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

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

#131

Post by ttt0 » Mon, Apr 19, 2021, 11:45 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…

I only watched the 1997 Berserk. I tried to watch the continuation, but I couldn't get past that awful CGI animation. Is it worth it?

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

#132

Post by vmception » Mon, Apr 19, 2021, 11:52 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…

There is still a void, which various artists could fill these days. Sadly, if they did I don't think I would hear about them due to the volume of content on streaming platforms.

Japanese studio anime follows a formula that you might have noticed. This formula is still unnecessary to western audiences, which has learned to tolerate it. It includes characters with certain hair colors having certain behaviors and relationships to the protagonist, it includes a filler episode at a sauna.

Something like Cowboy Bebop would be a hit in the west, for the same reasons that The Expanse - which is not anime - is a hit. But Japanese studios gravitate towards portraying fantasies only relatable and comfortable to a socially awkward viewer, while Western studios don't invest heavily enough into what fans of the medium and anime art-style would like, and still target children.

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

#133

Post by jkhdigital » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 12:07 AM 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…

This same effect can be seen in Japanese games from that era—I didn’t watch much anime, but I was absolutely consumed by Japanese RPGs. Xenogears changed my life.

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

#134

Post by disconcision » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 12:15 AM UTC

trentnix wrote: post #47

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…

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…

for something more recent, I'd def recommend Keep Your Hands of Eizouken; it's basically a love letter to animation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj7sZlNQB7w

(also affirming all the kon and yuuasa recommendations)

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

#135

Post by m4rtink » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 12:25 AM UTC

livueta wrote: post #114

m4rtink wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Isekai genre goes deep, very very deep . Anime adaptations only really cover the often good and/or mainstream series. If you start digging into Isekai manga, there at least one order of magnitude more works to choose from. Then if you look into light novels, there is even more stuff, again with just a fraction getting manga adaptations. But the real breath of Isekai are web novels - that's where most of the curre…

> Aegis cruiser Destroyer! But thanks, I laughed really hard at the realization that Zipang is indeed an isekai of sorts. Thanks to that show, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daqing_Oil_Field is one of my favorite historical counterfactuals.

Actually, there is a real isekai series with an Aegis class destroyer going to another world other than Zipang: :) https://www.novelupdates.com/series/rune-troopers/

Yes, that's an elf, an Aegis class destroyer and a dragon on the picture. ;-)

I haven't read this series yet but it seems to be doing good with 10 light novel volumes out so far. :)

While I haven't seen that that yet but an Isekai series based around a nuclear submarine would be cool. Being nuclear powered it could be rather independent from the now missing modern infrastructure. They could also include dramatic elements such as the submarine hiding underwater during a nuclear Armageddon only to surface later to find out they have been somehow transported into a world of swords and magic instead of the radioactive wasteland they have expected. Not that it would make it any less dangerous and their adventures any less epic. ;-)

BTW, tracked down the Japanese-island-chain-in-Isekai as well: https://www.novelupdates.com/series/nihonkoku-shoukan/

"Basically, the Japanese version of Island in the Sea of Time.

For clarity: The summoned area of Japan are the four disputed Kuril Islands, Japan Home Islands, and Ryuku Islands"

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

#136

Post by m4rtink » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 12:30 AM UTC

jkhdigital wrote: post #133

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…

This same effect can be seen in Japanese games from that era—I didn’t watch much anime, but I was absolutely consumed by Japanese RPGs. Xenogears changed my life.

KOS-MOS needs to be cleaned - with fire.

(I wonder if someone still knows that refferrence, even I can't find it online anymore. :P )

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

#137

Post by Pako » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 12:33 AM UTC

trentnix wrote: post #47

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…

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…

In regards to Steins;Gate and the main character being "over the top": this probably won't make his antics any more bearable but maybe put them into some much needed context which the anime is kinda bad at providing. After his childhood friend, Shiina Mayuri, lost a grandparent she fell into a kind of PTSD, which caused him to assume the persona of a mad scientist, claiming he'd take her hostage because he didn't want her to go/leave. This helped her get over that death somehow but he still regularly lapses back into that persona.

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

#138

Post by Glyptodon » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 12:37 AM UTC

teekert wrote: post #118

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…

I also enjoyed Ergo Proxy, Texhnolyze and Planetes. Ghost in the Shell is still the only movie I revisit every now and then (out of all movies ever). They are all slow, I want to take the time to watch them again some day. Very different but I also enjoyed Naruto as I grew up myself. It's long (but you can skip all fillers) but sometimes very deep. I enjoyed Kenshin but never finished it. As mentioned below Samurai C…

Ergo Proxy seems to suffer from translations/subtitles not conveying details/subtext/terminology sufficiently. I think it gets a bit underrated accordingly.

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

#139

Post by meowface » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 12:43 AM UTC

ergot_vacation wrote: post #20

meowface wrote: post #10

There's a certain brooding, existential atmosphere and mystique to anime like Serial Experiments Lain, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Steins;Gate that really make them stand out and stick with you. Even if the show turned out to not be prescient at all, it would still be one of the top classics. Combined with the fact that it was, it's really something special.

The weird thing is that Evangelion and Lain (and other stuff like them) came out in the early 2000s, and really fit that era. Steins;Gate came out in 2011, but feels like an early 2000s anime, in both visual style, writing, mood etc. I suppose that's somewhat fitting given the content of the show though.

Yeah, I think that's part of why it's such a highly-acclaimed series. It's one of the few newer (despite being a decade old...) anime that really felt a lot like the original things that got me and so many others interested in anime ages ago.

Hopefully there'll be more like that on the horizon. Maybe we're only going to get 1 - 3 per decade, though.

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

#140

Post by XorNot » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 12:48 AM UTC

saalweachter wrote: post #41

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…

The great thing about animation is that once you accept the cartoonish caricatures as real people, you get all of the special effects for free. You don't have that jarring disconnect between the actors and the (bad) special effects, and you don't need to husband your special effects budget carefully, saving it for a few big scenes. You can fill each frame with impossibilities that are just as real as the people filli…

This is also why the Star Wars animated series (3D) are such a joy to watch: Clone Wars and Rebels have hands down some of the best space battles ever made in the Star Wars universe.

It also lends itself to an odd bit of realism: because its cheaper to animate characters without faces, people actually tend to wear helmets in situations they obviously should.