Rating: 
Summary: Buy the import
Review: The series gets 5 stars, but I give this release 3 for the outrageous price and number of discs. Buy the import at the "new & used" section! It's only 2 discs, much cheaper, and still has English subtitles.
Rating: 
Summary: Fanboys not wanted
Review: Let me put it to you this way: If you are a fanboy who requires puerile power fantasies with powerful mechas and animated hotties in order to get your kicks, this isn't your ball of wax. The girls here are drawn as rather ordinary flat-chested 13 year olds, not as big-boobed hotties, and the action here is as much psychological as physical (though within the first three episodes at least four people die horrible and gruesome deaths so it is not completely action-free). However: if you want a thoughtful story line that does not insult your intelligence, you will like Lain. The impressionistic artwork vividly complements the surreal plot line in a way that could not be done with live action even with today's CGI. In a way, Lain is a good example of a television series that could only be done as anime', though as others point out, David Lynch and others have managed to duplicate the creepy atmosphere in live action (albeit without the psychedelic artwork).
Rating: 
Summary: The most confusing anime ever
Review: A true paradox in the anime category. I had no idea of what to expect out of this anime and when I sat down to watch it I had no idea where the story was going I couldn't predict anything right so after the 3rd time of being wrong with my assumptions I gave up trying to predict what was going to happen. This is a very slow paced anime that is completely story driven. So if that's not going to be enought to hold you interest then don't waste your time. No action to speak of, no sex and no violence. I know this will detract a good portion of you from seeing it now that I said that. The only reason that I sat through the entire series was because of the fact that the story was enough to get me through it. In conclusion this anime has only a good confusing, bewildering, and yes even frustrating story line to offer besides that there is no other reason to see it.
Rating:
Summary: Navi
Review: This was very disturbing and so disturbing it had put questions in your mind you can never awnser. Like If no one remembers you did you exist? it is so weird it has a really interesting feel to it. It is like walking on a street and everything stoops and you wonered if you are alive or if you died or if the world came to an end this is very good so good if it was a 1000.00 dollars
I would go into debt just to pay for it. VERY GOOD BEST ANIME EVER
Rating:
Summary: Stays with you
Review: First, I suggest you buy this DVD set while they are so cheap! ....But if you like the story like most fans, you bought yourself a bargain. Many have wrote great reviews of this DVD so I include my own for older audiences since we tend to interpet movies rather than take them at face value. Lain is about a young shy girl who has trouble making friends. She lives in the not too distance future trapped in a disfunctional family. Her father, a computer programmer, is her introduction to the "wired" - a much more powerful form of the internet of today. As she gets more in more envolved with the wired, she becomes less and less a part of the real world. We watch helpless, hoping that somehow, any minute, she would turn it around and become a happy normal teenager. But this never happens. Instead, the situation continues to fall apart until finally we no longer have Lain among us.
Rating:
Summary: Breaking Out Of The Box
Review: * At the beginning of director Ryutaro Nakamura' SERIAL EXPERIMENTS
LAIN -- an original anime video, in 13 half-hour installments on four
DVDs -- we meet Lain, a 14-year-old girl, a junior high student in a
near-future Japan. She is very withdrawn and maybe a bit backwards,
walking around at home wearing pajamas with a hood that make her look
like a teddy bear. At 14, one would think a girl would be playing
harder at seeming like a grown-up. Lain's uncomplicated existence is disrupted when a classmate, a girl
named Chisa who had been spending substantial time surfing the
"Wired", as the near-future Internet is known, throws herself from the
roof of a tall building. This in itself would not be very distressing
to Lain, since Lain barely knew Chisa, but after Chisa's death Lain
begins to get email from her. It seems, so the email Chisa claims,
that she simply discarded her physical body so that she could move
completely into the Wired. Now Lain becomes more intrigued with the Wired and starts to delve
into it, finding the boundaries between the Wired and the real world
increasingly blurred, and also finding that she has an alter ego --
another Lain, aggressive and capable of a cold, malevolent sexuality,
completely the opposite of herself. As Lain goes through changes, her
friend Arisu -- a warm and kind girl who honestly cares for Lain --
begins to worry about what is happening to Lain. From this point the
story descends into a spiral of ever increasing chaos and destruction. * I have been becoming increasingly disinterested in anime lately, as
much of it seems pretty unimaginative and predictable. That could
hardly be said of SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN, which has very little
connection to mainstream anime and much more connection to the
experimental animation I used to watch in the late 1960s and early
1970s. It also reminds me of David Cronenberg's bizarre live-action
movie VIDEODROME from 1983, in focusing on a dangerous blurring of the
lines between physical and virtual realities and in having something
of the same cold and unsettling style. The artwork is rooted in traditional anime, at least from one angle,
with the character design and some of the "sets" used in the story
implemented in very typical anime style and level of quality. This
aspect of the graphics, however, is often embedded in surrealistic
backgrounds and other details, such as the odd "burning" appearance of
shadows, and is interspersed with equally surrealistic computer
graphics used to show interface to and travel through the Wired, as
well as manipulated photography, such as the running visuals of power
lines and transformers. As far as the story goes ... anyone who is after a typical amusing
action-adventure anime will NOT like SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN. LAIN is
generally slow-paced, giving a sense of surreal eeriness, with tedium
interspersed with scenes of violence. The script is loose, sometimes
excessively so. SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN often succeeds superbly in
bringing across its sense of unreality, but in some cases it merely
comes across as silly, muddled, and pretentious. The theme music
follows the same pattern: often doing much to create the strange mood
of this production, particularly in the intro credits segment of each
episode, but occasionally falling down on the job. SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN is labeled "for 16 and above" and I would have
to agree that's about right. Younger viewers would not be likely to
know what to make of it, and might not handle its cold and lonely
atmosphere well. One intense scene, where the evil Lain violates
("invades" would not be a strong enough word) Arisu's privacy, is
painful enough for an adult; it would be way too much for young kids. Overall, in terms of its construction, I have to give SERIAL
EXPERIMENTS LAIN a mixed grade. There is much in it that is well
done, but I think it would have gone from "interesting" to "superb" if
it had been cut to about 9 or 10 episodes from 13, and if the script
had been tidied up here and there, using test audiences to identify
bits where a little more explanation (or a little less) would have
improved the impact of the whole. That said, I have to give SERIAL
EXPERIMENTS LAIN a top grade in terms of its enthusiastic willingness
to break out of the box of anime conventions and show that much more
could be made of anime than otherwise is.
Rating:
Summary: a brilliant, must-own anime.
Review: Serial Experiments Lain has to be one of the most visually effective, original, and yet utterly confounding anime titles ever to be dreamed up. From the opening scene to the cliffhanger at the end of the fourth episode (all that has been released as of the time of this review), I was riveted by the simple yet fluid animation, dreamlike artwork and haunting music. However, the casual anime viewer may find this title a little on the...well...odd side. The artwork was what first caught my eye. The character designs are fairly simple, but the work that went into making their movements and integration into the backgrounds fluid is immediately obvious. Judicious use of CG allows for some of this, while not overbearing the senses and detracting from the art itself. The backgrounds especially are striking, one moment being carefully detailed, spartan and surreal the next. Those with any memory of the 70s may find the brief dialogue screens that pop up now and then, with their kaleidoscope of rainbow colors, slightly disturbing, but the overall effect is dream-like. This series lends whole a whole new perspective to the human condition. In a nutshell, it's a story about communication. How we are all connected to one another, yet separated at the same time, whether it's through a phone or across a computer connection. The characters, from our quiet Lain, to her computer otaku father, snotty older sister, and gossipy friends aren't very deeply explored, mainly because there is no need. They are all easily identifiable as someone you might already know, which helps the plot along even more nicely. And what a plot it is. After watching the first four episodes, I felt like my brain had been taken out and turned around backwards before being replaced. This is definitely NOT an anime for your Dragon Ball-Ranma-Pokemon crowd. It's deep and cerebral and forces you to think about exactly what is going on at every step. Just when you think you have something of the story figured out, it'll tie another knot for you to unravel. And pulling it all together is the music. From the hauntingly beautiful opening theme by British pop group, BOA, to the hard rock of the disco club, where all the "bad" junior high kids hang out, to the complete LACK of music or even sound in key parts, the whole experience is aural as well as visual. Now I know you're saying, "Well darn, that was really informative, but is it good?" Yes, yes it is! Watch it! Watch it! Watch it! Just keep in mind that this is not your daddy's anime. It's more like something you might see on Liquid Television, but infinitely cooler. And if you do watch it and figure out exactly what's going on, tell me please, I'm still puzzling it out myself! SE: Lain is an anime experience that is not to be missed by any hard-core fan of sci-fi or the surreal. Take away one star if you don't like surrealism with your anime, but add one star if you have an M.C. Escher painting on your wall, like to watch Twilight Zone re-runs, and wear a shirt to work that just says "Be."
Rating:
Summary: Serial Experiments Lain..... Uh its strange
Review: This anime begins with a young schoolgirl commiting suicide, but after awhile more suicides follow. This is Serial Experiments Lain, and it makes you question your life sometimes. So I dont spoil anything i'll make it short, Lain is a 13 year old teenager, who is addicted to the internet, she gets into the internet and wierd things unravel. Though its only 13 episodes long its still good to watch!
Rating:
Summary: GREAT anime
Review: this anime is one of the most interesting animes that i have seen other than, Spirited Away, Akira, and ghost in the shell. something that you must have in your collection. (dont be scared off by the wierd begining.)
Rating:
Summary: ::CONFUSED::
Review: I can honestly say this series is deep... I like computers alot... (i'm on one now arent i?)... I got this after looking at a list of series... i can honestly say this is a very deep series... This will confuse you if you dont put any thought into it... dont take it for face value... and watch at least to episode 6 before you decide if you like it or not.... Youll have to watch it several times to get it...
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