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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)

#151

Post by mintplant »

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…

> 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 want to make more episodes.

Check out Infinity Train for something different. Ostensibly aimed at kids, but, uh, honestly, I seriously question that based on some of the content in that show [0]. Between that and Over the Garden Wall, Cartoon Network's contributed some great work to American animation in recent years.

Amazon's Invincible is having a good run so far, on the side of things definitely made for adults.

[0] MASSIVE MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUgeSJhXNeQ&t=64

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

#152

Post by tootie »

amatecha wrote: post #130

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 w…

The Net came out in 1995.

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

#153

Post by k_sze »

baybal2 wrote: post #116
entropicdrifter wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Legend Of The Galactic Heroes I only recently found that it was a cartoon originally. I read it as a novell like 20 years ago.

Did you read it in original Japanese or translated?

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

#154

Post by nrclark »

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…

I dunno whether these count or not, but I enjoyed the hell out of Kid Cosmic, Steven Universe, and Adventure Time.

These maybe aren't the same kind of show as your traditional animes, but they all really resonated with me during Covid times.

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

#155

Post by bsanr2 »

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…

Gundam is its own brand of weird, and while each series falls prey to toy commercial necessities (nary a protag old enough to drink), there is plenty of substance and a whole lot of flash to be found, and the focus on (critiquing) militarism means that most series is grounded in a way many series aren't.

8th MS Team, 0080: War in the Pocket, and Iron-Blooded Orphans are good to start with (even if you don't understand everything right off the bat, just flow with it). The first, because it is THE most grounded of all the series; the second, because it's by far the most moving, and the last because it's probably the most self-assured execution of the franchise's "child soldier" trope (with a fully-formed conception of just what kind of world produces that horror).

Mob Psycho 100 may seem out of left field and extremely Japanese at first, but it's such an effortlessly insightful, and universal, exploration of purpose, motivation, and the lies we tell ourselves about each, make it an easy recommendation, especially for someone who presumably might need some healing from Eva.

The Great Pretender will remind you a lot of Cowboy Bebop.

Edit: Oh, duh, Kon. Anything by Satoshi Kon.

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

#156

Post by scruple »

How are people watching all of these different animes? I don't see many of the titles listed in comments here available for streaming online or through any of the torrent sites in aware of. I recently subscribed to VRV so that I could easily watch Attack on Titan and a few others but it's missing Lain and a lot of the other titles mentioned in here.

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

#157

Post by bsanr2 »

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…

>If you want weird: FLCL. What was that about?

Post-EoE Gainax staff letting off some steam (heh). It is unironically Evangelion through a mirror goofy; a coming-of-age story where fraught filial relationships, older women who come on wa~y too strong, and more robots than you would expect c. 2000 figure in heavily. Just assume that anything you don't immediately understand is a metaphor for pubertal dysfunction and you'll be right 90% of the time.

Now, if you really want to be confused, pick up Revolutionary Girl Utena.

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

#158

Post by bsanr2 »

flobosg wrote: post #69
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 the subversion aspect of NGE, then Puella Magi Madoka Magica might be up your alley. EDIT: Add Revolutionary Girl Utena to the list, although it might be considered somewhat repetitive and way too symbolic.

The most galaxy brain moment is when you realize that the repitition is not only purposeful but thematically crucial.

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

#159

Post by bsanr2 »

m4rtink wrote: post #136
jkhdigital wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 )

The story of how the Xeno franchise just... keeps dropping the ball is not a happy one. Boy, did they knock it out of the park with the one battle theme in the entire first game, though.

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

#160

Post by bsanr2 »

agumonkey wrote: post #108
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…

I see no mention of Gunnm (battle angel alita) OAV was nicely done even though short. The manga has lot to offer somehow.

The manga goes where edgy mainstream sci-fi wishes it had the fortitude to venture. We're talking VanderMeer and Cixin and Dick all mixed in with Peele's brand of politically-aware, existentially-fraught dark humor. People attach their heads to rockets to serve as targeting systems; the genetic engineering virtuosos of Venus eat babies; the most efficient form of assassination is arguably of either the "space karate" or "massive kinetic bombardment" varieties.

There's a lot. It's like Tim Burton's Seveneves.

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