The terrifyingly prescient ‘Serial Experiments Lain,’ 20 years later (2018) • Hacker News Board

Re: The terrifyingly prescient ‘Serial Experiments Lain,’ 20 years later (2018)

#71

Post by intergalplan » Mon, Apr 19, 2021, 7:25 PM UTC

ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote: post #54

honkycat wrote: post #35

Serial Experiments Lain is everything wonderful about anime. It is violent, dark, scary. In summary: ADULT. Anime tells stories in a visual format that for years and years you simply could not get anywhere else. Adult genre fiction was not well represented in American media. Even today, adult American cartoons are almost entirely "sitcom" format. They don't want to ever end, and they do not want to tell a story, they…

Have any good adult animes come out these past few years? There's always been a lot of gross stuff but I'm starting to lose faith in the medium when I see stuff like Mushoku Tensei being praised as wonderful in the mainstream, the latest few seasons have felt like complete garbage.

Psycho-Pass. Sci-fi future where everyone's got a psychological profile built & monitored by a computer system, used for all the things you'd expect it to be, including to nab criminals before they crime. Our protagonist is a young, idealistic woman who's become a cop, basically. She'll be leading a squad of people whose profiles are considered dangerously outside the norm, whose job it is to catch other deviants (can't have normal-psych-profile people exposed to that kind of violence, after all, and anyway it takes a deviant to think like a deviant). It goes from there.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica if you're into Anime-deconstructing-Anime. "What if Magical Girl... but actually, when you think about it that's entirely horrifying". There've been a bunch of other attempts at similar things, usually not as successful.

Vinland Saga for heightened, violent historical drama.

Mushishi if very-very-Japanese things aren't a turn-off. Largely episodic series about a guy who deals with dangerous spirits. Which I know reads like it'd be terrible or "oh my god not another one of these shows", but it's not. Slow-paced, brooding, bittersweet.

Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day. Short slice-of-life series about kids, but actually about accepting loss. IDK how "adult" it is, but it's pretty good (I mean actually-good, not anime-good).

Carole and Tuesday. Again, not sure how "adult" it is but it's just charming and heartwarming, while also not being terrible, which is a rare enough combo in any media to be worth a look, I'd say. From the creator of Cowboy Bebop, and also heavily music-focused.

May not look like it from this list, but I don't actually watch that much anime. I know there's a fair amount of really good stuff I haven't seen, plus a huge pile of OK-but-not-great. I keep up with a couple ongoing series I didn't put on this list because they're definitely not aimed at adults (My Hero Academia, for instance). I find it's really hard to find good recommendations for anime unless they're personal recs from a person I know well—but I also find that's true of most other genre-fic sorts of things. Recommendations from Internet randos or "best-of" lists of fantasy are often (IMO) full of garbage, and sci-fi's barely better. Ditto comic books.

Re: The terrifyingly prescient ‘Serial Experiments Lain,’ 20 years later (2018)

#72

Post by munificent » Mon, Apr 19, 2021, 7:25 PM UTC

Jtsummers wrote: post #39

Ma8ee wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the title of the book?

It's The Naked Sun . The people aren't averse to in-person contact due to disease (though that is their concern with people from Earth specifically). Nearly every one of the colony worlds (including the one in that book) have, in the books, essentially eradicated disease due to their opportunity to properly quarantine and treat it (versus the massive population still on Earth, you can't as easily wipe out a disease w…

Is this a sci-fi novel, or just a non-fiction account of Scandinavians in Wisconsin?

Re: The terrifyingly prescient ‘Serial Experiments Lain,’ 20 years later (2018)

#73

Post by lbeltrame » Mon, Apr 19, 2021, 7:25 PM UTC

Aside Chiaki Konaka from Lain, I would recommend some of the works of Sadayuki Murai (who, coincidentally, co-worked with Konaka in Bubblegum Crisis 2040):

- Moryo no Hako (not sure what's the English name, but it's a nice horror/detective story from a novel)

- Millennium Actress (an IMO nice way to show the evolution of the Japanese cinema)

- Perfect Blue (mostly Satoshi Kon's work, but Murai worked in the screenplay)

There's also Boogiepop Phantom, but you lose a bit of the plot if you haven't read the original novels.

Re: The terrifyingly prescient ‘Serial Experiments Lain,’ 20 years later (2018)

#74

Post by bozzcl » Mon, Apr 19, 2021, 7:27 PM UTC

lbeltrame wrote: post #73

Aside Chiaki Konaka from Lain, I would recommend some of the works of Sadayuki Murai (who, coincidentally, co-worked with Konaka in Bubblegum Crisis 2040): - Moryo no Hako (not sure what's the English name, but it's a nice horror/detective story from a novel) - Millennium Actress (an IMO nice way to show the evolution of the Japanese cinema) - Perfect Blue (mostly Satoshi Kon's work, but Murai worked in the screenpla…

To add a bit more, Perfect Blue is credited as being a huge inspiration for Black Swan.

Re: The terrifyingly prescient ‘Serial Experiments Lain,’ 20 years later (2018)

#75

Post by kitsunesoba » Mon, Apr 19, 2021, 7:38 PM UTC

entropicdrifter wrote: post #58

trentnix wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A month or so ago I finally watched the Neon Genesis Evangelion series after hearing about it for more than 20 years. After slogging through a few episodes of predictable awkard-teenagers-pilot-giant-robots-to-save-the-world it finally reveals itself as a stunning exploration into the minds of troubled youth who are, effectively, subjected to a barrage of traumatic crises. It's a deep, rich world with complex charact…

If you liked Robotech and Evangelion, you might want to check out some of the Universal Century timeline Gundam shows. Mobile Suit Gundam and Zeta Gundam are the classics, but for something with gorgeous modern animation, check out Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, it's a prequel series that follows the main rival character from the original through his childhood and up to the start of the war that's the setting for th…

> Oh, and check out Legend Of The Galactic Heroes. It's an epic along the lines of Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, with like 30 'main' characters and maybe 300+ named characters throughout its run. Huge in scope and scale, but always willing to take a couple minutes and reflect on philosophy, politics, and the horrors of war. It's a seriously adult show.

Would echo this recommendation. It's a massive commitment to watch fully (even just the main series, not including spinoffs), but it's quite good.

Re: The terrifyingly prescient ‘Serial Experiments Lain,’ 20 years later (2018)

#76

Post by grawprog » Mon, Apr 19, 2021, 7:39 PM UTC

honkycat wrote: post #35

Serial Experiments Lain is everything wonderful about anime. It is violent, dark, scary. In summary: ADULT. Anime tells stories in a visual format that for years and years you simply could not get anywhere else. Adult genre fiction was not well represented in American media. Even today, adult American cartoons are almost entirely "sitcom" format. They don't want to ever end, and they do not want to tell a story, they…

Growing up, i was a lot like you. The stories, artwork and animation in a lot of those darker, more adult animes blew my mind. I remember the first time I saw Akira, like you when I was probably way too young, My mind just couldn't even really grasp what i was watching. I'd never seen anything like that before. I ended up somehow watching a dubbed version of ninja scroll that came on TV some time after that and i was pretty hooked.

I find though, I can't get into newer anime, or a lot of newer animation in general these days. I really miss the old style of animation and artwork, both western and Japanese. Every series or movie had its own unique style, some of the artwork was so fantastic and just mind blowing. Some of the landscapes and scenery created in older animation could take you to some of the most amazing or terrifying or strange places you couldn't even imagine.

I find a lot of animation to look generic and overproduced these days and in general, the format's become fairly formulaic and nothing really stands out as special in the ways a lot of those older animes did. Don't get me wrong, i have seen some fantastic modern animation. I was speaking more in general.

I keep hoping that we'll have this Renaissance of artists who want to go back to the traditional ways just to break this new mold animation seems to have gotten itself stuck in.

Re: The terrifyingly prescient ‘Serial Experiments Lain,’ 20 years later (2018)

#77

Post by Kim_Bruning » Mon, Apr 19, 2021, 7:41 PM UTC

kitsunesoba wrote: post #8

dane-pgp wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's perhaps worth noting here that the tagline is actually stylised as: "Close the world, open the nExt."[0] with the capitalisation presumably being a reference to the company NeXT, founded by Steve Jobs.[1] [0] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0500092/taglines [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT

Seems likely, with how many other Apple-adjacent references are in the series (including Copland among another things). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copland_(operating_system)

Here's a list of all the references that people found at the time (ish)

https://www.cjas.org/~leng/apple-lain.htm

Re: The terrifyingly prescient ‘Serial Experiments Lain,’ 20 years later (2018)

#78

Post by m4rtink » Mon, Apr 19, 2021, 7:43 PM UTC

ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote: post #54

honkycat wrote: post #35

Serial Experiments Lain is everything wonderful about anime. It is violent, dark, scary. In summary: ADULT. Anime tells stories in a visual format that for years and years you simply could not get anywhere else. Adult genre fiction was not well represented in American media. Even today, adult American cartoons are almost entirely "sitcom" format. They don't want to ever end, and they do not want to tell a story, they…

Have any good adult animes come out these past few years? There's always been a lot of gross stuff but I'm starting to lose faith in the medium when I see stuff like Mushoku Tensei being praised as wonderful in the mainstream, the latest few seasons have felt like complete garbage.

I would say quite a few, but they don't really seem that way.

Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasuka? Isogashii Desuka? Sukutte Moratte Ii Desuka? - might look like another lightweight fantasy harem story but actually has one of the best romantic pairs recently and handles some pretty hard topics.

Actually I would say a Shield Hero is another one. It might look like yet another cookie cutter isekai show, even with some of the heroes being summoned taking it like if it was just a game. But it turns out it's a real and rather brutal feudal world where your actions have real consequences and a lot of people have very insidious evil and inhuman agenda.

Hell, I would actually even call Kemono Friends (series 1) an adult series. What looks like a funny child series with anthropomorphic animals turns out into something much deeper once all the various hints and fragments of information start to fall in place.

Re: The terrifyingly prescient ‘Serial Experiments Lain,’ 20 years later (2018)

#79

Post by munk-a » Mon, Apr 19, 2021, 7:44 PM UTC

bozzcl wrote: post #66

ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have any good adult animes come out these past few years? There's always been a lot of gross stuff but I'm starting to lose faith in the medium when I see stuff like Mushoku Tensei being praised as wonderful in the mainstream, the latest few seasons have felt like complete garbage.

Recently? Attack on Titan might be one of the best. It's a little too shounen-ish at times, but the setting is pretty mature and has absolutely no fan service. I've heard Vinland Saga is also great. The Promised Neverland is not about adults, but it's a very serious show and I personally liked it a lot. Unfortunately, the rest of my backlog is mostly just older shows I've been meaning to watch for a while. Golden Kam…

For a recent anime that's a pretty good nab I'd actually suggest RE: Zero - it also starts out a little bit too shounen-y but gets really interesting in its exploration of both our relationships with others, pain and death. As someone who really enjoyed philosophy in uni it poses some really interesting questions.

I'm also interested but not yet totally committed to Tower of God - there's some really neat stuff there, along with a lot of shounen - but I think it's a pretty solid production all together.

Re: The terrifyingly prescient ‘Serial Experiments Lain,’ 20 years later (2018)

#80

Post by perardi » Mon, Apr 19, 2021, 7:45 PM UTC

honkycat wrote: post #68

trentnix wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A month or so ago I finally watched the Neon Genesis Evangelion series after hearing about it for more than 20 years. After slogging through a few episodes of predictable awkard-teenagers-pilot-giant-robots-to-save-the-world it finally reveals itself as a stunning exploration into the minds of troubled youth who are, effectively, subjected to a barrage of traumatic crises. It's a deep, rich world with complex charact…

If you haven't watched End of Evangelion and the sequel movies, those are my favorite parts of the series. Gurren Lagann is a wonderful homage to other mecha series. The series evolves in a REALLY interesting way, it blew my mind. Is worth sticking it out to the end! Berserk (2016) is awesome, though I go back and forth on weather it transcends it's own violence. I'm probably just being a prude though, since nobody e…

[cracks knuckles, adjust sunglasses]

Kick reason to the curb and do the impossible!

Sorry.

Gurren Lagann, paired with Evangelion, remains one of my favorites. Though it’s a different production crew, it is the same studio, and it’s fascinating to watch them as a counterpoint. There is an obvious point where the main character in Gurren Lagann could, and perhaps should, break, but hope comes through. It’s the optimistic version of NGE.

Also, their ridiculous explanation for where all this mass-energy comes from, and the consequences? Fun.