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VKK 320: Decoding Virtual Culture in the Media - a case-study of Serial Experiments Lain (view source)
Revision as of 01:29, 14 June 2013
, 11 years agoReverted edits by 46.165.225.214 (talk) to last revision by Amysteriousgal
17 October 2007
17 October 2007
==Introduction==
Serial Experiments Lain (1998) was an animé series broadcast on TV Tokyo from July to September 1998 and was released in conjunction with a Play Station game with the same title. The animé was directed by Ryutaro Nakamura, with original character design by Yoshitoshi Abe. The screenplay was written by Chiaki J. Konaka, with the animé produced by Yasuyuki Ueda for Triangle Staff (Serial experiments Lain – wikipedia the free encyclopedia 2007).
The series consists of thirteen episodes (described as “layers”) which deal with theme of the the merging of the real world with the virtual realm and the central character Lain's search for identity in this unstable enviroment. Lain struggle with the realisation of the self in this dystopian vision of reality that is set in our “present day, present time”.
Communication is a central theme throughout the show, and most of the characters are extremely lonely and alienated from the rest of the world. People try to connect through the virtual realm (the internet is called the “Wired” in the show’s terminology), but this is eventually discredited as a way of creating authentic relationships .
Technologies like virtual reality and nanotechnology are explored, along with the post-modern condition of alienation, paranoia, and identity crisis. While the series has many of the characteristics of science fiction and cyber-punk, post-humanist thought is eventually rejected when material concerns are superceded by an underlying concern with spiritual transformation and Enlightment; making Lain a modern rewriting of Jesus Christ.
==Plot Overview==
==Plot Overview==
