Added: 4 years ago
From: garonn5
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  • Alice is a weird name? I'm inclined to think Lain is weirder...

  • Wow this was a mind blowing anime.

  • this serie was amazing, i'm definetly buying it.

  • i just happened upon this anime in a local video store like 10 years ago. They only had the first 4 episodes but it was enough to get me obssessed. Now that I have seen it all, i can honestly say this is the most brilliant thing I have ever witnessed. Anyone know if the creator of Lain has any other series?

  • F#ing queer.... but i loved it....but i dont understand it....lol

  • Comment removed

  • IT probably wasnt smart, but this and Elfien Lied were my first, and most impacting, anime ever. Even way back then, watching a random DvD from the store, I knew I had stumbled across a masterpiece.

    Now I look back, and see how little I understood, how many references and theories and subtle back plots flew over my head.

  • Gooses drink Goose Juice and Mooses drink Moose Juice!

  • Arisu isn't a name to be embarrassed about. In Farsi it means "Wish"

  • Would be cool if Lain existed in a real life wire : D

    Lain is a god! (Y)

  • Now THAT... was one of the best anime I have ever seen. I didn't understand half of it -- heck, I probably never will. It's definitely given me some things to mull over, though.  Thanks for uploading! :)

  • lain is the controller of the wired in the anime she can stop time around her the wired connected her so she could make the world one and connect everyone together again and put her memories in different people explained in the 12th layer lain never was she is the connection between the wired and the real world

  • So think Lain is God, she has the power to change and manipulate time i think the Serial Expermient was to see how she reacted to the world.

  • i think it's a sad ending. the title alone says something: ego. lain takes the feeling of loneliness to the nth level. imagine yourself all alone for all eternity, and you choosing that the whole world continue its course without you. no family, no friends, but you are the most powerful, all-knowing being there is, in fact there is only you, because these people are projections of yourself. their personality is merely momentary. when they die, they dissolve back into you.

  • @rcmontecalvo

    Oh, it would be even more 'painful' then that. Since she exist as the projection of the wired, and everyone's connection to the wired, she has access to every single humans memories, feelings,emotions, ect. And to her perception, this all happens in the past, present and future. So by being able to access their consciousness,she can basically insert herself into anybodies life that she chooses. But only as a memory, and only temporary. And she chooses to do so over Alice.

  • @bwzamie indeed. and this has been the argument used by those who interpret lain as 'god.' this has a lot of hindu pantheism going on, drawing on the idea that all is one, that the ultimate reality is one. now, the interesting take made by the lain series, is to apply this concept, found in the most ancient pantheistic texts, into the present day using the context of the internet with its high-speed exchange of information.

  • @rcmontecalvo

    Theoretically, she wouldn't 'have' to access every person unless she wanted to, but who would want to do that? Seeing billions of peoples lives unfold and go by, it would drive anybody insane. And that's the sadness of it, she has so much power but can't use it because she'll lose more of herself the greater influence she chooses to use.

  • that was awsome, its not really that confusing.

    this has officially become my favorite anime :D

    too bad it was so short, and theres only one manga chapter :/

  • I don't completely get this anime, but.

    This last episode. This fucking last episode.

    Saddest.

    Fucking thing.

    Ever.

  • loved the philosophy of this anime, also this anime is so nice to look at, the characters personalities are well developed. im so glad i watched this. this is the kind of anime i dream of. 10/10

  • This was one of the most complex, philosophical and interesting animes I have ever watched. Or anything for that matter, I've never seen anything like it. It was all executed so perfectly, you could think about it even after it's over and you could still find something new. This is definitely one of my favorites and as soon as they re-release a new box set, I need this. This show is absolutely amazing!! In the words of Lain, "I'm here, so I'll be with you forever."

  • i cried tears of pain....and slight confusion

  • Really glad I stuck through this. Tbh I'm still confused. It's the type of anime which just has so many parts and themes that it can be hard to wrap your head around. There also seems to be some confusion over whether Lain became or is God. I don't think she is - even though she has alot of the same omni attributes. Great show.

  • confusing and sometimes boring but still fascinating and highly rewarding anime; definitely one of my favorites

  • is that all? :( oh well, wonderfull anime :)

  • I seriously don't fuckin get what that "present day, aha, present time ahahahaha" means?! wtf trippy

  • This was a great series, loved it! For those who are confused, that girl in the end is Arisu and looks like its the the teacher she had that crush on. Lain didn't erase Arisu's memory but simply she lost memory of Lain only because the passing of time. Also her sister was brain fucked by that 'god' person but at the end apparently she's back to normal.

  • Thumbs up !!!

    Everyone who got something in his/her eye

  • Somehow from this episode I thought of two possibilities. First, the father of Lain is actually a god of some sort, or at least a creator. Second, I believe that in the end, Lain transcended all notions of time, thus being able to watch the world she loves indefinitely. That's why there's a time warp where Arisu has grown up, and Lain has still stayed the same. Maybe in exchange for her sacrifice of being forgotten, she was granted the comfort of seeing her friends become happy? 

  • Even without completely understanding it, SEL has pulled at my heart strings.

  • It's never good bye, until you die, just "See you later"

  • Great anime

  • I'm confused... is that really arisu? her only friend... or is it her sister... then who is it in the dinner table with her parents

  • Lain > Haruhi.

  • nice anime.

  • Was Arisu with that teacher she liked? Or was it someone... more her age?

  • for those who havent seen the end of it yet please dont read my comment yet.i love it....its sad though...how she is somehow alone left to pass infinity by herself ..it would make me really happy if the actuall God took her in

  • 2:22 freaky smile...

  • I think the older sis was the girl who left the dinner table and said she was on a diet. her parents were at the dinner table......

  • WTH....where is the older sis...no one seems to care that she missed about a good month of school n she can't say anything n she always looks like she's on some illegal stuff,and when she finally managed to say something all she says is beep beep roger beep beep beep beep

  • I have to admit I am kind of confused, but this anime is beyound awesome, and I wouldnt change a thing about it! I loved it ten years ago and I love it today in 2010, it does scratch an itch in my mind that no other source of entertainment can!

  • I want to share my view on the alien. The alien represents us, those who become focused on the Wired World and slowly alienate with what they can identify to be them in the 'real' world. To lose our identity is to become alien to our own humanity, losing ourselves in a manner that seems impossible. I also think the Roswell piece was a distraction, a "history lesson" on hyper-texts, with the alien side coming in later to reveal what it really meant. Loss of identity, loss of ourselves.Alienation

  • Obviously this is about identity and some other themes, but I want to talk about the alien. Hypothetically, couldn't we see this as a alienating ourselves? We become so focused on the Wired World that we become less of ourselves, losing what we can identify in the 'real' world. The description given to us about Roswell is a distraction, a history lesson that really focused on hyper-texts. The true meaning of the alien is us, extraterrestials to our own humanity.

  • This anime perfectly fits on my philosophical tastes.

  • Ehh.. 12 years old (i was like 7 by that time) and it's still better than any of 2010 ecchi, harem, moe and other cr** we got.

    Had it's weak moments, but man can it mess with your mind.

    Thanks for uploading.

  • well yaoi is still the best

  • this anime is so fucking WIN!!

  • i dnt get it some onee explain this serise.....wat happend 2 her sis and the whole point of this?

  • i love this mindfuck series

  • stunning

  • One of the best Animes ever made ...

  • you know if she deleted herself from everyones memory then y is she still there? i guess she's only in the recycle bin..lol

  • she really didn't, but Arisu can't remember because she moved on. she was also sheltered by her memories of reality. she cant forget herself as you can well imagine. was great though.. been wanting to watch this for years.

  • I think she deleted herself as a memory and as a being but not as an idea, thas why she seems to sort of half exist only to herself and in the end I think she decided to exist in the real world as well but not interfere and fuck everything up the way that God fellow did

  • she seemed so lonley in the end...

  • Best. Anime. Ever./

  • Lain is so unbearably cute... She's like a ghost, never growing old and in the end, in a way, always alone.

  • One of my favorite animes ever. An absolute masterpiece.

  • "your right, we can see eachother anytime". . . . kinda creepy

  • I shall never forget her.

    So far as we remember her, Lain shall be real...

  • The first chapters reminds about another anime.

    - Except that the storyline are more fokused on the unreality and the maincharacter are not alone ,but in a group of explorers who are stuck in a (The Wire)network/playground. Some dies in the reality or gets into permanent "coma".

    Ends with that they all accept that they are lost...........

  • O.O

    ^My eyes will be stuck like that for days...

  • I loved that!!!!! Perfect way to end it! Not con fusing at all! Now, on to Higurashi no naku koro ni!!!!!!! (Mouthful hehe)

  • Higurashi is awesome >_>;; Be sure to watch Kai, and then Rei afterwards~!

    But I agree, this was a really nice way to end SEL.

  • Ah Higurashi get ready to be possibly confused again and freaked out, but it's still a good anime :D

  • Ohh man, she erased her memory too x_x, well, it sure makes me felt sorta deppresed, ohh bittersweet endings. sigh

  • @NaneRulz I don't think she erased her own memory. It wouldn't do to let Alice/Arisu know that she had met Lain before after Lain purposefully erased herself.

    Obviously, Alice still had phantom memories, and Lain didn't want to wake those up and screw Alice's life up again.

  • i still don't get it, but it's making me cry so much.

  • She didn't become God. She simply accepted her fate. She knows she's not alone, that at all times she can be connected with everyone. She is everywhere, but at the end, she finally came to terms with herself and who Lain is. The reason why her other self disappeared - there was no need for it to be there anymore, she knew who she was.

    She erased her memories from everyone's life, but she can't touch human emotions - those are still intact. Those are enough to her for proof of existence.

  • I find it as little unfair that everyone had to forget her to be happy, and she's kinda stuck on her own in time and wherever else she goes. Can i ask, did she become God in the end?

  • The first time I watched this anime I was depressed for a week. This is the 3rd time I've seen it. I'm guessing she reached enlightenment.

    There is a guy in TED who is trying to make something like The Wired. He did all the programming for the original internet that was used by the military.

    He said 3 months ago that it would be achieved by 2059 if someone continued his work after he dies(With medicine the way it will soon be, he may finish it himself).

  • wow...this anime shure made u think of lots of things ^^

    great anime,thanks for uploading =) *thumbs up*

  • I luv the ending when they r able to meet each other again... i just feel... very... touched and move by this episode's ending...

  • thanks for uploading!

  • aaany how! gonna watch is again :3

    great anime:O but i dont quite understand all of it.. comments of all of you do help nehehe

  • @ samoshi136: I would agree with you, I do understand a bit, but when I read comments sometime, it helps sometime^^

  • 10 years later.. Arisu became a teacher

  • Have to watch some time again ;:_:

  • great show.

    I was running 1 book store at that time of lain was aired.

    it was very hard and creepy time for me.

    Lain remind me such memories....

  • This series is a masterpiece. It's got to be the best anime I've ever seen.

    My interpretation of the ending:

    In this second timeline, Lain is omnipresent (Lain in blue) and thus doesn't have a true identity. However, the Lain of the first timeline (Lain in white) established her identity through her bond with Arisu.

    Due to that bond, she was able to fully appreciate the value of humanity's physical existence and overcome the omnipresent Lain to establish herself as her true identity.

  • This is seen when she rejects even considering the omnipresent Lain's notion of starting time over from the beginning. Immediately after that, she takes over as the dominant identity (as the omnipresent Lain fades).

    In the scene after that, she is able to ascend to the real upper layer of the world - presumably the one which is mentioned in the conversation between the two on the train.

  • This is also echoed through her father's quote "You don't need to wear that anymore" in reference to the hood that was covering her eyes. She's now able to see from both perspectives (omnipresent and human) as she's lived both sides, so the darkness that was clouding her view has been lifted.

  • So in short - as if that were even possible - Lain becomes God but also retains the individuality that she developed through her bond with Arisu because said individuality exists through Arisu's memories of her... hence Lain's questioning of the impact of erasing memories and the last line of the anime.

    I hope that makes sense to someone. My feeble words aren't enough to describe something of this caliber.

  • Made sense to me. My interpretation was much darker and when I came to my conclusion, depression came and went in the same day.

  • これが10年以上前の作品とは

  • I wouldn't want to be God.

    it's too lonely an existence and there are those who use their worship of you to justify unspeakable horrors on people they don't like or understand.

  • I remember watching this anime back when I was 11-12 esh, when it was on Tech TV. Needless to say I didn't understand most of it, but it did play it's part in shaping me as the person I am today. I'm glad I got to watch it again. Thanks for posting this. =]

  • Wait...so she's stuck going through times. Never aging or dying. Wow....I love this ending. o.o

  • man i wish i could step out of time any time i wanted. and if you google universe is a hologram, you'll find some interesting articles by physics. great series, suprised to find them all here. Thanks for the trip thru my mind.

  • omg lain's face at 2:19 is so kawaii n__n

    i loved this anime

  • i will never forget this anime. I will never forget Lain

  • One of best animies i`ve ever seen.Thx for uploading it :).

  • Comment removed

  • Lain sacrificed herself. She reverted everything to the way it should have been since the Wired is gone or something like that. She got this awesome power of being omniscient, so she can watch over the ones she loves, like Alice here. Her saying "I'm here, Ill be with you forever" is her saying that she can visit or watch over anyone and anything now. She's basically a Goddess in a sense.

  • as long as we remember her, she will exist...

    i think i'll never forget her...

  • Awesome comment.

    Looks like you catched the spirit of the anime pretty well^^

  • I love this anime....Lain rocks!!!! ^_^

  • I don't really get this anime..maybe I'll watch it later in the future.

  • Oh that was so sad... : ( It really touched me. Thank you very much for posting this! <3

  • Arisu in her own mind still knows who that is.

  • When you read the novel version and play the PS version, You are to give yourself up to Lain's world further.

  • I wonder if they made it 13 episodes on purpose or if that was just a coincidence?

    (you know like Series of Unfortunate events, where it's 13 books 13 chapters/book (except last one))

  • i do not think so... but we never know the whole truth, only the one they want us to see!

  • yeah...weird isn't it??? ^_^

  • That's just how a lot of animes are. So far I've seen four patterns of anime longevity.

    A lot of them will have exactly 13 episodes, either due to budgets or it's just a short story. Some will go to 40-50, a lot go to 25-26 episodes, and others go to 100-200+ like Naruto and Bleach.

  • Well, I seen one anime title have 400+, I don't know the title and I don't watch it but I noticed it

  • Thank you very much for posting this!!!

  • "I'm here, so I'll be with you forever."

  • There are wires everywhere in this anime! There everywhere! It's crazy!

  • this is really sad:(

  • The ending was satisfactory. =)

  • Is a complicate anime.

    Tanks for it.

  • Fucking awesome, Arisu turned into a hot woman

  • Emotionally the most pressure-releasing ending I've ever seen.

  • Yeah, they really did a good job with it. I just wish they could've had a different ending song, or even just left the song out entirely.

  • I completely agree, I turned it off.

  • I just researched lain... on a bunch of sites... i am sad... because they all say it is the deepest and most confusing... i didnt think so... is there anything else deep like this... this felt right at home for me.

  • You should maybe try Boogiepop Phantom which is another anime that's very psychological and deep. I agree that this was deep felt for me, it didn't mirror my life but some aspects not her family though. LOL!!!

  • You should watch Paranoia Agent.

  • I wonder if the person that created this actually went through this... by thinking this... it existed right?

  • The end remind me of the end of Evangelion, both are very confusing and profound

  • Rain-dono wa Kamisama desu.

  • wow... cool anime! a bit confusing...but still awsome!!! ^_^ of course...i would disagree with some of the things said in lain...but w/e. its an anime! X) i think people are thinking to hard on this...>_> lol. they should just know the basic meaning, except it, and just enjoy the creation. :D GO LAIN!

  • Awesome ending!!!

    These few last episodes, however, reminded me a LOT of Gundam, heheh...

  • Is this the end?????????

  • Thanks for uploading!

  • awesome. this i think is my 3rd favourite anime after Paranoia Agent and Furi Kuri... (both of which i would recommend, especially PA)

    really good ending, everyone including lain 'lives' happily ever after. a few things here and there that i need to figure out, but I enjoy lain more as an experience than a story. great anime.

  • a little weird this ending isnt??

  • Nice ending, specialy when she meets future Arisu, she sacrifice herself for everyone wellbeing... I love this Anime n_n

  • ...

  • omg, this anime was simply amazing...

    i almost cried but it's really good. it reminds me somewhat of Metropolis and Elfen Lied.

  • People say its a sad ending? Its a very happy ending! Everybody gets what they want and nobody died.

    Although I wonder about that kid and his mother, before they were so happy and now without the knights they wont be

  • Serial Expermients Lain = biography of an angel?

    Hey, it was Toru who pointed it out. "I kissed an angel [tenshi]."

  • Now everythink make sense now!

  • i almost cried poor lain shes so amazing

  • WOW best anime EVER!! loved it! Very confusing at some parts but they sort themselfs out. I loved it! Thanks sooo much for uploading!!!

  • Omg this is thebest anime I've seen in a long time! @.@ Thank you so much for uploading the last episode.I love the ending,now Lain has a good life to begin with and now she can watch over Arisu. ^-^ One question,is Arisu grown up already?

  • @ 3wayOtakus: I think Arisu is a grown up.... it's ten years later, isn't it.

  • so basicly at the end she restarted everything and deleted her self from everyone'smemoeries but she started a new life sometime in the distint future after the kinghts and "God"?

  • So she deleted herself from the real world. that's sad.

  • Sad ending, but I think a happy one would have ruined it.

  • If you enjoyed Lain;try Paranoia agent.

    (available on youtube)

  • Wow, this is one of those series that you need to watch more than once to get its complex plot, but I love those kind of series, so I enjoyed this! Loved its ending as well.

    Hehe, nothing bad to say about it! Just pure win!

  • wow this was a good, and fairly confusing, anime thanks for putting it on. Yay Karl is alive again, I was kinda sad, he had pretty eyes. -.- im all teary eyed now.. Well im off! Thanks again

  • I hope lain is alive....

  • Good ending,thats made me not dissappoint to see this anime!But the started eps,is soo confusing,=P

  • A great story (the first 3 episodes are my favourite cuz they are dark, silent, make ppl think..) but the end was not what I hoped. :(

  • It was a thought provocative and touching series. Although it was quite different than most of the stuff I watch.

  • this reminds me of Donnie darko...which i think has a much more sad ending that this one

  • Omg the ending scene where she met Arisu was so sad i wanted to cry. But im glad it was a happy ending...kind of.

  • I liked that ending.

    Thanks for uploading!

  • She got her life back, and she's gonna use her powerz to watch over arisu. That's a pretty solid ending in my opinion. Life continued, reality was not comprimised, it's a bittersweet ending, but it takes a bit of extrapolation to get. She couldn't have existed in this scene without her abilities, so she is clearly using them just to exist, not to be a god or for selfish crap, which she totally could have. She can change reality itself, but in the end all she wants to do is live.

  • Actually she will watch over everyone in the world because she loves them as her "Father" said. She does however keep a special eye on Arisu since her memory wasn't completely erased. She is now, in a sense, god. Although she doesn't have any influence to those who don't remember her.

  • It is a good ending, but it made me a bit sad. I was hoping that she would place herself back into life where she left off and start over anew with the same people.

  • dis is so sad!! was it really nesesary 2 sacrifice urself, i mean if u hav such power.. neway they should really make a new series r something :)

  • Ok....Why did Chisa come back?

  • Chisa came back because since Lain never existed she never really had to kill herself and never realized she didn't need a body. It was more than likely info that had leaked out of the Wired when Lain existed.

  • Sad ending. I wish Lain could have gone back to her normal life.

  • She never had one to begin with.

  • dude i feel srry for lain thou..... like its sooo sad!! she had to erase all the memories that the ppl she loved!!! isnt that freakin sad????

  • Thanks up loading.

  • =_= Lain saved the day... world :/ I was so glad nothing creepie happend in the end =_=

  • this anime makes u think about things that u dont usually think about everyday

  • I've finally reached the end. What was 13 episodes, felt like 13,000. I'm glad though, that Lain finally resolved herself, and put things as they should be.

  • There is A remarkable lesson I have learned from this anime. Thanks for the upload. OH and you peeps that commented before me, your all human. Sorry. :3

  • what's the lesson, can you tell me? i just really enjoyed watching it and it brought a few interesting ideas to mind.

  • i think therefore i exist

  • it would be nice if that were true, but it's wrong both ways...

  • I think I think, therefore I think I exist...

  • lain) They think, therefore you exist, I know that.