Editing Serial Experiments Lain (section)

==Reception==
[[File:Serial Experiments Lain (TV) Screenshot 01.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.13|alt=A suburban scene on a sunny day, showing houses and telegraph poles, but the shadows contain unnatural red splotches.|Lain's neighborhood. The "blood pools" represent the Wired's presence "beneath the surface" of reality.<ref name="otakon" />]]
''Serial Experiments Lain'' was first broadcast in [[Tokyo]] at 1:15&nbsp;a.m. [[Japan Standard Time|JST]]. The word "weird" appears almost ubiquitously in English language reviews of the series,<ref name="AnimeJump" /><ref name="gazette">{{cite web|url=http://www.movie-gazette.com/cinereviews/828|title=Movie Gazette: 'Serial Experiments Lain Volume 2: Knights' Review|first=Anton|last=Bitel|publisher=Movie Gazette|access-date=September 16, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060821190520/http://www.movie-gazette.com/cinereviews/828|archive-date=August 21, 2006}}</ref><ref name="referencekatamari">{{cite web|url=http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue123/anime.html|first=Tasha|last=Robinson|title=Sci-Fi Weekly: Serial Experiments Lain Review|access-date=September 16, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060720210555/http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue123/anime.html|archive-date=July 20, 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mania.com/serial-experiments-lain-vol-1_article_73942.html|title=Serial Experiments Lain Vol. #1|last=Beveridge|first=Chris|publisher=Mania.com|date=July 13, 1999|access-date=September 16, 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402114355/http://www.mania.com/serial-experiments-lain-vol-1_article_73942.html|archive-date=April 2, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thespinningimage.co.uk/cultfilms/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=872&aff=13|title=The Spinning Image: "Serial Experiments Lain Volume 4: Reset" Review|last=Southworth|first=Wayne|access-date=September 16, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928001632/http://www.thespinningimage.co.uk/cultfilms/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=872&aff=13|archive-date=September 28, 2007|url-status=live}}</ref> or the alternatives "bizarre",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/reviews/display.php?id=34|title=Anime News Network: Serial Experiments Lain DVD Vol. 1–4 Review|last=Silver|first=Aaron|access-date=September 16, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060325152323/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/reviews/display.php?id=34|archive-date=March 25, 2006|url-status=live}}</ref> and "atypical",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=1081|title=DVD.net: "Lain: Volume 1 – Navi" Review|last=Lai|first=Tony|access-date=September 16, 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060920211809/http://dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=1081|archive-date=September 20, 2006}}</ref> due mostly to the freedoms taken with the animation and its unusual science fiction themes, and due to its philosophical and psychological context. Critics responded positively to these thematic and stylistic characteristics, and it was awarded an Excellence Prize by the 1998 [[Japan Media Arts Festival]] for "its willingness to question the meaning of contemporary life" and the "extraordinarily philosophical and deep questions" it asks.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://plaza.bunka.go.jp/english/festival/backnumber/10/sakuhin/serial.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070426014853/http://plaza.bunka.go.jp/english/festival/backnumber/10/sakuhin/serial.html|archive-date=April 26, 2007|author=Japan Media Arts Plaza|title=1998 (2nd) Japan Media Arts Festival: Excellence Prize – serial experiments lain|access-date=September 16, 2006|year=1998}}From the [[Internet Archive]].</ref>

According to Christian Nutt from ''[[Newtype USA]]'', the main attraction to the series is its keen view on "the interlocking problems of identity and technology". Nutt saluted Abe's "crisp, clean character design" and the "perfect soundtrack" in his 2005 review of series, saying that "''Serial Experiments Lain'' might not yet be considered a true classic, but it's a fascinating evolutionary leap that helped change the future of anime."<ref name="newtype">{{cite journal|last=Nutt|first=Christian|date=January 2005|title=Serial Experiments Lain DVD Box Set: Lost in the Wired|journal=[[Newtype USA]]|volume=4|issue=1|page=179}}</ref> ''Anime Jump'' gave it 4.5/5,<ref name="AnimeJump" /> and Anime on DVD gave it A+ on all criteria for volume 1 and 2, and a mix of A and A+ for volume 3 and 4.<ref name="referencekatamari" />
''Lain'' was subject to commentary in the literary and academic worlds. The ''Asian Horror Encyclopedia'' calls it "an outstanding psycho-horror anime about the psychic and spiritual influence of the Internet".<ref name="horror">{{cite book|last=Bush|first=Laurence C.|title=Asian Horror Encyclopedia|date=October 2001|publisher=Writers Club Press|isbn=978-0-595-20181-5}}, page 162.</ref> It notes that the red spots present in all the shadows look like blood pools (see picture). It notes the death of a girl in a train accident is "a source of much ghost lore in the twentieth century", more so in Tokyo.

The ''Anime Essentials'' anthology by [[Gilles Poitras]] describes it as a "complex and somehow existential" anime that "pushed the envelope" of anime diversity in the 1990s, alongside the much better known contemporaries ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' and ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]''.<ref name="essential">{{cite book|last=Poitras|first=Gilles|title=Anime Essentials|date=December 2001|publisher=Stone Bridge Press, LLC|isbn=978-1-880656-53-2}}, page 28.</ref> Professor [[Susan J. Napier]], in her 2003 reading to the [[American Philosophical Society]] called ''The Problem of Existence in Japanese Animation'' (published 2005), compared ''Serial Experiments Lain'' to ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]'' and [[Hayao Miyazaki]]'s ''[[Spirited Away]]''.<ref name="Napier APS">{{cite journal|title=The Problem of Existence in Japanese Animation|first=Susan J.|last=Napier|author-link=Susan J. Napier|journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society|volume=149|issue=1|date=March 2005|pages=72–79|jstor=4598910}}</ref> According to her, the main characters of the two other works cross barriers; they can cross back to our world, but Lain cannot. Napier asks whether there is something to which Lain should return, "between an empty 'real' and a dark 'virtual'".<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Napier|2005|p=78}}</ref> Mike Toole of [[Anime News Network]] named ''Serial Experiments Lain'' as one of the most important anime of the 1990s.<ref>{{cite web|last=Toole|first=Mike|title=Evangel-a-like – The Mike Toole Show|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/the-mike-toole-show/2011-06-05|website=[[Anime News Network]]|access-date=November 20, 2015|date=June 5, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151010114552/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/the-mike-toole-show/2011-06-05|archive-date=October 10, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

Despite the positive feedback the television series had received, Anime Academy gave the series a 75%, partly due to the "lifeless" setting it had.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.animeacademy.com/finalrevdisplay.php?id=201|title=Serial Experiments: Lain|date=March 16, 2002|access-date=April 17, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927060034/http://www.animeacademy.com/finalrevdisplay.php?id=201|archive-date=September 27, 2011}}</ref> Michael Poirier of ''EX'' magazine stated that the last three episodes fail to resolve the questions in other DVD volumes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ex.org/5.2/25-anime_followup_lain.html|title=Serial Experiments Lain – Buried Treasure|date=May 11, 2000|access-date=April 17, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110826092828/http://www.ex.org/5.2/25-anime_followup_lain.html|archive-date=August 26, 2011}}</ref> Justin Sevakis of Anime News Network noted that the English dub was decent, but that the show relied so little on dialogue that it hardly mattered.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/buried-treasure/2008-11-20/serial-experiments-lain|title=Serial Experiments Lain – Buried Treasure|date=November 20, 2008|access-date=April 17, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403122125/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/buried-treasure/2008-11-20/serial-experiments-lain|archive-date=April 3, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>