Notes watching Serial Experiments Lain
These notes will probably spoil the show for you, so don't read them unless you've watched it! I'm also writing as I watch as a way to make sense of what I'm looking it.
Episode 1
- Lain seem like she's not really there. The environment is faded. People barely notice her.
- Yomoda Chisa died by jumping off a building in Shibuya. She sends email. She was in class D.
- Lain is studying programming (C, it seems).
- She says she's not very good with computers.
- The shadows have a strange color with red dots.
- Lain seems to get back home at 6pm.
- She has a red computer. Uses "Communication OS".
- Her ID is "lain"
- It's locked by voice. Everything on the computer is driven by voice.
- Death is a theme. Suicide too.
- She seems to love teddy bears. She has a lot and even a pyjama.
- The Wired is mentioned. Is that the Internet?
- Many computer interfaces.
- Speaking of computers, they seem to be called "Navi".
- "Even a girl like you can make friends right off the bat, Lain."
- Her dad has like 10 computers on his desk. Her mother doesn't seem to be into computer that much?
- Iwakura is her last name,
- Seem as if Lain is able to see parts of the Wired in the real world.
- The Wired almost look like a different dimension of its own. One where some people go in the after life?
Episode 2
- Layer2: girls
- Cyberia? It's a club. Someone that looks like Lain is there.
- Accela?
- Creepy people outside Lain's home.
- Accela, smart supplement. Secrets a hormone that affects the time-sense. Makes it seems as if one's awareness is accelerated. Multiply the brain's operational capacity by 2 to 12 times. It only lasts 24h.
- Lain has what looks like a smartphone -- capable of receiving emails. Which is definitely not something we had back when the show was created in 1998.
- Arisu is her friend.
- Lain received a new Navi.
- Lain's dad associate a good computer with good relationship with people.
- The new Navi runs "Copland OS Enterprise", by TachibanaLab.
- Lain's older sister is Mika
- The email application on the phone is called "Lain's Pokate Mailer", which I think is really cool.
- Cyberia - Cafe & Club. That's a cool name.
- Info Guard Center?
- Someone shot people at the club.
- The shooter seems to know Lain. Is it the guy who took the Accela?
- "The Wired can't be allowed to interfere with the real world!".
- "No matter where you go, everyone's connected".
- The shooter shot himself.
Episode 3
- Layer 3: Psyche
- The Navi seems to have an AI.
- A black car in front of the house.
- The psyche can increase the power of a Navi.
- Accel is a way to increase psyche? Designed by the Knights?
- So Lain knows Cyberia?
- So the chip Lain recevied is called a Psyche.
- Looks like we can get inside a Navi.
- We need to connect the chip to the board.
- Apparently it manipulates the data on its own.
- People seems to know Lain from the Wired.
- People take a personality on the Wired that's different from real life.
- Apparently the Lain in the Wired is very different.
- Lain connected to the Wired at the end?
Episode 4
- Layer 4: Religion
- "I don't need parents. Humans are all alone. They're not connected to anyone at all"
- A young girl with a dog teddy bear follows someone. The person is terrified.
- Lain is reading "HackerZ Heavens vol 5".
- There's a game on the Wired apparently.
- The young girl that was following the person is back. Was she just playing in the Wired?
- Phantoma is the name of the game.
- Okay so people playing the phantoma game are actually in the real world. So if they fall, they actually can hurt themselves. A sort of real virtual reality. Looks like one can break their Navi to get out of it though.
- There are "PK" in the game.
- Phantoma has been linked to a "tag game" played by kids. Thus the little girl?
- Looks like the Knights are behind it?
- "The border between the wired and the real world isn't so clear"
- "The knights can be thought as a religion that is spreading through the Wired"
- Lain has made people go away with a special power. Were they in the real world or the Wired?