Serial Experiments Lain # 1: Navi Pioneer 100 minutes English/Japanese English Subtitles 7/13/1999

Well, it's happened again. If you're thinking I'm talking about the fact that I haven't updated for nigh on two weeks now you'd be wrong. Though that is something of a tradition around here, I'm referring to a certain custom of mine that's been hanging around for sometime longer. Again, the cycle of dating a woman for two weeks has ended and I have once more entered the realm for the single, happier folk. Dating is too much work for someone like me, regardless of how much nookie is provided or a semi-daily basis. And so, with great aplomb I again start to write for you, loyal readers. What better way to make a return to anime reviewer-dom than with the very first anime DVD I ever purchased. Yes, that Tower Record in lower California holds some memories for us all. For myself, at least. I won't say I've missed writing, because none of you are interested in giving me a subtle handjob in a crowded theatre or some other act filled with equal vulgarity. Knowing the general make up of the majority of anime fandom, I honestly don't think I could ask for one either. All the same, hats off to Ashley. A very nice girl, and hopefully not ruined by my "this much shy of misogynistic" personality. She wasn't really prepared for the strong pattern of my dating life, though I warned her of what would be the eventual outcome of our passion soaked two week tryst.

Serial Experiments Lain shares some of these feelings with me. Desolation, I'd say, would be the major theme of the show, at least through these first few episodes. Much akin to my feelings towards whatever paramour is currently occupying my time. There's a steady sense of hopelessness throughout this show that is never really shoved in your face. A strong subtlety in every shot that you're expected to piece together, a rarity not just in anime but in cinema all together. Unlike myself, Lain does nothing direct to call out the painful sense of dread coming on faster than a dozen of my patent pending "breakup carnations". For lack of a better term, from the very first scene of a young girl's suicide Lain will leave you feeling fucked without a kiss. This is not entirely a bad thing. Subtlety is the essence of this show. It could be easily compared to a thrumming techno song that comes on before they start playing in the break before the shitty music at the rave, when the eX-sexers break out of their entactogenic trance and realize that they've been deep dicking their significant other to the audience of a hundred sets of laughing eyes. I honestly don't know what those eyes would be laughing at, someone needs to get these dirty fakers a mirror and show them how ridiculous a Doctor Seuss hat and pacifier looks on a grown person.

 

Lain is easily compared to those strumming bass lines though. A solid sense of repetition ad nasuem that pushes the show along like bouncers at a seedy club during last call. Lain is always moving, but in a way that's almost imperceptible to the viewer if they're not looking for it. Unlike my childhood abuse at the hands of my fourth grade teacher, Sister Mary McKinley, the direction in this show is subtle enough that you'll barely notice the scene transitions. I will not lie to you, if I could have Ryutaro Nakamura's child I do not doubt for a moment that I would take this man up at the opportunity. It makes me wonder why he's been allowed to do basically nothing else, as it's not a name I am very familiar with. This may not make a lot of sense to you without watching the show, and it may sort itself out even after that, but Lain's "thing", if you will, feels like it's the use of silence and repetition as communication. There's reasons for every episode opening with the hazy street corner and the staccato hum of the power lines. I won't discourse my thoughts about the show here lest I be wrong and embarrass myself in front of the four or five readers I've actually managed to keep over this coming two years. That's more likely a possibility than you might realize.

I will tell you though, that Lain is a show worth watching. Even if this kind of confusing subject matter isn't always your thing I would urge you to at least take a look. Managing not to be annoying about it, Lain still encourages you to think about what it's saying. I'm hesitant to say it, but I think I don't like the show as much as I like it's methods. To reiterate a dead horse, the direction is nothing less than outstanding. Episodes end when you think, when you KNOW they should. Plus, the story's got a bit of a theological twist to it that is only barely evident in these budding few episodes. And everyone knows how much of a sucker I am for those things. In closing let me give you an interesting bit of symbolism. Lain's shedding of her bear sleeper feels to me something like the beginning of her birth from her childlike cocoon. A bad move on her part, I would say. Were I more secure in my heterosexuality I might even venture as far as to say it was "cute". I wish I had threads like those. I'd walk around and all the fly girlies would be like "Yo yo yo! Special K! (That'd be my name, Special K) You wanna go hang, you bad with your fly chilly bearsuit." It'd be a sweet deal.