View source for Serial Experiments Lain

{{Short description|1998 television anime series}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox animanga/Header
| image = Serial Experiments Lain DVD vol 1.jpg
| caption = First North American DVD cover, featuring Lain Iwakura
|genre = {{ubl|[[Cyberpunk]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-11-02/serial-experiments-lain-bd/dvd-box-delayed-4-months|title=Serial Experiments Lain BD/DVD Box Delayed 4 Months|website=[[Anime News Network]]|access-date=June 26, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180628122145/https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-11-02/serial-experiments-lain-bd/dvd-box-delayed-4-months|archive-date=June 28, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>| [[Psychological horror]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.slashfilm.com/570700/serial-experiments-lain/|last=Motamayor|first=Rachel|title='Serial Experiments Lain' Is A Mind-Twisting Sci-Fi Anime About The Horrors Of The Internet|website=[[/Film]]|date=November 27, 2019|access-date=January 7, 2023|archive-date=January 7, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230107012742/https://www.slashfilm.com/570700/serial-experiments-lain/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="horror"/>|[[Techno-horror]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://otakuusamagazine.com/98-degrees-serial-experiments-lain/|last=Martin|first=Ian|title=1998's Serial Experiments Lain Predicted Our Modern Internet Demons|website=[[Otaku USA]]|date=September 24, 2018|access-date=January 7, 2023|archive-date=January 7, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230107012742/https://otakuusamagazine.com/98-degrees-serial-experiments-lain/|url-status=live}}</ref>}}<!-- Note: Use and cite reliable sources to identify genre/s, not personal interpretation. Please don't include more than three genres (per [[MOS:A&M]]). -->
|creator = [[Yasuyuki Ueda]]{{efn|Credited as "production 2nd".<ref>{{cite web|title=FRUiTS October (No.15_1st/Oct./1998)|url=https://www.cjas.org/~leng/fruits.htm|website=Cornell Japanese Animation Society|access-date=October 27, 2019|archive-date=January 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122195209/https://www.cjas.org/~leng/fruits.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>}}
}}
{{Infobox animanga/Video
| type = tv series
| director = [[Ryūtarō Nakamura]]
| producer = {{ubl|[[Yasuyuki Ueda]]|Shōjirō Abe}}
| writer = [[Chiaki J. Konaka]]
| music = [[Reichi Nakaido]]
| studio = [[Triangle Staff]]
| licensee = {{english anime licensee
 | AUS = [[Universal Pictures Home Entertainment|Universal]]/[[Sony Pictures Home Entertainment|Sony]]
 | NA = [[Crunchyroll]]
 | UK = [[MVM Entertainment|MVM Films]]
}}
| network = [[TX Network|TXN]] ([[TV Tokyo]])
| network_en = {{english anime network
 | CA = [[G4 (Canadian TV channel)|G4techTV]] ([[Anime Current]])
 | US = [[KQEH|KTEH]], [[TechTV]], [[Funimation Channel]]
 | ZA = [[Animax#South Africa|Animax]]
}}
| first = July 6, 1998
| last = September 28, 1998
| episodes = 13
| episode_list = 
}}
{{Infobox animanga/Game
| developer = [[NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan|Pioneer LDC]]
| publisher = Pioneer LDC
| released = November 26, 1998
| platforms = [[PlayStation (console)|PlayStation]]
}}
{{Infobox animanga/Manga
| title = The Nightmare of Fabrication
| author = [[Yoshitoshi Abe]]
| publisher = 
| published = May 1999
}}
{{Infobox animanga/Footer}}

'''''Serial Experiments Lain''''' is a Japanese [[anime]] television series created and co-produced by [[Yasuyuki Ueda]], written by [[Chiaki J. Konaka]] and directed by [[Ryūtarō Nakamura]]. Animated by [[Triangle Staff]] and featuring original character designs by [[Yoshitoshi Abe]], the series was broadcast for 13 episodes on [[TV Tokyo]] and [[TX Network|its affiliates]] from July to September 1998. The series follows Lain Iwakura, an adolescent girl in suburban Japan, and her relation to the Wired, a global [[computer network|communications network]] similar to the [[internet]].

''Lain'' features surreal and [[avant-garde]] imagery and explores philosophical topics such as [[reality]], [[Identity (social science)|identity]], and [[communication]].<ref name="laineva">{{cite journal|last=Napier|first=Susan J.|author-link=Susan J. Napier|date=November 2002|title=When the Machines Stop: Fantasy, Reality, and Terminal Identity in ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' and ''Serial Experiments Lain''|journal=Science Fiction Studies|volume=29|issue=88|pages=418–435|issn=0091-7729|url=http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/abstracts/a88.htm#Napier|access-date=May 4, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070611205327/http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/abstracts/a88.htm#Napier|archive-date=June 11, 2007|url-status=live}}</ref> The series incorporates creative influences from [[computer history]], [[cyberpunk]], and [[conspiracy theories]]. Critics and fans have praised ''Lain'' for its originality, visuals, atmosphere, themes, and its dark depiction of a world fraught with paranoia, social alienation, and reliance on [[technology]] considered insightful of 21st century life. It received the Excellence Prize at the [[Japan Media Arts Festival]] in 1998.

==Plot==
Lain Iwakura, a girl in her junior year of high school, lives in [[Setagaya|Setagaya City]], Tokyo, Japan with her middle-class family, consisting of her inexpressive older sister Mika, emotionally distant mother Miho, and computer-obsessed father Yasuo; Lain herself is extremely introverted and socially isolated. The status-quo of her life becomes upturned by a series of bizarre incidents that take place after girls from her school receive an e-mail from a dead student, Chisa Yomoda, and she pulls out her old computer in order to check for the same message. Lain finds Chisa telling her via email that she is not dead but has merely "abandoned her physical self" and is alive deep within the virtual realm of the Wired itself, where she claims she has found "God". From this point, Lain is caught in a series of cryptic and surreal events that see her delving deeper into the mystery of the network in a narrative that explores themes of consciousness, perception, and the nature of reality.

"The Wired" is a [[Virtual world|virtual realm]] that contains and supports the sum of humanity's communication networks, created with the telegraph, television, and telephone services, and expanded with the Internet and [[cyberspace]]. The series posits that the Wired could be linked to a system that enables subconscious communication between people and machines without physical interface. Such a system is explained by the [[Schumann resonances]], a property of the Earth's [[magnetic field]] that theoretically allows for unhindered long-distance communications. If such a link were created, the network would become equivalent to reality as the general consensus of all perceptions and knowledge, and the increasingly thin line between what is real and what is virtual would fracture.

Masami Eiri is the project director on Protocol Seven, the next-generation Internet protocol, for major [[IT]] company Tachibana General Laboratories. He had secretly included [[computer program|code]] of his very own creation to give himself control of the Wired. He then transferred his own consciousness into the Wired, leaving his body in the physical world to die. Masami explains that Lain is the artifact by which the wall between the virtual and material worlds is to fall, and he needs her to go into the Wired and "abandon the flesh", as he did, to achieve his plan. The series sees him trying to convince her through interventions, using the promise of unconditional love, romantic seduction and charm, and finally threats and force.

Meanwhile, a complex game of hide-and-seek unfolds between the "Knights of the Eastern Calculus" (based on the [[Knights of the Lambda Calculus]]), hackers whom Masami claims are "believers that enable him to be a God in the Wired", and Tachibana General Laboratories, who try to regain control of Protocol Seven. In the end, Lain realizes, after much [[introspection]], that she has control over everyone's mind and over reality itself. Her dialogue with different versions of herself shows how she feels shunned from the material world, and is afraid to live in the Wired, where she has the opportunities and responsibilities of an almighty goddess. The last scenes feature her erasing everything connected to herself from everyone's memories of her. She is last seen encountering her closest friend Alice once again, who is now married, though Lain herself is unchanged. Lain promises herself that she and Alice will meet again anytime as Lain can literally [[Omnipresence|go and be anywhere she desires between both worlds]].

==Characters==
;{{nihongo|{{visible anchor|Lain Iwakura}}|岩倉 玲音|Iwakura Rein}}
:{{Voiced by|[[Kaori Shimizu (voice actress)|Kaori Shimizu]]|[[Bridget Hoffman]]<ref name="btva">{{cite web |title=Serial Experiments Lain (1999 TV Show) |url=https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/tv-shows/Serial-Experiments-Lain-TV/ |website=Behind The Voice Actors |access-date=31 January 2022 |postscript=. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information. |archive-date=January 31, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220131045752/https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/tv-shows/Serial-Experiments-Lain-TV/ |url-status=live}}</ref>}}
:The title character of the series. Lain is a fourteen-year-old girl who uncovers her true nature through the series. She is first depicted as a shy [[junior high school]] student with few friends or interests. She later grows multiple bolder personalities, both in the physical world and the Wired, and starts making more friends. As the series progresses, she eventually comes to discover that she is, in reality, merely an [[autonomous]], [[sentient]] [[computer program]] in the physical and corporeal form of a human being, designed to sever the invisible barrier between the Wired and the real world. In the end, Lain is challenged to accept herself as a ''de facto'' [[goddess]] for the Wired, having become an [[omnipotent]] and [[omnipresent]] virtual being with worshippers of her own, as well as an ability to exist beyond the borders of devices, time, or space.
;{{nihongo|{{visible anchor|Masami Eiri}}|英利 政美|Eiri Masami}}
:{{Voiced by|[[Shō Hayami]]|[[Kirk Thornton]]<ref name="btva"/>}}
: The key designer of Protocol Seven. While working for Tachibana General Laboratories, he illicitly included codes enabling him to control the whole protocol at will and embedded his own mind and will into the seventh protocol. Because of this, he was fired by Tachibana General Laboratories, and was found dead not long after. He believes that the only way for humans to evolve even further and develop even greater abilities is to absolve themselves of their physical and human limitations, and to live as virtual entities—or [[Avatar (computing)|avatars]]—in the Wired for eternity. He claims to have been Lain's creator all along, but was in truth standing in for another as an [[Acting (law)|acting god]], who was waiting for the Wired to reach its more evolved current state: Lain herself. 
;{{nihongo|{{visible anchor|Yasuo Iwakura}}|岩倉 康男|Iwakura Yasuo}}
:{{Voiced by|[[Ryūsuke Ōbayashi]]|Barry Stigler<ref name="btva"/>}}
:Lain and Mika's father. Passionate about computers and electronic communication, he works with Masami Eiri at Tachibana General Laboratories. He subtly pushes Lain, his "youngest daughter", towards the Wired and monitors her development until she becomes more and more aware of herself and of her ''raison d'être''. He eventually leaves Lain, telling her that although he did not enjoy playing house, he genuinely loved and cared for her as a real father would. Despite Yasuo's eagerness to lure Lain into the Wired, he warns her not to get overly involved in it or to confuse it with the real world.
;{{nihongo|{{visible anchor|Miho Iwakura}}|岩倉 美穂|Iwakura Miho}}
:{{Voiced by|[[Rei Igarashi]]|Dari Lallou Mackenzie<ref name="btva"/>}}
:Lain and Mika's mother. Although she dotes on her husband, she is indifferent towards both her kids. She does not show much emotion compared to her husband, but she does share at least one trait; just like her husband, she ends up leaving Lain. She is a computer scientist. 
;{{nihongo|{{visible anchor|Alice Mizuki}}|瑞城 ありす|Mizuki Arisu}}
:{{Voiced by|[[Yōko Asada]]|[[Emilie Brown|Emily Brown]]<ref name="btva"/>}}
:Lain's classmate and only true friend throughout the series. She is very sincere and has no discernible quirks. She is the first to attempt to help Lain socialize; she takes her out to a nightclub. From then on, she tries her best to look after Lain. Alice, along with her two best friends Julie and Reika, were taken by Chiaki Konaka from his previous work, ''Alice in Cyberland''.
;{{nihongo|{{visible anchor|Mika Iwakura}}|岩倉 美香|Iwakura Mika}}
:{{Voiced by|[[Ayako Kawasumi]]|[[Patricia Ja Lee]]<ref name="btva"/>}}
:Lain's older sister, an apathetic sixteen-year-old high school student. She seems to enjoy mocking Lain's behavior and interests. Mika is considered by ''Anime Revolution'' to be the only normal member of Lain's family:<ref>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070323032932/http://www.anime-revolution.com/anime/sel-character-profiles|archive-date=March 23, 2007|url=http://www.anime-revolution.com/anime/sel-character-profiles|title=[SEL] Character Profiles|work=Anime Revolution|access-date=December 30, 2006}}</ref> she sees her boyfriend in [[love hotel]]s, is on a diet, and shops in [[Shibuya]] regularly. At a certain point in the series, she becomes heavily traumatized by violent and relentless hallucinations; while Lain begins freely delving into the Wired. Mika is taken there by her proximity to Lain, and she gets stuck between the real world and the Wired.<ref name="otakon">{{cite web|url=http://www.cjas.org/~leng/o2klain.htm|title=Otakon Lain Panel Discussion with Yasuyuki Ueda and Yoshitoshi Abe|access-date=September 16, 2006|date=August 5, 2000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061026065237/http://www.cjas.org/~leng/o2klain.htm|archive-date=October 26, 2006|url-status=live}}</ref>
;{{nihongo|{{visible anchor|Taro}}|タロウ|Tarō}}
:{{Voiced by|Keito Takimoto|[[Brianne Siddall]]<ref name="btva"/>}}
:A young boy of about Lain's age. He occasionally works for the Knights to bring forth "the one truth". Despite this, he has not yet been made a member, and knows nothing of their true intentions. Taro loves [[virtual reality]] games and hangs out all day at Cyberia with his friends, Myu-Myu and Masayuki. He uses special technology, such as custom Handi Navi and video goggles. Taro takes pride in his internet anonymity, and he asks Lain for a date with her Wired self in exchange for information.
;{{visible anchor|Office Worker}}
:{{Voiced by|[[Shigeru Chiba]]}}
:A top executive from Tachibana General Laboratories. He has a personal agenda, which he carries out with the help of the Men in Black. He looks forward to the arrival of a real God through the Wired, and is the man behind the Knights' mass assassination. There are many things he does not know about Lain, but he would rather ask questions about her than disclose his agenda.
;{{visible anchor|Men in Black}}
:{{nihongo|Karl Haushoffer|カール・ハウスホッファ|Kāru Hausuhoffa}}, {{voiced by|[[Jouji Nakata]]|[[Jamieson Price]]}}
:Lin Suixi ({{zh|c=林随錫|p=Lín Suíxī}}), {{voiced by|[[Takumi Yamazaki]]|[[Bob Buchholz]]}}
:The Men in Black work for the above "Office Worker" in tracking down and murdering all of the members of the Knights. They are not told the true plan, but they know that Masami Eiri is somehow involved, despite having been "killed." They see no need for an almighty, all-powerful God—let alone Lain—in the Wired.
;{{nihongo|{{visible anchor|Chisa Yomoda}}|四方田 千砂|Yomoda Chisa}}
:{{Voiced by|Sumi Mutoh|[[Lia Sargent]]<ref name="btva"/>}}
:A teenage girl who committed suicide at the beginning of the series. After her death, she e-mails Lain, Julie, and a few other kids, stating that she is still alive in the Wired, ultimately leading to almost every event that occurs within the anime.
;{{nihongo|{{visible anchor|Reika Yamamoto}}|山本 麗華|Yamamoto Reika}}
:{{Voiced by|[[Chiharu Tezuka]]|[[Lenore Zann]]<ref name="btva"/>}}
:One of Alice's friends from school. She does not seem to care for Lain, since she harasses her quite a lot. She is more serious than Julie, and also somewhat meaner.
;{{nihongo|{{visible anchor|Julie Kato}}|加藤 樹莉|Katō Juri}}
:{{Voiced by|Manabi Mizuno|Gracie Moore<ref name="btva"/>}}
:Another friend of Alice. She also harasses Lain, but not as severely as Reika does. She is sometimes insensitive to other people's feelings.
;{{nihongo|{{visible anchor|Masayuki}}|マサユキ}}
:{{Voiced by|Sora Fujima|[[Dorothy Elias-Fahn]]}}
:Taro's best friend. He is usually seen hanging out with Taro and Myu-Myu.
;{{nihongo|{{visible anchor|Myu-Myu}}|ミューミュウ|Myūmyuu}}
:{{Voiced by|Yuki Yamamoto|[[Sandy Fox]]}}
:A young girl who hangs out with Taro and Masayuki at Cyberia Café. She has feelings for Taro, so she gets jealous when he flirts with Lain.
;{{visible anchor|Narrator}}
:{{Voiced by|[[Takashi Taniguchi]]|[[Paul St. Peter]]}}

==Production==
''Serial Experiments Lain'' was conceived, as a series, to be original to the point of it being considered "an enormous risk" by its producer [[Yasuyuki Ueda]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.animeland.com/index.php?rub=articles&id=399|work=AnimeLand|publisher=Anime Manga Presse|title=Abe Yoshitoshi et Ueda Yasuyuki|last=Scipion|first=Johan|access-date=September 16, 2006|language=fr|date=March 1, 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927120258/http://www.animeland.com/index.php?rub=articles&id=399|archive-date=September 27, 2007|url-status=live}}</ref>

Ueda had to answer repeated queries about a statement he had made in an ''[[Animerica]]'' interview where he claimed that ''Lain'' was "a sort of cultural war against American culture and the American sense of values we [Japan] adopted after [[World War II]]".<ref name="Animerica3">''[[Animerica]]'', (Vol. 7 No. 9, p. 29)</ref><ref name="otakon" /><ref name="chat">{{cite web|url=http://www.cjas.org/~leng/lainchat.htm|author=The Anime Colony|title=Online Lain Chat with Yasuyuki Ueda and Yoshitoshi ABe|access-date=September 16, 2006|date=August 7, 2000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061024122218/http://www.cjas.org/~leng/lainchat.htm|archive-date=October 24, 2006|url-status=live}}<!--Note: The moderated part is also available here: http://www.scifi.com/transcripts/2000/animemonday.html--></ref><ref name="Ueda">{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080804105225/http://www.animejump.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=32&page=1|archive-date=August 4, 2008|url=http://www.animejump.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=32&page=1|title=Anime Jump!: Lain Men:Yasuyuki Ueda|access-date=September 26, 2006}}</ref> He later explained in numerous interviews that he created ''Lain'' with a set of values he viewed as distinctly Japanese; he hoped Americans would not understand the series as the Japanese would. This would lead to a "war of ideas" over the meaning of the anime, hopefully culminating in new communication between the two cultures. When Ueda discovered that the American audience held most of the same views on the series as the Japanese did, he was disappointed.<ref name="Ueda" />

The ''Lain'' franchise was originally conceived to connect across forms of media (anime, video games, manga). Ueda said in an interview, "the approach I took for this project was to communicate the essence of the work by the total sum of many media products". The scenario for the video game was written first, and the video game was produced at the same time as the anime series, though the series was released first. A [[dōjinshi]] titled "The Nightmare of Fabrication" was produced by Yoshitoshi Abe and released in Japanese in the artbook ''An Omnipresence in Wired''. Ueda and Konaka declared in an interview that the idea of a multimedia project was not unusual in Japan, as opposed to the contents of ''Lain'', and the way they are exposed.<ref name="Animerica2" />

===Writing===
The authors were asked in interviews if they had been influenced by ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', in the themes and graphic design. This was strictly denied by writer [[Chiaki J. Konaka]] in an interview, arguing that he had not even seen ''Evangelion'' until he finished the fourth episode of ''Lain''. Being primarily a horror movie writer, his stated influences are [[Jean-Luc Godard|Godard]] (especially for using typography on screen), ''[[The Exorcist (film)|The Exorcist]]'', ''[[The Legend of Hell House|Hell House]]'', and [[Dan Curtis]]'s ''[[House of Dark Shadows]]''. Alice's name, like the names of her two friends Julie and Reika, came from a previous production from Konaka, {{ill|Alice in Cyberland|ja|ありす in Cyberland|italic=y}}, which in turn was largely influenced by ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]''. As the series developed, Konaka was "surprised" by how close Alice's character became to the original ''Wonderland'' character.<ref name="HK">{{cite journal|date=April 2000|title=Serial Experiments Lain|journal=[[HK Magazine]]|issue=14|publisher=Asia City Publishing|location=Hong Kong}} in {{cite web|url=http://www.konaka.com/alice6/lain/hk.html|title=HK Interview|publisher=[[Chiaki J. Konaka]]|access-date=September 25, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124051110/http://konaka.com/alice6/lain/hk.html|archive-date=November 24, 2010|url-status=live}} and {{cite web|url=http://www.konaka.com/alice6/lain/hkint_e.html|title=HK Interview|publisher=Chiaki J. Konaka|access-date=September 25, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101101005437/http://konaka.com/alice6/lain/hkint_e.html|archive-date=November 1, 2010|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Lain hacker small.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.13|alt=A young girl in a white shift sits with her back to us in the dark, focusing her attention on many glowing computer screens which surround her.|Lain's custom computer features [[holographic display]]s and [[liquid carbon dioxide]] cooling.]]

[[Vannevar Bush]] (and [[memex]]), [[John C. Lilly]], [[Timothy Leary]] and his [[eight-circuit model of consciousness]], [[Ted Nelson]] and [[Project Xanadu]] are cited as precursors to the Wired.<ref name="Animerica2">[[Animerica]], (Vol. 7 No. 9, p. 28)</ref> [[Douglas Rushkoff]] and his book ''[[Cyberia (book)|Cyberia]]'' were originally to be cited as such,<ref name="otakon" /> and in ''Serial Experiments: Lain'', Cyberia became the name of a nightclub populated with hackers and techno-punk teenagers. Likewise, the series' ''[[deus ex machina]]'' lies in the conjunction of the [[Schumann resonances]] and [[Carl Jung|Jung]]'s [[collective unconscious]] (the authors chose this term over [[Kabbalah]] and [[Akashic records|Akashic Record]]).<ref name="Animerica">''[[Animerica]]'', (Vol. 7 No. 9, p. 29)</ref> [[Majestic 12]] and the [[Roswell UFO incident]] are used as examples of how a hoax might still affect history, even after having been exposed as such, by creating sub-cultures.<ref name=Animerica /> This links again to Vannevar Bush, the alleged "brains" of MJ12.

Two of the literary references in ''Lain'' are quoted through Lain's father: he first logs onto a website with the password "{{not a typo|Think Bule Count One Tow}}" {{sic}} ("[[Think Blue, Count Two]]" is an [[Instrumentality of Mankind|Instrumentality of Man]] story featuring virtual persons projected as real ones in people's minds);<ref name="ep1">''Serial Experiments Lain'', "Layer 01: WEIRD"</ref> and his saying that "[[Madeleine (cake)|madeleines]] would be good with the tea" in the last episode makes ''Lain'' "one of the only cartoons ever to allude to Proust".<ref name="Gazette">{{cite web|url=http://www.movie-gazette.com/cinereviews/860|title=Movie Gazette: "Serial Experiments Lain Volume : Reset" Review|access-date=October 11, 2006|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060521165608/http://www.movie-gazette.com/cinereviews/860|archive-date = May 21, 2006}}</ref><ref>'''Yasuo:''' "I will bring madeleines next time. They will taste good with the tea." ''Serial Experiments Lain'', Episode 13, "Ego". Lain has just erased herself from her friends' memories, while for Proust the taste of madeleines triggers memories of his childhood.</ref>

===Character design===

[[Yoshitoshi Abe]] confesses to have never read manga as a child, as it was "off-limits" in his household.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://animejump.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=33&page=1|title=Anime Jump!: Lain Men: Yoshitoshi Abe|access-date=September 16, 2006|year=2000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060510030644/http://www.animejump.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=33&page=1|archive-date=May 10, 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref> His major influences are "nature and everything around him".<ref name="otakon" /> Specifically speaking about Lain's character, Abe was inspired by [[Kenji Tsuruta]], [[Akihiro Yamada]], [[Range Murata]] and [[Yukinobu Hoshino]].<ref name="chat" /> In a broader view, he has been influenced in his style and technique by Japanese artists Kyosuke Chinai and Toshio Tabuchi.<ref name="otakon" />

The character design of Lain was not Abe's sole responsibility. Her distinctive left forelock for instance was a demand from Yasuyuki Ueda. The goal was to produce asymmetry to reflect Lain's unstable and disconcerting nature.<ref name="fruits">''FRUiTS Magazine'' No. 15, October 1998.</ref> It was designed as a mystical symbol, as it is supposed to prevent voices and spirits from being heard by the left ear.<ref name="chat" /> The bear pajamas she wears were a demand from [[character animation]] director Takahiro Kishida. Though bears are a trademark of the Konaka brothers, Chiaki Konaka first opposed the idea.<ref name="HK" /> Director Nakamura then explained how the bear motif could be used as a shield for confrontations with her family. It is a key element of the design of the shy "real world" Lain (see "mental illness" under [[#Themes|Themes]]).<ref name="HK" /> When she first goes to the Cyberia [[nightclub]], she wears a bear hat for similar reasons.<ref name="fruits" /> Retrospectively, Konaka said that Lain's pajamas became a major factor in drawing fans of ''[[Moe (slang)|moe]]'' characterization to the series, and remarked that "such items may also be important when making anime".<ref name="HK" />

Abe's original design was generally more complicated than what finally appeared on screen. As an example, the X-shaped hair clip was to be an interlocking pattern of gold links. The links would open with a snap, or rotate around an axis until the moment the " X " became a " = ". This was not used as there is no scene where Lain takes her hair clip off.<ref name="MAX2">''Manga Max'' magazine, September 1999, p. 22, "Unreal to Real"</ref>

===Themes===
''Serial Experiments Lain'' is not a conventionally linear story, being described as "an alternative anime, with modern themes and realization".<ref>''Benkyo!'' Magazine, March 1999, p.16, "In My Humble Opinion"</ref> Themes range from theological to psychological and are dealt with in a number of ways: from classical dialogue to image-only introspection, passing by direct interrogation of imaginary characters.

[[Communication]], in its wider sense, is one of the main themes of the series,<ref name="THEM">{{cite web|url=http://www.themanime.org/viewreview.php?id=353|title=T.H.E.M.Anime Review of Serial Experiments Lain|access-date=November 24, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061011155649/http://www.themanime.org/viewreview.php?id=353|archive-date=October 11, 2006|url-status=live}}</ref> not only as opposed to loneliness, but also as a subject in itself. Writer Konaka said he wanted to directly "communicate human feelings". Director Nakamura wanted to show the audience — and particularly viewers between 14 and 15—"the multidimensional wavelength of the [[Existentialism|existential self]]: the relationship between self and the world".<ref name="Animerica2" />

[[Loneliness]], if only as representing a lack of communication, is recurrent through ''Lain''.<ref name="DVDoutsider">{{cite web|url=http://www.dvdoutsider.co.uk/dvd/reviews/s/serial_experiments_lain.html|title=DVDoutsider Review of Serial Experiments Lain|access-date=November 24, 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305015738/http://www.dvdoutsider.co.uk/dvd/reviews/s/serial_experiments_lain.html|archive-date=March 5, 2012}}</ref> Lain herself (according to Anime Jump) is "almost painfully introverted with no friends to speak of at school, a snotty, condescending sister, a strangely apathetic mother, and a father who seems to want to care but is just too damn busy to give her much of his time".<ref name="AnimeJump">{{cite web|url=http://www.animejump.com/index.php?module=prodreviews&func=showcontent&id=201|first=Mike|last=Toole|title=Anime Jump!: Serial Experiments Lain Review|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080610033719/http://www.animejump.com/index.php?module=prodreviews&func=showcontent&id=201|archive-date=June 10, 2008|date=October 16, 2003}}</ref> Friendships turn on the first rumor;<ref name="DVDoutsider" /><ref>''Serial Experiments Lain'', Layer 08: RUMORS</ref> and the only insert song of the series is named ''Kodoku no shigunaru'', literally "signal of loneliness".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.animelyrics.tv/anime/lain/|title=List of Serial Experiments Lain songs|access-date=December 7, 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070113231952/http://animelyrics.tv/anime/lain/|archive-date=January 13, 2007}}</ref>

[[File:Lain Split Personnalities.JPG|left|thumb|upright=1.13|alt=A series of drawings depicting the different personalities of Lain—the first shows shy body language, the second shows bolder body language, and the third grins in an unhinged fashion.|The different personalities of Lain have their names written using different scripts.]]

[[Mental illness]], especially [[dissociative identity disorder]], is a significant theme in ''Lain'':<ref name="MAX2" /> the main character is constantly confronted with alter-egos, to the point where writer Chiaki Konaka and Lain's voice actress Kaori Shimizu had to agree on subdividing the character's dialogues between three different [[Orthography|orthographs]].<ref name="MAX2" /> The three names designate distinct "versions" of Lain: the real-world, "childish" Lain has a shy attitude and bear pajamas. The "advanced" Lain, her Wired personality, is bold and questioning. Finally, the "evil" Lain is sly and devious, and does everything she can to harm Lain or the ones close to her.<ref name="HK" /> As a writing convention, the authors spelled their respective names in [[kanji]], [[katakana]], and [[Romanization of Japanese|Latin]] characters (see picture).<ref name="visual">{{cite book|last=Abe|first=Yoshitoshi|title=Visual Experiments Lain|year=1998|publisher=Triangle Staff/Pioneer LDC.|isbn=978-4-7897-1342-9}}, page 42</ref>

[[Reality]] never has the pretense of objectivity in ''Lain''.<ref name="MAX">''Manga Max'' Magazine, September 1999, p. 21, "God's Eye View"</ref> Acceptations of the term are battling throughout the series, such as the "natural" reality, defined through normal dialogue between individuals; the material reality; and the tyrannic reality, enforced by one person onto the minds of others.<ref name="DVDoutsider" /> A key debate to all interpretations of the series is to decide whether matter flows from thought, or the opposite.<ref name="DVDoutsider" /><ref>Serial Experiments Lain, Layer 06: KIDS: "your physical body exists only to confirm your existence".</ref> The production staff carefully avoided "the so-called God's Eye Viewpoint" to make clear the "limited field of vision" of the world of ''Lain''.<ref name=MAX />

[[Theology]] plays its part in the development of the story too. ''Lain'' has been viewed as a questioning of the possibility of an infinite spirit in a finite body.<ref name="Univ">[https://web.archive.org/web/20060302194747/http://www.ahcca.unimelb.edu.au/refractory/journalissues/vol3/colman.htm Study on ''Lain'', ''Buffy'', and ''Attack of the clones''] by Felicity J. Coleman, lecturer at the University of Melbourne. From the [[Internet Archive]].</ref> From self-realization as a goddess to [[deicide]],<ref name="Gazette" /> religion (the title of a layer) is an inherent part of ''Lain''{{'s}} background.<ref name="Univ" />

===Apple computers===
''Lain'' contains extensive references to [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] computers, as the brand was used at the time by most of the creative staff, such as writers, producers, and the graphical team.<ref name="HK" /> As an example, the title at the beginning of each episode is announced by the Apple computer [[speech synthesis]] program [[PlainTalk]], using the voice ''"Whisper"'', e.g. <code>say -v Whisper "Weird: Layer zero one"</code>. Tachibana Industries, the company that creates the NAVI computers, is a reference to Apple computers: the [[tachibana orange]] is a  Japanese variety of mandarin orange. NAVI is the abbreviation of [[Knowledge Navigator]], and the HandiNAVI is based on the [[Apple Newton]], one of the world's first [[Personal digital assistant|PDAs]]. The NAVIs are seen to run "Copland OS Enterprise" (this reference to [[Copland (operating system)|Copland]] was an initiative of [[Chiaki J. Konaka|Konaka]], a declared Apple fan),<ref name="HK" /> and Lain's and Alice's NAVIs closely resembles the [[Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh]] and the [[iMac G3]] respectively. The HandiNAVI programming language, as seen on the seventh episode, is a dialect of [[Lisp (programming language)|Lisp]]; the Newton also used a Lisp dialect ([[NewtonScript]]). The program being typed by Lain can be found in the [[Carnegie Mellon University|CMU]] [[Artificial intelligence|AI]] repository;<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/ai-repository/ai/lang/lisp/code/fun/life.cl|title=Conway's Game of Life|publisher=[[Carnegie Mellon University]]|access-date=June 24, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090722175621/https://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/ai-repository/ai/lang/lisp/code/fun/life.cl|archive-date=July 22, 2009|url-status=live}}</ref> it is a simple implementation of [[Conway's Game of Life]] in [[Common Lisp]].

During a series of disconnected images, an iMac and the [[Think Different]] advertising slogan appears for a short time, while the ''Whisper'' voice says it.<ref name="INFORN">''Serial Experiments Lain'', Layer 11: INFORNOGRAPHY.</ref> This was an unsolicited insertion from the graphic team, also Mac-enthusiasts.<ref name="HK" /> Other subtle allusions can be found: "Close the world, Open the nExt" is the slogan for the ''Serial Experiments Lain'' video game. [[NeXT]] was the company that produced [[NeXTSTEP]], which later evolved into [[macOS|Mac OS X]] after Apple bought NeXT. Another example is "To Be Continued." at the end of episodes 1–12, with a blue "B" and a red "e" on "Be"; this matches the original logo of [[Be Inc.]], a company founded by ex-Apple employees and NeXT's main competitor in its time.<ref name="Be">{{cite web|url=http://www.beatjapan.org/mirror/www.be.com/|title=Be, Inc.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031128123907/http://www.beincorporated.com/|archive-date=November 28, 2003|access-date=November 27, 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Broadcast and release history==
''Serial Experiments Lain'' was first aired on [[TV Tokyo]] and [[TX Network|its affiliates]] on July 6, 1998, and concluded on September 28, 1998, with the thirteenth and final episode. The series consists of 13 episodes (referred to in the series as "Layers") of 24 minutes each, except for the sixth episode, ''Kids'' (23 minutes 14 seconds). In Japan, the episodes were released in [[Laserdisc|LD]], [[VHS]], and [[DVD]] with a total of five volumes. A DVD compilation named "''Serial Experiments Lain DVD-BOX Яesurrection''" was released along with a promo DVD called "''LPR-309''" in 2000.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.geneon-ent.co.jp/rondorobe/anime/lain/release.html|title=Serial Experiments Lain – Release|access-date=September 16, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100216181824/http://www.geneon-ent.co.jp/rondorobe/anime/lain/release.html|archive-date=February 16, 2010}}</ref> As this box set is now discontinued, a rerelease was made in 2005 called "''Serial Experiments Lain TV-BOX''". A 4-volume DVD box set was released in the US by Pioneer/Geneon. A Blu-ray release of the anime was made in December 2009 called "''Serial Experiments Lain Blu-ray Box| RESTORE''".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/292/lainblurayrestore.jpg|title=Serial Experiments Lain Blu-ray Box RESTORE|publisher=ImageShack|access-date=April 14, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402163147/http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/292/lainblurayrestore.jpg|archive-date=April 2, 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.geneon-ent.co.jp/graphid/|title=serial experiments lain Blu-ray LABO プロデューサーの制作日記|access-date=September 16, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101226100424/http://blog.geneon-ent.co.jp/graphid/|archive-date=December 26, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://playlog.jp/sendenman/blog/2009-08-15|title=Playlog.jp Blog|access-date=October 15, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090817033108/http://playlog.jp/sendenman/blog/2009-08-15|archive-date=August 17, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://hr.deadgods.net/hr/kareha.pl/1250369962/|title=Lain on BD announced – Wakachan Thread|access-date=October 15, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227184130/http://hr.deadgods.net/hr/kareha.pl/1250369962/|archive-date=February 27, 2012}}</ref>

The anime series was licensed in North America by [[NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan|Pioneer Entertainment]] (later Geneon USA) on [[VHS]] and [[DVD]] in 1999.<ref name=GeneonUSA>{{cite web|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-09-26/geneon-usa-to-cancel-dvd-sales-distribution-by-friday|title=Geneon USA To Cancel DVD Sales, Distribution By Friday|website=[[Anime News Network]]|date=September 26, 2007|access-date=January 30, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100328222859/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-09-26/geneon-usa-to-cancel-dvd-sales-distribution-by-friday|archive-date=March 28, 2010|url-status=live}}</ref> In December 2002, [[TechTV]] announced that ''Serial Experiments Lain'' would air on the channel as part of its Anime Unleashed programming block,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2002-12-06/tech-tv-anime-unleashed-schedule |title=Tech TV Anime Unleashed Schedule |last=Alexander |first=Isaac |website=[[Anime News Network]] |date=December 6, 2002 |access-date=August 18, 2024}}</ref> with the series making its debut on January 21, 2003.<ref name=AnimeUnleashed01>{{cite web |url=http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3414570,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030605113330/http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3414570,00.html |title=TV Shows > Anime Unleashed > ''Serial Experiments Lain'': Layer 01: Weird |first=Josh |last=Lawrence |publisher=[[TechTV]] |date=January 22, 2003 |archive-date=June 5, 2003 |access-date=August 18, 2024 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The original home releases went out-of-print in December 2007 when Geneon closed its USA division.<ref name=GeneonUSA/> At [[Anime Expo]] 2010, North American distributor [[Funimation]] announced that it had obtained the license to the series and re-released it in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-07-02/funi-adds-live-action-moyashimon|title=Funi Adds Live Action Moyashimon Live Action, More|website=[[Anime News Network]]|date=July 2, 2010|access-date=July 3, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704090410/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-07-02/funi-adds-live-action-moyashimon|archive-date=July 4, 2010|url-status=live}}</ref> The anime series returned to US television on October 15, 2012, on the [[Funimation Channel]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.funimationchannel.com/schedule/2_e243.htm|title=FUNimation Week 43 of 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130123180703/http://www.funimationchannel.com/schedule/2_e243.htm|archive-date=January 23, 2013}}</ref>

===Episodes===
{{Episode table
|background=#E3DAC9
|overall=
|title=
|director=
|airdate=
|altdate=
|AltDateT= U.S. air date
|episodes=
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber   = 1
| Title           = Weird
| DirectedBy      = Ryūtarō Nakamura
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1998|7|6}}
| AltDate         = January 21, 2003<ref name=AnimeUnleashed01/>
| ShortSummary    = A high school girl commits suicide by jumping off a rooftop late at night. A week later, students are getting emails from the girl, named [[Serial Experiments Lain#Chisa Yomoda|Chisa Yomoda]], which claim that she only gave up her body, but is actually still alive inside the virtual world (known as the Wired), saying that there is a God that exists there. After getting one of these emails, introverted fourteen-year-old [[Serial Experiments Lain#Lain Iwakura|Lain Iwakura]] becomes more interested in computers and asks her techie father, [[Serial Experiments Lain#Yasuo Iwakura|Yasuo Iwakura]], for a new NAVI computer system. At school, the blackboard writes a subliminal message, inviting her to come to the Wired, revealed to be written by Chisa herself.
| LineColor       = E3DAC9
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber   = 2
| Title           = Girls
| DirectedBy      = Ryūtarō Nakamura
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1998|7|13}}
| AltDate         = January 22, 2003<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3414573,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030605113605/http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3414573,00.html |title=TV Shows > Anime Unleashed > ''Serial Experiments Lain'': Layer 02: Girls |first=Josh |last=Lawrence |publisher=[[TechTV]] |date=January 24, 2003 |archive-date=June 5, 2003 |access-date=August 18, 2024 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
| ShortSummary    = At Cyberia, a techno club, a man buys a nanomachine drug called Accela. [[Serial Experiments Lain#Alice Mizuki|Alice Mizuki]], along with her friends [[Serial Experiments Lain#Julie Kato|Julie Kato]] and [[Serial Experiments Lain#Reika Yamamoto|Reika Yamamoto]], tell Lain that they saw her during their visit to Cyberia, but with a far more vigorous personality. Lain has her father set up her NAVI computer system at home and later joins Alice at Cyberia that night to prove she was not there before. She becomes involved with a shooting in the club by the same man under the influence of Accela. She eerily tells the man that everyone is connected in the Wired no matter where they are. This leads him to shoot himself out of psychological trauma.
| LineColor       = E3DAC9
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber   = 3
| Title           = Psyche
| DirectedBy      = Jōhei Matsuura
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1998|7|20}}
| AltDate         = January 23, 2003<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3414578,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030404065253/http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3414578,00.html |title=TV Shows > Anime Unleashed > ''Serial Experiments Lain'': Layer 03: Psyche |first=Josh |last=Lawrence |publisher=[[TechTV]] |date=January 22, 2003 |archive-date=April 4, 2003 |access-date=August 18, 2024 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
| ShortSummary    = The following day, Lain is scolded by her cold mother, [[Serial Experiments Lain#Miho Iwakura|Miho Iwakura]], for waking up late. Lain believes that she is being spied on when she sees a black car parked near her house. She also hears a voice calling out to her when she enters the train, telling her that she is not alone. She is anonymously sent a mysterious computer chip and goes to see [[Serial Experiments Lain#Taro|Taro]], with his friends [[Serial Experiments Lain#Myu-Myu|Myu-Myu]] and [[Serial Experiments Lain#Masayuki|Masayuki]], at Cyberia. He recalls seeing Lain on the Wired, noting her Wired personality being the complete opposite of her introverted real world personality. [[Serial Experiments Lain#Mika Iwakura|Mika Iwakura]], Lain's older sister, sees Lain in her room, not acting herself as she starts to modify and upgrade her NAVI computer system.
| LineColor       = E3DAC9
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber   = 4
| Title           = Religion
| DirectedBy      = Akihiko Nishiyama
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1998|7|27}}
| AltDate         = January 24, 2003<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3414580,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030416204523/http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3414580,00.html |title=TV Shows > Anime Unleashed > ''Serial Experiments Lain'': Layer 04: Religion |first=Josh |last=Lawrence |publisher=[[TechTV]] |archive-date=April 16, 2003 |access-date=August 18, 2024 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
| ShortSummary    = Rumors are flying around school and on the Wired in regards to numerous senior students of various high schools committing suicide, with each of the deceased being addicted to the online action game known as PHANTOMa. Interested, Lain investigates and learns that the game was glitched with a tag game for kids, in which a little girl scares the students to their deaths. The deaths were most likely caused by the elite secretive hacker group known as the Knights of the Eastern Calculus. That night, she sees the [[Serial Experiments Lain#Men in Black|Men in Black]], who had been spying on her earlier. When she tells them to go away, a sound wave penetrates through her window, causing the two to fall back and drive away in their car.
| LineColor       = E3DAC9
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber   = 5
| Title           = Distortion
| DirectedBy      = Masahiko Murata
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1998|8|3}}
| AltDate         = January 25, 2003<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3415501,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030404064747/http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3415501,00.html |title=TV Shows > Anime Unleashed > ''Serial Experiments Lain'': Layer 05: Distortion |first=Josh |last=Lawrence |publisher=[[TechTV]] |date=January 24, 2003 |archive-date=April 4, 2003 |access-date=August 18, 2024 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
| ShortSummary    = Amidst the events surrounding Tokyo having its traffic information transmission system hacked to cause deliberate accidents, Lain experiences a series of hallucinations that teach her the nature of the Wired in relation to the real world, by means of inanimate objects in her room and eventually her parents. In the meantime, Mika is driven to terror from the Knights repeatedly communicating in unusual ways for her to "fulfill the prophecy."
| LineColor       = E3DAC9
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber   = 6
| Title           = KIDS
| DirectedBy      = Ryūtarō Nakamura
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1998|8|10}}
| AltDate         = January 25, 2003<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3415516,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030605114609/http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3415516,00.html |title=TV Shows > Anime Unleashed > ''Serial Experiments Lain'': Layer 06: Kids |first=Josh |last=Lawrence |publisher=[[TechTV]] |date=January 24, 2003 |archive-date=June 5, 2003 |access-date=August 18, 2024 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
| ShortSummary    = At night, when Yasuo checks on Lain, he sees a dramatic change in her room arrangement and the upgrades on her NAVI computer system, which worries him. As Lain hangs out with Alice, along with Julie and Reika, in the district, she notices that children are looking up into the sky and raising their arms, only to realize that they are looking at an image of herself that appears in the sky. Lain searches for the reason behind the strange happenings and finds Professor Hodgeson, the creator of KIDS, an experiment that started fifteen years ago that tried to gather [[Parapsychology|psi]] energy from children and store it, though the result of the project destroyed the children. Now it seems that the Knights have gotten hold of the project's schematics. When the Men in Black return, Lain goes outside to see them. The coolant system in her room bursts, leading the Men in Black to confirm that the Knights planted a parasite bomb there.
| LineColor       = E3DAC9
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber   = 7
| Title           = SOCIETY
| DirectedBy      = Jōhei Matsuura
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1998|8|17}}
| AltDate         = January 25, 2003<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3415691,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030605114731/http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3415691,00.html |title=TV Shows > Anime Unleashed > ''Serial Experiments Lain'': Layer 07: Society |first=Josh |last=Lawrence |publisher=[[TechTV]] |date=January 27, 2003 |archive-date=June 5, 2003 |access-date=August 18, 2024 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
| ShortSummary    = As Lain gets more and more involved in the Wired world, both at home and at school, Alice starts to worry about her closing up again. It is reported that the Knights cracked the firewall of the information control center of the Wired. As the activity of the Knights begins to surface, the network is in search for Lain. The Men in Black ask Lain to follow them to an office in the Tachibana General Laboratories, where the [[Serial Experiments Lain#Office Worker|Office Worker]] in charge of the Men in Black, after her help of fixing his computer, shows Lain a projection of herself in the Wired taking out a deranged man who begged to join the Knights. After the Office Worker deduces that Lain in the real world and in the Wired are one and the same, he questions her about her origins. However, she breaks down not able to provide any answers, then switches from her usual timid persona to that of her serious persona from the Wired before shoving her way out of the room.
| LineColor       = E3DAC9
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber   = 8
| Title           = RUMORS
| DirectedBy      = [[Shigeru Ueda]]
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1998|8|24}}
| AltDate         = January 25, 2003<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3416151,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030605114959/http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3416151,00.html |title=TV Shows > Anime Unleashed > ''Serial Experiments Lain'': Layer 08: Rumors |first=Josh |last=Lawrence |publisher=[[TechTV]] |date=January 30, 2003 |archive-date=June 5, 2003 |access-date=August 18, 2024 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
| ShortSummary    = Lain's family has been acting weird lately, much to her surprise. Upon further investigation, Lain disbelieves that she is omnipresent in the Wired, while she is merely a body, more or less a projection of herself, in the real world. A rumor is spread in the Wired about Alice having sexual fantasies about a male teacher, and a second one says that Lain has spread the first. To cope with the distress of rejection, Lain acts directly on reality for the first time, finding out that she can "delete" the event of the rumors. A lookalike duplicate of herself with its own distinct personality starts appearing more frequently, which leads her to question her own existence.
| LineColor       = E3DAC9
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber   = 9
| Title           = PROTOCOL
| DirectedBy      = Akihiko Nishiyama
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1998|8|31}}
| AltDate         = February 1, 2003<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3416220,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030605115306/http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3416220,00.html |title=TV Shows > Anime Unleashed > ''Serial Experiments Lain'': Layer 09: Protocol |first=Josh |last=Lawrence |publisher=[[TechTV]] |date=February 6, 2003 |archive-date=June 5, 2003 |access-date=August 18, 2024 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
| ShortSummary    = Throughout the episode, background information is being shown from "archives". Information regarding the [[Roswell UFO incident]], the [[Majestic 12]], which was formed by President [[Harry S. Truman]], engineer [[Vannevar Bush]], who developed what is called [[memex]], physician [[John C. Lilly]], who conducted experiments with [[dolphin communication]], pioneer [[Ted Nelson]], who founded [[Project Xanadu]], and the [[Schumann resonances]] are all mentioned, explaining how the human consciousness can be communicated through a network without the use of a device. It is also noted that a man named [[Serial Experiments Lain#Masami Eiri|Masami Eiri]] has suddenly committed suicide. During that time, Lain gets a computer microchip from J.J., the disc jockey from Cyberia. She then asks Taro on a "date" and takes him to her home, where she asks him about the microchip. After becoming frightened, he admits it is a computer code made to disrupt human memory, and it was made by the Knights. Although he defends them, he admits not knowing much about them. He later kisses Lain before leaving.
| LineColor       = E3DAC9
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber   = 10
| Title           = LOVE
| DirectedBy      = Masahiko Murata
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1998|9|7}}
| AltDate         = February 1, 2003<ref>{{cite web |url=http://techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3416221,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030612002807/http://techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3416221,00.html |title=TV Shows > Anime Unleashed > ''Serial Experiments Lain'': Layer 10: Love |first=Josh |last=Lawrence |publisher=[[TechTV]] |date=February 6, 2003 |archive-date=June 12, 2003 |access-date=August 18, 2024 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
| ShortSummary    = As both are seen to have switched bodies, Eiri introduces himself to Lain as the creator of Protocol Seven, saying that Lain no longer needs to have a body in order to be alive. As she, back in her own body, comes home, Yasuo says his farewell after realizing that she knows the truth behind her existence. Eiri is considered the God of the Wired because he explained that he is worshiped by the Knights. Knowing this, Lain deals with the Knights once and for all by [[Doxing|leaking a list of all of its members onto the Wired]], leaving a trail of murder by the Men in Black and suicide in its wake. Even with the Knights gone, Eiri still claims he is the God of the Wired, since he says that the real Lain exists in the Wired, not the real world.
| LineColor       = E3DAC9
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber   = 11
| Title           = Infornography
| DirectedBy      = Jōhei Matsuura
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1998|9|14}}
| AltDate         = February 1, 2003<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3416222,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031211005432/http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3416222,00.html |title=TV Shows > Anime Unleashed > ''Serial Experiments Lain'': Layer 11: Infornography |first=Josh |last=Lawrence |publisher=[[TechTV]] |date=February 6, 2003 |archive-date=December 11, 2003 |access-date=August 18, 2024 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
| ShortSummary    = Lain lies exhausted in her room, and wakes up to find herself all wrapped in electrical cords. After a really long and complicated memory flashback, seen throughout the series, Eiri appears in her room and congratulates her, for having succeeded in downloading her NAVI into her own brain to see and hear all that is happening. However, he warns her about her "hardware capacity," and that she is merely a [[sentient]] and [[autonomous]] software computer program with a physical body in the form of a teenage human girl. Lain later appears to Alice in her room to make things right with her again concerning the false rumors. Lain declares that anything is possible now, as devices are no longer needed anymore to enter the Wired freely. The next day, nobody seems to remember the rumored incidents and Lain smiles at Alice's complicity.
| LineColor       = E3DAC9
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber   = 12
| Title           = Landscape
| DirectedBy      = Ryūtarō Nakamura
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1998|9|21}}
| AltDate         = February 1, 2003<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3416224,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031213131953/http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3416224,00.html |title=TV Shows > Anime Unleashed > ''Serial Experiments Lain'': Layer 12: Landscape |publisher=[[TechTV]] |date=February 6, 2003 |archive-date=December 13, 2003 |access-date=August 18, 2024 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
| ShortSummary    = Lain witnesses the frontier between the physical and the Wired worlds finally beginning to collapse. The Men in Black are approached by their Officer Worker, who gives them a final "payment" for their services, telling them to leave town away from any power lines or satellite coverage. After he leaves, both Men in Black suffer death from an image of Lain etched in their retinas. Alice enters Lain's eerie house and goes inside her room. Lain explains that she is actually a computerized program designed to destroy the barrier between the two worlds. Lain is still affixed on the fact that humans no longer need a physical body to stay alive, but Alice shows that her heartbeat proves otherwise. Suddenly, Eiri, first unseen to Alice, appears behind Lain, assuming that she needs to be "debugged". Lain argues that Eiri was just an "acting god", for she is the true Goddess of the Wired. Eiri retaliates by transforming into a monstrous form to attain the vastly limitless power and strength that she possesses, but Lain manages to crush Eiri with her electrical equipment, wiping him out for good.
| LineColor       = E3DAC9
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber   = 13
| Title           = Ego
| DirectedBy      = Ryūtarō Nakamura
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1998|9|28}}
| AltDate         = February 8, 2003<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3416992,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040205161551/http://www.techtv.com/animeunleashed/serialexperimentslain/story/0,24330,3416992,00.html |title=TV Shows > Anime Unleashed > ''Serial Experiments Lain'': Layer 13: Ego |publisher=[[TechTV]] |date=February 7, 2003 |archive-date=February 5, 2004 |access-date=August 18, 2024 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
| ShortSummary    = Lain's attempts to protect her from Eiri's attack result in traumatizing Alice, Lain's only true friend. In order to fix this, Lain decides to do a "factory reset" on her life, deleting herself from everyone's memory. Distraught from doing so, Lain is determined to discover her true form and identity and takes radical action. She is confronted by her separate bolder self of the Wired, who reminds her that the Wired is not an upper layer of the real world. Her bolder Wired self then assures her that she is the true Goddess of the Wired, saying she is an omnipotent and omnipresent virtual being that can go and be anywhere desired and merely watch the real world from afar. After causing her bolder self to disappear, Lain sees her father. Alice, now older with a spouse, spots Lain standing on an overpass, having some "[[déjà vu]]" about Lain but not recognizing who she is. Alice says goodbye and that she may run into Lain again someday. Lain asserts that this is true, since she is everywhere at once.
| LineColor       = E3DAC9
}}
}}

==Reception==
[[File:Serial Experiments Lain (TV) Screenshot 01.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.13|alt=A suburban scene on a sunny day, showing houses and telegraph poles, but the shadows contain unnatural red splotches.|Lain's neighborhood. The "blood pools" represent the Wired's presence "beneath the surface" of reality.<ref name="otakon" />]]
''Serial Experiments Lain'' was first broadcast in [[Tokyo]] at 1:15&nbsp;a.m. [[Japan Standard Time|JST]]. The word "weird" appears almost ubiquitously in English language reviews of the series,<ref name="AnimeJump" /><ref name="gazette">{{cite web|url=http://www.movie-gazette.com/cinereviews/828|title=Movie Gazette: 'Serial Experiments Lain Volume 2: Knights' Review|first=Anton|last=Bitel|publisher=Movie Gazette|access-date=September 16, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060821190520/http://www.movie-gazette.com/cinereviews/828|archive-date=August 21, 2006}}</ref><ref name="referencekatamari">{{cite web|url=http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue123/anime.html|first=Tasha|last=Robinson|title=Sci-Fi Weekly: Serial Experiments Lain Review|access-date=September 16, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060720210555/http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue123/anime.html|archive-date=July 20, 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mania.com/serial-experiments-lain-vol-1_article_73942.html|title=Serial Experiments Lain Vol. #1|last=Beveridge|first=Chris|publisher=Mania.com|date=July 13, 1999|access-date=September 16, 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402114355/http://www.mania.com/serial-experiments-lain-vol-1_article_73942.html|archive-date=April 2, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thespinningimage.co.uk/cultfilms/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=872&aff=13|title=The Spinning Image: "Serial Experiments Lain Volume 4: Reset" Review|last=Southworth|first=Wayne|access-date=September 16, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928001632/http://www.thespinningimage.co.uk/cultfilms/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=872&aff=13|archive-date=September 28, 2007|url-status=live}}</ref> or the alternatives "bizarre",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/reviews/display.php?id=34|title=Anime News Network: Serial Experiments Lain DVD Vol. 1–4 Review|last=Silver|first=Aaron|access-date=September 16, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060325152323/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/reviews/display.php?id=34|archive-date=March 25, 2006|url-status=live}}</ref> and "atypical",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=1081|title=DVD.net: "Lain: Volume 1 – Navi" Review|last=Lai|first=Tony|access-date=September 16, 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060920211809/http://dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=1081|archive-date=September 20, 2006}}</ref> due mostly to the freedoms taken with the animation and its unusual science fiction themes, and due to its philosophical and psychological context. Critics responded positively to these thematic and stylistic characteristics, and it was awarded an Excellence Prize by the 1998 [[Japan Media Arts Festival]] for "its willingness to question the meaning of contemporary life" and the "extraordinarily philosophical and deep questions" it asks.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://plaza.bunka.go.jp/english/festival/backnumber/10/sakuhin/serial.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070426014853/http://plaza.bunka.go.jp/english/festival/backnumber/10/sakuhin/serial.html|archive-date=April 26, 2007|author=Japan Media Arts Plaza|title=1998 (2nd) Japan Media Arts Festival: Excellence Prize – serial experiments lain|access-date=September 16, 2006|year=1998}}From the [[Internet Archive]].</ref>

According to Christian Nutt from ''[[Newtype USA]]'', the main attraction to the series is its keen view on "the interlocking problems of identity and technology". Nutt saluted Abe's "crisp, clean character design" and the "perfect soundtrack" in his 2005 review of series, saying that "''Serial Experiments Lain'' might not yet be considered a true classic, but it's a fascinating evolutionary leap that helped change the future of anime."<ref name="newtype">{{cite journal|last=Nutt|first=Christian|date=January 2005|title=Serial Experiments Lain DVD Box Set: Lost in the Wired|journal=[[Newtype USA]]|volume=4|issue=1|page=179}}</ref> ''Anime Jump'' gave it 4.5/5,<ref name="AnimeJump" /> and Anime on DVD gave it A+ on all criteria for volume 1 and 2, and a mix of A and A+ for volume 3 and 4.<ref name="referencekatamari" />
''Lain'' was subject to commentary in the literary and academic worlds. The ''Asian Horror Encyclopedia'' calls it "an outstanding psycho-horror anime about the psychic and spiritual influence of the Internet".<ref name="horror">{{cite book|last=Bush|first=Laurence C.|title=Asian Horror Encyclopedia|date=October 2001|publisher=Writers Club Press|isbn=978-0-595-20181-5}}, page 162.</ref> It notes that the red spots present in all the shadows look like blood pools (see picture). It notes the death of a girl in a train accident is "a source of much ghost lore in the twentieth century", more so in Tokyo.

The ''Anime Essentials'' anthology by [[Gilles Poitras]] describes it as a "complex and somehow existential" anime that "pushed the envelope" of anime diversity in the 1990s, alongside the much better known contemporaries ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' and ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]''.<ref name="essential">{{cite book|last=Poitras|first=Gilles|title=Anime Essentials|date=December 2001|publisher=Stone Bridge Press, LLC|isbn=978-1-880656-53-2}}, page 28.</ref> Professor [[Susan J. Napier]], in her 2003 reading to the [[American Philosophical Society]] called ''The Problem of Existence in Japanese Animation'' (published 2005), compared ''Serial Experiments Lain'' to ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]'' and [[Hayao Miyazaki]]'s ''[[Spirited Away]]''.<ref name="Napier APS">{{cite journal|title=The Problem of Existence in Japanese Animation|first=Susan J., Dr.|last=Napier|author-link=Susan J. Napier|journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society|volume=149|issue=1|date=March 2005|pages=72–79|jstor=4598910}}</ref> According to her, the main characters of the two other works cross barriers; they can cross back to our world, but Lain cannot. Napier asks whether there is something to which Lain should return, "between an empty 'real' and a dark 'virtual'".<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Napier|2005|p=78}}</ref> Mike Toole of [[Anime News Network]] named ''Serial Experiments Lain'' as one of the most important anime of the 1990s.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Toole|first1=Mike|title=Evangel-a-like – The Mike Toole Show|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/the-mike-toole-show/2011-06-05|website=[[Anime News Network]]|access-date=November 20, 2015|date=June 5, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151010114552/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/the-mike-toole-show/2011-06-05|archive-date=October 10, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

Despite the positive feedback the television series had received, Anime Academy gave the series a 75%, partly due to the "lifeless" setting it had.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.animeacademy.com/finalrevdisplay.php?id=201|title=Serial Experiments: Lain|date=March 16, 2002|access-date=April 17, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927060034/http://www.animeacademy.com/finalrevdisplay.php?id=201|archive-date=September 27, 2011}}</ref> Michael Poirier of ''EX'' magazine stated that the last three episodes fail to resolve the questions in other DVD volumes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ex.org/5.2/25-anime_followup_lain.html|title=Serial Experiments Lain – Buried Treasure|date=May 11, 2000|access-date=April 17, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110826092828/http://www.ex.org/5.2/25-anime_followup_lain.html|archive-date=August 26, 2011}}</ref> Justin Sevakis of Anime News Network noted that the English dub was decent, but that the show relied so little on dialogue that it hardly mattered.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/buried-treasure/2008-11-20/serial-experiments-lain|title=Serial Experiments Lain – Buried Treasure|date=November 20, 2008|access-date=April 17, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403122125/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/buried-treasure/2008-11-20/serial-experiments-lain|archive-date=April 3, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Related media==
===Art books===
*''An Omnipresence In Wired'': Hardbound, 128 pages in 96 colors with Japanese text. It features a chapter for each layer (episode) and concept sketches. It also features a short color [[manga]] titled "The Nightmare of Fabrication". It was published in 1998 by Triangle Staff/SR-12W/Pioneer LDC. ({{ISBN|4-7897-1343-1}})
*''Yoshitoshi ABe lain illustrations ab# rebuild an omnipresence in Wired'': Hardbound, 148 pages. A remake of "An Omnipresence In Wired" with new art, added text by Chiaki J. Konaka, and a section entitled "ABe's EYE in color of things" (a compilation of his photos of the world). It was published in Japan on October 1, 2005, by [[Wanimagazine]] ({{ISBN|4-89829-487-1}}), and in America as a softcover version translated into English on June 27, 2006, by [[Digital Manga Publishing]] ({{ISBN|1-56970-899-1}}).
*''Visual Experiments Lain'': Paperback, 80 full-color pages with Japanese text. It has details on the creation, design, and storyline of the series. It was published in 1998 by Triangle Staff/Pioneer LDC. ({{ISBN|4-7897-1342-3}})
*''Scenario Experiments Lain'': Paperback, 335 pages. By "chiaki j. konaka" (uncapitalized in original). It contains collected scripts with notes and small excerpted storyboards. It was published in 1998 in Japan.({{ISBN|4-7897-1320-2}})

===Soundtracks===
The first [[original soundtrack]], ''Serial Experiments Lain Soundtrack'', features music by [[Reichi Nakaido]]: the ending theme and part of the television series' score, alongside other songs inspired by the series. The second, ''Serial Experiments Lain Soundtrack: Cyberia Mix'', features [[electronica]] songs inspired by the television series, including a remix of the opening theme "Duvet" by DJ Wasei. The third, ''lain BOOTLEG'', consists of the ambient score of the series across forty-five tracks. ''BOOTLEG'' also contains a second mixed-mode data and audio disc, containing a clock program and a game, as well as an extended version of the first disc – nearly double the length – across 57 tracks in 128&nbsp;kbit/s [[MP3]] format, and sound effects from the series in [[WAV]] format. Because the word ''[[Bootleg recording|bootleg]]'' appears in its title, it is easily confused with the Sonmay [[copyright infringement|counterfeit edition]] of itself, which only contains the first disc in an edited format. All three soundtrack albums were released by [[Pioneer Corporation|Pioneer Records]].

The series' opening theme, "[[Twilight (Bôa album)|Duvet]]", was written and performed in English by the British rock band [[Bôa]]. The band released the song as a single and as part of the [[Extended play|EP]] ''[[Tall Snake]]'', which features both an acoustic version and DJ Wasei's remix from ''Cyberia Mix''.

===Video game===
{{main|Serial Experiments Lain (video game)}}
On November 26, 1998, Pioneer LDC released a video game with the same name as the anime for the [[PlayStation (console)|PlayStation]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B00005OVPO/|title=Serial Experiments Lain|access-date=September 25, 2010|archive-date=January 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122195345/https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B00005OVPO/|url-status=live}}</ref> It was designed by Konaka and Yasuyuki, and made to be a "network simulator" in which the player would navigate to explore Lain's story.<ref name="HK" /> The creators themselves did not call it a game, but "Psycho-Stretch-Ware",<ref name="HK" /> and it has been described as being a kind of [[visual novel]]: the gameplay is limited to unlocking pieces of information, and then reading/viewing/listening to them, with little or no puzzle needed to unlock.<ref name="GAF">{{cite web|url=http://www.gamesarefun.com/gamesdb/review.php?reviewid=67|title=Games Are Fun: "Review – Serial Experiments Lain – Japan"|date=April 25, 2003|access-date=November 10, 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927061706/http://www.gamesarefun.com/gamesdb/review.php?reviewid=67|archive-date=September 27, 2011}}</ref> Lain distances itself even more from classical games by the [[random]] order in which information is collected.<ref name="HK" /> The aim of the authors was to let the player get the feeling that there are myriads of informations that they would have to sort through, and that they would have to do with less than what exists to understand.<ref name="HK" /> As with the anime, the creative team's main goal was to let the player "feel" Lain, and "to understand her problems, and to love her".<ref name="Animerica2" /> A guidebook to the game called ''Serial Experiments Lain Official Guide'' ({{ISBN|4-07-310083-1}}) was released the same month by [[MediaWorks (publisher)|MediaWorks]].<ref>{{cite book|script-title=ja:シリアルエクスペリメンツレイン公式ガイド|trans-title=Serial Experiments Lain Official Guide|language=ja|id={{ASIN|4073100831|country=jp}}}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Noosphere]]

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite web|url=http://www.movie-gazette.com/cinereviews/847|title=Movie Gazette: 'Serial Experiments Lain Volume 3: Deus' Review|first=Anton|last=Bitel|publisher=Movie Gazette|access-date=October 11, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060521165625/http://www.movie-gazette.com/cinereviews/847|archive-date=May 21, 2006}}
*{{cite web|first=Carl Gustav|last=Horn|url=http://j-pop.com/anime/archive/reviews/14/05_serialexplain.html|title=Serial Experiments Lain|archive-date=February 19, 2001|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010219070334/http://j-pop.com/anime/archive/reviews/14/05_serialexplain.html|publisher=[[Viz Communications]]|access-date=September 25, 2010|url-status=dead}}
*{{cite web|first=Dani|last=Moure|url=http://www.mania.com/serial-experiments-lain-vol-2_article_76117.html|title=Serial Experiments Lain Vol. #2|publisher=Mania.com|access-date=September 25, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402112855/http://www.mania.com/serial-experiments-lain-vol-2_article_76117.html|archive-date=April 2, 2015}}
*{{cite web|first=Dani|last=Moure|url=http://www.mania.com/serial-experiments-lain-vol-3_article_78989.html|title=Serial Experiments Lain Vol. #3|publisher=Mania.com|access-date=September 25, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402114224/http://www.mania.com/serial-experiments-lain-vol-3_article_78989.html|archive-date=April 2, 2015}}
*Napier, Susan J. (2005) [[Anime from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation]] {{ISBN|978-1-4039-7052-7}}
*Prévost, Adèle-Elise; Musebasement (2008) [http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/mechademia/v003/3.prevost.html "Manga: The Signal of Noise"] ''[[Mechademia]]'' '''3''' pp.&nbsp;173–188 {{ISSN|1934-2489}}
*{{cite journal|last1=Prindle|first1=Tamae Kobayashi|title=Nakamura Ryûtarô's Anime, Serial Experiments, Lain (1998)|journal=Asian Studies|volume=3|issue=1|year=2015|pages=53–81|issn=2350-4226|doi=10.4312/as.2015.3.1.53-81|doi-access=free}}
*{{cite web|first=Justin|last=Sevakis|date=November 20, 2008|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/buried-treasure/2008-11-20/serial-experiments-lain|title=Buried Treasure: Serial Experiments Lain|website=[[Anime News Network]]|access-date=September 25, 2010}}
*{{Cite journal|last1=Jackson|first1=C.|doi=10.1353/mec.2012.0013|title=Topologies of Identity in ''Serial Experiments Lain''|journal=Mechademia|volume=7|pages=191–201|year=2012|s2cid=119423011}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Serial Experiments Lain}}
{{Wikiquote|Serial Experiments Lain}}
* {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124020349/http://www.geneon-ent.co.jp/rondorobe/anime/lain/|title=Official website|date=mdy}} {{in lang|ja}}
* {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000301140158/http://www.pldc.co.jp/plag/game/lain/index.html|title=Official Pioneer LDC game website|date=mdy}} {{in lang|ja}}
* [http://www.funimation.com/serial-experiments-lain Official Funimation website]
* {{Anime News Network|anime|166|noparen=true}}

{{Triangle Staff}}
{{Ryūtarō Nakamura}}
{{Portal bar|Anime and manga|Science fiction|Television|Video games}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1998 anime television series debuts]]
[[Category:1998 Japanese television series debuts]]
[[Category:1998 Japanese television series endings]]
[[Category:Anime and manga about parallel universes]]
[[Category:Anime with original screenplays]]
[[Category:Crunchyroll anime]]
[[Category:Cyberpunk anime and manga]]
[[Category:Cyberpunk television series]]
[[Category:Existentialist anime and manga]]
[[Category:Fiction about artificial intelligence]]
[[Category:Fiction about brain–computer interface]]
[[Category:Fiction about consciousness transfer]]
[[Category:Funimation]]
[[Category:Geneon USA]]
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[[Category:Philosophical anime and manga]]
[[Category:Psychological horror anime and manga]]
[[Category:Television series about parallel universes]]
[[Category:Television shows about virtual reality]]
[[Category:Transhumanism in anime and manga]]
[[Category:TV Tokyo original programming]]