Serial Experiments Lain Is Infamously One Of The Most Confusing Anime Ever, And That's Why It's Genius

Time has not been kind to even some of the most popular anime ever made. Outdated visuals, narrative choices, or pacing issues have caused certain shows to fall out of favor as the art form continues to progress, which makes it all the more impressive when a series is able to stand the test of time. There are plenty of classics from the '90s and 2000s that still receive massive amounts of praise today, and one series deserving of a bit more is Serial Experiments Lain.

The 1998 psychological cyberpunk series from Triangle Staff has all the makings of a '90s classic, from its stylized visuals and moody aesthetic, down to its iconic alternative rock opening. However, one major aspect of Serial Experiments Lain makes its lasting success somewhat surprising. Underneath its visual style and '90s charm is a non-linear narrative that has left viewers in confusion for the better part of 30 years. The most popular anime is typically the most accessible, yet Lain challenges the viewer at every turn, and that's exactly why the series is so great.

Serial Experiments Lain Is Uncompromising in Its Vision

Lain Is Strange and All the Better For It

Serial Experiments Lain isn't the first overly strange or confusing anime series to have become incredibly popular. Only a couple of years before its premiere, Neon Genesis Evangelion came to a conclusion that shocked everyone, and remains at the center of online discussion nearly three decades later. Though before it reached that point, Evangelion was able to lure its audience in with flashy robot fights and slowly unraveling mysteries. Another similar series is Satoshi Kon's Paranoia Agent, which touches on connection and perception much in the way Lain does.

At the heart of that series is another mystery that helps to tie some of the seemingly nonsensical events of the plot down. Serial Experiments Lain, on the other hand, doesn't offer viewers a rope in the form of mechs or one central mystery, and instead delivers a story that forces its audience to engage if they want to get anything out of it. Protagonist Lain Iwakura is a shy, timid middle school girl who spends the majority of her time alone in her room, exploring the Wired, or the anime's version of the internet.

Serial Experiments Lain cyberpunk techno-horror anime with Lain Iwakura featured

However, only an episode later, Lain is an outgoing girl spotted at the futuristic nightclub, Cyberia. And sometimes, she's an evil presence bent on causing pain and misery for the timid Lain who stays in her room. In examining the effects of the internet on people and society by splitting the series' protagonist into three different versions of herself, Serial Experiments Lain can be incredibly disorientating on first watch. But this unwillingness to compromise is what allows for the series to be great, and now, nearly three decades on, prophetic.

Lain Is Confusing, and So Is Reality

Serial Experiments Lain Predicted a Future That's Come to Pass

Lain lying amongst the wires in blu-ray cover art.

Serial Experiments Lain can be almost unsettling to watch nearly 30 years on from its premiere. The future the series paints comes disturbingly close to the one in which it currently exists, and not in its comically large computer towers, CRT monitors, and overly 1990s interfaces, but in the effects of the internet on society. Personalities becoming split between the real world and online, and the blurring of the barrier between both worlds is a uniquely modern issue that Lain was able to predict years before the advent of social media.

As Lain dives deeper into the Wired she loses her grasp on what is and isn't reality, and so does the viewer, just as people who spend far too much time online can lose sight of who they are behind a screen. Serial Experiments Lain can be incredibly confusing, but so is reality for those who have experienced any similar sort of dissociation.

Feature header showing G Gundam, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Apocalypse Zero

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When it becomes clear that not every aspect of the series will make itself clear to the audience, Lain becomes a highly enjoyable cyberpunk anime experience that packs all the charm of the decade it's from, and it deserves just as much, if not more, recognition among its peers. Unfortunately, the series is not currently available on major streaming platforms in the U.S., and any fan who wants to watch it will, ironically, have to do so with technology that pre-dates the present day Serial Experiments Lain predicted.