The first few episodes of Serial Experiments Lain build up a very intriguing mystery and the artistic vision is top-notch throughout, but in the end I felt the story did not fully deliver on its ample promises.
The story as a whole amounts to less than the sum of its parts because it is too incoherent and, crucially, does not really follow many of its ideas through. Leaving things open to interpretation is one thing, but I always succumb to ennui when curiosity is piqued and a sense of mystery is created with a myriad of seemingly inexplicable occurrences -- that in the end are just forgotten and left completely up in the air. Here, only the "main plot" -- Lain's own story and identity -- is resolved, and even that resolution is muddled with the needless hint about her somehow being able to have memories from the future as well. But most subplots, organisations, people... just fizzle away and are never given meaningful closure.
However, many of the story elements are exquisite. I liked very much the way several themes were handled, especially regarding the Internet (even predicting some aspects that did not really exist when this was released). I also greatly enjoyed the general disturbing, menacing undertone this series had throughout, as well as many individual scenes and story devices. Not the unprecedented masterpiece it could have been (and I thought it would be during the first episodes), but still both entertaining and genuinely original and visionary. 7.5/10.
The story as a whole amounts to less than the sum of its parts because it is too incoherent and, crucially, does not really follow many of its ideas through. Leaving things open to interpretation is one thing, but I always succumb to ennui when curiosity is piqued and a sense of mystery is created with a myriad of seemingly inexplicable occurrences -- that in the end are just forgotten and left completely up in the air. Here, only the "main plot" -- Lain's own story and identity -- is resolved, and even that resolution is muddled with the needless hint about her somehow being able to have memories from the future as well. But most subplots, organisations, people... just fizzle away and are never given meaningful closure.
However, many of the story elements are exquisite. I liked very much the way several themes were handled, especially regarding the Internet (even predicting some aspects that did not really exist when this was released). I also greatly enjoyed the general disturbing, menacing undertone this series had throughout, as well as many individual scenes and story devices. Not the unprecedented masterpiece it could have been (and I thought it would be during the first episodes), but still both entertaining and genuinely original and visionary. 7.5/10.