Why do people like this anime?

I understand you completely, I finished it only with sheer willpower because it was, according to me, really awful.

Honestly? I don't like it either. I think it's overhyped and pretentious. But you're taking way too much of your time to bash something you don't like and discredit anyone who has a different opinion.

Get something better to do, touch some grass.

@Rishon007

The guy asked for an explanation of why people like this show. You then sarcastically strawmanned him as simply complaining that people liked this show. He asked for an explanation and you gave a cursory overview of its themes but didn't elaborate then shifted the burden of proof on him. And in this last reply you didn't elaborate much more either, falling back on the claim that SEL simply tackles these themes but not naming any specific plot points that do so. You are the one making baseless surface level observations if that is all you can say about a show that supposedly talks about what is happening right now. Supposedly you thought and came up with your own interpretation because unlike him you don't have a tik tok brain. So tell me, what EXACTLY is SEL saying about the internet and technology? What did SEL predict?

And if you say the generic thing of, now people are addicted to their screens more than ever, 1) SEL doesn't show the process of how Lain gets addicted to the internet; she simply claims that her friends on the internet are much better than the real world but we don't see the formation of those relationships. 2)SEL basically treats technology as magic where reality and the internet merge because Chiaki Konaka says so via some schumann resonance plot device. We don't know where Lain's multiple personalities come from; yes, people show a different persona online than in real life, but Lain's personas appear to be preexisting. SEL may get it generally and figuratively right that people are much more immersed in the internet now, but it almost completely misses the mark in terms of HOW and WHY that happens by treating technology and the internet as some sort of supernatural phenomenon. I think rather than SEL being some incredible predictor of the future, Chiaki Konaka is some deranged conspiracy theorist whose irrational wholesale fear of the internet just happened to have some partial truth to it.

The zoomer brain can’t fathom

oh no! people like something I don't, how dare they!

Lain is full of bright ideas and not just shady vibes.
One of my favourite is the problem of being connected with or without peripherals to the net and to eachother. This problem still stands, these days implants are under development and who wouldn’t play with the idea of using this tech to more and more. There was a good series on netflix which adapted Huxley’s Brave New World where they had some sort of a smart contact lens for their eyes, there is this high budget fancy scene which shows a close up on how the lens are being applied to the eye so its tiny cables are actually penetrating the eye to reach the nerves, and voilà from there they stay connected. I liked the interpretation of SeL on this, even with the scetchy animation which I personally found even more fulfilling. This is just one example and I’m happy to share a lot more. I don’t think there are only abstract reasons why to like this show but its always hard to convert impressions to words its a difficult job with any anime since the feelings are in deed abstract we can’t just pass our joy of something to someone else, or at least not on a forum, maybe in the future on the wired lol.

But thats why I asked the good ol’ GPT4
I think the answer is interesting:

“Serial Experiments Lain is a show that invites viewers to relate to it through its themes of identity, connection, and the blurred line between reality and the digital world. It doesn’t just hand you answers—it asks you to explore questions like:
• Who am I in a world where online and offline lives blend together?
• How much of “me” is shaped by my connections to others and to technology?
• Where do the boundaries of reality end and the digital self begin?

It mirrors real-life struggles with social isolation, the need for belonging, and our growing dependence on tech to connect. Lain herself is a blank slate in many ways, making it easier for viewers to project their own experiences and questions onto her journey. The show’s cryptic storytelling pulls you into its world, encouraging you to interpret its meaning through your own lens.

It’s less about understanding Lain and more about reflecting on how you relate to the wired world it portrays.”

So there might be a good reason why some people find it substanceless or soulless, I guess it was meant to be that way as an experimental media format, even the game was planned like this.

However I think anime overall is an underground “genre” compared to for example holywood, lain is like the underground of the underground and by that I’m talking about very exact financial/technical problems and not abstract art or existentialism and philospophy.
Negative criticism over the visuals and animation about an alter 90’ anime is just a cheap point which I will never go into.

@cursed_viper I understand the entire plot and knew exactly where it was going. The plot wasn't confusing it was just bad. All the characters were boring soulless and useless with zero substance to them, lain as well is a boring and uninteresting mc, we know basically nothing before the wired except she was anxious and an introvert. The world was boring and had no build up, every episode just skipped ahead to see Lain go deeper and deeper into madness making it to where you didn't feel a connection to it since it was so rushed. Not to mention the entire premise was bad. If the only thing people can say about an anime to make it sound good is "the atmosphere" "the vibe" "the uniqueness" and etc, it's obvious not good. You are obviously just trying to say you like it to seem like you "understood" The bigger picture when in the end the bigger picture is just how lazy, boring and empty the world, characters and plot is. (Name 1 anime besides platinum end where the entire world and every character dies. Oh wait you can't, it's a 10 from boldness alone)

I can get not liking Lain, the show isn't for everyone but why hating on people who like it and claiming they lie about why they feel?
Personally I love lain because it's a beautiful story about a lonely and isolated girl and the tragedy of her alienation , her friendship with Arisu and her father being the highlight, showing the dissonance between her want for love and her difficulty being with people and her complicated relationship with a family who mostly (except for her mom maybe) loves her but can't understand her, even if they aren't her real family
It's just a beautiful tragedy of a girl who feels she has no place in the world while also having some interesting food for thought about our connection to technology which is also worked on by a writer of my favourite digimon season so the writing style feels familiar and one I really love

I get that it isn't for everyone, very similarly to Rei from evangelion, some love the character and some don't understand her at all, it says nothing about intelligence, only the ability to relate or empathise with this kind of character and people in general like reserved characters less for some reason

@Guilmon1
The mother you see in the show I think hates her role as a mother or the repetition in her life. She only is interested in being a lover. If you go through the game in images you see a different person shown as her mother this one loves her but she also is like her dad in some ways where she doesnt fully get through to Lain. Lain instead mostly is shown talking to a psychotherapist.

@traed didn't play the game yet and the mother is one of the least developed characters in the anime so never felt about it, sounds interesting

I completely agree. It’s super boring and confusing. Could have been condensed into a 90 minute movie and would have been better. If you watch it back for a second time, everything makes sense, but it’s so boring no one wants to sit through that again

@Guilmon1
It's really just shown in the odd way she acts I get that impression. The game is very different from the anime but dealing with same themes. I have reason to think they are connected rather than just alternate timelines but this isnt explicitly stated. The game is like a non linear visual novel except it is images, audio files, journal entries, and short animated segments telling a story

Thats an insane title 😭😭😭

You should give yourself more credit. This is the best explanation on this whole discussion and it gave le a better pov. Im gonna rewatch it to see if i get a better experience. Thanks

Lain is a masterpiece for many reasons.

Technically, after Evangelion was maybe the first (or at least one of the first) to create a fragmentated structure, united to surreal, unpredicrable imaginery, live-action animation that are still very unique and courageous things nowadays.

Lain conveys many philosophical, scientific arguments that were united in that same story for a reason. Lain talks about internet as a period where many secular efforts are bringed to an result: internet, that starts an era where reality and fiction are confused, personalities shifted and so on, even with some critiques to America that the creators confirmed in an interview.

This great idea is crossed with a more personal experience: the life of a proto-nerd: the protagonist and the aesthetic, the sense of slow suspension reflects her worldview, and she is observed in her multiple personalities and desires. She is a simple character but archetypal and profound, as a greek deity in the myths, you know, they don't have so much nuances, but still they are very memorable in how that few traits are chosen. Lain represents very well the alienation and isolation we live even now and their connection with external, existential themes (reality/fiction), problems to find a cohesive identity, united with relational themes (hedonism, psychological blocks).

The lo-fi aesthetic and animation also reflect this dissociation and are very innovative, because we see it now in recent subcultures like liminal spaces or vaporwave. Triangle Staff had a very little budget and they were capable to justify thematically lo-fi aspects and transforming them in virtues.

You should see Lain as a painting mixed to an essay, where repetition serves to set many moods. Hypnosis, dissociation, depression, also astonishment for casual visual and sonic choices, you should primarily immerge in the series, not try to figure out a plot or direct empathic identification. But even these purposes in an anime are very unique and are a content themselves.

Its the way they made the story. its True that it is rushed and has a lot of unwanted screen times ,but they just show us the society. what did you see anyway ? a view of normal buildings ? they represent the 90s era, I was interested when. I found out that we are seeing the anime from the perspective of a software and not a real
human , Although the last few episodes didnt make much sense. must rewatch It Also I like the idea of Using some natural resonance to
connect every human being without the need of a computer by directly sending the message to the brain via the shumann resonance or something ,I really dont remember the exact name. Here The software is the God ,since it can control the internet, It really is nice to see intersing concepts in Anime .

Its in one way similar to The Matrix. We are living inside a simulation ,but here the its the reverse. We are living in reality controlled by the internet. were the clear line between imaginary and reality breaks as lain is the connection between internet ( The simulation) and reality

other than lain rest of the characters were boaring and soulless I agree with that, but they were not that much important for the story to begin with (except few) so I didn't really cared
But lain was very intresting character, I don't know what are you yapping about. Her character growth throughout the series was phenomenal.

And why didn't we no nothing about her before the whole wired thing?
that's because she didn't existed before that, she was created in wired. If you actually watched the show with your brain open you may have seen that
But I don't expect someone who can give Tokyo ghoul √A 10/10 to watch shows with their brain open

With all that said, you actually make a very good argument about why should someone give platinum end 10/10
yes I also should score it 10 because of the fact that everyone is killed in this show
as a result the pointless universe of platinum end dosnt exist any more
I still don't understand how can the writer of death note can write this nonsense
the kid said if he became god he would just kill himself, but the other idiots still made him God and what did he do when he became god?
oh that's right he killed himself
if you find that intresting and not lain's character then your iq is just lower than your dick size

at the end I just want to say, the whole argument about why you don't find serial experiments lain intresting and everyone else does can be answered in one sentence
everyone has different taste in anime

yours just happened to be an exceptionally bad one