Forum SettingsEpisode Information
Forums
New
What did you think of this episode?
DO NOT discuss the source material beyond this episode. If you want to discuss future events or theories, please use separate threads.
DO NOT ask where to watch/download this episode or give links to copyrighted, non-fair use material.
DO NOT troll/bait/harass/abuse other users for liking or disliking the series/characters.
DO read the Anime Discussion Rules and Site & Forum Guidelines.
Pages (3) [1] 2 3 »
Mar 16, 2009 4:39 AM
#1

Offline
Jan 2008
6961
THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE.
----------------------------------------
I'm not going to attempt to understand what happened....
Jul 5, 2009 12:52 PM
#2

Offline
Nov 2007
534
...what? I'm beginning to think they just throw in a bunch of random crap to make the writers seem smart O-o

Dec 3, 2009 1:43 AM
#3

Offline
Apr 2009
2791
My head hurts..!!
Signature removed. Please follow the signature rules, as defined in the Site & Forum Guidelines.
Jan 9, 2010 7:12 AM
#4
Offline
Jul 2018
564528
This episode felt sort of different, almost like a recap of what has happened so far. It was pretty refreshing to have a more fast-paced episode for a change, with such rapid and random cutting. Plus, the music was very different, but in a good way. That guitar riff was actually pretty awesome.
Jul 5, 2010 3:06 PM
#5

Offline
Feb 2009
310
So this is what an LSD trip is like...
I guess.

Anyway...
@ Henrrieta I like that explanation. It makes sense. But I'm not sure the authors of the anime thought of it the same way.
Jul 12, 2010 8:21 AM
#6
Offline
Feb 2009
21
I actually get the show. I don't see it as random incoherent nonsense. It's...beautiful.
Jul 28, 2010 3:57 AM
#7

Offline
Feb 2009
3436
If I were Arisu I would also scare the shit outta my pants!

Anyway I didn't like the first half... It's like they were trying to pull a recap somehow, and it didn't contribute to the story. The second half is a different story, Lain completely broke the border between the wired and reality, and the alien scene with Arisu symbolizes her alienation towards people, especially towards her class mates.

@Henrrieta: I agree with the first half of your comment, but then you went and pushed it too far >_>
VeethornJul 28, 2010 4:01 AM
Jul 31, 2010 11:29 AM
#8

Offline
Feb 2009
310
SuperCoolBros said:
I actually get the show. I don't see it as random incoherent nonsense. It's...beautiful.


Jimi said:
Are you guys serious? This show is one of the most brilliant series I've ever seen. I can strongly relate to it and really get into the character's mind. I feel bad for those of you that didn't understand the series, you really missed out.


Cool, would you care to explain please?
Oct 16, 2010 11:30 PM
#9

Offline
Oct 2008
7711
First half was like a recap to me. :/
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.~
Nov 12, 2010 5:36 AM

Offline
Mar 2009
65239
Didn't like the recap.
Nov 12, 2010 5:37 AM

Offline
Mar 2009
65239
Didn't like the recap.
Nov 20, 2010 3:51 AM

Offline
Aug 2009
345
Yeah, the first half was completely unnecessary, but the second half was great.

So Lain is a program.. wow... was not expecting that (my theory was way off), but it sure does make sense of a lot of things.

Looking forward to the ending!

May 1, 2011 4:50 AM
Offline
Jan 2010
1559
Lain was the aliens?
May 30, 2011 12:18 PM

Offline
May 2010
312
I think the recap was necessary for the people having an extremely tough time understanding the show.

This is an awesome creation.
Sep 22, 2011 3:24 PM

Offline
Sep 2008
346
Hibachi_ said:
Lain was the aliens?


Yeah that confused me as well. =/
Maybe then what all the other people that were complaining about someone with a striped sweater watching them saw was actually Lain peeking at them through the wired or something. Not sure what to make of the alien peeking at Lain though if that's the case. Or what the point was with the whole Alien-thing.

Jimi said:
Are you guys serious? This show is one of the most brilliant series I've ever seen. I can strongly relate to it and really get into the character's mind. I feel bad for those of you that didn't understand the series, you really missed out.


Great, instead of insulting other people's intelligence why don't you share your brilliant deductions with the rest of us?

Some questions I don't really get so far:
I know god (or Masami Eiri) wants for Lain to give up her physical body and have been using the knights to try to make that happen, why does he want that?

Why is there a Lain in the wired which is like a completely different person than Lain? Who is Lain in the wired? Why is Lain in the wired on the knights side?

Who created Lain and why (I don't really believe it's Eiri)?

Why have we been shown Lain resetting people's memory about Alice twice now? Didn't it actually happen the first time (in episode 8)?

Please enlighten us all oh great one.
Sep 22, 2011 7:31 PM

Offline
Nov 2010
76
Lolz, yeah sure. Talk about mindfucks... TBH, I couldn't even get a single part of the story either XD Though I think the authors intentions of making the plot with dark atmosphere and unreal world weren't that bad, it was rather too vague and confusing for some to comprehend its flow. Maybe I should try manga for extra info?

Anyways, the series wasn't of my taste anyways ^^; just enjoy watching it ppl. Now you know what to do when you have imsomnia ;)
Sep 24, 2011 8:00 AM

Offline
Apr 2010
137
some parts i understand..some..i dont..
Oct 14, 2011 9:57 AM

Offline
Dec 2010
4768
I thought that Lain has deleted the memories of all the people about what has she done few eps ago, but now I'm even more confused. I kinda' agree with the explanation that the alien is symbolizing the alienization of Lain toward others. I suppose that the half-alien Lain was symbolization of how she's alienizated toward Arisu at the moment.
Still, one more episode didn't explain a thing, and instead of this - it just left out more questions on the table. I don't know if this anime can get any more confusing.
Jan 28, 2012 1:52 PM

Offline
Mar 2011
1460
Didn't like the recrap.

I think I'm too stupid for this show, or I'm not paying attention enough.
Feb 11, 2012 3:29 PM

Offline
Apr 2011
61
That was a nice little recap.
The new stuff was also pretty neat. I think my theory from episode 4 still applies.
I know that other people have probably interpreted it a different way than I did, and I know it still isn't over, but I feel like Lain was created and tested on by this 'God' as a way to make more clear of a connection to the World and the Wired. However, now that the body is to the point of figuring all of this out, the God no longer wants it and is trying to find ways of getting rid of it.
Even with that, there are parts that I find confusing, and again, I'm sure I'm missing something, but that's how I like to think of the series thus far.
Performancev2Feb 11, 2012 3:33 PM
Apr 2, 2012 3:28 PM

Offline
Sep 2011
411


May 19, 2012 4:30 PM
Offline
Jul 2018
564528
Ah, that recap helped refresh me a little on what went down in earlier episodes. Looks like Alice is next. I think this series is made so it only makes sense if you watch it really late at night, while you're half asleep.
May 23, 2012 7:39 AM

Offline
Jan 2012
2608
Great episode. The first part ofcourse could have been different, but whatever. Also, starting to understand more and more about the plot.


May 23, 2012 7:42 AM

Offline
May 2012
70
"And you don't seem to understand..."

Just had to
Oct 21, 2012 6:49 PM

Offline
May 2012
53
Oh, how awesome this series is! First half was like a narcotic trip (not that I've ever done any drugs), and second was just brilliance in it's pure form. Poor Arisu - good that Lain erased people's memories.
Oct 25, 2012 4:58 PM

Offline
Sep 2011
320
Yep,I'm gonna have rewatch this a couple of times to fully understand it
Nov 18, 2012 12:49 PM

Offline
Jan 2012
116
The recap was kind of nice because we now have a little more insight to what is going on. Apparently it was also a montage/acid-trip of Lain copying the Navi to herself.

The second half was all about Arisu. Lain felt bad about what happened and decides to change everyone's memory so they will all forget about her little secret. Then it ends with Arisu going back to school where everyone forgets.

It's kinda funny, but this episode was probably the easiest one to follow so far. It also posed few questions/speculations. The end where Arisu is staring at Lain was pretty disturbing. Lain's smile was that of the fake Lain we saw a while back. Not sure what to think of that yet.

There was also the part with Lain having the alien body. I'm starting to think maybe Lain has something to do with the alien that crashed in Roswell. It has been mentioned several times before in this discussion and the one before it that the alien represents Lain becoming an outsider. I am still on the fence about that. We'll see how it finishes up, but from the look of things, we probably won't ever know lol.
Dec 3, 2012 6:05 PM

Offline
May 2012
146
Where's the punchline?

rlayer said:
I think this series is made so it only makes sense if you watch it really late at night, while you're half asleep.


It puts me to sleep regardless of the time.
Dec 6, 2012 11:39 PM

Offline
Apr 2008
85
I love this show, but this was definitely the worst episode.

Ah well.
Dec 8, 2012 2:40 PM

Offline
May 2012
25827
So first half was a recap or some sort and the second was some weird stuff put all together, putting Arisan in the middle. But damn Lain is getting creepy...

Only 2 more episodes and I'm still left with so much questions, I do hope most of them will be answered in the final episode!
Feb 5, 2013 12:27 AM

Offline
Sep 2011
10430
Henrrieta said:
I actually managed to make sense of most of the show.

Essentially, Lain is an entity that is able to exist both in reality and the Wired. She was created by the creepy looking guy in order to serve as a pawn to him, to connect every human through the wired. Most of what she sees is not real, but a result of being mixed in with the wired and receiving stray 'transmissions' and they often end up becoming very distorted, which explains to more creepy stuff. An artificial family was created to make her environment seemingly normal, and her father was made a computer maniac so that eventually Lain would get into computers and fulfill the dream of 'God', an person whose psyche now exists in the wired. When she finally realises this, she does connect and manipulate every human using her power over the wired except for the one that mattered most to her, Arisu, and leaving a message hinting at what she has done.Arisu eventually goes to see Lain, and remind her that she needn't forsake herself. "God" tries to intervene but convincing Lain to assimilate Arisu as well, but Lain refuses, and destroys him when he tries to attack. Deciding that power like the Wired is too dangerous for humanity, she essentially rewrites reality, removing memories of the Wired and herself from everyone so that it wouldn't matter if the Wired existed. Lain decides to stay in the Wired isolated, but a conversation with her other personality, now being able to separate from her due to the nature of herself and the Wired, helps her understand a little bit more, and she destroys her other self. She is then rescued by 'father', probably another entity like Lain that was created to nature her, and decides to continue existing as an immortal entity.

Does that make sense?

Gotcha...
Feb 12, 2013 8:12 PM

Offline
Jan 2013
11047
Henrrieta said:
I actually managed to make sense of most of the show.

Essentially, Lain is an entity that is able to exist both in reality and the Wired. She was created by the creepy looking guy in order to serve as a pawn to him, to connect every human through the wired. Most of what she sees is not real, but a result of being mixed in with the wired and receiving stray 'transmissions' and they often end up becoming very distorted, which explains to more creepy stuff. An artificial family was created to make her environment seemingly normal, and her father was made a computer maniac so that eventually Lain would get into computers and fulfill the dream of 'God', an person whose psyche now exists in the wired. When she finally realises this, she does connect and manipulate every human using her power over the wired except for the one that mattered most to her, Arisu, and leaving a message hinting at what she has done.Arisu eventually goes to see Lain, and remind her that she needn't forsake herself. "God" tries to intervene but convincing Lain to assimilate Arisu as well, but Lain refuses, and destroys him when he tries to attack. Deciding that power like the Wired is too dangerous for humanity, she essentially rewrites reality, removing memories of the Wired and herself from everyone so that it wouldn't matter if the Wired existed. Lain decides to stay in the Wired isolated, but a conversation with her other personality, now being able to separate from her due to the nature of herself and the Wired, helps her understand a little bit more, and she destroys her other self. She is then rescued by 'father', probably another entity like Lain that was created to nature her, and decides to continue existing as an immortal entity.

Does that make sense?


So it's basically like Madoka Magica.


That being said. I don't know if being so confusing and hard to follow makes this anime good with a deep meaning or just poorly executed.
Mar 4, 2013 8:53 AM

Offline
Aug 2012
19
Primity said:


feelin u 100%....
i am so so SO mindf*kd.........
Apr 1, 2013 12:52 AM

Offline
Jul 2011
3028
aero said:
THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE.
----------------------------------------
I'm not going to attempt to understand what happened....


LMAO, oh my gosh me neither. But hopefully I'll get some answers by episode 13. :/

This show is so confusing, but I can't stop watching. :D I love it.
May 10, 2013 1:00 AM

Offline
Aug 2007
1490
Lain deleting all memories of Alice's issues brings up important themes of what is considered to be "alive." With the Wired and real world being blurred, Lain is able to be more human-like and have feelings for the few she was close to. At the same time, how are alive without memories and having a body for those to create a full experience? Though the internet/Wired is very much like reality, it still doesn't have all the contents that will satisfy someone with an ego.

I'm guessing the flashback acted as both a refresher and to show how much Lain has been dwelling on her own thoughts as she downloaded her NAVIs to her brain. I didn't mind it as much because we have learned much more about Lain than in the beginning, so seeing the past knowing these facts brings a different perspective. (Also, it wasn't the WHOLE episode -- we still learn how much Lain really cares for Alice.) I suppose she wanted to at least do that before the boarder between the Wired and real world are completely brought down.
LycanMay 10, 2013 3:02 AM

Jun 7, 2013 12:19 PM

Offline
Apr 2013
2282
Victoriqa said:
Primity said:


feelin u 100%....
i am so so SO mindf*kd.........


The same exact thing is going on i my head right now.
Jun 22, 2013 12:44 PM

Offline
Jan 2011
9909
lolwut
Jun 27, 2013 9:21 AM

Offline
Feb 2013
1275

"And if, there were so many people in the world, there had to be someone living an interesting life that wasn't ordinary. I was sure of it. Why wasn't that person me?"
- The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part V
[/center]
Jun 27, 2013 3:01 PM
Offline
Jun 2013
3
So much potential right now; this show may end a million ways.....
Jun 28, 2013 3:23 PM

Offline
Dec 2012
16083
I picked the wrong episode to doze off, but as far as I can tell it was a recap with some new spins on things such as Lain confronting the gun man from the club and Chisa and her finally putting the pieces together. The second half was basically Lain finally figuring out how to rewrite information in the wired and thus people's memories and did so to help Arisu escape the rumors.

Lain with an alien's body reminded me of some Christmas elf or something, especially with that striped sweater.
Jun 29, 2013 12:47 AM

Offline
Mar 2013
877
The recap part made it much more difficult to understand this.
Aug 13, 2013 3:43 PM

Offline
Jan 2012
603
So the recap bit was her recalling her memories when she was hooking herself with navi?
Hmmm, those to suiciders seem to be giving Lain Polar opposite decisions. The whole Arisu thing made me confused; i'm thinking thats what the director was going for this time around. To make us feel as 'confused' and 'scared' as Arisu. I mean, she's seeing different Lains, and not knowing whats the difference. Though the smirking Lain is obviously not Lain, and I think Arisu has catched on.
>When the dude said Lain was a software: MINDFUUUUUUCK
Sep 23, 2013 2:51 PM
Offline
Jul 2018
564528
I watched the movie "28 Days Later" today and I noticed that the song "Jim's Dream" is exactly the same song as the one played in this episode, in the scene with Lain, Chisa and that boy with the gun. But "28 Days Later" is from 2002, while Lain is from 1998. I've been trying to find that song on any of the Lain soundtracks, with no success. Does anybody know anything about this? Who created the song? Was it Reichi Nakaido, the composer of Lain, or John Murphy, who composed most of the score for "28 Days Later"? Either way, how come it's the same song?
Oct 31, 2013 12:20 AM

Offline
Mar 2012
5785
I shat my pants when alien lain showed up lol.
Nov 2, 2013 5:29 PM

Offline
Feb 2011
2489
^same here, lain the creepy alien xD

@xxshiawase
"The recap part made it much more difficult to understand this."
yep, even the second part was sort of a flashback of events not that important to mention

Fixes to make the Profile more bearable after "the Modern★Profile★Update★★Rip★Profile★"
Nov 5, 2013 7:11 PM

Offline
Sep 2012
50
Lain full of cables is creppy as hell, love it.
Dec 7, 2013 10:32 PM

Offline
May 2011
534
Basically, even though the Knights are eliminated, that doesn't stop Eiri and the rest (the dead girl from the 1st ep and the guy who took accela) from forcing her to give up her physical body. Lain was a machine made to become god in the wired world and the being to destroy the barrier between both worlds. However, Lain obtained feelings for the real world. She had friends and a family, and she is thus unwilling to give up her "false" self (the shy and reserved one) to become the omnipotent Lain. however, her other self (the smiling psychopath Lain) is trying to destroy herself, which is up to her second self (the daring one) to stop her rampage (as seen in the Lain "killing" Lain episode.) In other words, everyone is trying to make use of her to destroy the barrier cordoning the two worlds. It definitely is a good idea, to connect everyone and all, but is it really that great? Privacy is non-existent, information is leaked everywhere, and no self-determination exists if the two worlds were to co-exist. That is why Lain is struggling not only with the people but herself, and that's my idea of the whole story.
"If you reject me, I'll blast a hole in you!" Kanzaki H. Aria
Just kidding.

Dec 8, 2013 10:45 PM
Offline
Nov 2013
171
Well, the first 10 minutes were essentailly a Lain AMV set to a bad guitar solo, and i cant say i really enjoyed it.

The second half was... confusing. I get that Arisu did not have her memories erased, perhaps because of how important she is to lain, But i don't get the aliens at all yet. Maybe these last two episodes will give some answers.
Dec 16, 2013 5:22 AM

Offline
Apr 2012
77
So lain's head is a mess and she's trying to make something that makes sense out of all that. She remembers what's important for her, Arisu still needs her. She already broke the line between the real world and the wired, she even installed a navi emulator to her brain.

Pretty much this episode is about lain thinking what can she do about what have been happening. She wants to help her friend Arisu because she's the only connection that Lain has with the real world.

At the end of the episode we take a look to a world where Arisu's secret is not unveil and we also see a Lain going to school like nothing happened. Is that the real Lain tough?
なんとかなる
Feb 4, 2014 4:24 AM
The Shrike

Offline
Nov 2009
11331
Lain seems to be trying to solve things using her abilities, but has a hard time operating between worlds and realities? At least thats what Im understanding.
"Perhaps there is a universal, absolute truth. Perhaps it justifies every question. But that's beyond the reach of these small hands." Mamoru Oshii

There is a cult of ignorance (...) nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Isaac Asimov

Pages (3) [1] 2 3 »

More topics from this board

» How do you feel about Serial Experiments Lain?

Je-suis-lui - May 1

9 by Zedlin »»
May 13, 11:35 AM

» Will this come over to crunchyroll?

Rockyjams909 - May 7

16 by FlavioTP126 »»
May 12, 9:34 PM

Poll: » Serial Experiments Lain Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )

StabbyPWNS - Oct 11, 2008

293 by M00ndust »»
May 8, 10:23 PM

Poll: » Serial Experiments Lain Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )

nini - Dec 30, 2008

372 by mrnmbl »»
Apr 16, 5:06 PM

Poll: » Serial Experiments Lain Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 )

cureroyale - Jan 27, 2009

123 by mrnmbl »»
Apr 16, 3:43 PM
It’s time to ditch the text file.
Keep track of your anime easily by creating your own list.
Sign Up Login