The Sci-Fi Psychological Horror Anime That Will Drive You Insane Needs Saving

Serial Experiments Lain is from the subset of horror that relies less on jump scares and more on a pervasive feeling of unease that there’s something not right with the world. Instead of scaring you, the series forces you to confront the terrifying reality of life and what it means to be human. From the slightly off-putting animation style to the use of discordant music, everything about the series puts you on edge, and it’s one of the best anime ever made.

I had forgotten how low-key the story of Serial Experiments Lain starts, when Lain, an introverted and meek teenage girl, becomes fascinated by the concept of the Wired, a virtual world. The interest starts when a dead classmate starts sending emails to her former classmates about the Wired, and it only picks up when Lain’s dad upgrades her home computer, and she slowly starts to lose herself in the virtual world.

What’s strange is that after Lain meets people in reality, they always talk about having seen her before, but her personality is the complete opposite.

Trying to describe Serial Experiments Lain is difficult, and there’s a reason that this is another anime cited by the Wachowskis as influencing the story of The Matrix, but it’s also widely compared to Twin Peaks and the work of David Lynch. Similar to the director’s work, the anime series isn’t a linear story, with later episodes turning the early events on their heads, but in the end, everything does tie together and make sense. Mostly. You’ll have some questions.

Whenever I hear that a piece of media, from a book to a movie or even a video game, deals with the nature of reality, I know to brace myself for an “artistic vision” that doesn’t make sense on purpose. Serial Experiments Lain takes this one step further by asking what we even mean when we use the term “reality” and how it changes for each person. And what happens when someone tries to enforce their understanding of reality on another?

REVIEW SCORE

Neon Genesis Evangelion has a mind-bending finale, and Akira goes well beyond where it starts as a story about a post-apocalyptic bike gang, but in my experience, nothing comes close to the strange world of Serial Experiments Lain.

The exceptional Blu-Ray release, if you can find it, is the best way to watch Serial Experiments Lain, but it was released in 2014 and has been out of print for years. If other 90s anime classics like Ninja Scroll and Berserk can get incredible re-releases on 4K UHD Blu-Ray, so should this bizarre, twisted tale of technological psychological horror.

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on the DVD release years ago, as today, if you want to watch this amazing series, you need to purchase it from AppleTV or Microsoft.