Analyzing SEL

ITT Post interesting soykaf, symbolism, backstory, references to real life conspiracies, thematic analysis, etc. of Serial Experiments Lain. My contribution: Has anyone noticed how the stuffed bears above her bed are a reference to Plato's Allegory of the Cave? The interesting part is that she's also dressed like a bear- showing that not only is she only able to see the "fake world," but she's assuming a fake form herself.

This is from Episode 1. She's informed by her friend that there's a world "on the other side" after death, and then later she watches the shadows on her ceiling. As the lighting changes, the shadows move and the shapes of the animals go away. Then we zoom in on her pensive face, showing that she's thinking about what happens when people abandon their false forms and/or die, like her friend did. This inspires her to ask her father for a new Navi.

I think the concepts of death and transient nature of the human spirit are probably the most visible, but also the most subtle messages in SEL, on the one hand, it is blatantly thrown out there about you only being able to exist so long as people remember you having existed, nut on a more subtle level, the implication of someone being there, unnoticed is far more ominous, because you know that you exist, even if nobody knows you are there. I guess it amounts to a classic man vs mankind struggle in the human condition

[spoiler]Why do I feel empty when I finish and animu.I thought it was because the anime became part of my life and with it ending, also one part of me did.I have never being able to cope with this.That's SEL message[/spoiler] [spoiler][/spoiler]

Something to consider when giving analysis. Creator wanted americans to not get it and japanese viewers to understand. Thats not what happened, but still interesting to think about what things he thought were accomplishing that. All I can think of is bizarre artstyle that wasnt focused on attractiveness or intended to be pleasant (not bad or poorly done, just not "pretty"). However I dont see how hed think this would alienate just US viewers. It alienates most people who just watch anime for entertainment and arent interested in artsy stuff.

>>1962 I don't think he said he wanted americans to not get it, if I remember correctly he just said he thought american and japanese audiences would interpret it differently, But this turned out not to be the case and he was disappointed.

>>1962 I think a major theme of Lain is solipsism/self worship. If you think about how Lain "becomes/is god" and has all these kids worshiping her, you could view it as a metaphor for the way people become intensely narcissistic and image-focused on the internet. This seems like something that could be a point of difference in interpretation between West/East.

>>1938 I'm just going to throw this out there, when you use a computer days on end you start to lose touch with reality pretty quickly. The first thing that starts to disappear is the time, you forget what day it is, natural cycles are interrupted. After a while, everyone just feels like a cardboard cutout, every environment feels like a theatre stage. Designed, but not real, I guess. Time becomes one big glob and you start losing chunks of it. It feels like you're falling apart. Like you're seeing the glitches in reality. I think it might be called derealization or something, but it can get pretty scary. I've had episodes of it just because, but it seems to be especially connected with heavy computer use. And there's no point to explaining it because you're all alone when it happens. Nobody real exists anymore. It puts things in perspective. One theme is that lain is "god". If you think about it, we're all gods. It's our world, we're living in it. Our realities are independent to each and every one of us and we're the only masters of it. I'm not explaining it well, but I think you get the idea. You can say it over and over but until you "get" it, it sounds like crazy talk. Anyway, the whole way the show is reminds me of derealization, completely. Which can be perpetuated by an internet existence.

>>1938 >Has anyone noticed how the stuffed bears above her bed are a reference to Plato's Allegory of the Cave? Explain ?

The ayyliums in SEL were an illusion by the knights to try and scare lain. "Serial experiments" means that lain was tried over and over again until she succesfully became a God or at least what we consider to be Godhood = all powerful, all knowledgable, all present The dual "personality" is the programming for her to become God. The lain of the wired is actually concious about her powers, but it actually takes the good side lain to win to actually her become God instead of just false God that abuses her power. Arisu is the only person that really connected with lain without force of lain using the wired to connect to her which is why she loves her. That is why lain wanted to become God, because she understood that there are people that need her and that not everyone is just a drone that follows orders or algorithms. Schumann resonance, KIDS and psyche processor are all tools to progress the story of her trying to subsequently to get to her Godhood and to connect to everyone. Accella guy that killed himself was humanity trying to escape God and responsibility. All the times she was hallucinating was either the knights fuarrrking with her or her other bad personality trying to put hurdles in the way, to try and get her to kill herself and remove her good part. In the end she saw that being God is lonely job and she didn't want to do it, but her father assured her that it needs to be done. She went into future to Arisu to try and connect to her 1 on 1 again because she was lonely and saw that she was busy with her life because lain created more connected world where humans didn't misscommunicate amongst themselves therefore she didn't have the need to connect to God which is shown in the end of the anime as clean, happy world where everyone had a job and purpose and didn't have bad emotions All in all it is a story of how humanity needs God to connect to each other and how we might create a real living and breathing God in nesr future using technology.

>>2569 Whenever she was scared she went into besr suit to feel comfort, to feel protected. Having a "protection shell" is sort of psychological analogy for not wanting to go outside the Plato's cave and just wanting to remain how you are, believing in lies because they are easier to digest and believe. Not to mention that she watches fuarrrking shadows and lights on her ceiling that are coming from the window while she is in the bear suit which is clear "heelloooo" refference. She still knows what reality she is in tho, so you can see her with droopy face sometimes in bear suit, she knows she is just using it as protection mechanism.

I've forgotten so much; really need to rewatch it again. >>2571 You are look at it too much from your own perspective. >"Serial experiments" means that lain was tried over and over again until she succesfully became a God The title might not even mean anything like many anime or it might not mean anything if you speak regular english as oposed to the author's own personal engrish. >or at least what we consider to be Godhood = all powerful, all knowledgable, all present That is not what godhood means to the japanese, anything is a god there, some of them being almost useless.

>>2573 Instead of knocking down others arguments I suggest you reply with your own proposals for explanations that might further the conversation. For example, japanese don't see Godhood as the christian european anglo sphere? Okay then what does her representations of power and presence and knowledge mean? Why are they shown in the anime in such a way to represent her Godhood in such a christian point of view? Why show her amongst the clouds? Why show her "everywhere" on the wired? Why show her being able to control others peoples memories and even time frame of events? See, that is conversation that might continue on. Your reply deserves only "nu-huh" or "oh mah gawd you're right" posts which sre only self serving. I would like to hear your opinion on the anime.

>>2574 >Instead of knocking down others arguments I suggest you reply with your own proposals for explanations that might further the conversation. I agree, my bad. >what does her representations of power and presence and knowledge mean? I don't understand this question. >Why are they shown in the anime in such a way to represent her Godhood in such a christian point of view? I don't think they did, if i recall correctly Eiri said he attained godhood by being omnipresent inside the wire and wanted to expand his powers but Lain showed him that being a god only in the wired is useless because it is not connected to the real world and that both should be together. >Why show her amongst the clouds? For visibility and there is probably western influence on there but i don't think it has deep any christian influence. >Why show her "everywhere" on the wired? Because they are obssed with her, they messed her sister just to be close to her. >Why show her being able to control others peoples memories and even time frame of events? I don't see any correlation between that and christian godhood, as far as i know God didn't change anyhing he did, in fact, he killed everyone but Moses' gang instead of altering the past and instead of changing everyone's idea he sent his son to be killed so that we could be saved; always working on a straight line. In Lain time and memories are used as tool to achieve different objectives. I would like to write more but my memory is hazy.

>>2573 Sorry if this is necrobumping- I was always under the impression that the "Serial" in Serial Experiments Lain referred to the fact that it was the anime. The video game, show, artbooks etc., are all inconsistent with each other, which matches up with the subjectivity in Lain's perspective and story. The show is told linearly in chunks- its a serial the same way a radio drama (or any tv show) is.

>>2769 Variations on the Wired's fairy tales, so to speak.

We don't know that Chisa died. All we saw was a girl jump off a roof (possibly Chisa, maybe it would it make sense if it were not Chisa, but then I'd like to know how, but that's an other topic) and heard people around the ground where she landed panic. Sure, a big sign fell or her, and it looked quite hefty, but was it hefty? I think it was just the base that was hefty, so that the sign would have a low center of mass while the sign itself is as cheap as possible, During the fall she was shown to once hit something midfall (the wires that ripped her skirt), which would have slowed her fall, and it is also possible that she hit some awnings or other soft things along the way that would have slowed her fall, while only jolting her around a bit, thus softening her ultimate the penultimate impact. In school, lain is told by other students (what are their relationships at this point? seems like friendly acquaintance, but it could just be Alice reaching out to lain) that the teacher told them that another student committed suicide a week ago. This could well be an unintentional skewing of information, a common mistake we all make. Suppose the teacher said that a student attempted suicide, it's not unreasonable to suppose that regardless whether it was a failed or successful attempt, the emotional meaning would be the same, and, at least for a while (if it was unsuccessful, she will still be in hospital for a while and maybe stay home for a while after that), the material effect is the same: Chisa is not at school. When they get the email from Chisa, they think it was a prank if not something else. As an aside, anime usually have one break for advertisement right in the middle of the episode, which is why when you watch anime online there's a weird seemingly out-of-nowhere title card for the anime right in the middle of the episode. My copy of SEL does not have one of those, is there one of those for SEL? Anyway, there is an obvious break in my copy where ads would be (sans ads, of course) right after lain opens the email and it reads 『こんにちは、元気？』 Great cliffhanger, though I'm not a fan of cliffhangers. This one is not bad because if you ignore that it was a cliffhanger (e.g. if you're watching a copy where it just resumes the episode immediately), it's just a place in the story just after interesting information was set up but not resolved, and the resolution was natural (or nonexistent, you tell me). ーWe now return to Chisa Lives! on SCT, your one stop thread for real discussion of SEL Conspiracies!ー Given the tone of the letter, the grandiose claims, it is reasonable to suspect that they were sent by someone in a nonstandard state of consciousness. Perhaps someone whose body has been heavily battered, or who almost died, or who is hopped up euphoric on painkillers while she is recovering. Chisa, it would seem, after her body healed enough that she was able to speak and listen, since Navis have voice recognition and speech synthesis, sent, via her mobile Navi, mail. She is still alive, but she can't move her body, she gave it up when she attempted suicide. Maybe the powerful being watching over her will let her get it back. After all 『ここには 医者がいるの』。 The sending mail to her classmates was, at least in part, to get lain's attention, so she would go use her Navi and check her mail. Why lain? she is suggestible. Her family has a history of mental illness on her mother's side. We cannot be sure whether her mother ever hallucinates, but she is quite apathetic, detached,, symptoms that have some established comorbidity with hallucinations. lain tells her that she got mail from a dead girl, and she doesn't even change her facial expression, no visible reaction. lain and her sister Mika, as we will see, do have incidents involving hallucinations.

>>2773 mine has those.

>>1962 I think alienation is the only way to understand lain. anyone who doesn't feel alienated or out of touch with God wouldn't be turned on by the thing... Japan has to deal with alienation on a very pressing scale >>1965 disagree, may ask, are you an imposter? >>2571 it's one of the most profound rumours on the net...it predates the internet and yet still reverberates true throughout its tubes. (the internet is a series of pneumatic pipes) KIDS is just the theme of Monarch programming, etc. a lot of conspiratorial knowledge makes transient appearances in SEL >>2773 I always assumed it was a dead-man's switch or simple delay a ghost in the shell suicide often times doesn't pan out, so you may be accurate isn't the ethos of Chisa recurrent in the Masami Eiri consciousness? she followed his path in reciprocal and the story doesn't hinge on her dying. it pivots from lain's memory, lain's role as a passive connector. I don't know why she would have internet access immediately after attempting suicide but maybe her powerlevel is beyond comprehension. I always neglected bothering to understand Chisa beyond the imagery. Chisa's imagery actually stood out more than anything when I revisited the series. I used a screenshot of her as a Skype profile for a short while. She is viewed with telephone lines standing behind her. The first contrast between layer: reality and all the hubbub in the wired. the lines are silhouetted. they are passive connectors. ah yes perhaps they were always power lines, channeling activity. Chisa yields lain's transformation as a delinquent socialite. lain's reflection of her own stature uncovers the need to manifest in a digital realm, in a manner beyond compensatory . lain taps directly into the information powering all of the world at this point. maybe Chisa's ability to harass the school from beyond the grave was the first glimpse lain had into the connectivity achievable in the wired.