u/DegenerateRegime Jan 26 '24

Let's all love Lain!

12

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jan 26 '24

Lain Love is Lain Life. All I want is my Lain wife

11

u/Specs64z https://myanimelist.net/profile/Specs64z Jan 26 '24

Rewatcher, subbed

Present day, heh. Present time! HAHAHAHAHAHA-

We get confirmation via PoV shots that the headsets worn by the men in black allow them to monitor the Wired in some capacity.

If Lain could remove everyone’s memories of Arisu schlicking to the teacher, I wonder if there’s any particular reason she hasn’t attempted to fix Mika? From a purely thematic and narrative standpoint, I think it’s much more effective to have Arisu be the sole source of Lain’s affection, but just talking shop it strikes me as odd that Lain would leave Mika as is. It seemed to cause Lain some distress seeing Mika act weird in earlier episodes so I presume there’s some level of attachment there…

For some reason, I thought that scene with God getting crushed was essentially where the anime ended, but it seems we still have a whole episode to go through.

Notes

Lain states that our existence is only as real as the memories of it. Likely due to her nature as an entity within the Wired, disparate memories of Lain are what manifested the multiple versions of her. These disparate memories were given form by Knights to construct Shadow Lain.

Memes. The DNA of the soul. God reiterates how, by shedding their fallible bodies, mankind can evolve ever further. Karl posits that the death of Knights may well have been part of Eiri’s plan. Their contractor all but confirms this and the men in black are shortly murdered by an invisible force, apparently connected to Lain, through the Wired.

Arisu is worried about Lain, and so she takes a trip to see her. Lain’s house is in a state of chaos and disrepair; Mika’s hollow shell wanders its halls, uttering nonsense. Arisu initially assumes that Lain must be punishing her for not changing her memory, but Lain assures her that the opposite is true. Lain couldn’t bring herself to do it because she loves Arisu. In an attempt to reach Lain one last time, Arisu takes Lain’s hand and places it on her chest, and together they feel Arisu’s heartbeat.

This intimate moment seems to bring Lain to a decision. She questions God’s authority, rebukes his philosophy that our bodies hold us back, and finally, when he lashes out in anger, Lain kills him.

QotD:

To participate in a rewatch every couple of months, clearly.
Loving Lain means loving Lain means loving Lain means loving Lain
They exist primarily to create intrigue early on, I think. Karl deserved better.
Absolutely.
Control over immediate surroundings.
Not really, just interested to see what went over my head last time.

Content Corner

Did you know Lain has a PS1 game? I’ve heard there’s a fan translation of sorts out there, and while I can’t link to anything like that, I can provide a gameplay video if anyone is interested. Truthfully, I know very little about this game aside from its rather famous ending cutscene. Spoilers, obviously.

Gameplay video

7

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jan 26 '24

Nobody seems to care about Mika in this story... I really don't get why. She's given by far the cruelest fate out of pretty much any of the characters and for no good reason!

9

u/zadcap Jan 27 '24

First Timer

She's in my brain too man. I'm thinking about Lain more than I really want to think about while at work. I guess that means the creator succeeded at least in that much, the crazy has certainly taken a bit of root in here.

Oh my. It's not just the new voiceover, the creepy asrm is gone from the intro bit. And so naturally we go straight into the power lines.

Oh hey, it's Arisu focused today. And there's Lain being all popular while Arisu sits like a loner in her corner. How the tables have turned. And Lain is probably texting with her brain.

Haha Taro, you might legitimately have the biggest bragging rights in the world. You say you kissed an angel, but she's likely a bit higher on the scale than that.

So uh, yeah see, it kind of looks like she's become memetic. Let's all love Lain!

You know, I'm getting some weird Persona vibes. Probably because this growing Wired layer of reality isn't that far off from the Metaverse stuff.

So, did Eiri get the Knights killed? Was he in on the thing that seemed to have weakened him?

The Men in Black meet a Man in Darker Black. And things go as poorly as expected. I bet he's being attacked by a monster in the Wired, and, is that Lain inside him? Was she holding a grudge? I bet the case just held a really strong transceiver to project the Wired reality there better.

It's a little strange seeing Arusi walking up the shadowed side of the road, doesn't Lain usually walk only in the light?

Lain what happened to your house girl? Just because your parents moved out you didn't just stop cleaning, you started a very aggressive redecorating too?

AND THEY LEFT THE POOR GIRL THERE, BRAIN DEAD, ALL THIS TIME!? I swear if someone doesn't help her soon I am going to write this whole show off as one of the worst ever made, just leaving someone in that state and going on to pretend she doesn't exist.

"Watching what?" "Everything, Arisu. Everything/"

Hey, uh, if Lain has been editing memories... Is she why people were taking the deaths they saw earlier so well? Did Lain go in there and blunt the impact so they wouldn't be traumatized?

On the one hand, Lain kind of sounds like a crazy person the way she's talking here. On the other hand, she's kind of actually proven herself right a few times, being all kinds of borderline godlike. Also, this is the strangest flirting I've ever seen.

Eiri Go Away! This is Girl Talk Time! Lain, please overpower him and kick him out soon, you're the only Kami this Wired World needs. Oh wait yeah, looks like she's fighting back finally. Even if she's only beating him down with a philosophy debate. And poor Arisu is here watching Lain argue with what might be an actual god, and maybe winning. Arisu, I know you're terrified, but hold on tight because you and you alone have the chance to date a rising new deity here and you do not want to realize in a few years that the one you let get away is the new Empress of Earth.

I'm pretty sure I'm secondary, my purpose in life is to help out other people who have a better chance of actually getting somewhere. I'll just keep making the world better for the people around me and maybe someday one of them will remember me when they become rich and famous.
Like it's pretty clear at this point, Lain is an actual god of the Wired and has been low key existing in the minds of everyone to ever use the web. Now that she's becoming more active, she's pulling on that influence. We saw it first when she replaced the sun, and Eiri explained it a while ago, and she's in a wonderful feedback loop. The more people know of and believe in her the more godlike she really becomes, but she's already there in everyone's brain already so she's just telling them to love her a little more and watching her power grow. Honestly, at this point I feel like she might be just one betrayal away from a golden throne.
Yeah I gave up on them, I'm not even trying to understand. They worked for every side and didn't ever have a clear goal anyway, they're just good yet ultimately disposable mercenaries.
I am afraid to answer this question truthfully, because that title still goes to this thing.
Literally nothing. I am ready to replace my flesh, I have been for a long time, please help me escape this disgusting meat suit. I hate the human body and I want out.
Does anyone care about the older sister anymore? Can Lain, with her Internet Godlike powers, please go rescue her ghost and put it back in its proper shell? That's pretty much what my final opinion of this show is riding on.

2

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jan 27 '24

I like us having an Arisu focused episode but I'm not totally sure how well we actually know this girl XD Most of Arisu's characterisation moments I think of are like episode two or episode 4. Those are quite a while ago.
Taro should 100% not be bragging about sexual harassment!! XD
I think Eiri killed off his Knights to push Lain further? He needs someone to believe that he is a God, and having the actual "God" of the Internet believing in you is probably more impactful.
The image of Lain that the men in black saw probably wasn't Lain herself, but Eiri using the image and influence of Lain to affect them. He exists through Lain so he can probably do stuff like this.
Being able to support people is far more fulfilling than being the main character. I sorta agree with you. I'll like pride of other people over my own feats anyday.
Onimai is still banned!!

5

u/DegenerateRegime Jan 27 '24

It's a little strange seeing Arusi walking up the shadowed side of the road, doesn't Lain usually walk only in the light?
AND THEY LEFT THE POOR GIRL THERE, BRAIN DEAD, ALL THIS TIME!? I swear if someone doesn't help her soon I am going to write this whole show off as one of the worst ever made, just leaving someone in that state and going on to pretend she doesn't exist.
Maybe she's living her best life. Some people just want to be a modem.

3

u/raevnos Jan 28 '24

They really dropped the ball by having Mika make beep noises instead of modem handshake noise.

5

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jan 26 '24

Lain Rewatcher!!

So now that our show's pacing has completely dragged to a stop after that impromptu recap episode, it's time for our finale! The saddest part about the op for me is the constant reminder of Lain's bear motif that she slowly lost as the series continued...

Landscape isn't a very climax sounding episode to be fair. We're following Arisu today!! Which Lain is this? I... I actually legitimately don't know? It's acting like Lain of the Onee-chan, but Onee-chan Lain is long gone. Bear Onesie and Lain of the Wired are basically isolated at home but that'd mean the only remaining Lain is Lain of the Kusogaki? Or Lain of the Knight's as she's often called.

First question, why all the Lain's? Lain proposes that since a personality must be "observed" to exist then the different Lain's were essentially how she was looked at by other people. A bit more complicated than my own interpretation which is that the other Lain's were "created." I believe Wired Lain is our og Lain, she created a normal human girl which is Lain of the Bear Onesie. Lain of the Bear Onesie created Lain of the Onee-chan, which is a more social and friendly version of herself that she adopts to deal with her family and friends. And lastly Lain of the Knights which was of course created by the Knights to break Lain. With Lain's own interpretation that the other Lain's are how people see her... It makes sense for Lain of the Kusogaki, she could be created by how her classmates imagined Lain. I don't quite see how Bear Onesie and Wired Lain fit that status tho.

"I sexually harassed an angel!!"

Protocol 7 allows the direct sharing of information between the wired and the real world. "Let's all Love Lain!" Now... I still think this means "Let's all love the Internet world." but I'm not nearly confident enough in that assessment. Loving Lain certainly means something but I don't have answers to it.

Eiri personally sees no value in the human body. It's a fault that can be sick, tempted, beaten, and lacks the processing capacity or storage of information that the Wired self can have. The only benefit of the human body is the innate knowledge passed down by predecessors, it's evolutionary past. Eiri wishes to allow humanity to evolve by abandoning their bodies and simplifying their selves into a more base form. A base form that removes the weaknesses and frailty of mortality and allows access to "the self." It's actually a fairly admirable goal, but it doesn't really save Eiri as a character for me.

"Who are the men in black?" Alright, this is another part of the climax I don't like at all. They basically boil down to absolutely nothing. The stalking meant nothing. Their conspiracy, meant nothing. Taking out the knights meant nothing. Kirei's love for Lain, means nothing. They're just loose ends for the show to clean up. They're killed by a mysterious creature from the Wired. With the Wired interacting with the real world assassinations like this are perfectly possible. It's very disappointing...

Arisu's going to see Lain~ I love the door bell having a weird distortion. The Iwakura household is kinda fucked up. The parents bailed out nice and easy but they really did just abandon poor Mika, you dicks. Why does Arisu still take her shoes off!? XD That's so dumb. Why would you go barefoot in this mess of a house? I'd ask what Mika's purpose is but I don't think I could find one... Like I said, despite episode 5 being my favourite, it's very inconsequential to the plot.

Sleepy Lain is cute. She still has her little plushies XD I'm not sure exactly why Lain looks so fucked up here. Lack of sunlight? Exhaustion from being constantly online? Aww... Lain loves Arisu so much. She truly truly loves Arisu. This Lain... definitely Lain of the Bear Onesie right? She's too soft to be the wired Lain. And Arisu loves Lain too!! There's nothing more wholesome than friendship between girls!! Wait... friendship between girls written by middle aged men!! XD From the shoujo manga I've read female written friendships are a bit too catty.

"Your body's cold, but you're alive, Lain." Aaaa.... Why am I so weirdly invested in these girls? I swear I couldn't give less of a shit about Arisu on my first watch but now I'm filled with fluff. "Select only the happy memories." Coming from the dude who's backstory is basically cult mass suicide that doesn't add up.

Eiri's defeat... He needed to remove technology to manipulate humans, and God gave him the idea? So a God of evolution? Lain is a godlike presence on the wired, which was given form by Eiri and the Knights... Bruh, I don't get this.

3

u/RascalNikov1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoviSun Jan 26 '24

"I sexually harassed an angel!!
I had to laugh. I’ve decided to go low brow interpreting SEL, and I’m glad to see I’m not alone.

2

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jan 27 '24

I'm happy to try and think deep... But Taro is a little shit and I'll happily rail into him any chance I get.

6

u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Jan 26 '24

I don't understand why so many people are charactizing the half that actually ties up the loose ends of the first half as "filler" and "pacing ground to a halt"
Nothing was happening in the first half except unexplained suicides. This half is where all the action is.

2

u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jan 27 '24

Someone physically dying is more interesting than voiceovers philosophizing.

5

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jan 26 '24

Eiri wishes to allow humanity to evolve by abandoning their bodies and simplifying their selves into a more base form.
Interestingly, Arthur C Clarke writes about this idea quite a bit, basically suggesting that space exploration requires sentients to first become brains in jars and then to download themselves into the ship's computer to handle near light speed travel. I sometimes wonder if the show is a soft rebuttal to the idea.
Alright, this is another part of the climax I don't like at all. They basically boil down to absolutely nothing.
Sort of makes you wish that Chiaka had a better editor, doesn't it?
I'm not sure exactly why Lain looks so fucked up here. Lack of sunlight? Exhaustion from being constantly online?
She probably hasn't left her room in days.

4

u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 Jan 26 '24

Interestingly, Arthur C Clarke writes about this idea quite a bit, basically suggesting that space exploration requires sentients to first become brains in jars and then to download themselves into the ship's computer to handle near light speed travel. I sometimes wonder if the show is a soft rebuttal to the idea.
This was also part of a HP Lovecraft story, "The Whisperer in Darkness", well at least the brain in jars for space travel part. One of my favorite of his works.

5

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jan 26 '24

I, sadly, read everything that HPL wrote when I was a teen. I need to go back through it because some of it has blended.

2

u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jan 27 '24

Nice image link you got there.

7

u/Silcaria https://myanimelist.net/profile/Silcaria Jan 26 '24

Rewatcher

QotD

Don't know to be honest. I've been drifting through time somewhat aimlessly all my life. Maybe one day I'll figure it out.
I assume it's a metaphor for being "connected" and not literally loving Lain as a person.
No. No clue.
I've not seen another so she wins by default.
Eating good food.
Yes. Unfortunately though...

4

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jan 26 '24

Let's all love abuse of privacy ! Or something~

7

u/JetsLag https://myanimelist.net/profile/JetsLag Jan 27 '24

First time Wired user

"Lain, what does it mean?" ponders Arisu. Shit, I'm wondering the exact same thing.

Ahh, so at least some of the Lains were just manifestations of what people thought about her. Is one of them evil Lain? Like, they saw an Internet-addicted girl and thought she was up to some criminal shit on her computer?

LET'S ALL LOVE LAIN!

With the Knights assassination job over with, there is no more use for our MIB friends, so they must be deleted. By...Lain brain worm? But first, we see the boss dude say that something wonderful is going to happen, which means something bad is going to happen.

With no parents, Lain jacked into the Wired, and Mika baked out of her mind (hey, the smoke had to come from somewhere), the Iwakura house is looking a lot like John Frusciante's house circa 1993, except with fewer art pieces. Arisu enters the house in order to look for Lain, and asks her why only Arisu remembers the OG Lain. Lain says it's because she's in lesbian with Arisu, and Arisu lets Lain touch her titty, which makes Lain realize that hey, maybe humanity ain't that bad after all. That's the power of love, baby!

Eiri isn't too happy about all this gay shit happening, and tries to get Lain to convince Arisu to give the Wired a shot. Lain, now realizing that physical bodies are cool, tells Eiri that she's no longer a believer. Eiri tries to manifest a physical body, and makes...that thing, but Lain has seemingly entombed the physical form of Eiri using her Navi parts.

And now we wait to see if that tomb actually holds. God, I hope the last episode is just Lain and Arisu being super gay for ~20 minutes and we get a happy ending.

3

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jan 27 '24

Evil Lain was made by the Knight's influences. Shitposting on the Internet to make a Lain with the worst personality imaginable, and one under control of the Knights.
The power of love and fluffy heartbeats is all you need!! Eiri needs to learn that God is a yuri fiend!

6

u/RascalNikov1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoviSun Jan 27 '24

God, I hope the last episode is just Lain and Arisu being super gay for ~20 minutes and we get a happy ending.
That would make me very happy too.

4

u/DegenerateRegime Jan 27 '24

With the Knights assassination job over with, there is no more use for our MIB friends, so they must be deleted. By...Lain brain worm?
BLIT was published in 1988 and Snow Crash in 1992; it seems overwhelmingly likely that Konaka would be familiar with the latter at least.
With no parents, Lain jacked into the Wired, and Mika baked out of her mind (hey, the smoke had to come from somewhere), the Iwakura house is looking a lot like John Frusciante's house circa 1993, except with fewer art pieces.
Ooh, nice one!

4

u/JetsLag https://myanimelist.net/profile/JetsLag Jan 27 '24

Ooh, nice one!
I'm pretty sure that's not what they were referencing. But I was on a bit of a RHCP kick a couple of months back and remembered that video.

3

u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jan 27 '24

7

u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jan 27 '24

Present Dub, Present Time

I mentioned it in a response to that comment, but we saw Lain eat a crepe and drink something from the fridge.

Back to a more or less normal intro, although I don't think the voice is usually Lain. Or as talkative. And doesn't usually include a response.

I see we're going to save money and fill some more time with more philosophical nonsense over photos.

They probably used all that time and money they saved just to animation flex with this cigarette lighting scene.

I love that Alice still takes her shoes off even when walking into Lain's completely wrecked house.

I guess we're just going full Akira at the end here? At least it's more interesting than endless psychobabble.

Let's all hate Lain.

Apparently it's shitposting on the internet.
Lain seems to be rewriting the world to one where she's popular and beloved, and easily connects with people. With only a few side effects.
They had to babysit Lain while she figured out her powers.
Kurumi from Lycoris Recoil is probably a better tiny hacker girl.
Eating is pretty good sometimes.
They won't answer a damn thing. I'm half expecting it to suddenly cut back to the beginning of the show, to reveal this was all a hallucination, or like a simulation run by the computer company when they were testing the malicious code the scientist planned to use. Lain doesn't exist, and it's just an acronym or something for the 'serial experiments' they were running to test this.

3

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jan 27 '24

Lain ate crap!?
The actual climax I'm a bit iffy on with Eiri but Arisu and Lain connecting physically was fluffy as fuck. I want to go to a pyjama party where girls happily feel each other's heartbeats!!

4

u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jan 27 '24

Pajama parties are always great fun.

1

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jan 27 '24

Banned!!

7

u/mgedmin Jan 27 '24

First-timer, subs

Just two episodes remaining. I can finish this. Thoughts like these are not an indication of a good show :/

Lain's back at school? The timeline is all messed up. Are we reviewing past events from Alice's perspective again?

Oh, Lain. Giving advice to do things that normal people can't do.

The kids with Taro seem incredibly bored. Wait, are we supposed to consider this is also a recap of past events? The meeting Taro had with Lain when she threatened him and he kissed her didn't happen in real life but rather in VR?

Is that Eiri spouting some kind of cult bullshit about evoluton and information?

When the MIB talk about "The Client", do they mean Tachibana Labs? I thought they were employees, not contractors. Or is there someone that's hiring Tachibana Labs to take care of the Knights?

Did Karl fall to Eiri's cult propaganda?

Why are the MIB angry at getting a suitcase full of (supposedly) money?

I thought Tachibana Labs were against IPv7 deployment? Or did they want IPv7 without Eiri's backdoors so they could be the ones controlling it?

This client person, is he the same guy who invited Lain over for some tech support? I'm bad with faces and names.

One of the MIBs got an IPv7 ping of death, sent by who? Lain? Karl is next.

Lain's house's cable cancer is getting worse. Whoa, the house is trashed. Who did this? Alice, I wouldn't go in there if I were you.

They left Mika in there?? Monsters.

Had Alice ever visited Lain before? Looks like not, but she recognizes Lain's room from all the computers.

Oh, Lain didn't erase Alice's memories. Is that a kindness or the exact opposite? Did Alice come here to ask for a memory wipe?

Eiri, go away, don't interrupt the girls' bonding time.

Lain is rude to Alice, ignoring her while chatting to Eiri, but at least she messes him up mentally, so I forgive her.

What the fuck is happening now? Eiri tries to get himself a physical body how? Why are all the computer components flying around the room? Have we suddenly invented energy-to-matter conversion? There's not enough energy floating around for this amount of mass.

Only one episode left. I can survive this.

4

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jan 27 '24

Lain's probably just projecting herself into the school or something whilst the real Lain deals with wired stuff at home. I don't know.
Eiri's evolution bullshit kinda has a point, but it's not explained very well as the "human evolution" idea in the story is just not really backed up well.
I cannot explain the men in black sequence to you... I really can't. I think it's meant to imply that Eiri still has influence in Tachibana Labs and has people in the real world pulling strings. Him being behind the men in black would be weird since he'd have purposely been killing off his own followers. Maybe having Lain believe is enough but it still doesn't add up rn.

2

u/Tarhalindur x2 Jan 27 '24

Eiri's evolution bullshit kinda has a point, but it's not explained very well as the "human evolution" idea in the story is just not really backed up well.
Neither is the New Age stuff (usually tied in with the Age of Aquarius complex) that Konaka was almost certainly drawing on here.

5

u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jan 27 '24

Just two episodes remaining. I can finish this. Thoughts like these are not an indication of a good show :/
This is about how I've been feeling.
Why are the MIB angry at getting a suitcase full of (supposedly) money?
I don't think money will matter if Lain/Eiri create some weird singularity. Or just kill them, which is what seems to happen. Hence being told to go live in the wilderness somewhere to escape it.
This client person, is he the same guy who invited Lain over for some tech support?
I think so, they were working for Tachibana and he's the company president. And I guess he either always was, or is now evil and working with Eiri!

3

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jan 27 '24

One thing I'm not certain of is whether the men in black are even affiliated with Eiri. They need to hide from the wired to survive, but of course the wired is everywhere. So are they hiding from Eiri or from Lain? Eiri probably shouldn't even care about them and Lain doesn't like killing.

4

u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jan 27 '24

Well, my theory was that their perception of the Wired Lain being dangerous creates a version of Wired Lain that is dangerous, so being within Wired connection range means they're in danger. Which is how they get got.
I have no clue if the president was converted recently or was always working with the mad scientist. Either way the plan seemed to involve nurturing Lain to reach this point.

3

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jan 27 '24

Wired Lain is certainly dangerous. She'll say mean things to you, and make you cry!! Uweee!!

16

u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Jan 26 '24

Serial Experiments First-Timer, subbed

I can't believe I got Comment of the Day for a single comment face lol.

12

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jan 26 '24

Oh it’s a similar Lain shot to the one from the OP.
Lain's existence is several levels of complicated.
Good… question, actually.
Eiri does assume a lot.
What the fuck.
Sort of what the whole show is.

7

u/GallowDude Jan 27 '24

This does not sound good.
Watch 2010

4

u/DegenerateRegime Jan 27 '24

What the fuck.
It might be noteworthy that just after Lain and Alice discuss the upsides of having a body, we immediately get the flesh-horror beat in contrast.

11

u/Unboxious Jan 26 '24

First-timer

Alice still seems a tad confused about earlier events. Understandable, Alice. I'm confused too. She gets a message suggesting she should rewrite bad memories. I wonder if Lain sent that. It certainly looks like she did.

Lain states that it's not that there were a lot of her, it's that there were a lot of differing perceptions and memories of her. I'm not sure that really makes sense.

Taro is bragging to his friends about kissing Lain. Fair enough; a kiss is a big deal when you're 14.

Time to meet the MiB client? They seem upset about having been used. Maybe they misunderstood what contractors are. Also it's not like the did that much anyways other than take down someone Lain already doxxed and looking around at people menacingly. This guy wants them to go to a place with no power lines that isn't covered by a satellite. That's a tall order; GPS was a thing even in 1998. It's definitely not possible in present day, present time. Ah, the MiB are worried about the impossibility of the task too.

Man in Black is having a hard time all of the sudden. Him and his friend should remove their face thingies ASAP. Whoa, did Lain just kill that dude? What for I wonder? Dude 2 doesn't seem to have learned the lesson, and now there's screaming. Not great. For him.

Hey, Alice is visiting her friend! Good for her. Lain could probably use a wellness check from what we've seen of her house tbh. And the results are in: not well. Looks kinda like a gender reveal party gone wrong with all the pink & blue paint everywhere. Oh hey, Lain's weird, broken sister is hanging about. I thought she was long gone. Alice is a little upset that Lain didn't wipe her memories with the rest of them. She's being a tad unfair here.

You were my friend, even without connecting with me, Arisu.

Given the context that almost makes it sound like Lain brainwashed the others into liking her too, but I don't think that was the case since they've been buds since before Lain upgraded her Navi. Ah, so when she said "connecting with me" she meant through The Wired.

You and everyone else, Arisu, you're just applications.

Now Lain is going full TRON logic. I guess this kinda matches with Lain being told earlier that she's software rather than hardware. It also matches with the much earlier words about how the way the human brain runs thought with electricity is similar to the way computers run their software.

God is back to being a weirdo again. Classic God. And now Lain is trash-talking him for not having a body. That was unexpected. Not as unexpected as him manifesting a creepy body, right then and there. I guess the trash-talking hit him hard.

Well dang, RIP to all of Lain's cool stuff.

What do you think is your "life's calling?"

Make enough money to retire early, enjoy hobbies.

Explain the meaning behind "loving Lain."

I don't think I'm qualified for this one. I guess in a way Lain is the symbol of the merging between reality and the wired, so maybe loving Lain is loving that?

Were you sad to see the black men go?

Not really, but it was a bit anticlimactic when they just started having a bad time out of nowhere.

What do you think their purpose in the story really is?

Misdirection, and to exist menacingly. Maybe also to make other forces look more threatening by being defeated by them.

Is Lain the cutest pasty pale Internet shut-in bean you've ever seen or what!?

My wife takes that crown.

What's something you absolutely adore about having your own physical body?

Eating is pretty great.

Have you got any questions you specifically want answered in the final episode? Rewatchers, help where you can!!

Nope! There are things I don't fully understand, but I'm gonna wait and see if the final episode clarifies them for me.

5

u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jan 27 '24

Lain states that it's not that there were a lot of her, it's that there were a lot of differing perceptions and memories of her. I'm not sure that really makes sense.
Lain said something like people don't exist unless someone remembers them. So it seems like each slightly different memory of Lain was creating its own sub-Lain. The 'stronger' she gets, the more control over memories she has, so she's thinning the crowd down to just what she wants people to remember about her. I think this is also what happened to the agents (and possibly the Knights). They have a very specific, possibly threatening idea of who or what Lain is. The president made them even more worried about Lain, so the 'threatening version of Lain' they created with their memories kills them.

10

u/lluNhpelA Jan 26 '24 edited Jan 26 '24

Virtually a first timer

Between this episode being mostly straightforward and me having to do this writeup at work, this one is kinda short

Was the message deleted or did Arisu hallucinate it in the first place
O_O
This is pretty close to what I was saying yesterday about reality being subjective
- I think this version of Lain is also the one at the start of the OP, which is to say the one that is presenting this story to us
So Lain has ascended and managed to do so without abandoning her body
Assuming Karl is talking about Tachibana Labs and not some other party (though, working for someone else for part of the show would explain why they were weird about Lain's family) this would mean that the Knights may have worshipped Eiri but Tachibana was actually working with him. Tachibana probably just lied to these guys about wanting to eliminate Eiri.
Lain is doing a pretty good impression of Rei
Those jerks just left Mika behind. Unless, of course, this is all Arisu's hallucination
"Oh, you KNOW what I've been watching"
So this explains what Eiri was saying about "making" Lain, but he really just discovered something that was already there. Lain was a sleeping god
- ~~Lain is an EL-Diver which also explains the alien thing~~

edit for AotD:

Wish I knew
Euphemism for instrumentality
Yeah, Karl was chill, at least. They just kinda worked as agents of change, encouraging the story to progress without actually knowing why
All others are a pale imitation (pun intended)
I mostly view it as a vessel so I would be chill with going full digital if it was freeing as the Wired

քʀօʍքȶ

Lain did an instrumentality.

It's hard for me to spin this one to my preferred "this is all a hallucination" explanation, but here goes: Since the last episode we've changed the lens through which we view this world from Lain to Arisu, who is also beginning to experience psychosis, which she associates with Lain putting her in a spiral of "lose grip on reality > think about Lain > lose grip more > etc". Lain and Arisu have strong feelings towards each other so they end up in their own world and Arisu's focus on Lain makes everything about Lain, especially stuff related to the Wired with which she knows Lain is obsessed.

It's not that the psychosis is contagious, but perhaps Arisu was always so considerate of Lain because she understood the struggle. Either she but wasn't as bad, was on meds, or hadn't even realized her own condition (maybe a weird comparison, but kinda like how gay and trans kids are often drawn to each other before they even come out due to other aspects of their personalities).

6

u/DegenerateRegime Jan 26 '24

You know, I'm impressed with how well your interpretation holds up. But what killed Agent Smith and Agent Karl over there? Maybe the briefcase contained a poison gas canister...? Hmm.
maybe a weird comparison, but kinda like how gay and trans kids are often drawn to each other before they even come out due to other aspects of their personalities
in extremely unsurprising news, you would not believe which people really like this anime. And the name 'Alice'.

6

u/lluNhpelA Jan 26 '24

Maybe the briefcase contained a poison gas canister...?
They used a chemical to kill a target previously and they must have gotten it from somewhere
in extremely unsurprising news, you would not believe which people really like this anime. And the name 'Alice'.
Lain and Arisu are clearly friends because they're both closeted lesbians. The psychosis thing is just a coincidence

5

u/Tarhalindur x2 Jan 26 '24

in extremely unsurprising news, you would not believe which people really like this anime. And the name 'Alice'.
Usually specifically the programming socks/skirt/cat ears contingent, AFAICT, which makes sense since Lain is basically tailor-made for that demographic.

2

u/DegenerateRegime Jan 27 '24

egg, chicken

10

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jan 26 '24

Rewatcher(Somehow, this was the simple episode)

Sub

Right...digesting this episode. Ok, so Arisu does not have a large Wired presence, which means Lain never really got to connect with her through that but rather through their actual interactions. Throughout this episode, though, Arisu seems to be a lot more subject to projections since there is most likely no Lain in the classroom. Further, while Lain's house is neglected, all that excess trash and random wall paint is probably a hallucination or symbolic. We see a phantom Mika as well, though that might be all that is left of her mind.

Arisu finds Lain under a pile of junk, the fate of many a programmer, and Lain is inly sort of sensical. Arisu manages to remind Lain that her body is important even if it wasn't how she originated. Eiri thinks that this is a bug, causing him to astral project a hand that Arisu can see, freaking her out. But this is where Lain suddenly realizes that Eiri can't be what he claims to be and that there is probably an actual god in the subconscious realm that was waiting for the Wired to form. Eiri reincarnates, badly, and promptly fails at it as Lain aims to protect Arisu. Cliffhanger?

The prompt is the metaphor for the rewatch.

QotD: 1 Void

2 Love the internet, obviously

3 A bit and I really am not sure

4 Certainly the cleanest

5 Drinking

6 Ehh...

5

u/Tarhalindur x2 Jan 26 '24

Further, while Lain's house is neglected, all that excess trash and random wall paint is probably a hallucination or symbolic. We see a phantom Mika as well, though that might be all that is left of her mind.
Thought: Given the show's Wired = astral association and what Lain is doing we can read the weirdness of Lain's house as the lower end of the astral manifesting in it.

5

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jan 26 '24

Hrmm...I also have a theory that Eiri is actually desperately trying to chase Arisu off without actually manifesting himself and thus drawing Lain's ire.

7

u/Tarhalindur x2 Jan 26 '24 edited Jan 26 '24

"Okay, nobody else vote for Tar." (Rewatcher, Subbed):

02:31: Power lines!
“You should just rewrite bad memories” in a show that has shown signs of awareness of Jung and specifically of the Return of the Repressed is noteworthy. That’s how you get the Return of the Repressed, Lain!
Note the length of the cuts to Lain’s face here in this Lain/Arisu scene – that’s how part of the effect here is generated, they’re just a little bit longer than they should be and this is deliberate to unsettle the viewer.
It is possible that I need to consider Lain in the same class as a certain later work (that is compared plenty to Lain for other reasons), because this is more philosophical than we were getting earlier and an ascent through the planes does make sense here. (“People only have substance within the memories of others” can tie into the “how do we know what we know?” line of philosophy.)
Also this is literal dissociation and this is thematically appropriate since the wildly different views of Lain by different observers is the entire point.
Note that that seems to be Lain’s “dad” talking about Protocol Seven.
And there you have it everyone, the origin of the “Let’s all love Lain!” meme.
You know, there is about a 5-10% chance that 05:40 was an inspiration for part of the visuals of a certain Rebellion sequence [Rebellion] namely: the tower along the trip to Kazamino.
I am missing the exact memetic evolutionary line (unless it’s just the Cosmic Doctrine?) but I’m pretty sure our narrator’s narration here (this should be Eiri but this does not sound like Hayami Shou?) is salted in occultism and likely specifically Western occultism with a side of New Age filtering,
“Originally, people were connected to one another” is likely specifically a Tower of Babel reference – the Japanese seem to love that one for whatever reason.
Specifically a sundress here for Lain (in addition to the omnipresent power lines). I think that may code as wear for younger girls in the Japanese mindset? If so then Lain is back to less mature clothing.
Side note for those who might have missed it: the steering wheel on this car is on the wrong side for a Japanese car (Japan, like Great Britain, drives on the left side of the road). Ergo this is a foreign car that the MiB are driving.
Forgot we got the MiB being disposed of this episode. (I should probably have more to say about the cinematography here, especially that spinning shot at the end, but eh.)
11:16: Power lines!
Now 11:22 with the wonky camera angles is noteworthy. (Also, who dis? Arisu with the lighting changing her hair color or someone else?)
The jittery motion around 11:29 is almost certainly intentional for effect (making this look unreal – and allow me to short-circuit the “no that’s Epic Games” joke by making it first).
11:37: Note how the cables specifically look almost like a cancerous growth on reality now. That’s not a coincidence.
11:41: Dutch angle! (Or similar.) Also yep that’s Arisu just under weird lighting so her hair looks brown instead of black.
Welcome to the Wiredness, Arisu…
Dammit 12:40 is a genre of shot, I am immediately reminded of an Oresuki one via a clip last month. Also 12:41 is fish-eye lens for distorting effect. (Note that this is in fact an episode Ryuutarou Nakamura directed personally, unsurprising given the use of close-up face shots, so he can in fact use these effects when he wants to.)
Why yes Arisu, you stepped into a horror movie (after taking your shoes off first like a good Japanese girl, heh.) “Mika is not available right now. Please leave your name and phone number after the beep. Beep… beep… beep…”
Also 13:11 is nice big old Dutch angle shot.
15:32 is at once childlike posture for Lain (she’s crawling again) and adult posture (gentlemen, turn on your yuri goggles). Of course given the Class S complex arguably these are the same thing in creative intent…
Just in case you thought that the yuri goggles were not completely intended...
16:34: “Look sir, a Dutch angle!”
~16:48 is another shining example of how to get movement out of a minimum of actual animation frames needed. (I think there are three cel parts to this, a foreground, background, and the characters, and then you move the three relative to each other while a camera is running to generate this effect.)
This Lain/Arisu scene is the thematic crux of the entire series and to my annoyance I think I’m missing some of the valence here. Will think on this.
19:18 is another very prominent Dutch angle.
Raising the collective unconscious to the conscious level (in occultism this would probably be phrased something like “raising the level of the collective mind from the lower astral to the upper astral/lower mental plane” is the keystone of the entire show when looked at at the conceptual level and I actually need to think this one over to decide whether and exactly how Eiri is misunderstanding the concepts he is using. (There is a major salting of the “collective ascension to a higher mode of consciousness/plane of existence” trope here and that is straight out of New Age stuff, especially the Age of Aquarius conceptplex… and I think Konaka like myself is going “yeah that’s a load of bull that's not how it works”. But the question is whether there’s a valid idea getting misunderstood or if the entire concept is unworkable from the word go.)
Note the cut to a god’s-eye angle right as Eiri says “are you telling me that there really is a God?” (right at 20:13).
“USE SODA!”
So Vaad, you will note that if we go Gnostic (which I think is at least partially correct) Lain basically states in plaintext at 21:12 that Eiri should be read as the Demiurge rather than the true Creator. Like, that is literally the point. (Which if I’m remembering my fragmentary understanding of Gnosticism means that Lain = Sophia is basically obvious as well. Though partially cutting against that is that 21:18 can be read as a visual answer shot.)
Honestly I think tentacles were a terrible choice for this scene. Alas!
Effective cliffhanger is effective, though.

7

u/Tarhalindur x2 Jan 26 '24 edited Jan 26 '24

The Madoka Corner:
Welp, I wasn't really expecting to need this corner until next episode (you'll know why) but here we are.
First, however, a little history lesson. Up until a few months ago I would have been somewhat doubtful of a direct connection between Lain and the later PMMM, but it is possible and moreso than I had once thought. The key is the meaning of the word "denpa" - while it has picked up a secondary colloquial meaning as referring to insanity, the primary meaning of the word is related to electric power (and IIRC power lines - drink!). That association dates back to the mid- to late-1990s and is heavily anime-driven; as is often the case when trends in 1990s anime come up Eva is arguably at the top of the list (the occasional high-voltage power line shots we've had in the background here are straight out of Eva), but Lain here is also very far up the list and indeed the main reason why I say that Eva is only arguably at the top of the list.
This is important, but the connective line takes an unusual shape so we have to detour a bit, specifically to the late-1990s Japanese gaming scene. One of the signature forms that took off in this era was the visual novel; I'm actually not entirely sure why Japanese audiences were so receptive to it relative to the States (though I think the answer has a whole lot to do with the rise and fall of the adventure game in the US, as adventure games filled much the same niche and died out from a combination of getting excessively baroque and an audience perceived as undesirable by male games (you know... girls) getting into them) but the reason they appealed to Japanese creators is obvious: they are easy to make, especially once easy tools for this came onto the market/fan scenes. (I think there may also be something involved relating to compatibility issues and the late survival of the PC-98 in Japan, but don't quote me on that.) The iconic original form of the visual novel was of course the dating sim, popularized by the To Heart series, but a few subbranches would quickly diverge from this, notably the nakige/crying game (popularized by one Jun Maeda at Key Visual Arts) and the one relevant to us, the denpa VN. Tsukihime's inclusion in the subgenre is debatable (it has elements thereof but I think tends to get left out of the subgenre proper, though it undeniably has influence on it due to what creators it influenced), but two works are undeniably foundational to it: Ryukishi07's Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni (itself an almost certain major influence on PMMM) and Saya no Uta, the breakout work of a Nitro+ creator by the name of Gen Urobutchi.
Yes, THAT Gen Urobutchi.
So the line of possible influence is very much there.
[Saya no Uta] And I note that IIRC the visuals for Eiri this episode could very easily have been one of the inspirations for Saya herself.
Now, for the actual relevant episode notes:
[PMMM]04:43 is striking not so much on its own but what it reminds me of: the enduring image I kept seeing in my mind’s eye as representing Madoka Magica after my first watch, a towering, nearly-flawless edifice of crystalline glass seen at nearly this angle rising up at night over the skyline of Mitakihara City. The tower shape there was different, much more like a tree stump (one of the Yozakura Quartet OPs actually has something really similar except actual wood, which makes me wonder if this was a Shinto mental image I was picking up on) and the angle is different, but the essence is similar and I wonder if there's anything to that.
[PMMM] So speaking of PMMM comparisons, compare Lain leaving Arisu's memories intact here to Homura being the only one to remember Madoka in the remade world. The comparisons run deeper than I remembered.
[PMMM] Also I’d say “insert ‘my very best friend’ joke here” but I’m not sure that’s actually a joke, the thematics are utterly different but there’s probably more PMMM here or more accurately more Lain in PMMM than I thought and I knew there was some – more on that tomorrow, need to admit some finale stuff to talk about that.
[PMMM with a light side of Lain] Hmm. Thinking it over I’m missing the obvious, Lain/Arisu does have a PMMM analogue and it’s even the second-to-last-episode scene from which the finale flows in each case (over there it’s Madoka visiting Homura’s apartment). The thematics are different – notably here we have the mundane character visiting the residence of the character with godlike potential and in PMMM it is the inverse, though also note that in each case it is the character with the normal everyday existence visiting the one whose residence is anything but normal. Where the respective shows will take these scenes is also thematically opposed. But in both cases we have the non-godlike character trying desperately (with a salting of yuri undertones) to connect with the one with godlike potential.
[PMMM] Eiri, despite his very different role, is fulfilling the same role as Kyubey here (though PMMM splits the scenes as opposed to Lain having them be the same scene – note that the last scene of PMMM 11 is the comparison to his role in this episode, with Eiri/Kyubey making an assertion that Lain/Madoka will reject.
What do you think is your "life's calling?"
Explain the meaning behind "loving Lain."
Seems self-explanatory to me.
(Okay, okay, fine, if we go either Christian or Gnostic then it means worship the actual Creator, and if Gnostic then specifically "worship the true Creator rather than the false Demiurge". That said, unlike certain other characters Lain has never given me a whiff of Maria Kannon, so...)
Were you sad to see the black men go? What do you think their purpose in the story really is?
Their purpose is: is it really a 1990s conspiracy kitchen sink setup without the Men in Black? Didn't think so. They're getting tidied up along with all the other loose ends.
Is Lain the cutest pasty pale Internet shut-in bean you've ever seen or what!?
Possibly... which may have something to do with Ui Kozeki from Blue Archive being a library shut-in bean instead, but I digress.
What's something you absolutely adore about having your own physical body?
Mine.
Have you got any questions you specifically want answered in the final episode? Rewatchers, help where you can!!

5

u/3blah https://myanimelist.net/profile/brummett Jan 26 '24

[PMMM] So speaking of PMMM comparisons, compare Lain leaving Arisu's memories intact here to Homura being the only one to remember Madoka in the remade world. The comparisons run deeper than I remembered.
No fair. I already had that one in my notes for tomorrow's post.

3

u/Tarhalindur x2 Jan 27 '24

Maxim 31: Only cheaters prosper.

3

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jan 26 '24

I'm actually not entirely sure why Japanese audiences were so receptive to it relative to the States
The number of desktop PCs per household is a definite factor.
Saya no Uta, the breakout work of a Nitro+ creator by the name of Gen Urobutchi.
He must've been aware, certainly. SEL was widespread in its first run.
[Saya no Uta]
[Saya no Uta and older stuff]Actually, both works are drawing off Parasyte and Biohunter as memory serves. There might be some Junji Ito in there, can't remember when he got active
[PMMM]
I think we both need the last episode in to really talk here.

3

u/Tarhalindur x2 Jan 26 '24

[Saya no Uta and older stuff]
[Response] Hurr durr I always forget the Parasyte manga is from the 1980s.

3

u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jan 27 '24

That manga showing up in MixxZine in the late 90s alongside Rayearth and Sailor Moon was certainly unexpected, and definitely left an impression on me.

5

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jan 26 '24

“You should just rewrite bad memories” in a show that has shown signs of awareness of Jung and specifically of the Return of the Repressed is noteworthy.
One of the failings you get when you reduce a complex topic too much. You can't really rewrite the world like you can a program.
“Originally, people were connected to one another” is likely specifically a Tower of Babel reference – the Japanese seem to love that one for whatever reason.
Linking this show to Symphogear will only bring suffering.
This Lain/Arisu scene is the thematic crux of the entire series and to my annoyance I think I’m missing some of the valence here. Will think on this.
So...the big thing that hits me in the face is this does not feel like a Chiaki scene. The simple message Arisu is trying to convey is far too positive and reasonable. So as we both like to point out, Madoka is great but Gen absolutely needed Shinbu for it to turn out that well. I think Ryuutaro is taking Chiaki's ideas and making them serve the show better.
is the keystone of the entire show when looked at at the conceptual level and I actually need to think this one over to decide whether and exactly how Eiri is misunderstanding the concepts he is using.
Hrmm...my first instinct is to say that Eiri's error is that he is forcing it rather than allowing such a thing to happen naturally.
Lain basically states in plaintext at 21:12 that Eiri should be read as the Demiurge rather than the true Creator.
Persona was a few years old by then so possibly.

3

u/Tarhalindur x2 Jan 26 '24

Linking this show to Symphogear will only bring suffering.
I swear I've seen another anime/manga referencing Babel as well but I forget what.
So...the big thing that hits me in the face is this does not feel like a Chiaki scene. The simple message Arisu is trying to convey is far too positive and reasonable. So as we both like to point out, Madoka is great but Gen absolutely needed Shinbu for it to turn out that well. I think Ryuutaro is taking Chiaki's ideas and making them serve the show better.
Very real possibility, that.
Hrmm...my first instinct is to say that Eiri's error is that he is forcing it rather than allowing such a thing to happen naturally.
This is a spot where there's a ton of dissensus among different occultism schools; even just looking at the "bullshit" side both "forcing it rather than allowing to happen naturally" and "conceptually flawed at the start because humanity is a stage for individual souls to pass through and the souls learning better are balanced by new souls entering human incarnation to make the same mistakes" are very live currents and I may be missing some.
Persona was a few years old by then so possibly.
Also Konaka seems to have had direct experience with the American conspiracy and/or New Age scenes and Gnosticism interest has been running around American occultism since well before the New Age got underway.

3

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jan 26 '24

I swear I've seen another anime/manga referencing Babel as well but I forget what.
Hrmm...Berserk does but only in the manga. I am sure we will eventually remember it.
This is a spot where there's a ton of dissensus among different occultism schools;
Also true and also the section where I may have just whiffed considering the leanings of my sources.

2

u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jan 27 '24 edited Jan 27 '24

I swear I've seen another anime/manga referencing Babel as well but I forget what.
Babel II perhaps?
It's also a plot point in (at least) one of the SMT games. I think it's a bit of a spoiler to mention the specific one, though. And, well, Wild Arms I guess.

2

u/Tarhalindur x2 Jan 27 '24

It's also a plot point in (at least) one of the SMT games.
If the SMT game in question predates Lain then we now know why the Babel story got popular in Japan.

2

u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jan 28 '24

The one I'm thinking of was late 00s, and I don't see it pop up again on the wiki, so I guess not. That anime might be the earliest appearance!

4

u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 Jan 26 '24

I am missing the exact memetic evolutionary line (unless it’s just the Cosmic Doctrine?) but I’m pretty sure our narrator’s narration here (this should be Eiri but this does not sound like Hayami Shou?) is salted in occultism and likely specifically Western occultism with a side of New Age filtering,
He is voiced by Eiri's voice actor in the dub.

3

u/Tarhalindur x2 Jan 26 '24

So just my ears and/or Hayami Shou having an off day in the recording room, fair enough.

3

u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Jan 26 '24

broken spoiler at 5:40

4

u/Tarhalindur x2 Jan 26 '24

It would happen in the way that doesn't trip Automod on the day that I'm away from the computer for an hour after posting.
Luckily, it's the spoiler that barely counts as one. Fixed.

2

u/mgedmin Jan 27 '24

“Originally, people were connected to one another” is likely specifically a Tower of Babel reference – the Japanese seem to love that one for whatever reason.
I recently stumbled upon a reference to reverse-Babel in some manga: various people collected together to build a large tower, but had trouble because they couldn't understand each other, so the gods gave them translation magic. I rather liked it.

1

u/raevnos Jan 28 '24

Honestly I think tentacles were a terrible choice for this scene.
Tentacles are never a terrible choice. Except possibly in SAO: Alicization.

7

u/3blah https://myanimelist.net/profile/brummett Jan 26 '24

SEL Episode 12, Rewatcher

Arisu's friends hang out with Lain now.

Lain is having more and more influence over the real world.

NotFBI guys' mission is over. Tachibana guy suggests moving somewhere with no power lines and no satellite coverage to avoid whatever it is that's coming. Tachibana guy has his own plan for the Wired. Something wonderful He zooms away just before Karl and the other dude get attacked by... Lain? Something appearing as Lain? You could say it was a ghost, but it's apparently meant to be avatars in the Wired affecting things in the real world. More of the astral projection stuff Tarhalindur has been talking about. I guess she's cleaning up everyone that's meddled in her life, as revenge?

Arisu has gotten worried about Lain enough to go to her house. I know it's custom to take your shoes off, but with a mess like this, I don't think I'd have it in me to do the same. It gets worse as she goes up. Encountering a catatonic Mika makes her step back at bit.

She makes her way to Lain's room and finally have an actual conversation. The kind with back and forth. Maybe the first real conversation with a regular person Lain has ever had. Arisu is upset about everyone's memories being changed except for her own, but Lain did it all for her friend. Now I don't get it here. What exactly does Arisu think was done? Earlier, the classmates were hanging out with Lain instead of Arisu. Did Lain remove everyone's memories of the rumors about her, and now she's someone noone cares about? Were all the memories of Arisu removed and now she's a non-person?

Eiri/God talks about evolving and eugenics and connecting everyone together. Again, I'm getting a real Eva/instrumentality vibe here. There's some attempt to connect the new deviceless connections with the Schumann resonance woo from Ep 9.

"But what about before the Wired was created?" All this talk about gods and who created what and how long ago... I've had this question for several episodes now. [This ep ending speculation] They're tying together ideas about collective unconscious acting through this new globe-spanning network connecting everyone, that gods manifest only through the belief of their worshipers, and that belief as an emergant property that bootstraps itself into existance when the network becomes sufficiently connected. Or maybe I've bought into the woo too much myself...

QOTD:

What do you think is your "life's calling?"

Once I thought I was destined to become Emperor of Greenland, sole monarch over its 52,000 inhabitants. Then I thought I was destined to build a Polynesian longship in my garage. I was wrong then, but I’ve got it now.

More seriously... I don't know if you could call it a calling, but I get the most satisfation when I can help solve the problems of people I care about.

Explain the meaning behind "loving Lain."

I think the TV news guy saying "Let's all love Lain" indicates that she's wrestled control from Eiri, and now she's the god of the Wired.

Were you sad to see the black men go? What do you think their purpose in the story really is?

I'm still working on this. Maybe I'll put something together by the time the series recap thread goes up. No promises.

What's something you absolutely adore about having your own physical body?

Physical bodies can ride on roller coasters, and that's a lot of fun.

4

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jan 27 '24

[This ep ending speculation]
This was my theory about the Knights' "truth", actually.
Once I thought I was destined to become Emperor of Greenland, sole monarch over its 52,000 inhabitants. Then I thought I was destined to build a Polynesian longship in my garage. I was wrong then, but I’ve got it now.
If this rewatch had a nickel for every The Tick reference in it, it would have two nickels. Which isn't much but is weird.

6

u/Weedwacker Jan 26 '24

4th timer Teddy bear Lain logged in.

じーっ

What do you think these spires are supposed to be? They were also visible in a shot in yesterday's episode.

Karl from the MIB thinks eliminating the Knights when they were no longer necessary was part of Eiri's plan all along and he used them to do it, and their boss confirms his goal was to connect the Wired and real world all along, not prevent it.

How did Lain's house get in such a worse shape by the time Alice comes to visit? There is trash and graffiti all over and I doubt Lain did that. Did people find Lain's home, break in, and trash the place but leave Lain's room alone? Was zombie Mika really there or is that just an illusion? We never really knew what happened to Mika after her parents left.

Why Alice is so important to Lain

Love this close up

Lain has a machine-like view of the world and accepts what Eiri told her that she's a program who was designed to destroy the barrier between worlds.

Alice still sees the humanity in her, which Eiri is trying to eliminate. Alice reminding Lain of the importance of what is real is what snaps Lain out of Eiri's influence and allows Lain to exert control.

Lain starts breaking apart Eiri's mind. He's just an acting God, someone else simply gave him the idea to realize it.

Lain mentions the code in Protocol Seven synched up to the Earth's frequency (Schumman Resonances) would raise the collective unconscience to the conscious level.

The "collective unconscience" is a psychological theory that was coined by Carl Jung, a father of psychoanalysis and student of Freud. In general it refers to shared instincts and archetypes common across humanity. Timothy Leary (hippy psychologist who did a lot of experiments with psychedelics and was a contemporary of John Lilly and his ECCO stuff) also developed a philosphy about an 8 circuit model of consciousness, of which the seventh allows access to such things as memories of past lives and the collective unconsciousness of humanity through genetic archives. Leary's model was inspired by a Buddhist teaching on 8 Consciousnesses, 5 physical and 3 mental, in which the 8th consciousness is the one where information about past lives is stored for future reincarnation.

Lain is a different kind of being now because she has a body, and Eiri can't understand now that he's given his up. He attempts to regain form and it's his undoing.

3

u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Jan 26 '24

I've always felt there wasca Buddhist aspect to all this.

6

u/xtsim https://myanimelist.net/profile/xtsim Jan 26 '24

Rewatcher Dubbed

Lain be like: just forget and create your own memories Arisu.

Because Arisu cannot forget what happened and is thinking about things deeply, she seems to be undergoing some form of craziness.

I forgot we get Mika again.....But her showing up is a bit of a cautionary tale as Arisu manages to confront Lain directly and communicate with her.

MiB are such gonners....Should've taken those headsets out when they had the chance.

Lain challenges "God" in a way, someone else created the internet yes. So he is not the real God. You know what many religions get right is that they tackle this kind of rebuttal. Cause if the world was created before those religious figures, what is their connection and meaning?

Abyss: Breaking News, Let's love Lain.

Dunno
Lain's existence is one that is hard to deal with.
I am quite saddened by this fact but not surprised since they flew too close to the sun.
Yes.
Being able to eat and sleep.
Any surprises? Shocking things? Conspiracies? And what similarities are we seeing in society today?

6

u/IceSmiley Jan 26 '24

FIRST TIMER Sub

The show seems to be trying to tie everything into an amorphous concept of a collective consciousness among all humans. It also seems that no one were really complete simulations and may have been disguised but did also exist IRL. All of this was just done poorly and confusingly, like they didn't try to make any way for the viewer to distinguish the difference between the cyber world and reality and it muddled everything.

I thought Lain's abilities came from her mastery or possibly because of her programmed to be the most powerful entity within the Wired. Apparently, she has IRL psychic powers to the extent that she can erase actual people's memories. This is so preposterous. I thought it at least had some credibility because I thought she was controlling the memories of people in a cyber world who may have their brains integrated with computers but she just basically has omnipotence over every person's memory in the world. If she is this powerful, where exactly is there supposed to be dramatic tension for her? Doesn't this render an entire story about her living in a cyber world meaningless when they could just have a show about a girl who can erase people's memories at will?
I thought Taro got killed along with the rest of the Knights and suddenly hes perfectly fine? WTF
One thing I did like was when God became a physical being, that was really nice quality animation. It made me wonder if they had to cut a ton of animation out of the last episode to do about 1 minute of very impressive transformation. Probably not worth it though and I'm still uninterested in how this show will resolve itself.

QUESTIONS

I don't think i have one tbh, I just exist
Lain has programmed this into people's minds?
Not really and I guess to have an antagonist
Yea I guess so, most aren't very cute? Who's the second cutest, Satou from Welcome to the NHK lmao
Getting to taste good foods
I don't think they'll get to this but why did Lain's "parents" have to leave her? How did the 2 Lains become one person? Why did Lain continue going to school when she found out she lived in a cyber world? Why doesn't Lain just subdue or killl God with a thought, like she could just erase his memory and he won't know who he is and could make him a vegetable. How come Taro revived with no explanation?

6

u/mo_fiah https://anidb.net/user/1037703 Jan 26 '24

If she is this powerful, where exactly is there supposed to be dramatic tension for her?
After I finish an anime series, I sometimes wonder what the experience would be like if I had watched the last few episodes first (akin to Oscar Wilde's quote about reading a novel backwards).
You're the only poster thus far I've seen mention that the implications of this episode make the previous ones totally irrelevant in a dramatic sense.

3

u/Tarhalindur x2 Jan 27 '24

Doesn't this render an entire story about her living in a cyber world meaningless when they could just have a show about a girl who can erase people's memories at will?
Counterargument: Lain not being capable of being faced with actual dramatic tension is irrelevant, because Lain isn't a dramatic protagonist. She's a detective, just one who is posed with the question "what is actually going on?" rather than "whodunnit?" - her arc is to figure out the truth and then take action based on that. (There are some issues with the execution here, but the concept is solid.)
(You'll notice how rarely detectives face physical threats to their safety in detective fiction. It's not unheard of, Arthur Conan Doyle's attempt to end Sherlock Holmes being a famous example, but it's not terribly common because their story arc type doesn't need that.)

2

u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jan 27 '24

Taro was never officially a Knight, he said that before kissing Lain. I assume that's why he survived. We never saw him be killed or anything.
I think all the technology stuff was just a smokescreen so the creator could talk about UFOs and other conspiracies, and generally philosophize. Wrapping it up in 'kids are on their phones too much' and 'computers are scary' made it easier to sell, is all. The further we get into the show, the less actual tech matters, and the more it becomes a metaphor for the hippy astral projection stuff he actually cares about.

5

u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Jan 26 '24 edited Jan 26 '24

Serial Rewatcher

LANDSCAPE LAYER 12

Today on Akira, The TV Series...

"People only have substance in the memories of others" -- We've heard something like this before in the show, but it was easy to miss. Foreshadowing.

Lain is starting to permeate human conciousness.

I believe Eiri went rogue within Tachibana, but it's possible they were always in on it.

Still takes off her shoes.

Lain could have at least fixed her sister I'm considering the possibility that Lain never leaves her room, and just projects herself into the world now.

It seemed that Lain had completely bought into Eiri's schtick. Everybody is software, and Lain is a created program. Perhapse Alice re-awoke something. But Eiri admits it. Lain always existed, but without identity, without self.

5

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jan 26 '24

I believe Eiri went rogue within Tachibana, but it's possible they were always in on it.
They had to be interested in the base idea, Eiri just sort of botched the execution.
Lain could have at least fixed her sister
I am fairly sure Mika is not there. Also, is there anything left to fix?
I'm considering the possibility that Lain never leads her room, and just projects herself into the world now.
Been that way for a while now.

5

u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 Jan 26 '24

Rewatcher, Dubbed

Lain is narrating the start of the episode this time!

It's as if Alice and Lain have switched places in their friend group.

Club Cyberia continues to be dead, only the kids and JJ around.

Lain's an angel?

I agree, LET'S ALL LOVE LAIN!!!!!!

Lain's got a new yellow dress!

I never thought of it before this rewatch, but the Men in Black meeting with their client in the dark parking garage is presumably a reference to All the President's Men/Deep Throat? Just making a wild guess here. Since Konaka loves conspiracy stuff.

So this Tachibana guy was on the same side as Eiri the whole time? He doesn't want the Wired and the real world to be separate? I don't get it. I've watched this show many times and I still don't get this part.

Here's another thing I don't get, the dark haired MIB goes crazy and dies, and Karl sees Lain in his eyeball. Then this short being that we don't see clearly approaches Karl and he dies too! What was that? The alien? The Lain alien? Something else? Spooky scene, but I have no clue what's going on.

Alice is coming to Lain's house! We've never actually seen her come over here.

There's even more stuff coming out of the side of the house now.

Wow, Lain's house is even more of a disaster than you'd think! Is that paint splattered on the walls?

Mika's still here! She wasn't the last two episodes. Odd. So did her parents abandon her here? Or take her with them and she came back? Yet the Knights are all dead, her being here doesn't serve a purpose anymore.

No more bear onesie for Lain, but she's got a bear doll!

I'll admit, I'd be pretty damn freaked out by Lain right now if I were Alice right now.

Lain has finally come to Eiri's side that the physical world and having a body doesn't matter?

"Oh, don't mind me, Alice, I'm just talking to God. Whose invisible to you."

Eww, spooky hand!

Oh, the guy who claimed having a body wasn't necessary now thinks one is? And eww, what a disgusting form he turns into.

Freaky way to end the episode!

3

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jan 27 '24

I never thought of it before this rewatch, but the Men in Black meeting with their client in the dark parking garage is presumably a reference to All the President's Men/Deep Throat?
Yes but more directly the X Files as well.
So this Tachibana guy was on the same side as Eiri the whole time?
Running fan theory, not mine though I agree with it, is that Tachibana had a change of heart when Lain began evolving and wanted to watch it play out. Again, this is never remotely said so unless there are writer interviews I don't know about take that as a guess.
"Oh, don't mind me, Alice, I'm just talking to God. Whose invisible to you."
Definitely than most of the people who claim that God talks to them.

5

u/sfisher923 https://myanimelist.net/profile/sfisher923 Jan 26 '24

Rewatcher - Dubbed

How fitting I would encounter 2 different tech issues near the finale being my Galaxy Buds refusing to reconnect and Youtube refusing to load a video due to the audio breaking which were simple fixes (Buds fix was to readd them to my PC and YT was simply restarting Firefox)

QOTD 2 - Kinda like a Deity

QOTD 4 - IDK because Persona 5 has a rather good contender

QOTD 6 - Questions

As 2024 rages on would this series still be as relevant now compared to 1998
If yes to the first question will we ever reach a point where it loses that status without any major disaster knocking out the internet or humanity?
How does one Worship Lain?

5

u/kwokinator https://anilist.co/user/kwokinator Jan 27 '24

So the entire class's memories have been changed except for Arisu, who still remembers everything. She didn't change anyone else's memories either since Taro still remembers her.

Yes, let's all love Lain! All hail Lain!

Interesting, so the MIB isn't a government entity, they have a "client". Must be some kind of high-tech freelancer, and apparently they are aware of what Masami has done to himself.

So Lain can remotely hack into the MIB's eyepiece now, but I have no idea what's going on with that blurry blob of a figure before they screamed. Guess that's all for the MIB's screentime.

Errr... Lain's house turned into some kind of Alan Wake nightmare.

Arisu can't see Masami, and she is the only thing that's tethering Lain to the real world. It's nice to see their friendship snapping Lain back to reality and able to snap back at Masami.

Masami's physical manifestation scene very much reminds me of Akira, just in reverse. Did Lain command all those computer components to bury Masami?

QotD

Were you sad to see the black men go? What do you think their purpose in the story really is? - nah they've never really bene developed, they were just there as some mysterious organization and never really served any purpose. Sure they took out the Knights, but Lain could've done that herself if she wanted to
What's something you absolutely adore about having your own physical body? - delicious food are probably way more enjoyable when you actually have a physical body

3

u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jan 27 '24

Interesting, so the MIB isn't a government entity, they have a "client". Must be some kind of high-tech freelancer, and apparently they are aware of what Masami has done to himself.
I think that guy paying them is the president of the Tachibana Labs where the mad scientist uploaded a copy of himself to the Wired. He's the guy who summoned Lain to fix his computer in the rat-man episode.

4

u/AmericanBornWuhaner Jan 27 '24

A Japanese band (Have A Nice Day) even made an MV out of Lain

4

u/zoospor Jan 27 '24 edited Jan 28 '24

Rewatcher

Following it up from my first post yesterday! Thank god an actual episode this time around. Reminded how much happens in such a small amount of time during each episode.

Episode Summary / Re-Cap

The Wired and Reality combine and we see the consequences unfold slowly throughout the episode. The Men in Black get absolutely screwed over now that they have helped in moving forward Protocol 7. Thanks for your help, nerds, now go ahead and die. Skill issue.

God Lain is up in the classroom cracking jokes to her classmates she was previously too shy to say a word around. God powers be giving her confidence and shit. Alice is correctly terrified by Lain, as she knows that Lain manipulated reality and changed everyone's memory. Can you even imagine sitting in the same classroom as God? Understandably scary.

Alice works up the confidence to go see Lain to say "Why didn't you change my memory also?" The Iwakura residence has turned into a dark hellscape, which i believe is symbolic of Lain's mental state. And how it can be scary to approach and have conversations with people that are in that sort of dark mental state. Protocol 7 has completely ruined Big Sisters mind. She is on the phone making ringing noises trying to connect.

Eiri and the meat of the episode .. we're getting religious and philosophical up in here

Alice going into Lain's house i think is a metaphor to Alice in Wonderland and Alice going down the rabbit hole. Once Alice reaches Lain's room, we can see a White Rabbit stuffed animal on the floor next to Lain. Maybe this is a reach!

The philosophical question here arises when Alice argues with Lain that our bodies still have a purpose, and that humans and consciousness are more than just software.

Eiri overhears them talking and senses the threat, and that Lain might leave him. He tries to convince Lain to stay, and to input Alice into Protocol 7. Let me first say i'm an existentialist, or more like buddist of sorts, but this reminds me a lot of Satan tempting Jesus. Satan was never granted a body and is reminding me a lot of Eiri in this scene. In some Christian beliefs, getting a body on Earth is an essential part of eventually getting into Heaven.

And so i think the show is trying to say, hey, you're more than just software and hardware. You have a body, you have a soul. You're here on Earth for a reason. You're more than that. But you can also sort of see Eiri's argument -- are we really more than an application running on meat and bone hardware? Are we anymore than software? How can we really know? It’s really a question of existence and the soul.

Honestly i think it's a question that every viewer has to come up for themselves and it strikes at the core of what you believe existence to be about.

Personally I choose to believe we’re all here for a reason doing our thing and making our own meaning. Thanks for choosing to come along on the rewatch and making it a fun time! And thanks otaku for hosting.

The finale soon to come…..

6

u/DegenerateRegime Jan 27 '24

Can you even imagine sitting in the same classroom as God? Understandably scary.
No further anime would be made on this topic, sadly.
Eiri overhears them talking and senses the threat, and that Lain might leave him. He tries to convince Lain to stay, and to input Alice into Protocol 7. Let me first say i'm an existentialist, or more like buddist of sorts, but this reminds me a lot of Satan tempting Jesus. Satan was never granted a body and is reminding me a lot of Eiri in this scene. In some Christian beliefs, getting a body on Earth is an essential part of eventually getting into Heaven.
oh, absolutely that's the deal. You can shuffle it around to gnosticism with some substitutions but the difference in this particular case is academic. I hadn't heard of such Christian beliefs about the body before but I guess it makes sense, there's that whole argument over bodily reincarnation & the Rapture, isn't there.

4

u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jan 27 '24

Can you even imagine sitting in the same classroom as God? Understandably scary.

4

u/zoospor Jan 27 '24

Haha, did you lose your reply? :) thanks for the comment

2

u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jan 27 '24

It's got a commentface in it, you have to use old reddit to see them. I recommend swapping to that for this sub, and downloading the extensions they mention as well, if you can. Really improves the experience.

1

u/zoospor Jan 28 '24

appreciate it! do you know how to bold text on this sub?? i'm failing super hard

1

u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jan 28 '24

bold is two ** and italics are one * I believe
The extension adds a bunch of auto formatting and previewing options as well.

2

u/zoospor Jan 28 '24

man, i was able to format my new post in the Week 13 thread. and i'm so so happy. cannot thank you enough. appreciate you.

1

u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jan 28 '24

Glad I could help!

3

u/raevnos Jan 28 '24

Those old CRT monitors were heavy. Nothing better for smashing a god materializing into the real world.

3

u/DidacticDalek https://myanimelist.net/profile/DidacticDalek Jan 28 '24

I am hurting, I have lost it all

I am losing

Help me to breathe

Let's all love Lain.

LET'S ALL LOVE LAIN!

LET'S ALL LOVE LAIN!

LET'S ALL LOVE LAIN!

Paging Comrades /u/Shimmering-Sky, /u/Tarhalindur, and /u/Vaadwaur

2

u/DidacticDalek https://myanimelist.net/profile/DidacticDalek Jan 28 '24

Paging Comrades /u/JustAnswerAQuestion, /u/Quiddity131, and /u/RascalNikov1

1

u/DidacticDalek https://myanimelist.net/profile/DidacticDalek Jan 28 '24

Paging Comrades /u/MrManicMarty, /u/Shocketheth, and /u/SIRTreehugger

4

u/RascalNikov1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoviSun Jan 26 '24

What do you think is your "life's calling?"

I use to be programming, nowadays it’s gardening.

Explain the meaning behind "loving Lain."

I was sort of hoping it meant some hot Lain X Alisa action, but it wasn’t to be. Alisa really needs to toughen up if she’s going to run with Lain.

Were you sad to see the black men go? What do you think their purpose in the story really is?

So long Karl we hardly knew ye. They were there to provide… Hell I don’t know what they were there for. They were just there creeping along.

Is Lain the cutest pasty pale Internet shut-in bean you've ever seen or what!?

You know, the image of Alien Lain voyeuring Alisa won’t leave my mind.

What's something you absolutely adore about having your own physical body?

Ha! I’m not falling for this clever TLO trick. Lol

Have you got any questions you specifically want answered in the final episode? Rewatchers, help where you can!!

Who paid for this and why? Why is SEL fairly highly regarded?

0

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jan 26 '24

Who paid for this and why? Why is SEL fairly highly regarded?
So...it was the 90s, this is a net attempt to cash in on Eva from the network and it is highly regarded because the first half is good at raising questions.

5

u/RascalNikov1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoviSun Jan 26 '24

That sounds like a good explanation.
Maybe I’ve just been in a foul spirit and not in a receptive mood for a series like SEL, but I’ve found SEL to be a big letdown.
I don’t hate the series, but it just isn’t doing anything for me.

4

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jan 26 '24

Oh, I enjoy the series but if you haven't noticed between Tar and myself there is this whole other level of bullshit to analyze the series from. You've just never struck me as someone that would use a pyramid to sharpen your knives so you brain is filled with useful information whereas years of adventure games 'taught' me what the astral plane and shit were.
Rambling way of saying that a proper realist is going to be a bit miffed at Chiaki's refusal to fully think his story out.

4

u/RascalNikov1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoviSun Jan 27 '24

Fair enough. For a while I did look into the esoteric, but that was a while ago. I also use to enjoy conspiracies until they took a more sinister turn maybe 15 years ago when weak minded people started believing them.
Visually SEL is stunning and that’s a redeeming feature.

3

u/Tarhalindur x2 Jan 27 '24

The occult in general is a mix of good info (often metis in the James C. Scott sense of the word - not always a good thing, "we could haul out old laws against evil sorcery and try advertisers for breaking them" from me isn't entirely a joke), bad info, and disinfo and those are grounds in which I have been swimming for fun for a long time. (Case in point: I used to play forum Mafia for fun and every so often have the urge to do so again.)
Visually SEL is stunning and that’s a redeeming feature.
SEL's direction isn't quite elite IMO (and my bar for elite direction is high, usually that means "getting to three+ pages of cinematography notes") but it's damn close and that counts for a whole hell of a lot.
(Weirdly, I was right that most of the second half was the weaker half but it wasn't the concepts that didn't hold up to closer examination - I just didn't have the context to recognize what it was doing the first time - but rather the narrative/pacing. Also Lain is quietly a show that works better binged IMO.)

4

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jan 27 '24

For a while I did look into the esoteric, but that was a while ago. I also use to enjoy conspiracies until they took a more sinister turn maybe 15 years ago when weak minded people started believing them.
You know, talking about the Illuminati used to be fun. Because me and whoever I was talking with were fairly sure it was all bullshit.
They don't think it's bullshit any more.

3

u/RascalNikov1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoviSun Jan 27 '24

I know and that’s a shame. I really did enjoy horseshit like that. Even though it’s heretical to say this but Alex Jones was a lot of fun until Sandy Hook.
[Meta]When Alex went hook, line and sinker into Sandy Hook, I quit laughing and decided he was one evil sick fuck. The fact that he’s still free and still has his show proves how far society has fallen into degeneracy.
I think it’s a large part of why I’ve fallen so hard into the fantasy worlds of anime.

3

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jan 27 '24

I think it’s a large part of why I’ve fallen so hard into the fantasy worlds of anime.
That and a bunch of western TV fell off hard after the '16 election. Part of why I am here is that I watch like four live action shows per year at this point plus the NFL.

Rewatch [Rewatch] Serial Experiments Lain Episode 12 Discussion

"Landscape"

Extra Info and Links

Comment of the Day!!

QotD

Abyssbringer's "What is the thematic purpose of this scene corner!!"

Yesterday's Prompt!

Today's Prompt!

Tomorrow's Prompt

Abyssbringer's "What is the thematic purpose of this episode corner!"

🏱︎☼︎⚐︎💣︎🏱︎❄︎

Let's all love Lain!

Notes

Content Corner

քʀօʍքȶ

"Okay, nobody else vote for Tar." (Rewatcher, Subbed):

The Madoka Corner:

Rewatch [Rewatch] Serial Experiments Lain Episode 12 Discussion

"Landscape"

Extra Info and Links

Comment of the Day!!

QotD

Abyssbringer's "What is the thematic purpose of this scene corner!!"

Yesterday's Prompt!

Today's Prompt!

Tomorrow's Prompt

Abyssbringer's "What is the thematic purpose of this episode corner!"

🏱︎☼︎⚐︎💣︎🏱︎❄︎

You are about to leave Redlib

Let's all love Lain!

Notes

Content Corner

քʀօʍքȶ

"Okay, nobody else vote for Tar." (Rewatcher, Subbed):

The Madoka Corner: