Weather Break

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 as well as the booklet of the serial experiments lain|RESTORE box set (Japan only). They appeared after the first 12 episodes for a short moment and were preceded by the phrase 「次回お楽しみに。」(jikai otanoshimi ni, "look forward to next time"). The images were purposely weather-themed to lead in to the 15-second TV Tokyo weather report 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 mention of weather. Judging from YouTube videos, there appears to have been no "look forward to next time" either.
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. (If there's a pun in this one, I don't get it. Also, there's another, smaller line of text in this image that is too difficult to read.)
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	[none, final episode]

External Links and Related Information

• The NicoNico definition of エンドカード (end card) describes it as an illustration that is displayed at the end of an anime program as a way of saying "watch next week as well."
• The Japanese Wikipedia page on "eyecatch" also mentions end cards.
• 『レッツ ウェザー・ブレイク』 (Let's Weather Break) contains enlargeable images of the end cards, probably scanned from the RESTORE booklet mentioned above. 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 endcards. 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 endcards