Manga:
Anime: X

Title: Serial Experiments Lain (SEL)
Director: Ryutaro Nakamura
Studio JP: Pioneer LDC, TV Tokyo, Tatsunoko Pro
Studio US: Geneon
Episode(s): 13
Labelled Episode: "Layer #"
Genre: Cyberpunk, Psychological Thriller
Runtime: July 6th, 1998 - September 28, 1998
Rank: 4/5

Th story surrounds one girl named Lain, a generally silent and timid, if not shy, person whose only true friend can be said to be Alice (Arisu). Through a series of complicated and weird events the plot unfolds in such a way that I cannot even summarize it. The themes of this anime seemed to be based on Communication, Loneliness, Mental Illness, Reality, and Theology. It can also be notice that the main thought of the anime is weird which is an anagram of something that is a repeatative appearance in the anime the "Wired".

Like Paranoia Agent you can't watch this anime just once to understand everything in fact you can't understand it if you watched it 3 times. It is the type of anime you need to link together in a puzzle. It's ending is what I call an anti-happy ending. It wasn't sad, but it wasn't joyful either. In the end you kinda feel sorry for Lain and hate alot of the characters in the series. But, nonetheless it is a good series if you enjoyed the kinda series Eva Gen was then you might enjoy Serial Experiments Lain: "SEL" as it seems to be drawn by the same people who did Eva. The opening usually has a repeatative with a guy voicing "Present Day - Haha .... Present Time - lol" which seems odd, but in truth it can be the basis of the whole thing as what you see may only be happening in Lain's mind thus it being Present Day and Present Time is like a joke.

The whole anime can be said to be a thought that apple used to have as a slogan during the time that appears in one of the episodes "Think Different."

--Next Review: Witchhunter Robin--