Editing Serial Experiments Lain (section)

===Character design===
[[Yoshitoshi Abe]] confesses to have never read manga as a child, as it was "off-limits" in his household.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://animejump.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=33&page=1|title=Anime Jump!: Lain Men: Yoshitoshi Abe|access-date=September 16, 2006|year=2000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060510030644/http://www.animejump.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=33&page=1|archive-date=May 10, 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref> His major influences are "nature and everything around him".<ref name="otakon" /> Specifically speaking about Lain's character, Abe was inspired by [[Kenji Tsuruta]], [[Akihiro Yamada]], [[Range Murata]] and [[Yukinobu Hoshino]].<ref name="chat" /> In a broader view, he has been influenced in his style and technique by Japanese artists Kyosuke Chinai and Toshio Tabuchi.<ref name="otakon" />

The character design of Lain was not Abe's sole responsibility. Her distinctive left forelock for instance was a demand from Yasuyuki Ueda. The goal was to produce asymmetry to reflect Lain's unstable and disconcerting nature.<ref name="fruits">''FRUiTS Magazine'' No. 15, October 1998.</ref> It was designed as a mystical symbol, as it is supposed to prevent voices and spirits from being heard by the left ear.<ref name="chat" /> The bear pajamas she wears were a demand from [[character animation]] director Takahiro Kishida. Though bears are a trademark of the Konaka brothers, Chiaki Konaka first opposed the idea.<ref name="HK" /> Director Nakamura then explained how the bear motif could be used as a shield for confrontations with her family. It is a key element of the design of the shy "real world" Lain (see "mental illness" under [[#Themes|Themes]]).<ref name="HK" /> When she first goes to the Cyberia [[nightclub]], she wears a bear hat for similar reasons.<ref name="fruits" /> Retrospectively, Konaka said that Lain's pajamas became a major factor in drawing fans of ''[[Moe (slang)|moe]]'' characterization to the series, and remarked that "such items may also be important when making anime".<ref name="HK" />

Abe's original design was generally more complicated than what finally appeared on screen. As an example, the X-shaped hair clip was to be an interlocking pattern of gold links. The links would open with a snap, or rotate around an axis until the moment the " X " became a " = ". This was not used as there is no scene where Lain takes her hair clip off.<ref name="MAX2">''Manga Max'' magazine, September 1999, p. 22, "Unreal to Real"</ref>