Forum - View topicREVIEW: Serial Experiments Lain BD+DVD
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Bonham
 Posts: 423 Location: NYC |
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IIRC, Lain uses a mixture of film and digital (such as when Lain is at the computer, which was redone for the restoration). But yeah, it was primarily animated on film (probably 16mm, since 35mm was probably too costly for this kind of show and most anime). I wouldn't mind blu-ray releases for Haibane Renmei (a non-Q-Tec upscale) and Texhnolyze, as lossless audio would be nice, and there would just be less compression on the video. I would guess such releases would probably depend on how well the DVD releases sold for Funimation (and maybe a blu-ray release of Texhnolyze in Japan). |
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Kakugo
Posts: 163 |
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The fine grain structure and clean, crisp outlines beg to differ. 
BERSERK appears to have been animated on 35mm as well, which makes me think that shows from the late 90s that were dabbling in the brand new late-nite otaku brackets were sacrificing cel counts for better film stock. Then again, CARDCAPTOR SAKURA was animated on 35mm too, so... what metric they used to decide this stuff is clearly beyond my compression. SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN is a lot of things, but "pretentious" - that is, a show that spouts nonsensical crap to look smarter than it really is - probably isn't one of them. The core focus of the show is about how the anonymous future landscape of "The Wired" will allow us all to shed our day to day lives for something we'd rather have, and communicate with strangers and friends alike in a way that makes meatspace meaningless. Meanwhile, we all sit in front of our keyboards arguing whether or not we agreed that a 15 year old 4 hour cartoon cartoon had something important to say when everything it was so obsessed with - far off wild ideas, circa 1998 - has already happened. Well, other than that crazy sh*t in the last episode. Science is still working on that, I'm sure. 
About the only film I can think of that had more to say about the internet - and that was before the internet actually existed! - was VIDEODROME. Anyone who says that was pretentious is someone I refuse to discuss films with, because clearly we're not going to get along and I'd rather spare us both the trouble. The broad-strokes HD restoration was an impressive job, even if I have mixed feelings about the digital "bloom" filters they made to try and give it a slightly more contemporary look. Grain is present, detail is at times surprisingly good, and all of the "HD" generated digital imagery was made with the utmost care to, essentially, be a less shoddy looking version of the same elements that were in the show when it first aired. It's roughly on par with the GITS 2.0 restoration in terms of the level of work that went into it (keep in mind that LAIN had much better film elements to work with), but it doesn't have any of those "what the Hell were they thinking?!" additions that murdered anything positive I'd otherwise have to say about it. FUNimation's BD release has some unfortunate banding that may have been caused by inferior masters, but it's still a massive upgrade over the old Pioneer DVDs. The packaging and hefty design booklet is exquisite, which makes up for the rather "meh" on-disc bonus material. (No storyboards or commentaries.) |
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marcos torres toledo
Posts: 269 |
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I only rented the first part of Lain but the anime did intreged me to what to see the rest of the series. I wish the Cartoon Network or Nictoons for broadcast it would make a fine show for their viewers.
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skullknight89
Posts: 6 |
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I think this review was pretty good but i don't recall this anime being such a masterpiece at all . Sure its great anime and has some complicated ideas and probably one of the very first anime to attempt such overwhelming subject matter ( sounds like im back peddling here lol ) but i think a big reason for people holding it in such a high regard is that the show itself does the same . I remember when it came it Pioneer marketed this thing like it was the most sophisticated show out there and that the viewer was in for a challenge . Personally i found Boogiepop Phantom harder to wrap my head around and far more disturbing . Imo Boogiepop is a masterpiece with Lain being the next best thing yet Lain gets all the recognition . I don't know maybe i'm just spiteful Boogiepop never got the attention it deserved while Lain was in the spot light .
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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This explanation only works for those who were exposed to this marketing. I know I wasn't, I heard about it through others in my anime club who had seen and enjoyed it. |
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Bonham
Posts: 423 Location: NYC |
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I certainly wouldn't mind being wrong here! I had primarily assumed it was 16mm with the show's decidedly niche position. It does make me wonder what other shows were animated on 35mm in the '90s... |
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skullknight89
Posts: 6 |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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Most of the ones you'd thing look good are 35mm. Escaflowne certainly is, there's no way something with that fine grain structure could be 16mm. Actually, I'd assume most 26 or under series used 35mm, whereas longer and cheaper series used 16mm. OVAs would be 35 more likely. |
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luffypirate
 Posts: 3187 |
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Only one mention of the color banding. Any word from FUNimation on why they wouldn't get it right?
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PurpleWarrior13
 Posts: 2027 |
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Nicktoons showing Lain? O.o Makes about as much sense as them showing Evangelion. |
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jr240483
 Posts: 4388 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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Uggh. this thing gave me massive headaches when i watched it on Tech TV. unfortunately i couldnt decide wether to either give it a thumbs up or a massive stink eye for being so FREAKING CONFUSING!! Though the one thing i did liked was the possible yuri concept between Lain and her best friend Alice. it's the series that gave me headaches trying to understand the storyline. not to mentioned that weird eerie feeling you get. Though it was definitely the main reason why TechTV ( now known as G4) was popular when it had it's anime block, but i mainly watch betterman , crest of the stars & soultaker instead of lain , technologise , and especially boogypop phantom which eclipsed Lain in every way and fashion on both good and bad aspects TEN TIMES OVER!!! |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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A bit of useless info here.
Lain's mother was voiced by Petrea Burchard (Ryouko of Tenchi Muyo). It was her only other anime related VA work outside of Tenchi Muyo, and, I believe, her last. This was a very good series, but it had one annoying factor to it. The humming of wires. Transformers hum audibly, wires never do, and especially phone and cable tv wires. If Lain had been done in 2012 instead of 1998. It would had been the world of the "wireless" or "wi-fi'ed" and instead of a boxy "Navi" it would have been a waifer thin 4G "iNavi". 
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Veers
 Posts: 1197 Location: Texas |
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Similar to some others who have commented here, I kind of respect Lain and find it "interesting" in the sense that I re-watched it at least once in an attempt to better understand it, and I think it is thought provoking which I appreciate and I don't think "pretentious" is a fair word to describe it, but it's not a show that I really "like." Basically, the way Zac has described KnK is kind of how I feel about Lain.
It has been some years since I saw it, so perhaps I should revisit it and see if my more adult self can better appreciate it and its symbolism, but my memory is of slowpans of sidewalks, closeups of powerlines, the hum of electronics, strange men in shadowy suits standing around without clear purpose, and generally just lots of camera work that I figured was trying to set the mood and/or build some tension, but I found boring and overused. Part of it I think is that I could never really connect with the characters (I remember getting the impression the show was doing that intentionally), so while I was still interested in some of the issues the show invited thinking about, I never really got pulled into the show like I did with Haibane and Texhnolyze; there never was a feeling of payoff. Some shows this kind of thing doesn't impact my enjoyment very much; with Lain, it did.
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