who killed herself in the game. The extent of them looking alike is that they both have long hair, and if we want her to be a specific character from the game then for the sake of narrative integrity it would also require the short-haired ghost in episode 2 to be someone significant as well, but she has no potential counterpart that I could recall.
The evolution from Network > Wired in the game, plus the distinction that the game implements Protocol 7 during its runtime whereas the anime already begins on it, is definitely one of the strongest pieces in favour of connecting the two imo. The anime frequently makes the claim that LainA had been there since the Wired's inception.
I like the idea in Piece Two about LainG's hallucinations showing her LainA however. I like it a lot. It's a super cool reading. In the time since making this piece I have come to feel that there were discrepancies between the naked Lain, Lda delusion Lain and "that" which I failed to address (in fact looking back I actually didn't hone in any of the three at all). But one of my big hangups with this and the idea of it being the same continued reality, except the anime (the second experiment) happening later, is that the way I see it LainG has fallen to Eiri's wishes in the finale. Her ego is shattered (will & existence, the rest mere data)and she abandons the flesh for the newborn Wired (in the same way he himself had done to become Deus), where Deus lies in wait to manipulate her broken mind as a control terminal for the Protocol. Ergo he should already have LainG and her Protocol powers in his hand, and if so then what's the point of the second experiment (which has to have been started after the game's end due to the Internet>Wired shift) at all? There's no purpose when he has already won. If we somehow assume they happen simultaenously then that invalidates the game anyway since it totally destroys any potential meaning its story may carry, since it'd only a be a temporary disraction before LainA destroys him anew.
I glossed over it in this video since idk I guess I just didn't realise, but the final naked Lain in the game is confusing as hell anyway. My usual stance is as stated above, Lain abandons the flesh to become a digital ghost in the same way Eiri did. That backup is probably what's being represented by the naked Lain, since she welcomes Lain's suicide and then prances off into the digital abyss. But we supposedly get explicit confirmation that LainG had already "killed" the AI backup and Father robot she makes in the late game. Noawadays I agree that it shouldn't the delusion or "that" mentioned in Lda, and certainly not any doppelganger equivalent to Anti Lain. But I'm undecided on what she actually is or where she actually comes from, since the story implications hinge on that being Lain's digitized consciousness about to enter the Wired and become eternal in the same method as Deus. I'd have to give that more thought.
I am in agreement that if LainG were to be anywhere in the anime it obviously has to be that last girl in the turqouise sundress. The iconography of the dress shared between the two works is difficult to ignore, and her detached personality does align with how Lain had become in Lda237.
However at the same time I think this is just as likely a possibility: Lain begins the series relatively unhinged since even despite being given Ego she's still learning what it means to be human. Protocol 7 is already active at that point and she is already in control of it (one of the things I've since seen the need to readdress is how the Protocol was always active in the anime rather than awaiting a specific awakening - the Protocol itself used to rend reality when she kills the gunman or explodes the school shed). In the Cyberia incident She uses Protocol 7 to hijack the gunman's subconscious and cause him to commit suicide. With her fledgling heart perhaps she didn't recognise this as bad yet, but upon seeing Alice's panic she realises her mistake and thus severs the violent part of her own ego. This violent part becomes understood as the Id of Iwakura Lain, the ruthless and unfeeling self that cares little of affection and removes threats on pure instinct. Despite saying that Anti Lain was the standin that enemy can't actually be it since she's an external construct to Iwakura Lain. So the only real Lain persona left to be the Id is the sundress girl, and that description honestly fits her way better since she just seems innately selfish and uncaring rather than straight evil as Anti Lain is. Her sundress-wearing Id remains dormant until LainA pulls every bit of herself back into complete being for her final battle with Eiri,and as a result it's only after this event that we see the girl in the turqoise sundress visually appear. In this way there's no game connection needed. In such a reading there's no functional difference between LainG and the severed Id from episode 3. My biggest roadblock at the moment with a lot of 'the game and anime are directly connected' thought lines are that although they usually make a surprising amount of _sense_ I kind of feel like they do so for no _reason_ . You can connect them in that way and it's neat - but not quite necessary. The theorycrafting is rewarding but doesn't quite redefine the experience in as significant a way as it should. The anime doesn't _need_ to reach beyond the textual border and make that LainG when it being Lain's Id already fills a missing blank within its own presentation. Both stories are written in a way that doesn't have to have the backing of the other to work.
Regarding Piece Four, I'm not certain I'd say the recurring "everyone is connected" line has to be read as direct linkage. Basically I believe there is a very distinct behavioural divide between Lain before and after the Cyberia incident, which as stated above I'd argue is due to locking memories/severing her Id. Before this happens Lain's ego is still young and when faced with the potential of her and her friends being killed her defense instincts kick in. Such a situation doesn't require LainA to be controlled by the hidden LainG.
Also as far as Tachibana being afraid of Lain of the Wired, arguably the largest retcon I've made since then is about the location-hopping in episode 1. In these videos I stated the Lain's warping and the ectoplasma escaping her fingers must have been indicative of her first time being given physical form, but I think it makes more sense to hone that in and say that was Lain's first time awakening to ego. The nuance slightly different. Prior to this Lain had been given body as an empty homunculus (surrogate flashback) 'and her 'test phase' had seen the Knights deploying her on the Wired. This is why Eiri considers Lain a program or 'software', and is also why such huge volumes of Wired forum members recognise her before the conscious LainA had ever logged onto it. Since she had no self yet, when she was not being used as a 'program' on the Wired she was basically just going off biological autopilot (which potentially can be read as the time period we see in the OP animation - Lain fierce upon the screen yet simply walking and reacting to external stimulus offline). So now that LainA has independent ego, Tachibana - who had worked with Eiri on her development - know exactly what terrible things her Protocol is capable of should they incite her temper.
Thanks for sharing though, I always love reading and writing SEL like this. My favourite comments are definitely always the ones where people tell me I'm wrong and weigh in with their own well-realised theories! Even in spite of what I just said there is a large part of me that does still think the two could very well connected directly after all anway, but for me I haven't found the right angle to truly submit to that yet. There are some conclusions in here that agree with ones I've also reached independently the last time I was writing about Lain and that's always great to see since Lain is so dang confusing haha.
@@skapbadoa
@@skapbadoa
@@rtheletter6337 To be honest, for somebody on the spectrum SEL is like a gift from heaven. An art masterpiece and extremely difficult puzzle at the same time. Something that you can love without proper understanding and then will try to understand because you already in love (I have no idea how many times I had seen the "Inner Vision" scene and it's still giving me katarsis every time.)
The day and age are not so important, my first attempt to break that code was 18 years ago, in wonderful times of web 0.1. There was a cool
Russian forum on the lain.ru site.
Of course we failed and I gave up, without the game we were lost in the labirint.
I am old enough now to try again.
@@skapbadoa P.P.S.
I think in the previous conversation we both missed a couple of clues.
First - LainA on the Cyberia shooting scene was clearly not afraid. She behaves with a cold smile, so it was something different. Of course both Lains from the beginning had the power to fiddle with human mind, "that's the sort of being they were". Even on the first part of the game LainG has changed memories of some of her classmates (Ere002 and Ere003). But even if you have the weapon, it's quite unusual to use it without hesitation and with a smile, telling philosophical maxims to the victim. It's not a fear, it"s the personality.
Second. If LainTD is only Id of LainA, then how does she know so many thing about the inner structure of the wired? Even more then Eiri, who was supposed to be one of creators.
What's more, she's explaining it in the Jungian terms, which were part of LainG's theoretical approach to the idea of neural network in the final part of the first experiment.
LainG in the Dc1036/Dc1037:
The concept of a neural network is a relatively old idea, but the arrangement of neurons by any system may not necessarily make the system work(...)But even if it is assumed to be complete, there will definitely be an unknown network that connects people. It might be one of many things, like Jung’s ideas of the subconscious. There are many ways to say it, but no one can prove its existence now...
LainTD in the layer13:
"The Wired isn't an upper layer of the real world. That's what that man was mistaken about. A network is a field to pass along information.
Information doesn't stand still there. Information functions by always being in motion.
People's memories aren't just personal or one part of the history of humanity. No, not even the shared unconscious. Do you think that humans could create something that could store... memory that's that vast?"
And only then LainA got it- "The Wired was just connected to something else..."
The laugh at the end is so chilling it feels so scary
What a ride ! Fantastic work on this video !
That was a great watch man.
To bad we never got the experiment where everything just went great for Lain
Thats a 10.
I find this show was more enjoyable the second time watching as a viewer playing into all of the potential delusions that lain may or may not have been having.
the ending to the game is so much darker than the anime, i prefer lain knowing love. its sad knowing she was alone in the game
Basically
SEL Anime: True Ending
SEL Game: Bad Ending
Well... if you know both of the story, so yeah... there's no good ending, poor lain :'(
Thanks a lot for this video. Just finished the game and it sure was a wild ride
@Loli Reaper on laingame.net you can play all of it. You should start at site a from level 1 and build your way up, level by level
@Loli Reaper sick my dude. Playing it after the anime is awesome. The game is seriously fucked and I love it for that
Also great video all around, the Deus appearance really seals the deal for me.
What do you make of the game's tagline, "Make me sad"? I believe it also shows up in the anime as well at some point.
From what I know, the original series was written by Chiaki J. Konaka, did he also write the story for the game?
I see a Digimon fan ha?
Yes
Great video man, thanks for making this
you sir, have the best videos on the topic of lain
"regular divorce"
lain said the kitchen reeked fresh blood...
huh, so lain needed to go outside
Wow this video was great.
Ah yes content
Such a good video
This life is just a scenario
Just to remind
Good video, but I think you are missing the meaning behind Lain’s suicide and I’m not convinced the ‘that’ Lain was referencing is herself. Lain killing herself doesn’t in trigger anything in the protocol instead it would have given Eiri free reign to do what he wants. Eiri wants both a virtual singularity but he still wants a body with an identity so people can pray to him. Since Lain killed herself before the implementation of IP7, the experiment would have been a failure. And the reason I’m skeptical of anti lain always being in the wired is because Lain actually says that she copied herself into the Wired.
You also didn’t mention how Lain either invaded or merged with Touko which is communicated by the voice acting for both Lain and Touko changing TaK to TaK or sometimes mid sentence.
A more reasonable explanation is that before Lain killed herself, she had a copy in the wired and merged Touko. The instance on the Wired starts getting a following with The Knights, and the other Lain is wandering around Tachibana Corp server and intranet. Also considering that Lain is 11 to 14 in the game, 14 in the anime; “Serial” in the title; I’m pretty sure Tachibana saw that emotionally tormenting Lain didn’t get what they wanted and decided to try again. Tachibana and the men in black want singularity but don’t want Eiri to kill Lain and run the risk of destroying the experiment again. Eiri just wants to become a god and has an iteration of Lain that doesn’t really give a shit about anything, so he is trying to recreate the scenarios from the game so Tachibana’s Lain kills herself after IP7 is implemented.
Granted this explanation doesn’t explain what the ‘that’ lain was referring to was. But it could just be that she is seeing more and more dead bodies in the Wired and didn’t want to talk about it.
And just a bit of a stretch, but I wonder if Mika in the anime is also a product of Tachibana corp. After Lain was merged with Touko, Tachibana most likely wouldn’t want to create any unknown variables for the experiment. So Tachibana divided their version of Lain into two, the human emotions into Mika; and inquisitive nature and power into Lain. It would explain why the Knights targeted Mika both to take control of her humanity but also fulfill the prophecy and recreate the scenario from the game.
I am unsure whether or not Lain actually has any mental illnesses. If we're to believe the anime then the auditory hallucinations are Deus talking to Lain through the wires, just as it happens at the start of the anime. And the visual hallucinations are revealed to be of another version of herself on Side B, which I'd hardly call a hallucination since it's most likely real. In fact I'd go as far as to say that the only person who clearly suffers from schizophrenia in the game is Touko.
Asides from that final visit from Lain and the few times she sees Anti-Lain or Net-Lain (not sure which one she's seeing, she might actually be hallucinating these times) on the internet, she does seem to have real hallucinations about her coworkers and crushes. She even starts questioning whether or not the professor actually killed himself or if she killed him. But then again this may be intentional just so that the last friend Lain has completely breaks. Yoshida may have been setup intentionally, he is introduced as a guy that kind of randomly treats Touko better than anyone without much context, and his experimental glasses seem to have a bad effect on her mental health. I speculate that if she hadn't already gone pretty much insane, Yoshida would have been instructed to break up with her at some point to force her breakdown if needed.
Lain is a good representation of a person with DID and depersonalization and derealization. I am saying that bc i experienced that and other people with DP, DR and DID saw it too. The anime can show it perfectly. And, yeah, DID can go with other mental conditions bc it's a coping mechanism.
@@AnnaGreenMoon yeah I was wrong tbh. I kind of forgot about the video files when writing this and focused too much on Lains own diaries, when the video files clearly show Lain is way more fucked than you'd think if you only read the diaries
The only thing I can say here for this version of her... poor Lain. T_T
9:34 oh shit, 6 fingers on one hand? What japanese artist drew this? I think he may have been exhausted or really confused to make this mistake. :D
I just realized we could make lain a reality whit the ai we have
Just simulated not in the real world
Your brain is bigger than my house
Пиздец я в шоке что кто-то все таки сделал англоязычный обзор на эту игру
Не знаю как я сюда попал, но мне понравилось.
Woah, there’s characters in the game named Shinji and Misato? Evangelion reference!!??!
Start of game is from level 1 or level 0? If not from 1, when to start reading of level zero?
From level 1. I believe level 0 were just bonus data scrambles with no real implication, other than a segmented video file which might suggest the game's file system avatar is the digital backup Lain mentions. Been a while since I played it but none of it affects the story iirc, and you could probably read it at the end of each site.
thanks for explaining!
there is a Misato and a Shinji in the game... kinda sus
As if lain was in chise yomoda's place
Wow this is just the bad ending
Fascinating!
SO GOOD
Well this was depressing
Ojalá haber puesto un comentario la vez que me terminé lain, asi recordaría cuando fue la primera vez que lo ví :_(
The website r real signatures when it was in post production
"this continues from my previous video"
*doesnt link previous video*
Well done!
This game costs $600 🤰🏼
This game gave me depression
Perfect
oh man..
WHAT THE FUCK NEZUMI WAS USING THE RML HEADSET I NEVER NOTICED THAT
Why does Misato look like the Christian girl from Ghost Stories
I don't like the Lain game so I am just going to pretend it does not exist
wow, i was so off with what this anime was about LOL
Lain isn't spelled Lane, or Layne, or anything, and if read as written sounds like "line". Heh
9:35 touko 6 fingers 0_0
coolio
The website sucks
So its just a bunch of pointless rubbish, much like the anime itself
what a big brain analysis.
Then this clearly is not for you.
🐶💔
NEW LAIN ANIME IN 2022
DESPERA