Serial Experiments Lain #2: Knights Pioneer 75 minutes English/Japanese English Subtitles 08/24/1999

  Back To S Listings

You could very easily argue that I'm not the smartest fellow in the world, and I'd have to agree with you on that aspect. During midterms I like to imagine myself as a smarter student, and then I put down the answers I believe that more intelligent student would pick. All I know is that failing a Criminology exam is not likely to be the best way to keep my scholarship running and that more intelligent student would be getting a beating hearkening back to his pocket protector fourth grade days, were he not entirely an conjuration of my mind. What can I say, sometimes the system works and sometimes it doesn't. I don't see what else I could do. Study? Not fucking likely! Though, you have to wonder on what kind of retard fails a multiple choice test. That retard, would be me. But the point I was trying to make is the internet, much like my experiences with test taking, is all about role-playing. You might not exactly see it, but you really should because even I can. You've got your Counterstrike games and your internet messages boards and in every facet of this you're pretending to be something you're not, to some extent. Even if you think you're being honest there's always an exaggeration just an inch over the line. Myself, even, I've done it once or twice. Now about six hundred people scattered among the United States of America think of me as "Dave Riley of the fourteen inches".

(This is the scariest handi-wipe I've ever seen in my entire life) The "wired" of Lain's world is the internet of ours and things aren't as different as you'd expect, sure there's voice activated computers with funny logos and some sort of thing akin to a Gibson-esque "jacking in" that hasn't really been explained in detail. All the same, some people in Lain's world are content with one computer for checking their e-mail and some refuse to live without about five running in tandem, playing on the Day of Defeat server with one that they're hosting with another. It's scary, I know, but we did get Andrew outside... once Some people are there for fun and some people, like the mysterious hacker group "The Knights" are hanging around to be total dicks and "r0x0r j00r b0x0rs". Lain's duality becomes even more evident and I find myself still enjoying Ruby Marlowe's performance as the title character. She doesn't show as much variation as the Japanese track's Kaori Shimizu but I will continue to watch the dub because I don't know jack shit about Japanese acting anyway. Nor do I particularly care to, as this is the country in which Kabuki is popular.

 

I only glazed over this in my last review and so I decided to return full force this time with more critique on the direction. The cuts in this are really nice, I mean, REALLY nice. You know when you go to iMDB and the trivia says "Director's Trademark : Nice cut" and you go, "Hey, I don't remember any particularly nice cuts". And you don't with good reason, because they're usually pretty shitty cuts. Ryutaro Nakamura does with animation what most directors can't do with film, which is the medium the cut was invented FOR. You need to go no further than the intro. Creepy voice speaking over typing on the screen, silence for a moment, BAM, HAUNTING ENGLISH OPENING SONG. Holy crap, I just blew my waffle. I'd imagine that any homme de filme would need a cigarette after seeing something as well pieced together as that. Stick that up your ass and smoke it George Lucas. Lain is stark and perfect in a way that totally kicks the ass of that stupid elevator scene from Evangelion that they only put in because they were running out of budget anyway. The world of Lain is dystopian to a tee, and the best part is the characters don't even KNOW how futile their situations are. Watch it on mute and you can feel the direness if it all literally emanating from the screen. This show is smarter, I think, than a lot of people give it credit for.

I'm not saying that people don't like it, because obviously the majority of anime fandom does. Regardless, I don't think they get it. Don't for a moment imagine that I'm putting myself in a higher place than them, because I without a doubt don't understand it either. The point is, though, that Lain is about SOMETHING. And that something has nothing to do with really cute bear pajamas or the little thing Lain uses to tie her hair with. So please stop cosplaying a fourteen year old girl and get a fucking clue. Or at least try to, like I am. The disc starts with one of the things those who know me realize destroys any unbiased opinion I might have while writing a review, a monologue. I don't know what it is about those things but they could pretty much stick whatever they wanted in it and as long as the speaker had a deep, cool voice I'd be enthralled for hours. Tell me about cancer, mankind's slowed evolutionary track, nondairy creamers... it really doesn't matter. I have tasted the nectar of the gods and it is called Exposition.