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The title of the series is usually written in lower case.

It is a psychological cyberpunk mystery anime series animated by Triangle_Staff. It was conceived by Ueda Yasuyuki, who was also the producer of the series. It was directed by Nakamura Ryuutarou, written by Konaka Chiaki, and had characters designed by Abe_Yoshitoshi. The score was written by famed guitarist Nakaido Reiichi, popularly known as Chabo, in his only anime soundtrack. The anime ran from July 6, 1998 to September 28, 1998.

It is set in Japan much like the present day, except for the presence of a highly advanced Internet called the Wired that almost every character uses to some degree. The Wired is a virtual realm that encompasses virtually all aspects of human communication. It is so dominant and influential that what happens in the Wired has direct consequences on offline life.

The series tells the story of Iwakura Lain, an awkward and shy teen girl who lives in a middle class suburb. Lain is distant from almost everyone, including her own family, with the closest person she has to a companion is her classmate Mizuki Alice, a friendly girl who tries to make Lain feel included. Lain is also an oddball in that she has little involvement with the Wired, but this changes after her classmates start receiving strange e-mails from Yomoda Chisa, a girl who had just committed suicide. Lain also receives a mail from Chisa, where she claims that she's not dead but has merely abandoned her physical self. According to the mail, Chisa is now one with the Wired and has found God. Lain was previously content with just using computers to check her mail, but she is intrigued upon seeing Chisa's bizarre message and asks her tech-savvy father to buy an advanced NAVI computer system so that she can dive into the Wired herself. Things get stranger for Lain soon afterwards. She is approached by people who seem to know who she is even though she has never met them. People begin seeing her in a new light, claiming that she did things that she has no recollection of ever doing. As Lain explores the Wired further, she encounters various factions targeting her for their own ends and discovers her true nature and place in the world. . .

The series was a multimedia project conceived by Ueda, who noted that it was a major creative risk thanks to its cryptic and unorthodox storytelling style. The franchise encompasses the original anime, a video game released for the Playstation 1, and a manga created by character designer Abe. The video game's story was actually written first and the game was in production alongside the anime although the anime ended up releasing first. Ueda intended the series to be polarizing. Ueda created the series based off of what he considered to be Japanese specific values, and he hoped that the series would spark debates between Japanese and American viewers who he predicted would interpret the story very differently from the former. However, he felt disappointed in that there wasn't much difference between the Japanese and American audience in their interpretations of the story. Nevertheless, the series received strong critical acclaim, earning an Excellence Prize by the 1998 Japan Media Arts Festival.

Cast:

Main Character:
Iwakura_Lain

Iwakura Family:
Iwakura_Yasuo
Iwakura_Miho
Iwakura_Mika

Lain's Classmates:
Mizuki_Alice
Yamamoto_Reika
Katou_Juri

Men in Black:
Karl_Haushoffer
Lin_Suixi

Cyberia Cafe Kids:
Tarou_(Serial_Experiments_Lain)
Myu-Myu
Masayuki_(Serial_Experiments_Lain)

Other Supporting:
Eiri_Masami
Yomoda_Chisa
Office_Worker_(Serial_Experiments_Lain)

Related:
serial_experiments_lain_(psx)



Other Wiki Information

Last updated: 04/08/24 7:31 AM by jojosstand
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