Serial Experiments Lain
Almost a decade after the fact, I just finished watching the entire series of Serial Experiments Lain. In all, honestly, it felt like the kind of stuff that art school students that really don't have have any creativity come up with by trying really hard. I can overlook the so-cliche-that-its-almost-childish concept of the "Wired" as being fairly typical of the late 90's, but the whole "we are all connected" and "information god waking up in the Internet" just felt like the writer was screaming "I'm deep and sophisticated and you just don't understand me." Honestly, the entire series works best if it is just interpreted as the psychotic breakdown of a little girl suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. For a far better anime that deals with the interrelationship between people, memories, and souls, skip Lain and pick up Dennu Coil.
Having already seen Dennu Coil, however, M & I are now enjoying Planetes. It's a fun romp through a very hard science-fiction near-future series, set in a corner of the setting that I imagine no one else would have thought of: space debris collectors. The depiction of actual physics is top-notch and everything is very realistic (no weird aliens, psychic powers, or magic here!). Only four episodes in...lets hope the rest are just as good!
Having already seen Dennu Coil, however, M & I are now enjoying Planetes. It's a fun romp through a very hard science-fiction near-future series, set in a corner of the setting that I imagine no one else would have thought of: space debris collectors. The depiction of actual physics is top-notch and everything is very realistic (no weird aliens, psychic powers, or magic here!). Only four episodes in...lets hope the rest are just as good!