/anime/ - Anime

I still need the ending to Texhnolyze explained to me.

I watched it a long time ago. Incoherent fever dream as far as I could tell. It may be brilliant but even then I thought to myself "should I devote any time whatsoever to do research and find out? What if it turns out there's nothing and I'm just prolonging the time I already wasted watching it? Fuck it maing".

Also I guarantee you 100% of the reason this show has its niche is because of the aesthetic of a cute hacker girl typing on her gigantic computer, and nothing to do with the actual "content" of the show.

I saw it as an existential show about the damage that can be caused by online personas and the internet with elements of cultism and philosophy shoved in.

I don't understand why people act like it's some obscure shit though and think people are fucking around when they're only around for the anime hacker girl.

>>1349
i heard lain is supposed to represent the collective unconscious or something

>>1331
something something lain is the god of the wired, something something her dad is the dor of real life.
that's literally all i remember about lain

>>1348
>Also I guarantee you 100% of the reason this show has its niche is because of the aesthetic of a cute hacker girl typing on her gigantic computer, and nothing to do with the actual "content" of the show.
The show's aesthetic alone is more than enough reason to love Lain.

>>1363
lel

i used to know what it was really about but i forget after one month
and yeh theres smthing to do with collective unconscious becoming collective conscious and lain representing the humanity itself or smthing

can someone post a torrent of it? I couldn't find one

>>2129
nvm hadn't checked TPB and there's one there lol

>>2130
You should really use nyaa.si for anime and stuff. It's by far the best source. sukebei.nyaa.si has jav, hentai, and eroge if you need that stuff.

>>1331
I just started watching it, I'm on episode 3. It started out rather slow with little going on. The setting is weird as fuck, and weird shit is going on. It's hard to stay engaged when you don't understand anything and your getting dribbles of new things going on.

I'll keep watching, just to see what the fuss is about.

I watched lain for the first time in 2016, and to me at the time I drew a lot of connections with the politico-cybernetic dimension of social life and I think lain was actually supposed to be more of a speculation about how we would relate to the internet as a collective group in the future. For example, to most people outside of 4chan before 2016 the alt right probably seemed like something mysterious and contingent to them, kind of like lain at her computer, but as time went on physical outbursts occurred in the more obvious public space that were the result of these mysterious contradictions in the internet, laymen started to become aware of what places like 4chan are and how the internet is cultivating Nazi terrorism at a crazy scale. As a student of Hegel I think the parallels between Lain and the alt-right are because they’re both a very dialectical motion from things that once seemed contingent and mysterious becoming necessary and unavoidable in the public consciousness, in particular for the case of the internet and how it relates with the rest of public collective experience. I think even today a lot of the people are unaware of how they’re being ideologically manipulated by algorithms and driven into an ignorance that might result in an eventful outburst in the real world again, changing our Zeitgeist and making us more aware of these same contradictions. Lain to me is more or less an allegory for a Badiouan truth-event that the internet experiences as a subject.

>>2371
>alt right
Eh, look. I can understand how you can connect the two, but I would say that you are describing a different phonomena. Or, maybe an entirely different phonomena, but a different expression of the phonomena. SEL captured the zeitgeist of the Internet as it was unfolding upon society. It was incredibly presient- still is- yet it couldn't have possibly predicted an explosion of human activity. The wired is active, its algorithms subconsciously affect the majority of us in ways we can barely perceive, but in SEL, its effects are subtle. Very withdrawn. The world is sleeping while change is at work. This indicates it is in transition, and I feel like this is what SEL captured. But, perhaps not what happened after. It did however get it right with the Knights of the Eastern Calculus though. I looking back at what Lain got right.

>>2371
>As a student of Hegel
bruh

>>1331
Nah I don't think literally. Imo she was just as god as the other guy, and even though she tries to one-up him with psychological warfare she never really transcends what he is either. He just liked to mess a bit with the world because he had the power, and when Lain got the power to she just made stuff normal for probably equally as selfish reasons (although I still am trying to find an interpretation that avoids "infallible psychological egoism" or smth) so she more so represents an artificial god of man that they have created. Lots of different interps tho and even the creators weren't sure what the coherent explanation/meaning was

>>2371
Fucking lol.

>>4536
Ok, care to expand?

lain is literally me!

>>4553
So what's your point? Just more sagefaggotry?

Just watched it and its fucking great
I love the soundtrack
The story and Lain
Why arent people talking about this more is it to old?

it's got a cult following online, mostly on imageboards. i've seen lots of lain on /GET/ and even some here

Lain has grown a ton in popularity in the last few years, what do you mean?

I'm never going to watch this anime, you can't make I HATE LAIN I HATE LAIN

>>7994
Lainchan and wirechan seem to like it too
I meant in more normie circles
>>7995
Only with imageboard dwellers are also with other weebs?

>>7997
I do see on other places on the Internet, but honestly noone I've met IRL has heard of it.

I've tried getting into this before and I always have trouble getting past the first couple episodes.

>>7999
What's the problem?

>>8002
Seems aimless and confusing.

I watched it for the first time with other people from /GET/ last Friday.
It's kino. Gonna watch it with my dad, he'll probably enjoy it.

>>7999
I got that feeling too, but as you keep watching you start to understand most things from previous episodes. Obviously you won't fully get it in your first watch though.

>>8003
Because it is, people like to pretend to like it because it's artsy and confusing, it might have been "deep" when it came out but from today's perspective it is laughably dumb.

>>8006
> people like to pretend to like it because it's artsy and confusing
but it is

Anyone remember Boogiepop? https://archive.ph/UF5ws

>>7993
There are daily shitpost threads of it on /a/ so I wouldn't say it is than unpopular.

>>1331
>Taro pic
reminds me of the eyes from Blood Blockade

>My philosophical ramblings on (disjointed parts of) Lain / SEL.


>The philosophical point of the wired.
The wired is basically the cultural / superstructure sphere given a type of Pseudo-'Form' in the context of the internet.
Lain's dad points out to her at the very start of the anime in very blunt terms [paraphrasing haven't watched it in a while]
<"The wired is just a medium of transferring information and communicating with other people - dont confuse it for reality"
But very tellingly. The entire rest of the anime STOMPS all over this idea.
Throughout the series we see hints and have it eventually confirmed to us that the wired IS capable of having a effect on material reality. And even in the way the show is fleshed out, the audience is left constantly confused half the time whether something is really happening or is just happening in the 'wired'.

It plays out in effectively a similar paradigm as the Marxist 'Base and Superstructure' except instead of a strictly economic base effecting culture which can then in turn lead to changes in the base in a closed loop, this is applicable to 'reality in general' instead of a pure economics talking point

From the first time Lain goes onto the wired we see the same pattern unfold either at her hands or as the story develops the alter/copycat/deformed Lains. This pattern emerges…

<A. Lain goes onto and performs some sort of task or interaction on the wired.
<B. This has a discernible effect on the real world usually coming back to either help lain or bite her in the ass.
<C. Lain goes back onto her computer and performs some sort of new task or interaction with the new information or experience derived from point B. in mind. effectively completing the circuit and beginning anew at A.

>Why are there multiple lains.
I take the position that even when Lain seems to be aware of the 'alternate' lain(s) and even shows disgust at some of their actions, The best interpretation of the show derives from the idea that she genuinely was the one behind the keyboard controlling at least some of their actions (At least before the point in the story before everyone's Miitendo avatar starts coming to life and killing them or whatever like i said i watched it a long ass time ago) And that the other lains we're simply how Lain was choosing to portray herself on the internet.

The first 'variant' was pretty obviously just a reflection of how Lain (who is incredibly introverted, shy and stand-downish) wanted themselves to be perceived, A strong solemn and powerful person. But also to be popular, which inevitably leads to the second…
The 'variant' we see later in the series (i.e little shit Lain) i would almost compare to someone who garners a toxic online personality for clout and follows. Which you can obviously see by their personality and more notably their actions which someone could absolutely believe an absolutely toxic teenage asshole would think would be a good idea to get upboats and follows

To get the 'point' of the multiple lains i'll just reduce this down to telling everyone to go watch some of 'Carefree wanderings' videos on social-media and his 'profilicity' theory and the feedback loop associated with people changing their patterns and behaviours for more follows/likes/retweets/upboats. Thats basically what im getting at. Very cybernetic, very similar to the A. B. C. Formula i laid out in the first section.

Guy in the nightclub recognised Lain and real world / actual Lain genuinely did say the line about 'everyone's connected.' to him before he blew his head off
Dont know about the scenes of Lain's friend interacting with little shit lain though

1/2

2/2

>Masami's plan / Dimensional merge / The V.R goggles guy.
Masami who is basically the main antagonist of the series, entire plan revolves around him first 'dying' in the real world which is revealed to actually have been him digitizing and uploading his consciousness into the wired using Sci-Fi I FUCKING LOVE SCIENCE level bullshittery.
From this point he intends to 'bring the wired and the real world together'
<What does that mean?
The world becomes a deleuzians paradise.
A completely imminent world with no observable or real separation between the perceived base and its culture/superstructure or in this scenario the 'real world' and the 'virtual world'. Obviously we dont get a chance to see what this would have functionally looked like. but from some of the events we see in the later episodes, I doubt it would have ended well for most people.

The V.R goggles sex pest guy we see about halfway through the series is actually one of the most similar to Masami in terms of their goals, Both of them initially want some sort of Liberation from the 'real world' and existence inside the wired. Though Masami succeeds (And to put it once more in Deleuzean terms - by literally abandoning or destroying his physical body so that his consciousness could continue to exist infinitely and unfettered by biological needs inside the wired) while the V.R goggles guy clearly fails. simply living a NEET lifestyle with a Meta.TM headset glued to his face all day. While still ultimately having to deal with the automatic reactions and requirements of his body in the real world.

Despite Masami's plans failure being the climax of series and us obviously never getting to see it's consequences, One character obviously does 'transcend' their physical limitations in an obvious way.
Lain herself seemingly becomes capable of 'living' inside the wired much the same way that Masami did. But is also able to quite clearly 'make themselves' physical in the real world whenever and wherever they want. Effectively becoming Omnipresent at every discernible individual point of time and space both within the virtual and real worlds

So basically Lain succeds where both Masami and V.R failed and ends up somewhat achieving the 'merge' that Masami desired. at least on a personal level.

>Is Lain a replicant, Android, cyborg etc
From the various clues given, Such as Lain's family admitting that she is 'not theirs', The amount of federal agents that seem to be surrounding lain at any particular time. The very bizarre scene near the climax where the family home simply empties for no particular reason, The fact that Masami seemed to believe he needed Lain in particular to complete his plan. And the fact that Lain being some sort of non-human/robot is basically the only way her two-way omnipresence makes a lick of sense.

I tend towards yes.

>>13602
>>13601
From left to right. The main Lain is her ego, the Lain of the Wired who is often seen as Cyberia is her superego, and the devious Lain is her id. This is why there is multiple Lains because they represent different aspects of herself. Except for the people on the wired who took on a distorted form of Lain they probably represented something else.

SHE JUST LIKE ME FR FR

>>15440
Was this supposed to be a soyjak post?

finished watching lain :(
did anyone else want to do that as a kid? rewrite the world and themselves without it


so i didn't realize, i got a little confused that alice was not a teacher or her sister but her same friend, that was always nice to her

she just seemed so big compared to her, was there a timeskip in the end?

what does lain do now? just exist as a god, watching others :/

i didn't understand her mission or goal, but anyone else think the share consciousness was a sick, communist concept?

>>19706
I still want to do it.

>>19709
Can't say I don't sometimes think of doing it, but now I would still rewrite it but without capitalism, not myself

I would skip and rather be born in a society that doesnt' need anymore productive forces to be formed

What do you think about the OP and ED, what do they mean
Never seen an anime with a full english OP

I am fading
I am falling
I am drowning

0.01 seconds after starting a job

I love the OP, the way that silent tune plays as Lain falls out and fades into the OP

TBH this and .Hack never spoke to me, I was bored by it.

You will ONLY ever understand Lain if you first:
>read works on early cybernetics
>read the entirety of burroughs, gibson, dick, rucker, mckenna, lovelock, stephenson, etc
>read cyberia, wholeness and the implicate order, turbulent mirror, etc
>read the collected works of freud and jung
>understand D&G
>understand Baudrillard
>read fisher and plant (land is for after lain)
>watch and read the all of the Serial Experiments Lain multi-media works

You missed Lacan and Kojeve

I'm amazed people still have trouble understanding Lain just because the author likes his ambiguous endings. That's it.

imagine trying to understand art, kek.

I think it's pretty easy to understand, people just don't want to accept that it is about how cool suicide really is.

>>21694
my favorite part is when he thought both east and west would have different interpretations but was disappointed when they both agreed

<fiction
Nope

when i saw it as a teen all i thought while watching it was "this is like the solipsism thing i skimmed the wiki page of during chem"

I thought I got what it was trying to say, but I suppose it'd be cool to do a rewatch after some pre-requisite reading. Maybe I'll catch some stuff I missed.

Might as well watch Evangelion's Hospital Scene for Japanese Philosophical Discourse

>>21720
Has Zizek done a commentary on it yet?

>>21692
You just need to make the basic assumption about the typical 4channer
>Lain is a schizo
That's it…

>>21736
You need to be 18+ to post here.

I finished Cyberia and lmfao what a waste of time.
Anarchists, man. Useless petit-bourgeois retards.
Thinking that discovering how everything interacts with everything else is incompatible with Materialism when they really just haven't read Marx and Engels, so they resort to the stupidest celebrations of incoherence.
I'm somehow reforming society at large by taking drugs in my room but we say we're actually changing the Morphogenetic field so its revolutionary.
Making a big deal out of spray painting "Elect" on a billboard poster into "ERect" and pretending you're toppling capitalism and literally accepting an interview to talk about doing it.
Anarchists are such a joke.

>>21746
>>21746
>Thinking that discovering how everything interacts with everything else is incompatible with Materialism when they really just haven't read Marx and Engels, so they resort to the stupidest celebrations of incoherence.
Wait until they find about Deleuze.

Honestly Lain and .Hack bored me after a while, not because it's terrible, but because it's pacing is so disjointed it throws me off and I can never make it past the first few episodes.

>>21026
>I am ballin i am faded
name for anyone if the Embed dies.

>>21752
>.Hack
The disjointedness and so on is reminiscent of a lot of anime adaptations of Light Novels, where they skip or cut material leading to broken up story telling. The only thing is that .Hack wasn't based on a light novel so I guess it was just how they made it.