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

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

#121

Post by teekert »

GuB-42 wrote: post #42
jpdb wrote: post #11

Lain catches a lot of flak in anime circles for being "edgy" or "deep for the sake of being deep" in that it tries too hard to be something thought provoking, but lacks any real substance. People still assign what they think the show is trying to say, but because the show is so abstract anything sticks. I tend to agree with the above point, but it has been quite some time since I watched it. I wonder if a new persona…

As much as I liked the anime, I tend to put it into the "pseudo-profound bullshit" category. They drop in loads of philosophical concepts, fringe science, wild extrapolation, and a bit of conspiracies and paranormal. There is no way you can't make parallels with the real world. If may sound harsh but it is not a bad thing. It creates an atmosphere, and it is thought provoking, as evidenced by the article. It is a wor…

Yeah I remember the weird fringe science, using certain frequencies to get online without a Navi, etc, but if you Googled it, it was all investigated before and real fringe-y. But I tend to agree with you, it is trying to be deep in some ways.

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

#122

Post by PixelOfDeath »

Jtsummers wrote: post #94
perardi wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, lets introduce a group, the Quincy, that spends quite a lot of the first part of the series proclaiming they proudly use bows and not swords. And then let’s finish the series by having their king, and all his powerful vassals, very blatantly fight only using swords. Very consistent.

First season: We can't fly normally, we need a special device in order to fly. Every season after that: Somehow we're all flying and floating in the air but we won't discuss how. I found it became much more enjoyable when I decided to "finish" it (after ignoring it for a while) by watching every 5th episode. It was very rare that I missed any story elements because half of each episode was a recap of the recap of the…

The kind of anime that needs a compressed version, where all the relevant parts of 189* episodes are cut down without all the fillers to 10 minutes max...

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

#123

Post by Zevis »

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'm depressed by the state of anime. It seems the industry has generally taken "adult" to mean violent. I grew up watching the gruesome stuff. But the industry still seems to be in that edgy teen phase 99% of the time (3 decades later) and they have no idea how to handle adult themes without copious amounts of blood.

Stuff like Time of Eve or Planetes are like beacons of light in a sea of shit.

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

#124

Post by egypturnash »

perardi wrote: post #80
honkycat wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 optimist…

I still find Kamina's repeated urging for Simon to "believe in the me that believes in you" to be something really compelling. The exact wording is a little awkward and stilted - translations almost always are - but the sentiment is gold, especially for the teenage audience this kind of stuff tends to attract.

Sure, you don't believe in yourself. You tear yourself down all the time. But you also believe in your best friend, you think the world of him, and here's your best friend saying he believes in you.

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

#125

Post by viraptor »

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…

> They don't want to ever end, and they do not want to tell a story, they want to make more episodes.

For the opposite experience, have a look at UK dramas. They're often mini-series with as few as 6 episodes, well defined story and aren't afraid to try new stuff.

For example "Behind her eyes" (not a cartoon) is a recent good one. (don't be deceived by the first episode, it's not as simple as it seems)

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

#126

Post by honkycat »

grawprog wrote: post #76
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…

It went digital and they got cheaper, I agree 100%.

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

#127

Post by krapp »

m4rtink wrote: post #101
riskable wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The isekai genre is definitely overused at this point Yet somehow we can't get enough of it! I mean, I know I'm a sucker for isekai. Some of it is poorly animated with terrible stereotypes (for anime) and far too much fan service but it's not isekai that's cliche it's the story that's being told inside of it that could be. I'd argue that isekai is one of the best and truest forms of sci-fi: Instead of just "drama,…

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…

Can we just get away from the otaku-pandering JRPG fantasy world archetype, already? I feel like Konosuba and Re-Zero should have ruined the premise for all time. I know the Japanese love them some Dragon Quest but enough is enough.

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

#128

Post by krapp »

anthk wrote: post #104
honkycat wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm talking about specifically animation, though. There are plenty of examples of excellent novels and comic books from all over the world. However, they represent a completely different tier of production cost. Comics and novels are cheap. Animation takes a team of sometimes hundreds of animators, sound designers, art directors, etc.

>Comics and novels are cheap Manga too, but in Japan it's much better praised than anime.

Most anime is nothing more than advertisements for the manga anyway. That's why most of it never gets a second season.

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

#129

Post by ronsor »

krapp wrote: post #127
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…

Can we just get away from the otaku-pandering JRPG fantasy world archetype, already? I feel like Konosuba and Re-Zero should have ruined the premise for all time. I know the Japanese love them some Dragon Quest but enough is enough.

As long as pumping out isekai stories continues to be profitable (and the target market which is otaku enjoys them), they will continue to proliferate.

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

#130

Post by amatecha »

I wouldn't call it prescient. It came out in 1998? At that time, I was already living like Lain, cooped up in my room spending my entire evening/night online, building computers and tinkering with stuff. Lots of people were already like that. In fact, it just accurately represented a person like that, who's an outlier in their obsessive interest in the net and online communities. I felt huge relation to Lain when I watched it at that time. It was "current" for me. I imagine many others felt this way as well, though probably not the article author :)
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