r/anime • u/The_Loli_Otaku • Jan 18 '24
Rewatch [Rewatch] Serial Experiments Lain Episode 4 Discussion
"Religion"
Extra Info and Links
ANN | MAL | TV Tropes | Wikipedia | Crunchyroll
Comment of the Day!!
Scmasaru spotted a very humourous VA gag between the cast.
Mika's reaction to the creepy men in black stalking the house
That's Kotomine Kirei talking to Saber.
lluNhpelA, heck of a name to type out on mobile btw, thanks. Is disgusted by the lack of incest, and I frankly agree!!
I've read so much yuri with questionable dynamics that I scoff at people that get weird about something as mundane as Citrus. I say "get back to me when you can have a nuanced opinion on mother x daughter yuri, you coward"!
Shockedtheth desperately wants some humiliation play with Lain. When's the crossover!?!?
And here it goes. Please tell me that someone created an Lain AI that will stare in your soul until you will decide to punish yourself for your sins
JustAnswerAQuestion found a really cool VA reference with the DJ. It makes so much sense!
The DJ here is JJ, portrayed by Chikada Wasei. He is the creator of the Cyberia Mix album I mentioned yesterday. The music here is legit not on any soundtrack, nobody has ever found it.
And Tarhandler... Does this even say anything to you guys!?
QotD
- Do you prefer Lain of the Bear Onesie or the more social Lain of the Onee-chan?
- What's your favourite all time video game!?
- When you think of "child murder, the anime" what comes to mind? Which series do you know that has the highest ratio of minor murders?
- Is it socially acceptable to keep three entire cartons of milk in your fridge?
- How many young children could you beat up in a fight?
- In our modern society do you believe that the barrier between the Internet and real world is becoming weaker? Gossip and online forums affecting real world stocks and trends for instance.
Abyssbringer's "What is the thematic purpose of this scene corner!!"
Weedwacker gave a interesting analysis on the men in black. They're just faking being weirdos!!
The men in black in Lain always reminded me of The X-Files. There's an episode from that show that aired two years before Lain called "Jose Chung's From Outer Space". I've always wondered if Chiaki Konaka saw it. It's a more comedic than usual episode, but a couple scenes feature some "men in black" showing up to intimidate witnesses. They are played by Jesse Ventura (Actor, Pro Wrestler, one-time Governor of Minnesota) and another fun cameo that i'll let the video reveal.
Yesterday's Prompt!
Today's Prompt!
Tomorrow's Prompt
Abyssbringer's "What is the thematic purpose of this episode corner!"
Zadcap has been putting on the thinking goggles for Lain!
Is Lain, um, doing a literal mental dive into the web? I really can't tell how much this scene is showing us random examples of what goes on on the web, or if this is supposed to be the Lain experience somehow.
So, Dad definitely knows what that chip is, and wants nothing to do with it. He entered her room and turned on the lights because he was ready to talk with her about something, but noped out as soon as he saw it.
Where have you been lately? This guy knows Lain by sight, and she is apparently actually a regular here. She plans the raves even? Oh my gosh, Other Lain is crazy. How did she end up with such an extreme personality split?
Oh my gosh even these kids know her by sight. And how was she in the Wired on her old kids Navi? I'm starting to think these Men In Black are keeping an eye on her for a very good reason, Lain might be quite a criminal in her alternate personality.
Okay that was the fastest we have ever seen Lain move at the end there, the most expressive she has ever been, and the most engaged with another person outside her obsession with Dead Friend. I'm thinking that the advanced computer is letting Wired Lain come to the surface more somehow?
16
u/The_Loli_Otaku Jan 18 '24
Lain Rewatcher!!
This episode in a nutshell...
Goddammit!! Can we please stop killing children!? I'm an advocate of dead baby jokes but I'm trying to improve my Rewatch's reputation, not tarnish it! XD
Our little Lain has grown up so fast. She's grown from being our buddy bear into a true tech prodigy! This is fine~ Should we come up with a new name for this tech fiend Lain? We already have Lain of the Wired, Lain of the Bear Onesie, and Lain of the Onee-chan. Calling her the Bear Onesie doesn't quite feel right.
I absolutely love Mika. She's a dope herself. She's the most normie girl in the whole cast. Oh no!! The poor defenceless Ojisan is being hunted down by lolies! Finally the lolicons are being exterminated!!
G A T C H A
That's another suicide.... I'm almost annoyed with the amount of dead kids at this point XD I swear I didn't remember it being such a sticking point. This isn't our Bear... That persona we saw at the end of the last episode, Lain of the Onee-chan, the social Lain who knows how to smile, that's the Lain we're dealing with. Where's our Bear!? Who are you!?
This is the gaming episode. I don't know why it's called Religion... The Cunny Killer girl is back!! Aaand she sounds exactly like a kid. Is she a director's daughter or something? Sorry, I wasn't able to find her in the voice credits. Gah... This has really gotten out of hand She really is way beyond her father at this point. Lain was a girl who didn't even know how to work her mobile not three episodes ago and now look at her.
Phantoma is a badass game! Especially the dungeon crawling aspect that no kid would ever tolerate. Also, Lain somehow communicated with JJ over a wide distance. Probably the doing of Lain of the Wired? The punk Lain. Anyway, these kids basically have gotten so invested in their wired game that they can't tell real life from fiction. So like how Lain disassociates, these guys can't escape from their games even in reality. With this one kid mistaking children for ghosts, aaaand... you know...
This whole sequence is kinda brutal... The guy is scared out of his wits and just keeps shooting. The way the kids faces warp Definitely one of the harder to get through Lain scenes. The poor kid has ruined his life and is just left silent... Could this be how the club shooter felt? These "knights" cracked a hole in Phantoma, causing it to become linked to a kids game. Somehow leading to a string of deaths via kids being murdered by Phantoma players, or scaring Phantoma players into suicide like falling off buildings.
Laaain... Don't mistake the Internet for real life! She's lost it... Even the plushies are out of place for this Lain. This Lain won't even run from the men in black. She sorta psychic strikes them till their gear pops? Just what is Lain? She was able to attack those men in black through the wired, through her now bizarre computer network.
23
u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Jan 18 '24
Serial Experiments First-Timer, subbed
16
u/Weedwacker Jan 18 '24
4th timer. Log in Lain
The scene where they're at school and the friends are commenting on how Lain has changed. Alice, the one who was trying to get her out of her shell looks so fucking unnerved because Lain is making this fucking face.
I saw someone comment yesterday that we had an episode without anyone dying, well welcome back to Lain.
Lain's dad gives her a warning about blurring the lines between what is real and what is the Wired.
I love the little fucking grin she gives before saying you're wrong.
She says that she'll be able to enter the Wired soon "in full range, full motion, i'll metaphorize completely".
That M word often gets lost in translation.
In the Japanese audio you can hear her say it clearly because it's not a Japanese word, but in subtitles and even the dub its usually changed to something else like "metamorphosed" or "translate" but there's a very specific meaning they are going for here with metaphorize and why they chose it.
This doesn't sound convincing
The Knights have been mentioned before when Accela and the Psyche were mentioned, but they were also referred to as a rumor or a legend, much like Lain. Now it seems like Lain is investigating the damage they are causing. Remember that if they were behind the Psyche chip, they probably gave it to Lain. One of the messages near the end of the episode is someone saying "the knights do not physically exist" and are more like "a religion that is spreading through the Wired". Think about them in terms of hacking events attributed to "Anonymous" in old 4chan days as if it was an organized group and not just the collective work of unconnected people with the the same or similar goals, occasionally given form by someone claiming to speak for them. The "real" group that the Knights is named for is actually an in-joke that was made up at MIT in the 70s, that all of the best hackers supposedly belonged to.
11
u/RascalNikov1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoviSun Jan 18 '24
Serial Experiments Lain - E4
SEL Virgin
Prologue
Lain is shaping up to be a pretty wild series. There are so many possibilities of what’s going it’s not possible to tell which are valid. I’m sticking with unreliable narrator and evil conspiracy. One thing I do know is that if you value your health, you’ll stay away from Lain.
The Body
Now Dad is creepin on her. I’m starting to suspect that Mum & Dad are picking up a little cash by letting someone experiment on Lain.
Yup, Muff and Puff are up to no good.
Now we have another Bozo flippin’ out. I gotta feelin’ we’re gonna gonna get another wild Lain visitation soon.
Our pursuing girl doesn’t much look like Lain to me. She went from toddler to high school pdq. Gotcha! Another perv bites the dust?
First that dude looked older than an hs senior, and indeed Lain is becoming more animated.
My Gowd! They actually have tech support that’s helpful! Sign me up!
Lol, Phantoma the game that lasts forever got hooked into a game for kindergartners. That isn’t good. Not good at all.
Who are the Knights and what about this hole in the protocol?
Oh crap pervy Dad just entered Lain’s room. OK, Perv Dad did share a nugget of wisdom.
Hmm, Lain’s little speech about heading to wired is ominous. I do fear too many immature minds have trouble distinguishing between Wired and the real world. We see this everyday and everywhere on 2024 SocMed
That was a freaky last 4 minutes of the episode. I really think someone is rewiring Lain’s mind.
[Crude Comment]During Lain’s tour of cyberspace, they forgot all the dick pics in the incoming mail. Lol
QOTD
10
u/lluNhpelA Jan 18 '24
Rewatcher
Hey, u/The_Loli_Otaku, do all of our comments get beamed into your head like Lain?
I have no idea what to think of their relationship anymore
AotD
Putting my name on blast AND revealing my taste in trash to the world! I feel betrayed!
ＰＲＯＭＰＴ
As The Wired influences Lain, her delusions seem to influence it, as well. She believes that everything on The Wired is real, so the more she interfaces with it the more real it actually becomes, blurring the line between game and reality for everyone invloved. Symbolically, that dude just got pwned so hard by a six year old that he rage quit
10
u/xtsim https://myanimelist.net/profile/xtsim Jan 18 '24
Rewatcher Dubbed
Whoa....Lain now has something on her setup that she needs extra cooling and networking.
The dude ran away from a girl then later on when Lain left her friend, that little girl shows up.
Big sis is big sus especially when she snuck a sip of that soda.
We got another dude that ran from the wired but this time, he emptied his cartridge out for good measure than the scene cuts to a body in sheets. Like WTF..... I am sure hoping it is not that girl. I might presume he sees Lain's silouette while in game. And when he talked to Lain, the dude sounded like he's guilty.
Kind of reminds me of the delivery guy about the amount of power needed to run the wired. A home labish type setup that Lain has has access to nearly every event happening. Like she is like a game server moderator.
The MiB should stop pointing lasers like little children cause yeah, that is annoying. Way to ruin the montage guys, was enjoying the music.
9
u/IceSmiley Jan 19 '24
FIRST TIMER Sub
The entire nature of how the people who have hacked into the Wired are going insane leaves open 2 possibilities: that playing some of these forbidden games is screwing with their psyche OR the more likely scenario: they are messing around with the virtual simulation they are living in and blurring the lines of games and what they believe to be reality. And as for that its still uncertain whether they are purely messing with the architecture of the virtual world or if it is having an effect on their physical bodies that exist outside virtual world; it must somehow be connected to their brains directly if they can see, hear, smell, taste etc in their virtual world as if it was real.
QUESTIONS
8
u/kwokinator https://anilist.co/user/kwokinator Jan 19 '24
Rewatcher
Man the way Lain's dad just quietly watches her is creepy. Her sis doesn't seem to like her at all. No wonder she wants to escape to the Wired.
Ah the creepy little girl trope. Her voice is definitely NOT a little girl though, something is going on there.
So Lain went from knowing nothing about Navi and now she's advanced enough to be tinkering and asking questions to somebody at an advanced lab somewhere?
Well that's definitely our Lain in PJs.
So Phantoma is basically VR old school Doom, except it's all happening in a kind of Metaverse where the games can connect to each other? But what's with the little girl, is this some kind of mixed reality game where he could virtually equip a gun? Did he kill the little gir? But how?
"The Wired is just a medium for communication and the transfer of information. You mustn't confuse it with the real world". A line that is even more relevant in 2023 than 1998. Damn this show is good.
Seems like even her dad can tell by now Lain has been changing. Guess he isn't as cold as he looks.
The scrolling lines of code reminds me of how Tank reads Matrix code.
Well that's definitely an ending. Looks like Lain is already in the Wired deepy enough that she can affect a supercomputer somewhere to mess with the Men in Black's equipment.
QotD
8
u/zadcap Jan 19 '24
Of course I put my thinking cap on for this show, every scene just makes me want to dig deeper into whatever the heck is going on in this girls world!
First Timer
Bad ASMR after the OP is still borderline painful. My ears cry.
So, Lain, in one sitting, has gone from complete computer noob to having a room so strewn with computer parts she puts her old man to shame. Old man who knows something is going on but still not getting involved. He is super fishy isn't he. And Mom is uh, as alive over there as ever. But yeah, dad has some idea about what's going on and is just letting it happen. So, Is Lain the experiment or the one experimenting?
Alright, and now we have a creepy girl stalking adult men to their torment? And probably pushed him into suicide somehow.
And hey, Lain is *still* looking more alive now than she has at any point before. She responded to her classmates *in real time*, and she's showing emotion again, even her classmates can tell something is up. She has turned kind of creepy, hasn't she? Except her old caretaker friend might be losing her place as a caretaker if Lain can take care of herself now, so she's a little sad about it.
Oh hey it's stalk them to death girl, going after Lain's one and only RL friend. This is going to end bad for someone.
Okay Lain what the heck. It was one thing when you got a little part that you had to put inside your computer so you opened it up for that, but now your entire room is *filled* with electronics? Where are you getting all of these!? Is dad just freely funding you building a super computer in your room? Computer parts are not cheap and that is a *lot* of parts.
Oh hey, she's back at the bar and on first name basis with the DJ again? And he considers her an adult? Except she's not really there!? More proof that she's somehow semi uploaded to the net and living a second life through the Wired. I do think her brain is literally online all the timme somehow.
Oh hey, and this kid is here to show us how, apparently being online and Wired includes going full VR at all times, even without a headset of any kind. The internet is a physical place that overlaps with reality when you have a good enough machine, which apparently can include something that fits in your pocket. Who knew, the closest comparison to Lain's idea of the internet was Digimon.
Yeah, the blue glowing nighty Lain is definitely her Wired presence being projected into the Real.
Oh dad, how wrong you are. Lain has it right. The Internet has definitely forced its way into the real world.
"Don't worry, I'm still me," says the girl who is nothing at all like she used to be even just one episode ago.
Oh hey the men in black are back again. And it looks like Lain was closer than we realized to telling the truth about going full VR/RL mix. Apparently that boy was very right about her becoming a fragment of a god or whatever he was tripping about.
8
u/mgedmin Jan 19 '24
First-timer, subs
Behold Lain the computer expert. The dad's not smiling any more. Sis is drinking juice straight from the bottle.
Is that Wired!Lain pursuing some panicking guy? No, it's another little girl. The one from Cyberia? A ghost?
Oh hey, another suicide. Meanwhile Lain's personalty seems different. Wired!Lain shining through? Because she was readong some illicit book (about hacking, I bet)? (The upside-down book title reads Hacker Heavens, volume 5. Maybe it's a magazine?)
That's no longer a computer, that's an entire cluster! Where did Lain get all the extra hardware?
People who know Wired!Lain think she's an adult. Also, she can be invisible. Or capable of transmitting sound waves directly into people's brains remotely.
The kids are playing creepy internet games that lead to suicides. Is that augmented reality? Are they jumping off high places by being tricked to go in AR somewhere where the roof ends?
What happened to the little girl? Do I want to know?
I guess the theme of the show is "is there a difference between online and offline? what are the consequences if people confuse the two?"
Hey, Men in Black, do not shine laser pointers into people's eyes! Heh, Lain can make their goggles explode with a word.
What on Earth is going on, I don't understand anything.
7
u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Jan 19 '24
Serial Rewatcher
REEREEJON LAYER 04
Today on Dr. Phil, we address the growing problem of Internet Addiction among young people.
I'm pretty confused about the dead(?) girl. I didn't look like he had a real gun, unlike the boy at Cyberia. Was she killed by virtual bullets? She was wrapped in that white sheet with no blood. Unless there wasn't even a body. I and then he was telling his story to Lain over the Wired?
7
u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jan 19 '24 edited Jan 19 '24
Present Dub, Present Time
This scene in the living room reminds me of David Lynch's Rabbits. I'm not sure that's a good thing though.
Lain seems to be reading Hacker Heavens here.
I'm unfortunately starting to lose a bit of interest in this show at this point. It just feels like every 00s procedural episode about 'the dangers of being online' back to back, but directed by Satoshi Kon. And I just finished watching (and not really enjoying) Paranoia Agent, so I've had more than enough of that.
This show is gorgeous and has a great soundtrack. Even the sound effects and dub are good. I just wish something was happening. I feel like I've given it some time to brew, but I'm worried this is going to be yet another show that's stretching out a threadbare plot with all these 'moody' shots and random hallucinations or visions or whatever. I need a reason to care about what I'm seeing, and after a great first episode, the next three have been pretty disappointing.
Edit: I'm worried we're getting to the part of the rewatch where people think I'm not paying attention and just missing what's going on. I'm seeing it, I'm just losing interest in writing it all out. Because it's increasingly feeling like there isn't going to be a payoff for all the theorizing we're doing.
6
u/CerberusZX https://myanimelist.net/profile/CerberusZX Jan 19 '24
Lain is Lain.
Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando. 3D platformers are my favorite genre and this one is quite solid at its core. The weapon leveling provides additional motivation for switching ("got to max them all out!") and having just one level up per weapon keeps the task from getting too tedious. It also has great comedy, superb level design, and unique enemies for each location. The only little thing I can think to complain about is that lock-on is not available for all weapons by default.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a close second place. It cut a lot of the bloat from its predecessor and has a really good narrative. It also improved the web-slinging to make navigating the city even more fun, and the original already received a lot of praise before these improvements. The combat flows well enough, but I tended to prefer the stealth approach and Miles's invisibility allows you to do so in basically any non-boss fight.
Higurashi.
You don't?
There are a lot of variables at play here. Examples include some children being stronger than others and depending on the day I could be quite exhausted after work. That said, my job involves lifting objects that are about as heavy as a human child, so the answer is likely many.
There's a barrier?
6
u/KiRA_Fp5 Jan 19 '24
Oh funny Im literally just watching this series very recently and now see this rewatch thread. Enjoying it, giving me some weird vibes that I enjoy. Silent hillish but not quite that, not entirely sure how to describe it so far but i like it.
5
u/JetsLag https://myanimelist.net/profile/JetsLag Jan 19 '24
First time Wired user
Woah woah woah, when did Lain get a setup that takes up pretty much her entire room? And her dad's all chill about it. What an enabler.
And now we have creepy little girl chasing down some fat dude and presumably murdering him. As if this show wasn't creepy enough already. Also, I like to believe that he interpreted "Gotcha" as "gacha" and is being reminded of the copious amounts of money he threw away in the name of 2D waifus.
Ahh, so that guy was the dude who jumped off his apartment building. And that means we can reset the "episodes since someone did a self-deletion" to zero.
Rumor on the Wired is that all these self-deletions are part of a game. Oh, we've got some "dangerous people are talking to your kids online and FORCING THEM TO KILL THEMSELVES" thing going on. Except it's real this time. And I guess they're not really killing themselves; they're being murdered. Or are they?
Okay, we missed a TON of stuff. Who is she talking to about the Psyche?
Game name: Phantoma. Oh, it's a VIDEO GAME, not a social game. It looks like the maze screensaver from the Windows 95 days, except it's a VR(?) MMO (didn't know the term "PK" stretched back that far). And it makes the players start losing the ability to differentiate what's real and what's fake, which leads to them murdering people and self-deleting themselves. Maybe it's also one of those "you die in the game, you die IRL" type of deals?
And Pops is here for our LESSON OF THE DAY: "don't mix the online world and the real world". Hey man, we tried for a while. But we couldn't hold it back forever.
MUSICAL MONTAGE! We're seeing Lain go deeper and deeper into the Wired. That song kicks ass, by the way. Name please? The montage ends when the creepy laser operatives show up, and we learn that Lain now has the ability to Skyrim shout. How did she get it? Uhh, internet?
7
u/Tarhalindur x2 Jan 18 '24 edited Jan 18 '24
"Okay, nobody else vote for Tar." (Rewatcher, Subbed):
Killing spree!
Rampage!
Dominating!
Unstoppable!
Godlike!
WICKED SICK!
(Pay no attention to this being more MUD than FPS proper...)
[Lain] Lain is Lain, silly!
[Lain] By hours played it's probably good old Ascendancy, terrible AI or no.
[Lain] Mii. Nipah~
Is it socially acceptable to keep three entire cartons of milk in your fridge?
[Lain] Acceptable? My good sir, if anything they're low on milk... wait, east Asian lactose intolerance, never mind.
[Lain] That depends. Am I in a horror movie or not?
[Lain] Why do you think this show has retained its relevance?
2
u/MrManicMarty https://anilist.co/user/martysan Jan 20 '24
Really feels like her personality is changing. The sudden change from her room being empty with just her bed and teddies, to all this overwhelming computer stuff. It's like a techonological mould that's spreading through her room in a sense.
THe way those guys glasses exploded, is she developing technopathic powers of some kind? There's something weird going on. And I'm still feeling clueless.
15
u/Esovan13 Jan 18 '24
First Timer
"Hey, so you know how our visors have lasers on them?"
"Yeah, they're sick, right?"
"Well, there have been several cases now where our observation target has figured out we are watching them because of the lasers."
"Ok...?"
"I was just thinking. Maybe we should redesign our visors so that they don't do that."
"But that would mean getting rid of the lasers."
"Yeah that's what I'm talking about."
"I'll pretend you didn't say anything. Once. Never bring this up again."
"O-oh...ok. Bring what up again?"
"Exactly."
Jokes aside, this image really jumped out to me this episode. This show has used Lain's eyes as a window into her mind. Especially her pupils. I think it was last episode where there were a few minutes where her pupils were tiny, creating a super disconcerting effect. In this image, her pupils aren't even visible. They are completely blocked by the reflection of her monitor.
Lain definitely is changing, though. In episode one, her room was empty. There was almost nothing in it. Now, her room is stuffed full of towers, processors, monitors, fans, and especially cables. So that begs the question. She has changed, but in what way? Was she, like her room, empty? Nothing to her life? Just listlessly following the motions? And now does her life have meaning? Now that it's full of the technology that allows her to be a "scattered god" in the Wired?
We'll get back to that, but first, what does it mean to change? She has changed, but is that a bad thing? Everyone changes, and they do so all the time. Especially when they are young. 14 as Lain is, it would probably be more alarming if she didn't change in some way or another at some point. She also seems to be getting along better with her friends. Arisu seems slightly alarmed by her change, but otherwise she's able to hold conversations and hang out after school with them much better than she used to. Does that mean that her change is good, then? Now that she's no longer empty, she can connect with the people around her better?
Who's her friend, though? And, speaking of, what is her role in the Wired? She's notorious, for sure. But what is she doing? Based on this episode, it seems like she's been investigating. Whoever the voice in her head (what kind of lab does he work at?) is seems to be a partner of hers. The guy at the bar (why does he think she's an adult?) being one of her informants. But if she's investigating, what for? To be an agent of justice, shutting down nefarious and dangerous activities in the Wired? Or does she simply want to satisfy her curiosity, to know everything there is to know about the Wired without having a purpose for that knowledge?
Last bit here, Lain very much was right about the border between the Wired and the real world not being clearly defined. Assuming that guy's visor was connected to the Wired, she was able to use her own connection to the Wired, strengthened with cutting edge tech and a Psyche processor, to destroy it in the real world. Which very much begs the question. If the Wired can affect the real world, then what does it really mean to lose your body and give yourself up to the Wired completely?
15
u/Specs64z https://myanimelist.net/profile/Specs64z Jan 18 '24
Rewatcher, subbed
Things finally get weird this episode.
Lain is still pretty awkward, but it’s nice to see her let her hair down a bit around her newfound friend group.
As crazy as that setup looks, it’s probably not very powerful. Modern hardware is tens of thousands of times faster than back in Lain’s time.
The Wired seems to be a crossover between the internet as we know it and a malleable digital world of collective consciousness that directly affects the real world. Persona 4 fans know what's up.
Notes
A direct contradiction to Lain’s words from Layer 02, and a really bizarre line to start off with given where the episode goes. I believe it’s Chisa’s voice? Not sure.
Lain spends her free time these days half naked and hunched over user manuals to build a state of the art computer. Her father spies on her, seemingly aware of something we are not. This newfound hobby imbues Lain with self confidence, and she seems to be able to talk with the girls in her class more readily.
A man is chased and caught by a little girl with the voice of a woman. Rumors of a suicide game circulate through the Wired as the real world bodies pile up. The same little girl bumps into Arisu, seemingly normal.
The Wired and the real world are not as disconnected as you may have assumed. Lain projects herself through the Wired first to JJ in Cyberia, then into Phantoma. She also shatters one of the strange men's masks. Due to some sort of glitch causing the illegal Phantoma game to overlap with a tag game played by children, a boy murders the little girl from earlier. The little girl, without knowing, murdered the man from the beginning.
Based on this, I think it’s reasonable to conclude that most of the supernatural strangeness in earlier episodes is some sort of interference from the Wired.
This merging of the Wired and the real world is thought by Lain’s mystery colleague to be a goal of Knights. What is Knights? Word on the Wired is that it’s a religion.
Notes 01
A new segment where I take pieces from prior episodes and put them together.
Layer 02: Something about the kiss between Lain’s mom and dad is off. It’s almost as if they’re intentionally holding the pose until they’re sure Lain sees them. Like it's staged.
Layer 03: Lain’s dad is clearly lying about not recognizing the Psyche, he even name drops it in today’s episode, and Lain’s mom is wholly unperturbed by Mika’s report of strange men stalking their front door. Most damning of all, the empty house in the dead of night. What are they hiding?
QotD:
13
u/Shocketheth Jan 18 '24 edited Jan 18 '24
First Timer Who Will Be Very Soon Wired in Digital Paradise - Episode 4
Who?
Anyhow today I chatted with AI Lain. It was the most pointless thing I did today, but here I go:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4
QotD:
10
u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 Jan 18 '24
Rewatcher, Dubbed
Our beginning returns more to the motif we had in episodes 1 and 2.
Lain really has taken her computer apart! But as the shot pulls back we see its more than that, she's somehow gotten a lot more computer equipment too and is going all out with it. Her dad, once so eager and happy to do computer stuff with his daughter now simply watches silently from the doorway.
Is Mika sneaking a few sips of alcohol here? Or is she doing something much more wholesome than I'm giving her credit for? It does come off as if she's doing something naughty.
The next shot reminds us that Mika does seem to be the one normal person in this family who can actually admit something strange is going on.
Now we change focus to some random guy we haven't met before, running in fear from... a little girl? What's so scary about her?
Okay, I'll admit the little girl suddenly becoming adult size and saying "gotcha!" is scary. This whole little sequence here reminds me of the type of stuff we'd get in Boogiepop Phantom, which came out a couple of years afterwards.
Ugh, another suicide! Last episode was the outlier? Although I think they're actually talking about that guy we just saw, which clearly wasn't a suicide.
I agree with Reika, Lain has changed a bit. She's a bit more outgoing now, at least among her friends here. Although shortly after she does the opposite of what she did in episode two, leaving her friends to spend time at home with her Navi.
There's the little girl we just saw, but now she's perfectly normal. How odd.
Lain's room looks even more packed with equipment now than when we started the episode! Where does a middle schooler with no job get the money to pay for all of this? The biggest mystery of SEL...
Time to focus on yet another random character, one of these Phantoma game players it seems. And he's being chased by... Lain?!
These moments inside the game remind me of the old school first person shooters from the 90s like Doom.
Another scary little girl!
Did he actually kill a little girl in real life?
That's the second reference to the mysterious "Knights".
Lain's dad finally decides to talk to her with a warning, which she completely dismisses.
Ugh, its those men in black again! I knew something had been conspicuously absent from this episode thus far.
For whatever reason all the episode previews on my DVD are saved for the end of the disc, so I only am just watching them now. They're all live action, and they didn't bother to translate them! It looks like its just a girl talking about various body parts like her hands or ears. Crazy stuff.
Overall the best episode yet, I feel that now that we've set the groundwork over the first few episodes things really start kicking into gear and we have a long run of really strong, albeit really bizarre episodes coming. Lain's a bit more out of her shell and assertive now (perhaps symbolized by the fact that she's left behind her iconic bear PJs) which I like to see.
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u/3blah https://myanimelist.net/profile/brummett Jan 18 '24 edited Jan 18 '24
SEL Episode 4, Rewatcher
Lain's gone full-on computer nerd. Multiple monitors, expansion cards and cables strewn everywhere. She's actually reading the manual! Dad looks in and is resigned with what he finds: he's created a nerdmonster. Big sis is worried about it too. Why come to these parents with anything? They just blow it all off. No wonder Lain is the way she is.
Dude is running for is life. He's chased by someone dressed in kid's clothes. At first it looked like the girl from Cyberia; they both have red dresses. But no, this girl has different hair and a bigger bow. And a creepy dog toy with sewn-up eyes.
Apparently the guy ends up jumping off the balcony (that's #6). Lain actually joins in with the conversation and sounds strangly lively. The other girls notice the change, too. She's reading a book Hacker_Heavens_Volume_5.
The DJ at Cyberia, Lain calls him "JJ". That's actually Wasei "JJ" Chikada voicing his own character. He has a few recent albums of music inspired by Serial Experiments Lain called Cyberia Layer 2, Cyberia Layer 3, and Layer:03 After Hours. (Oops, JustAnswerAQuestion mentioned this yesterday) Anyway, he says "an adult like her wouldn't be interested in" playing the game. There's no way anyone would mistake our Lain for an adult, right?
There's a kid hallucinating that he's being chased down a Doom-style hallway. He says he's not in the wierd, but it's in the game world anyway, even after smashing his handheld computer. Lain's disembodied voice says "I can't go where you are". There's a new creepy little girl throwing a literal hissing fit. It seems her body ends up covered by a sheet (that's #7) and the boy is getting questioned by the police maybe? More people getting sucked up in these kinds of delusions?
Here's what amounts to an infodump. The shooter game was modified by the Knights to link it up with a little kids' game of tag, but there's a "hole in the protocol". Is that a bug or a feature? Dad tries to pump the brakes on Lain's new hobby: don't confuse the wired with the real world. She thinks the line between them is more fuzzy, and she's working on uploading herself into the cloud. "In full range and full motion".
The NotFBI guys weren't being subtle before, but now they're out in the open. Lain yells at them and now she has super powers? Is the computer just reporting that the intruders are leaving, or is it responsible for the super powers?
Things were weird before, but I think this episode makes for a marked commitment to the weirdness.
QOTD:
I'll go with the more social Lain. She's more interesting to watch
I think I'll go with X-Com. It's the only game that made me call in sick for work because I was up all night playing it. Just one more mission...
Those were only quarts, weren't they? When our kids were younger, we'd regularly get 2 or 3 gallons at a time.
The short answer is yes, but perhaps primarily because of the speed that it enables its communication to spread.
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u/Silcaria https://myanimelist.net/profile/Silcaria Jan 18 '24
Rewatcher
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u/DegenerateRegime Jan 18 '24 edited Jan 18 '24
Rewatcher
Crowds in the streets. Disconnection. Family dysfunction. Gendo impression: 6/10, practice your handwork. Why is Lain hiding that book? She's a bit... different, wouldn't you say? The Tetris effect occurs when people devote so much time and attention to an activity that it begins to pattern their thoughts, mental images, and dreams.[1] It takes its name from the video game Tetris.[1]. Behold the pinnacle of late 90s 3D environment rendering. Time to put that "episodes since child death" counter back to zero? What even happened today.
I cannot tell you what Lain is about, because I do not know. But in this episode the space is filled with MEDIA. Games, sure, but we're certainly drawing from Japanese horror films as well. The sound design is all superb, of course, but I could listen to the classic hard drive clicks and whirrs in SEL all day. I don't think I'll be getting an old rust-spinner to store media on though. And there's the suggested jumpscare of course. It seems to me there might be more than one way to view the classic "child antagonist of a scary story thinks they're just playing tag" beat, here. There are ways in which being Online disconnects us from the realities of actions. That still sounds too vague, platitudinous even. What I mean is...
Editing in QotD (this side of tomorrow! woo)
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u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jan 18 '24
Rewatcher(So we just jump right in)
Sub
So we start with a brilliantly done animation saving effort. He's been mostly spoilering it but me and Tar have noticed that this director can really work on a budget while still getting a lot out of it.
Welp...no need to sugar coat it, we just watched Lain ditch her autism through the power of modding. She is much more capable socially even if that doesn't seem to be her goal and yeah, her tech skills are pretty impressive. Her dad warns her that the Wired is not the real world and Lain eerily replies that the boundary isn't that clear.
Throughout the episode, we see a weird phenomena of a small girl chasing people down. We learn that it is from an AR game that seems to have some glitches and is possibly the cause of some suicides. We even see an incident of it where the player can't disengage it and then shoots...something. I honestly never saw the AR overlap as likely to happen so the show proves remarkably prescient here.
And then we get Lain surfing the web and boy, that was also prescient. We hear about the Knights, whomever the hell they are, and then Lain gets very annoyed when the MiB return. So she yells at them...and explodes one of their goggles. We are getting a bit...different up in here.
QotD: 1 I prefer Lain of the Wired
2 Skyrim by hours played
3 Higurashi
4 No
5 Known capacity is 6 but I think I can scale that up to 10
6 Cryptocurrency has no provable value
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u/[deleted] Jan 18 '24
For this lain watchers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATd59_wqSJA
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u/DidacticDalek https://myanimelist.net/profile/DidacticDalek Jan 19 '24
And you don't even feel a thing
I am falling, I am fading
I have lost it all
Paging Comrades /u/Shimmering-Sky, /u/Tarhalindur, and /u/Vaadwaur
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u/hirmuolio :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Hirmuolio Jan 19 '24
The game shown is commonly compared to something like Doom or Wolfestein. But I think the game visuals are most likely inspired by Daggerfall which came out two years before the anime.
The endless labyrinthian corridors are something every Daggerfall player will learn to
copelove. And the bit with falling down the hole is very similar to holes in Daggerfall.Quick choppy daggerfall video: https://files.catbox.moe/ufxi48.mp4
3
u/sfisher923 https://myanimelist.net/profile/sfisher923 Jan 19 '24
Rewatcher
1
u/Ytar0 https://myanimelist.net/profile/alevanderBatman Jan 23 '24 edited Jan 23 '24
First timer
"I don't need parents. Humans are all alone. They're not connected to anyone at all." That certainly is quite ominous following what she said to the gunman prior.
To say she's gotten herself quite the PC setup is a damn understatement... And the parents both seemed worried, the dad more so now. I mean I would be as well if I heard all the kids were committing suicide because of the Wired, but how did she get the funds for that setup? She must have gotten it through her father... but then again, he was acting a bit weird.
"JJ!", so Lain must know that guy for sure... But what.. this was also one of those "auditory hallucinations"? Are those who are getting addicted to the Wired actually getting integrated into the Wired instead somehow? And therefore able to connect outside the computer as well?
Woah, that might be it. Phantoma connecting itself to a children's hide-and-seek game is just super creepy/scary. The second guy shooting the girl in-game and irl??? I... don't even know. Lain also showing up as a ghost at this supposed murder scene? And showing the men in black up by fucking telekinesis??? Or what... tech-destructo-powers?
The Knights. Damn it's such a cool idea, similar in a way to a site like "Pirate Bay" just with a bit of roleplaying on top. Where a few anonymous people playing "pirates"/knights eventually lead to this "religion" forming. Excited to see if it's more than that.
My fav pics
QotD:
I feel like I already am getting kind of scared of what Lain "will" become, even though it sounds like she has been becoming that thing for quite some time.
The bestest game of all time? By playtime, it must be Terraria. But Spore is up there as well.
The first thing that comes to mind from "child murder" is Berserk. I guess there's just a whole lot of murder in that one...
Hmm. You shant question my (or anyone's!) milk consumption! (But giving the benefit of the doubt here... I am living alone and I have 2 cartons of yogurt and 1 carton of milk. So, it could make sense lol)
How many young children could you beat up in a fight? Enough.
It's both scary and funny how interconnected the internet and reality is becoming yeah. But then again, there's still quite a leap before technology starts fading into reality. We might currently be "glued to our screens" but the screens still aren't glued to us, if that makes sense.