Ask John: Are There Any Other Anime Like Lain?

Question:
Serial Experiments Lain is my favorite anime of all time. I was wondering if there were any anime out there that explore similar themes?

Answer:
Serial Experiments Lain is a a complex and abstract series that speculates on prominent themes including uncertainty of the objectivity of reality, the integration and invasion of the internet into human society and consciousness, and the defining characteristic of humanity being consciousness rather than physical attributes. It’s a unique and distinctive show, so there’s nothing else quite like it. But there are other anime that investigate similar themes. Because Lain deals with such contemporary philosophical concerns, the anime that share characteristics with it are mostly contemporary productions.

While it’s primarily a sardonic coming of age story, The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi anime series stars a high school girl who, like Lain Iwakura, has the ability to literally manipulate the world she exists in. The world that Suzumiya Haruhi lives in is one defined by her personal perceptions and inclinations. In other words, the reality of the Suzumiya Haruhi anime series is not objective, concrete, and unchanging.

Mamoru Oshii was not involved in the creation of the Lain anime, but concepts in the Lain anime coincide with themes that Oshii has repeatedly mused over. The Oshii directed second Urusei Yatsura movie, Beautiful Dreamer, doesn’t involve technology, but does revolve around the concept of fluid and unreliable reality. Oshii’s Twilight Q Part 2 OVA likewise depicts a universe in which the reliable constancy of reality cannot be relied upon. The foundation of human perception of the world insists that airplanes do not and cannot suddenly transform into giant flying fish. But in Twilight Q Part 2 even that most basic and seemingly obvious principal of existence is no longer certain.

I’ll probably be chastised if I don’t mention the .Hack anime franchise’s foundation upon the setting of internet interactivity creeping into and affecting off-line society. However, while this theme is present in the .Hack anime, it’s rarely at the forefront and it’s rarely explored in any significant depth. Similarly, anime productions including Laserion, Web Diver, Corrector Yui, Alice in Cyberland, Net Ghost Pipopa, and Summer Wars deal with comingling between the real and digital worlds, but not in the philosophical, analytical way that Serial Experiments Lain does. The Ghost in the Shell anime – particularly the Mamoru Oshii directed feature films – does investigate the ethical and practical ramifications of the ever-expanding digital world. Madhouse’s obscure 1992 OVA Download: Namu Amida Butsu wa Ai no Uta depicts the dangerous ability of digital technology to affect reality three years before the American sci-fi film Strange Days dealt with a very similar concept.

Madhouse’s 2007 television series Denno Coil may be the closest existing cousin to the Serial Experiments Lain. Both series were acclaimed award winners. Both series are sadly currently unlicensed for North American distribution. Denno Coil, like Serial Experiments Lain, revolves around school children who perceive and even simultaneously live in digital and physical worlds. Like Lain, Denno Coil cautions about the danger of literally losing the self within the digital world.

The two Ghost in the Shell feature films not only focus on the expansion of technology and digital communication and the influence of those things on human society, but also on the definition of humanity itself. Both Lain and the Ghost in the Shell movies posit that intelligence and consciousness constitute humanity regardless of physical being, and both titles do so in exclusion of religious theory. Self-identifying as human defines humanity more than possession of a physical human body. Although it doesn’t deal with the internet, the 1994 Key the Metal Idol OVA series does also focus on the idea that it’s humanity which makes us human, not appearance or physical attributes.