Lain Iwakura
Iwakura Lain {岩倉 玲音 Iwakura Rein) is the main protagonist of the series. She is female, 13 in the anime, 14 in the game, and of an unknown age in other works. Visually, she is characterized by her short, brown, asymmetrical hair, one lock of which is secured by a hairclip. Masami Eiri, in his desire to conquer the Wired, wants her as his queen.
At the beginning of the anime, Lain is technologically illiterate and extremely shy. She hardly even checks her email and is visibly uncomfortable when doing so. While operating her old children's NAVI, she puts on a bear hat. This, like her bear suit, provides comfort to her and helps her face situations that she is intimidated by.
Lain's behaviour changes when she gets a proper NAVI. When online, she behaves much more confidently and assertively. Another Lain, commonly referred to by the fandom as "evil Lain", already exists in the Wired and, according to Lain in Layer 08, acts like the part of Lain that she hates.
Lain appears to be highly intelligent and has a range of skills. The anime shows her learning extremely quickly how a NAVI functions and can even help the boss of the Men in Black repair his extremely old NAVI. Also, the manga shows some of Lain's skills in programming, as she modifies her plush dog, Bike-chan, to be able to bark. In the game, Lain becomes interested in psychology and is able to use that knowledge on Yonera Touko, her therapist, when she becomes unstable.
She is quite distant from her family and rarely speaks at home. At school, she is similarly quiet, although she begins to hang out with Alice, Reika and Juri. Of the three, only Alice seems to have any real emotional connection with her.
Lain is revealed to be the product of the human collective unconscious that took form in the Wired. This means that there is a different image of Lain in each person's mind, represented by the chattering Lain mannequins in Layer 08. This led to Lain's identity crisis that forms a major plot point in the anime.
Lain considers herself to be a being that exists only in the memories of others, so when she edits herself out during the reset, it is almost a form of suicide - although the Wired itself still retains her data, there are no people who truly remember her.
