Weather Break
From Serial Experiments Lain wiki
An image in the style of Weather Break that was never broadcast. Featuring Ueda Yasuyuki
Weather Break (ウェザーブレイク) is a series of illustrations by Yoshitoshi ABe that were used in the end cards for the anime. They have been printed in the Omnipresence and Visual Experiments Lain books. They appeared after the first 12 episodes for a short moment and were preceded by the phrase 「次回をお楽しみに。」(jikai wo otanoshimi ni, "look forward to next time"). The images were purposely weather-themed to lead in to the 15-second TV Tokyo weather forecast segment, which immediately followed SEL's time slot.
List of Weather Breaks By Episode
The following list contains transcriptions of the the text in the Weather Break images, with English translations as they appear in Omnipresence: AB# Rebuild, where available.
| Episode | Subtitle | Japanese text | Translation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Layer_01 | WEIRD | [no Japanese text] | Makes no reference to weather. | |
| Layer_02 | GIRLS | 明日の天気はどうなるの？ | [no official translation available] | amateur translation: How will tomorrow's weather be? |
| Layer_03 | PSYCHE | レッツ！ ウエザーブレイク♥ | amateur translation: Let's! Weather Break <3 | |
| Layer_04 | RELIGION | 夏だから、白熊さん．．．だめ？ | amateur translation: It's summer... so a polar bear's no good? (Lain is wearing a white bearsuit in the image.) | |
| Layer_05 | DISTORTION | ザ・直訳 おてんき こわれてる？ | the weather is broken? | This image has the subtitle "THE LITERAL TRANSLATION," which the translator didn't bother to translate. Lain has misinterpreted the English noun "break" as the Japanese verb for "to break." |
| Layer_06 | KIDS | ザ・曲解！ ウェザ〜 ブレイク | WEATHER BREAK | Again, the translator left out the subtitle, "THE KYOKKAI" (Kyokkai means distortion (probably no coincidence that that's the title of layer 05) or misinterpretation). |
| Layer_07 | SOCIETY | 牛さん 飛び出て ゲイトウェイ？ えへっ(^.^; | [no official translation available] | amateur translation: A cow popping out of a gateway? hehe :`) (Lain is wearing a cow suit this time, in an obvious allusion to Gateway computers. This one also has nothing to do with weather.) |
| Layer_08 | RUMORS | 雨と 無知 | RAIN AND IGNORANCE | This is a pun. The phrase on the image is pronounced the same as 飴と鞭, literally "candy and whip," the Japanese version of carrot-and-stick, the twin motivating forces of promise of reward and threat of punishment. |
| Layer_09 | PROTOCOL | 明日はタレとげとげ うに です | [no official translation available] | amateur translation: Tomorrow is saucy, spiky sea urchin. (The pun: tare toge toge uni = hare tokidoki ame, or sunny with occasional rain. The small text on the bottom appears to be about sushi, but is mostly unreadable.) |
| Layer_10 | LOVE | 岩倉家 二階は何をする人ぞ 娘はともかく ナビ が心配 −ヤスオ | The Iwakuras: Up there on the second floor, who knows what goes on? I wonder about my daughters, yes, but I'm more worried about the NAVI... -Yasuo | This picture is probably a sequel to the Layer 08 picture. |
| Layer_11 | INFORNOGRAPHY | 波浪（ａｇａｉｎ）ざざーん | HIGH SEAS (again) crash | This is another pun, on the classic Apple phrase Hello (again). With Japanified pronunciation, the English word "hello" has the same pronunciation as 波浪 (harou, waves). The image depicts very stormy weather. |
| Layer_12 | LANDSCAPE | レッツ！ ウェザーブレイク ブレイク！！次のコーナーの予報は、明日、もしくは昨日の天気になることもありますのでご注意ください。ウソです きっとあたるさ大丈夫♥ | LET'S! WEATHER BREAK! BREAK!! Please be aware that the following info may possibly be tomorrow's, or perhaps yesterday's, weather. Just kidding | This is obviously a reference to the Net News broadcast in Layer 05, when the announcer issued a similar disclaimer of chronological uncertainty. Also, the translator neglected to translate the last part: "my prediction will surely come true, it's alright <3" |
| Layer_13 | EGO | [no Japanese text] | Evidence in Visual Experiments Lain suggests that the end card from episode 1 was reused in 13, though it's not explicitly stated. | |
External Links and Related Information
- 『レッツ ウェザー・ブレイク』 (Let's Weather Break) contains enlargeable images of the end cards. The description at the top of the page supplies the information concerning SEL's time slot being immediately prior to the weather report. It also reports anecdotes of fans being frustrated at not having adequate time to view the images as they aired, since they disappeared so quickly.
- LAIN (site's title) contains pictures and descriptions of the end cards. The images can be viewed through Internet Archive.[1] It should be noted that this site contains at least one mistake: Device #02 is Mouth.
- YouTube video of all the end cards