Visual Experiments Lain (1999)
Serial Experiments Lain is a 1998 anime about an introverted teenager, Lain, who gets caught between real life and a virtual realm, “The Wired.” After a few strange incidents take place, including a deceased classmate emailing Lain and others to let them know she isn’t dead but merely abandoned her physical form, Lain delves into the world of The Wired and the rest of the story unfolds. It’s surreal and cyberpunk and y2k and also psychological techno horror and yeah it’s really good. The style visually is super cool and ominous. A lot of the characters and scenery are relatively simply drawn but the machinery and technology are intricate and complex. The whole series is only 13 episodes so it’s a pretty quick watch if you’re interested. I feel like I’ve seen people talk about it or post screenshots a lot on TikTok over the past couple of years so odds are you already know about it. If you’re on TikTok you’ve definitely at least heard the theme song.
Anywho, this book was initially published in 1999, but i believe my copy is a reprint from 2013. i’m obsessed with the layouts in this book, they’re so chaotic yet flow so well... there’s so much to look at even though i can’t read pretty much any of the text.
I did my best to get decent scans but the book is like just slightly too large for my scanner so some stuff did get cut off a lil bit. BUT don’t be sad. of course after i did all my scans i realized the beautiful wonderful internet archive has the whole book available for your viewing pleasure; shout out user Sketch the Cow for uploading. That said, the way it’s uploaded is just a lil bit wonky, specifically the covers (the physical book has a dust jacket with alternate covers) and i think it’s missing page 47 which throws off the spreads for the back half of the book...if you’re wondering, yes i do have page 47 below<3 (it’s the page that says ‘protocol’ at the bottom) anywho i hope you enjoy ~:o)
Also if you’re interested, there’s a Serial Experiments Lain Playstation game that was apparently made in conjunction with the anime AND it’s not just the same story as the show, like it actually adds to the Lain canon. Pretty cool. It’s stupid dummy expensive to get an authentic physical copy of the game but there are other ways of playing if you want. Or you can just watch playthroughs and/or video essays on YouTube.
Also also if you haven’t watched Lain and now plan to watch (and/or play the playgame) please note it deals with rather heavy subject matter at times. I would recommend looking up content warnings!
Producer: Acura Honda
Editors & Writers: Acura Honda, Shunsuke Kishi, Motohisa Tanaka, Kaori Yamamoto
Editoral Assistants: Manabu Homma / Kyoka Satoh
Translator: Akiko Matsumoto
Proof Readers: Cathy Fishman, Scott Shifrel
Photographer: Hisashi Maruyama
Hair: Tomoko Ebisawa
Photo & CG Works: Makoto Abe
Art Director/Designer: Atushi Doi
Designers: Mayumi Matsukura, Yuji Satoh