Day 1

I've started to watch Lain,again. It's been a long time since I've seen it so I forgot many interesting things about it. We will see if my new perspective in life has any effects on it.

Day 2

I've watched 8 more episodes. Let's review everything one by one.

Layer 01 WEIRD : ..."Why, why won't you come?"...

In this episode a highschooler named Yomoda Chisa commits suicide by falling off from the top of a building. Starting from the beginning we see some silent messages on a colorful layout (we will understand what is it in further episodes) . Then everyone in that highschool gets a mail from the dead girl, and ofcourse everyone thinks its a joke and its WEIRD. Only our main character Lain thinks that it can be from the person itself. As a complete technophobe, she decides to change her PC to a better one and asks his dad to buy her a new one. This is the beginning of entering the Wired.

Layer 02 GIRLS : ..."What are you scared of? Just try it for a little bit."...

In this episode we meet Cyberia, which is a cafe & club that teenagers visit every night. There, a man is buying something called Accela. It's not a drug, but you buy it in the same way. Accela changes brain's operational capacity from 2 to 12 and it effects your time-sense. When Accela kicks in, you feel "accelareted". When he takes it, we see Wild Lain, for some seconds. Then we are back to Lain's normal life. We see her checking her mail and her sister (Mika) comes in to see her "imaginary friend", but there is no one, ofc. After that moment, Lain is being watched by some men around, but she doesn't communicate with them. In school, GIRLS tell her about that "Lain" which they saw in the club. Then they invite this Lain to the club for that night. Then her new Navi (PC) finally arrives and her father helps her to learn how to use it. After checking her mail, she decides to go to Cyberia as she promised. But there, a man (who took Accela the other night) appears and kills people. Everyone tries to escape except Lain. He recognises Lain and says that Wired can't be allowed to interfere with real world. She walks towards him and says "No matter where you go, everyone is connected"

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What I think about these 2 episodes so far is that Lain is aware of a lot of things , unconsciously. So it can be that Lain always existed , far before that. What I'm not sure is if she is in real life or Wired. Because when we see world from her eyes, there are shadows, emptiness, surreal objects around. Is it really how she sees, or is it how we see? About Accela, I think it kinda makes you aware of everything going around for some time. How long the effects of Accela lasts is unknown. You lost your abilities to differ real world from the Wired. What I think is, this was the reason he shoot people. To make sure if it is real. Navi OS is really interesting all by itself. Would like to have it in my second drive, lol. Ok let's continue digging. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Layer 03 PSYCHE : ..."You've heard of a girl named Lain right? Lain of the Wired"...

As a witness of the crimes happened in Cyberia, police takes her. She keeps quite in the police station and her friend Arisu comes to say "sorry" , because of everything that happened. Arisu seems like Lain's best friend, she cares about her the most. Then she goes home and sees that noone is home except her. So she checks her messages and sleeps. In the morning, she decides not to talk about it with her mother and goes to school. We see a black car (same men as before) following her. When she goes to school by metro, she hears some sounds calling her and says "You are not alone", but there is noone visible around. Then we learn about PSYCHE. Psyche is a processor which dramatically increase the performance of Navi. Then we see Chisa saying "There was no reason for me to stay in the real world any longer. In the real world it didn't matter if I was there or not. When I realized that, I was no longer afraid of losing my body". Right before she goes home, she finds an envelope in her locker, which has a processor in it. She understand that it is Psyche, but she doesn't have any ideas about how to use it. People say that its designed by a group called the Knights. But there is no evidence if Knights exist.
-Another important point. We see in Wired that someone states "a little person looks like a child in a red and green striped shirt".-
Lain asks his father if he knows what Psyche is. He doesn't answer. Then she goes to Cyberia to find out. It seems like everyone knows Lain there, but not in her current look. She asks children there if they know what Psyche is. They say that with Psyche, you can access the Wired with anything. One of them tells her how to use it in her own Navi. And he says "Just watch out for the static electricity". Also that kid wants to date with Lain in exchange of this information but he wants to date with Wild Lain. Then we see Lain's sister going home, she also sees that men nearby her house. They say "You never saw us" and go away. When she arrives home, she sees Lain in a dress, modifying her Navi.

Layer 04 RELIGION : ..."I don't need parents. Humans are all alone. They are not connected to anyone at all"...

Lain is getting more pro with modifying her Navi. Her father has an eye on her during all this process, but he does nothing. Mika thinks that something is wrong with Lain, but her father says "It's perfectly normal". Then her mother says "Is she alright?" -Yes.
-There is an interesting scene here. A man is followed by a little girl and he seems so scared. He runs away but cant escape. She comes nearby and, Gotcha! We hear the man screaming, scene fades away. -
And we hear from the girls that another student commited suicide. Also it's not just the students but also there are other suicides. In that scene we see Lain is reading a book called "Hacker Heavens", but she hides her from the girls. Lain says that she heard the rumors about suicides in the Wired. She tells about " a network game that all the dead kids were hooked on it " Then she leaves them to go home and modify her Navi more. "She has changed"
-In the next scene we see the same little girl dropping her plush toy and Arisu gives it back to her. -
When Lain gets home, she gets a voice mail from a man who she asked about Psyche. He tells her to set the oscillation to variable and it will be ok. But it can cause some "glitches". So she does it. Then we see JJ (dj in Cyberia), he hears that Lain asks about the network game, but Lain is actually not there. "Damn, are my ears playing tricks on me already?"
Lain enters this network game called Phantoma. There is a boy playing the game but even though he quit, he sees Lain is catching him. So he brokes his device to log off, but it doesn't work. He shots a little girl in the game. But he didn't mean it.
Phantoma is a game that lets you fight in the Wired. It's illegally accessible. They think that it had somehow gotten linked to a tag game played by kindergartners.
Lain gets another message which says that basic game is not that unusual, but probably it's modified. It's possibly a work of Knights too.
Lain's father goes into the room. For the first time he gives a warning about Wired. "When it's all said and done, The Wired is just a medium for communication and the transfer of information. You mustn't confuse it with the real world"... -You're wrong.
-Huh?
-The border between the two isn't all that clear. I'll be able to enter it soon. In full range. Full motion. I'll translate myself into it.
-Even with a top of the line civilian Navi, you couldn't
-I can do it. I've modified mine.
"Don't worry. I'm still me"
There is a thought of Knights don't physically exist. They can be thought of as a RELIGION that is spreading through the Wired.
Then we see these two men in front of her house, sending a red laser to draw her attention. But she doesn't want them there and she kinda uses her power to break this man's laser glasses, behind the window. "Intruder Interrupted"
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What I think about 3rd and 4th episodes is, it has created a good base for us to understand what is happening here. We know that Wired is the whole network that almost everyone uses and they are sharing all their thoughts, even secret information on the network. Lain modified her Navi to a point that she can access a lot of information already, but it's not completed yet. It's so cool to see her improvement, started as a complete noob to a great Hacker. As much as she discovered and questioned the suicides happening in real world, she was more attached to the Wired, to see what is happening. As she continues to modify her Navi, she starts to spread in real world day by day. Like communicating people nonphysically, or breaking items. Another thing that we've been introduced is Knights. There are rumors about them but noone knows who are they or do they even exist. Only thing we know is some people using the tag Knights, are modifying the Wired. They are doing some cruel things. We don't know what they are planning yet, but we will see. In general: Wired is getting more popular especially between kids and teens, they started to access deeper, everything thats happening in the Wired started to effect real world and some people are using this situation. This is going pretty nice. It made me think that "suicide games" made by some Russians were inspired from this anime. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Layer 05 DISTORTION : ..."If you can hear it,it is speaking to you. And if you can see it then it is your...DISTORTION"...
"Mankind is a creature that no longer evolves, is it not? If this is true, then what an absurd creature man has evolved to. They're worthless don't you think? But it is no longer necessary to remain a wretched human being. Mankind has finally created an exit whereby he may escape.The network. The Wired, Lain. "
"I am God"
This episode we see Mika in the beginning. She goes to school, leaving a man's house.
-There is an interesting scene. Lain's room is normal. She sits in front of a doll and she says "Tell me a story". She wants to hear a story which she don't know about. But the doll says that it's impossible because she knows everything. "For every event there is a prophecy. An event first comes into existence when there is a prophecy" -But who creates the prophecies?-
Then we hear the news about Tokyo traffic information transmission system sent out incorrect information for some time. Because of these information a lot of accidents happened. In Shibuya, there is a guy giving away some kind of wrapped paper to everyone. He gives it to Lain and Mika too (they did not interfere yet). Mika opens this paper and its written "The other side is overcrowded. The dead will have no place to go" She throws it away.
And that moment she sees Lain standing in the middle of the traffic while its red. When it turns to green, she checks the digital info board on the top of a building and she sees Lain's face for some seconds, instead of weather forecast.
-We go back to that interesting scene again. Now there is another creature instead of a doll. It says "The prophecy is being fulfilled Lain." -But then it is not a prophecy
-No it is a prophecy. History is not merely a linear collection of points that we pass through on a timeline. They are connected by a line. No, perhaps it's more accurate to say that they are made to connect.
-By who? Who connects them?
-
Now we are back to school. Girls think that Lain was responsible from all this hacking. But Lain has no idea what they are talking about.
Then we see Arisu and the girls eating in a diner. Arisu says that she gets a lot of spam mails lately. This time it is "Fulfill the prophecy". It can be possibly a work by Knights too. Arisu thinks that Knights are not doing it for money or for fun.
-Another scene. We see Lain's mother saying "It's reasonable to see the Wired as an upper layer of the real world. In other words, physical reality is nothing but a hologram of the information that flows through the Wired"
-Mom?
-"This is because the body, the activity of the human brain is merely a physical phenomenon caused by synapses delivering electrical impulses. The body exists only to verify one's own existence. "
-Are you really my mom?
-
Then we see a normal family dinner together. Mika asks if she's been in Shibuya. She doesn't answer.
Then there is a scene Mika is sitting in the middle of the traffic, there is a shadow of a "sign" on her. (sign of the Knights) And then she is in the diner. When she accidentally hits her coffee, it creates a shape saying "Fulfill the prophecy". Everyone in diner dissapears. And there is our first "glitch" on the screen.
-We are back to the scene. This time her father. "Are you my real dad?"
-"It may be that what flows through the Wired isn't merely electrical information. If we assume that it was the development of electricity and phones that brought about the formation of Wired, then I have to wonder if another world was created at the moment"
-Huh?
-"Here in the real world God exists only as a concept.But in the Wired,there may be a sort of Deus-like embodiment. I don't know whether or not it should be called a god. But at the very least, it has the same kind of power that is written of in myths"
-I think I may have talked with God.
-"It's possible that the Deus of the Wired may already have enough power to affect the real world in some instances"
"Yes. In the form of prophecy"
-
When Mika comes home, totally freaked out, she sees herself in another form. When Lain looks at the place she looks, she sees kind a shadow in the door.

Layer 06 KIDS : ..."If people can connect to one another, even the smallest voice will grow loud. If people can connect to one another, een their lives will become longer. So..."...
In this episode we see that the Lain's Navi setup is pretty evolved. Now there are holograms, system coolers, a lot of monitors connected to each other. Lain seems calm, with a smile on her face. She has a conversation with Knights, but we don't know what they say. Lain says that she is grateful for them and excited for the new protocol. Because after the next-gen protocol comes out, she can...
Then we see a child kinda worshiping to something up in the sky. But when Lain looks, she sees nothing there.
In school, girls say that it's depressing to be alone all the time and Lain should hang out with them more often. But Lain says that she is not alone. "Everybody comes to see me.No that's not right.. Maybe I go to see them."
-A net-pal isn't the same as a real friend
When they go to a shopping mall together, they see more children worshipping. Some time after, when they look at the sky, they see the siluette of Lain, completely enlightened. Everyone is shocked. Scene fades.
At home now we hear conversation between Mika and her mother. Mika looks stunned. Her mother tells Mika:"You've certainly been coming home early lately. Now it's Lain staying out late."
Then we see Lain connecting to the Wired. But there is something different this time. A big mouth is talking to her. "So you're Lain huh? You're something else,to be able to translate your real world form so well here into the Wired" Lain wants it to shut up and give details about this Phantoma. So she discovers "The child killer scientist". -Ask him about KIDS. So she starts talking with Professor Hodgeson (who is a fictional character)
-What is KIDS? Show me the experiment data from 15 years ago, Professor Hodgeson.
-"I never meant to put the children in any danger."
-I don't mean 15 years ago, I mean the game that all the kids are playing now. They are reproducing your experiment, aren't they?
-"I thought I had erased all the data"
-Tell me about the Kensington Experiment.
-"Psi, parapsychological ability ,is present in most children although many faint in most. It's nothing as outregeous as ESP. It's just good intuition, or enough physical ability to bend a coin."
-What are these that are attached to their heads?
-"We call them Outer Receptors. That's what receives the Psi. Individually, their Psi may be weak, but if i could collect their power.."
-What were you expecting?
-"Something beyond imagining. That's what I wanted to see, young lady."
-What did you make them do?
-"Science isn't merely about proving hypotheses."
-That's not what I mean! So you didn't give any thoughts to children.
-"As you say; It was the KID System that converted the weak electromagnetic waves of the brain received by the Outer Receptors and echanced the functions of a spesific area of the brain. That is what KIDS really is."
-When the children's Psi was combined, how much energy was generated?"
...
He claims that he destroyed the KIDS to pieces but it's schematics ound their way onto the Wired and modified.
"I wonder where the power of the rogues that run the KIDS emulation and this other kind of power come from?"
-"Rogues?"
...

Knights. She tries to talk to them to understand what are they planning with the children. She expects an answer. In that moment the red lasers appear on her face again and she sees these two men in black watching her again. This time she decides to talk with them and goes out. "You are the Knights, right?!" Then the coolent system in her room explodes. "They must've planted a parasite bomb inside your coolant system"
-It almost sounds like you didn't do it!
-"It wasn't us"
-Who was it then?
-"Knights"

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Well well well. We came pretty far already. What I think about 5th and 6th episodes is, dude things started to get fucked up so well. First of all we finally came to the religious philosophies. If there is a god, I am the god, because I control the whole network, the Wired. I don't even need to use a device to be able to follow people, I am everywhere, connected to everyone. So what could be better definition of a god than that? Well it creates some questions in mind, who was the god before the Wired existed? If there was no god before, what makes you a god? Only your worshippers? This dude who claims to be the god of the Wired is trying to show Lain the weaknesses of mankind. He wants her to believe that she doesn't need a body to exist. In the 6th episode Mika starts to change, clearly Knights are playing with her, so she freaks out. Also we see that Mika is not sure about the existance of Lain, she doesn't know how to treat her. Lain seems disconnected from the family and completely isolated herself from the society already. She starts to question herself and her parents if they are her real parents, but she gets no answers. So I assume that she is not belonging to this family completely, and she has a mission to accomplish in life, connected to events about the Wired. Then there is this KIDS experiment, which was origially created 15 years ago by a scientist called Professor Hodgeson. As we see the main idea was to create a massive energy, for some reason, using children. But it caused their deaths and he abandoned the project. Of course the idea stayed on the Wired, and some people (Knights) finally decided to reshape it for their own benefits 15 years later. We still don't know what is the purpose of Knights and what are they planning to use this experiment for. But I started to make up my mind, It's associated with real life in some way. So even Lain is an anime from the late 90s, I think the whole network today is clearly run by the same power. What do they want? They want full control over people by having their personal data and ideas, so they can decide who they want to eliminate. Big corpos are always competing each other to get that power. Knights is probably one of them. Huh, I'm tired dude. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Layer 07 SOCIETY : ..."I'll tell you but it's just between you and me. I'll tell you what's happening in this SOCIETY, what's beginning just because you don't know about it."...
Lain starts to think that Lain of the Wired becomes less and less like her. Mika visits her room after a long time. Lain also thinks that Mika has changed. Then we see a man walking around with bunch of devices on him. He sees the world in different colors. He thinks that real world and the Wired is attached end to end. "No matter where my body is, I can send my consciousness anywhere I want!"
Then we see a woman going inside a huge hall, there is another man with his computer in the hall. She says "It's time for the EMA Motor Consortium banquet." -Right.
And here we are, we just met some members of the Knights. After this scene we also see another Knights member, a fat man.
-Small scene of Lain and Arisu (It's Alice actually, now I got it.) talking. They still seem like great friends, Arisu is worried about Lain.-
"This afternoon , the firewall of the Information Bureau's Information Control Center was cracked and destroyed by some party, and information in the Wired Network is currently in disarray." Heh, sounds familiar?
They are after Lain, we already understood that.
Then we see the delivery man delivering a package to a woman's house (same delivery guy who delivered Lain's Navi). After this delivery there is an interesting conversation between she and her son.
"Mom, can I go over to Kinya's to play later?"
-"If you are going to play a game, can't you just do it over the Net?"
And by the way, in this package, there is a motherboard with Knights sign on it. So she is also probably a member of Knights.
-The Wired and the real world are one and the same-
On her way back home, Lain sees these two men in black again. But this time they want her to come with them.
-There is the scene of this man we saw before, who looks kinda crazy with bunch of devices on him. He wants to join the Knights, he is trying to prove that he is qualified enough. But then, Lain appears on his device. "W-who are you?"-
We came to the Tachibana General Laboratories, Shinbashi Office. They want Lain to fix an old Navi.
This crazy man thinks that Lain is also a Knight -Baka. "That game you've been playing with those kids lately is the greatest. But I have even better idea. Make me a Knight!"
Lain is sweating. "Some say that the Wired doesn't have political borders like the real world. But there are far too many nonsense-spouting anarchists or idiots who think that pranks are a revolution. But Knights don't seem to be either of those."
-"K n i g h t s."
-I don't know how much of what you do is intentional. Your presence in the Wired is highly unnatural. And the Knights seem to have a special interest in you.
-I.. I don't understand what you're-..
-The Knights..You've been in direct contact with them at some point. At any rate it looks like they want to use you for something. We believe that is something that must be prevented, no matter the cost. -W-what are you? Who are you!?
-
Scene with crazy man again."You believe in Deus right? I'll follow your lead. But is it true? Is God really in the Wired? I'm not ready to believe that yet. But if you'll let me join you, I'll be able to learn more. Then I will believe!" And we see some members of the Knights. "Is it you? You came for me!"
We are back to the office. "Iwakura Lain, are you and the Lain of the Wired one and the same? Who are you?"
-I-I'm..
-Are your parents your real parents?
-Huh?
-Is your sister your real sister?
-What are you saying? Of course they are.
-When is your father's birthday?
-D-dad's.. His..
-What about your mother's? When did your parents get married? Did they meet or was it arranged?
-T-that's.. I..
-Why don't you know? You never asked? You've never celebrated a birthday in your family? Not since you were little? Well? When were you born? Where?
-I.. What does it matter?..
-You don't know? You don't know anything? Are you okay? You don't know anything.
-Shut up damn it. Who cares about that crap? Like any of it matters...
Uhh damn!
"You are the Lain of the Wired??"-So what if I am?
-If you are here without a device, you know that the border between the real world and the Wired is starting to crumble, don't you?
-So?
-We believe that to be dangerous.
-Sounds interesting.
Then she attempts to leave the office. One of the men in black called Karl holds her from her arm. "You are what's dangerous"
In this son and mother's home, we see that she already throw the Knights motherboard away. Also we see that crazy man is dead. Killed by the Knights.

Layer 08 RUMORS : ..."Do you want to be hurt too? Do you want your heart to feel like it's being scraped with a rasp? If you do, don't look away, whatever you do."...
We see the kid from Cyberia playing an RPG game in the beginning of this episode. "It doesn't matter to the user if god exists in the Wired"
Lain starts to search for Tachibana General Laboratories. "A company as big as Tachibana General Labs wouldn't do anything illegal. I've heard some RUMORS though... Do you know how we're able to exchange information in the Wired like this?"
-Oh so you're now testing me huh? You are talking about the IP.
-Sorry, you are right. We aren't usually aware of the protocol's existance. But the current 6th-gen protocol reached its data throughout limit.
-The 7th-gen protocol..
-Yes 7th-gen protocol. Big companies are the ones that're making it into the new infrastructure. To control the protocol is to control the economy of the Wired. I hear there's constant sabotage attempts going on. And the party behind is..
-Tachibana General Labs.
Then we see Mika murmuring something. She looks totally disconnected. Mom and dad are silently sitting in the kitchen. " A while ago somebody asked me something. Are you Iwakura Lain? Are your parents really your parents? Isn't that funny? It's funny isn't it? People say the funniest things, huh?"-No reaction.
In the school, everyone, especially Arisu, seems really mad. Arisu asks "Lain you didn't do it, right?" She runs away when she sees the teacher from the school. Lain is confused.
Then God appears again. "How do you define god? If it's the creator of world, then it's not me. The all powerful ruler of the world? You give god too much credit. But if you define god that exists everywhere in the other world? If that's what you mean , then yes I suppose you can call me that."
-Who the hell are you?
-I am you. You must have realizd that another you has always existed in the Wired. You are merely a hologram of other you. You are just a body.
-You expect me to believe that? That's insane.
-But you don't think that the you in the real world is the same as the one standing here in the Wired, do you?
-But I'm me.
-
Mail received. "Peeping Tom". When she runs away from the class, everyone is staring at her. Arisu, where are you? "What did I do? What did I do in the Wired? What's the other me doing?"
Arisu still believes in Lain, she thinks Lain of the Wired is different than the Lain she knows. Then we see what Lain actually has done in the Wired.
-Hey do you know who Mizuki Arisu likes? Do you know who she's thinking while she plays with herself? (her teacher)
-It was you who told everyone! The rumors were true?!
Lain laughs.
-You've always been sitting there quietly, watching me?!
Lain keeps laughing.
At that moment real Lain and Lain of the Wired meets in one place. "You are not me. I'd never do what you do."
She tries to choke herself. -I'm commiting suicide!
-Why, why are you warm? Why do I have to feel your body heat?
-Hey I'm Lain, aren't I?
There appears a lot of dummies with Lain's head. God starts to talk again:"I've said you always existed in the Wired, didn't I? You're the same as me. You are omnipresent in the Wired."
-Everything you say is a lie! If I'm really what you say I am, then..
-Then what, Lain?
-Their memories of being seen by Lain...I could delete that information!
-That's true give it a try.You were born with that kind of power.
So she deletes her existence. And replaces herself with another Lain. "That's right. Lain is Lain and I'm me."
"There is no other me but me, right?"

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Here we go again. So far we've seen 7th and 8th episodes. What I think is, Lain is being used. We finally have seen the faces of some Knights members, not all of them are impressive businessman though. In these episodes we clearly see that Knights and Tachibana General Labs are trying to take down each other, but they don't have any clues. So they are using Lain to gather information. But Tachibana Labs is way ahead of that already, they took Lain and asked her just the right questions so she started to question her existance and her family life. Now she is completely confused. Till this episode we've seen Lain in real world. But starting from this episode it looks like we are going to see Lain and Lain of the Wired together, more often. She started to be as one. In the 8th episode we understand that the 6th protocol is totally harmful now. We don't know what's going to happen with the new-gen protocol yet, but it's not so hard to imagine. We also see that Knights are worshipping the God of the Wired. We can understand it from the crazy man's words. So God is on their side. Also we clarified that her mom and dad are not really her parents. I think from now on Lain should decide who she'll help and what she'll do. Because right now , everything is a big question mark in her life and with all these pressure she should ask the right questions to this god dude. I think it's enough for today. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Day 3
Today I've finished Lain for the second time. I know that there are a lot more useful reviews of Lain out there, which is not written in a basic txt file, but I enjoyed doing it and I think it can be still useful for people who are into Lain. So I'm gonna finish it with honor.

Layer 09 PROTOCOL : ..."If you want to be free of suffering, you should believe in God. Whether or not you believe in him, God is always by your side."...
Episode starts with explaining Roswell UFO incident. "On July 4, 1947 a strange craft crashed in the desert in New Mexico. What it was has yet to be proven. Conjecture has become fact and rumor has become history."
We are back to Lain's room, she is wearing her bear costume. Then she notices a child looking creature, with an alien head and red-green stripped t shirt (we heard about it before) waiting in the door. She does nothing.
Now its another footage, connected with UFO cases that happened in history. "In 1984, a manila envelope arrived at the home of TV producer Jaime Shandera. The envelope from an anonymous source, contained a roll of undeveloped film.The film contained what is called the MJ-12 Document. Roscoe Hillenkoetter, head of the CIA at the time of the Rosewell incident was at the top of the list of 12 members. It stated that these men cocluded a secret treaty with extraterrestrials as a special organization answerable only to president. It is now accepted that President Truman's signature on the document was in fact copied carefully from another document. Named as a member of MJ-12 was Vannevar Bush, head of MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering."
Then Lain connects to the Wired.
"How can I turn something that did happen into something that didn't?"
There are some shadow looking creatures with clear eyes. They know Lain, but Lain doesn't. "The flow of information doesn't always go both ways." They want Lain to believe that she always existed in the Wired. "If a being is remembered, that proves that it's part of a record!" Another footage. "The MEMEX memory expansion concept unveiled by Vannevar Bush in 1945 was a system whereby information recorded on microfilm was projected onto a translucent screen. What he envisioned was the compression and rapid access of information. Even before the advent of computers, Bush has already created the basis of our current multimedia while he led the Manhattan Project atom bomb experiments."
Now we are in Cyberia. JJ gives Lain an envelope. There is another chip in it.
"Conducting sensory deprivation experiments using Native American narcotics and isolation tanks to probe the human unconscious John C. Lilly believed his experiments connected him to cosmic entities. Lilly dubbed the being that guided him E.C.C.O Earth Coincidence Control Office. Afterwards, Lilly began work on communication with dolphins. Dolphins are creatures which are able to conduct wide-range networking in the water via ultrasonic waves."
Lain invites Toro (that kid in Cyberia who gave info earlier) to home, as he wanted before. When they arrive home, she asks him about this chip. "You're... the real Lain"
-There is an interesting scene. Lain plays the Track 44 and starts walking towards to Toro. Parents are sitting in the living room , mother says "It's almost over isn't it?"-
We see Mika is completely out of her mind. She is making "phone sounds" bip-bop.
-If I had installed this chip, what would've happened to me? Would I kill myself? Gone insane?
-There's no way a kid like me could be a formal Knights member!
She puts the ship inside Toro's mouth.
-I wonder what this will do...
-It's non-volatile memory! It'll overwrite existing memories!
After some time later, he kisses Lain and goes away.
"Ted Nelson, who studied under the two cult pioneers Vannevar Bush and John C. Lilly, proposed a giant electronic library in satellites in stationary orbit which could be used at any terminal on Earth via radio or phone lines. He called this concept that would make this database "Xanadu". The Mongolian utopia where all written cultures would never be lost. This was Xanadu. It was the concetp of Hypertext that would make it real and Ted Nelson's name would go down in history as its originator."
Lain has some flashbacks where she was introduced to her current house and family.
"Between the ionosphere and the Earth's surface, there is a constant resonance at a frequency of 8Hz in the ELF band. This is called Schumann Resonance. The extent of the effect on humans of these "earth brain waves" that the planet constantly gives off remains unknown. The Earth's human population is approaching the number of neurons in the brain. Douglas Rushkoff proposes that the consciousness of the Earth itself might be awakened when all humans on Earth become collectively networked. The network's evolution would follow a neural model, and just as neurons within the human brain are connected with synapses the Earth itself would become a neural network."
From now on its fictional.
"Eiri Masami, Chief Researcher at Tachibana General Labs, further developed the hypothesis of a worldwide heural network. His hypothesis proposed a wireless network whereby all humanity would be plugged in at an unconscious level without the need for any device. Furthermore, he encoded the Schumann Resonance Factor and insterted it into the 7th-gen Wired PROTOCOL on his own initiative. Upon discovering this , Tachibana General Labs dismissed Eiri. One week later, Eiri Masami's body was found on the Yamanote train line"
And we see him at the end. He is the god of the Wired.

Layer 10 LOVE : "There is only one truth. God. Isn't that right, Lain?" asks god. They are standing faced each other on the street. "Yes I am God."

He says that a dead human cannot be a god. "I realized that I had no need for a body. To die is merely to abandon the flesh."-That's just what Chisa said. So here we understand that those silent messages appeared in the beginning, on a colorful background was the words of Chisa.
Eiri Masami (aka god) tells her what he has done, how he compressed his human data,memories,history and emotions and mixed them into the protocol. So this is how he lives as an anonymous entitiy in the Wired. Now he has his worshippers, Kngihts, who make him a real god of the Wired. "You no longer need a body, Lain"-That's a lie!
Now we are in the class. Everyone ignores Lain. Her desk is not there too. She is invisible. "Is it true? I'm not supposed to have a body?" then Arisu says "That's right Lain. You are not needed in the real world." She goes back home. Apartment looks abandoned. Then her "father" comes. "This is a goodbye, Miss Lain. You must have figured it out by now. Our work here is finished. It was only for a short time, but I know I didn't do enough for you. You're now free to become anything you want. No, you were free all along. I wasn't given permission to say goodbye, but I loved you. It's not that I enjoyed playing house...Maybe I envied a being like you. Goodbye."
-Wait! Don't leave me alone!
-Alone? You are not alone. If you connect to the Wired, everyone will welcome you. That's the sort of being you were.
And he goes away. "I'm not alone."
Now she is in the middle of the street, sky is covered with connected lines. " This is your world Lain" And she starts to question the Knights. She thinks they made the fake Lain.
"They say you can trace the origins of the Knights of the Eastern Calculus back to the Knights Templar. They've used that invisible human network, the collective unconscious, since long before the Wired was born."
Now we are back to the Cyberia. There are only the kids sitting there. Taro is watching Net News from his device and he sees the list of the Knights members. Then we see the men in black from Tachibana Labs are finding all these members and they kill them.
"A series of suicides occured today all over the world, and each country's Information Control Ministry and police departments have begun investigating the cause. Each victim was involved in network-related work and sources tells us that it appears that they were all membersof a fraternal order known as the "Knights"."
Lain is connected to wires, like a human machine. Men in black now visit her. She asks why did they kill them all. "It was a request from our client"
"The Wired cannot be allowed to be a special world. It can only be a field that functions as a sub-system reinforcing the real world. You can't be allowed to exist in the Wired, either. But here you are, safe and sound. Some god or whatever must be protecting you."
"Eiri Masami's residual thought program will eventually be disifected from the Wired. Our client is working on a total rewrite of the Protocol Seven code. We have no need for gods. Not in the Wired or the real world."
"We still couldn't figure out what you are. But I LOVE you. "
Lain talks with Eiri again. "You don't have anyone to pray to you now."
-I can't be a god then, but I haven't lost all of them. If only one believer remains, I can still be a god.
-Who?
-Come now.. You, Lain. It's because of me that you can stay yourself. You were originally born in the Wired. The legend of the Wired. The heroine of the Wired's fairy tales.
-Liar.
-The real world's Iwakura Lain is merely a hologram of her. A homunculus of artificial ribosomes.
-That's a lie.
-A fake family, fake friends. Yes it was all a lie.
-Poor Lain she is all alone. But I'm here, the man who loves you is here. You should be able to love me, the man who sent you to this world.
"I am your creator."
-The other me, she is..
-There is no other you, that is real you.
-Like it matters!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Huh mate, here we go. What I think is, Douglas Rushkoff's Cyberia should be an interesting book.We've seen 9th and 10th episodes, which are explained a lot of things. At first we've been given some real-life based events, like Roswell UFO incident. All these half-unknown historical events were kinda a base for creating a huge wired network system that can connect everyone to each other without any device. And as we can see it all started way before the computers existed. After all these real-life events, we've been introduced to how Schumann Resonance used by the Tachibana General Labs to create a neural network. So basically, what's been designed in the human history is actually an ongoing project in the world of Lain. This was super cool to combine them all and make a really logic based fiction at the end. So we've learned that this god of the Wired who can access everything is an old worker of Tachibana Labs, but when he mixed his own personal information to the protocol, he's been fired. But he could easily suicide without thinking because he knew that all these info in the protocol would keep him alive in the Wired, as the owner of this other world. Body was no longer needed. So then some people who were working in the real life to make his desires come true actually failed because Lain can also access all the information, and Tachibana General Labs workers killed all the Knights to stop the creation of another world when the info was leaked. Because there is no need for gods in any world! And with the new-gen protocol, they will stop this nonsense and disinfect the the Eiri's program from the Wired. Now we started to see that Lain's existence in real world is no longer a supported idea. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Layer 11 INFORNOGRAPHY : Episode starts with Lain connecting more wires to herself. "No it's nothing as ambigious as "memory".

In this episode Lain loads her Navi to her brain, with all her memories. Man who killed people in Cyberia, Chisa commited suicide, Arisu, men from Tachibana General Labs watching her, JJ, Mika, boy who shot the little girl in Phantoma, child-killer scientist, her fake parents, crazy vr man, her school teacher, children in Cyberia, the office, Toro, Peeping Tom, herself in the sky, alien with red-gren striped shirt, she trying to kill herself, when she met God, a lot of good memories with Arisu, Arisu holding her hand, Arisu believes her...
-Are you tired?
-Yes
-You are incredible. So you've loaded an emulator of that Navi into your own brain. It's dangerous to subject yourself to that much information at once. At your current capacity, you'll overflow.
-Am I a machine? Don't talk about me like I'm a machine.
-This is basically a software problem. Lain, you're software. You're not hardware.
-Sotware?
-Yes an executable program with a body.
She sees Chisa. "I finally understood what you meant." "There's nothing easy about dying" Then this boy who killed people in Cyberia appears on the other side.
"Sure it is. Lain, you already have a tool that will let you do it." A gun appears in her hands. "The safety's already off" Lain still believes that body is not meaningless.
So she peeks from Arisu's door while she was chatting with her friend. Lain now looks half alien with red-green striped shirt.
-W-what?! What's happened to you?
-It wasn't me... I never peeked at your secrets Arisu and I never sent those secrets out onto the Wired.
-It was you Lain, I saw you!
-That isn't me. It looks like I'm not the only me. Some other me did it. You might not be the only Arisu, either. But no matter how often I say I didn't do it, you'll believe that I did. So I'll make it so that it never happened.I've been working really hard to be able to do that.
-What do you mean?
-I don't need devices anymore. It looks like I've already destroyed the border between the Wired and the real world. I can go anyplace I want now.
And she does it. She erases all the memories from everyone else's minds except Arisu. Arisu is pretty shocked ofc. "Lain you smiled"

Layer 12 LANDSCAPE : ..."Oh, okay. So that's how it works. I had no idea that the world was this simple. I always thought the world was such a big and scary place but once you figure it out, it's all so easy. See? I told you it would be."...
Lain seems so sociable in the class, chatting with girls while Arisu is sitting there quietly. For a moment they have an eye contact. Arisu gets a message from Lain at that moment "You should just rewrite bad memories.".
We see Lain in our screen talking to us. "People only have substance within the memories of others. That's why there were all kinds of me's. There weren't a lot of me's, I was just inside all sorts of people, that's all."
In Cyberia, Taro talks with someone in the Wired while sitting with other children. "I kissed an angel!" -he mentions that day with Lain.
We hear everyone calling her name, Lain. She appears in our screen once again.
The man from Tachibana General Labs starts talking: "Protocol Seven is expected to allow the seamless sharing of information between the Wired and the real world. And now, the following message... Let's all love Lain!" She appears on our screen once more.
Eiri thinks that evolution of mankind is possible by using this power of transferring themselves to a world with endless information and easy communication. "The body is nothing but a machine."
The men in black from Tachibana Labs are talking. One of them states for the first time that Eiri is not dead. Some time after, another man arrives (who is the boss) , but these men realize that he used them. Now boss wants to connect the Wired to the real world without any device. After he leaves, one of the men gets killed by an invisible power. After him follows the other guy.
Now we see Arisu on her way to Lain's house. When she goes in, she sees a huge mess. While she searches for Lain, she encounters Mika completely out of her mind, still making phone sounds. Arisu runs to Lain's room, totally freaked out. Lain is there laying down with bunch of cables on her. "What did you do?!"
-I've been just watching. -smiles-
-Lain, why did you only leave my memories alone? Why do I always have to remember all those horrible things? Do you hate me that much, Lain?
Lain gets close to Arisu. She didn't mean to hurt her. "You were my friend, even without connecting with me, Arisu."
-What are you saying?
-You are my only friend Arisu.
-"Connecting" what do you mean?
-Humans were originally connected at an unconscious level. I reconnected them, that's all. It doesn't matter which side is real, this side or the other. I was in both. I'm a program designed to destroy the barrier between the Wired and the real world.
-You are a program, Lain?
-You and everyone else,Arisu, you're just applications. The truth is, you dont need bodies.
She reached Lain, touches her face and smiles. "You are wrong."
Arisu is scared but still she tries to tell Lain that she is alive, even if she is cold. At that moment Eiri appears behind Lain. "You just need to block the unpleasent impulses. Select only the happy,pleasant ones."
"If you really love her, why don't you connect with her?"
Arisu doesn't see him.
-I'm not sure..
-You must have a bug. Very well, I'll take my time and give you a thorough debugging. Come, Lain.
-What I don't understand is you, God.
Arisu is shocked.
-What don't you understand Lain?
-What you did was to remove devices from the Wired. Phones, television, the network... Without those you couldn't have done anything.
-Yes, those are things which accompanied human evolution. Humans who are further evolved than others have a right to greater abilities.
-Who gave you those rights? The program that inserted code synched to the Earth's characteristic frequency into the Protocol Seven code, which would raise the collective unconscious to the conscious level. Did you really come up with the idea by yourself?
-What are you getting at? No it can't be, it can't be! Are you telling me that there really is a God?!
-It doesn't matter. With no body you can't understand.
-It's a lie! I'm omnipotent! I gae you a body here in the real world! You were omnipresent, scattered through the Wired! I gave you an ego!
-If that's true of me, what about you?
-I'm different! I...
He collects himself a body using devices around.
-The Wired isn't an upper layer of the real world.
-What do you mean?
-Inside the Wired you were god, alright. But what about before the Wired was created? You're just an acting God standing in for someone who was waiting or the Wired to reach it's current state.
-That can't be !
-A body doesn't mean anything to you, right?
Then he becomes a huge pile of scrap.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Last two episodes before the very final! To be honest, when I watched this anime some years ago, I didn't pay too much attention, I just loved Lain, like I should've done. But now when I see things more clearly, I understand that Lain is really dangerous. Humanity is in her hands, and if she changes her good character to the wild character, she can use this power against humans. Because of her, a lot of people were killed (Knights), even her other personality revealed the secrets of her best friend, then she rewritten them all. In 11th episode wee see that she broke the wall between the Wired and real world completely. Also we see that she only trusts and cares about Arisu, who always believed in her too. We can see how lonely Lain was, we understand that she wanted to connect more people and that was the reason why she started all these in the beginning. Well she did it, now he can be with anyone, anywhere, anytime she wants. But she is no longer a human like others, she is greater than that. She can evolve without restrictions of human body. Also another thing made clear is Labs boss betraying his workers, who also was working for Eiri. Ending scene of the 12th episode is really cool and inspiring. Arisu reminds Lain that she is still alive and that gives Lain power to question Eiri. "If you really love her why don't you connect with her?" What I understand from this phrase is, take her to this side, connect her to the Wired completely, so you two can be friends forever. But Lain doesn't agree with him. She thinks all this Seventh protocol wasn't even Eiri's own idea and it pisses Eiri off, naturally. I think the reason she said it is, because she thins that Eiri did not want to be omnipotent, he wanted to keep his body but someone used him to test it and caused his death. So Eiri is playing the god to convince all other people so he won't be alone in the other side. At the end he vanishes. Lain wins! _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Layer 13 EGO : Lain appears on our screen. "I.. I am confused again. Am I here or am I there? Over there, I'm everywhere, I know that. I'm connected there after all. But where is the real me? Oh, right. There is no real me. I only exist inside those people who are aware o my existence. But this me that's talking right now... It's me , isn't it? This me that's talking... This me... Who is it?
After Eiri's transformation, Arisu is shocked. She doesn't want Lain to touch her. She accidentally damages Lain's face with her nail. " I mess up everything that I try to do for you, huh, Arisu?"
Then Lain hugs her.
"Arisu... I'm sorry."
Lain Resets everything. We see her fake parents having a normal family dinner. Father is still obsessed with computers. Everything is just how it used to be before. Arisu goes to school, the girls are happily welcoming her. Lain's existence is completely deleted from real world, but Arisu still remembers. Chisa is still alive, noone likes her though. Lain's face appears in Taro's Navi device for some seconds, he recognizes her. Then we see Eiri, who is so mad to his job. He is going there with hate, saying "I'll quit. The crap they make me do... They underestimate me!"
Men in black who used to work for Tachibana General Labs are working as electricians.
"What isn't remembered never happened. Memory is merely a record. You just need to rewrite that record."-Is that true?
We see the opening screen of the anime.
Now Lain is on the street which is totally empty and blank.
-Why are you crying? Because you deleted yourself from everyone's memory? But isn't that what you wanted?
-Yes, but...
-Noone is dying and noone is being hurt. And noone hates you.(her other self talks to her)
-Yes, but... -Dead people's information isn't leaking out of the Wired anymore. So Lain doesn't need to be anywhere anymore. This is what you wanted, isn't it?
-You sound just like him.
-Hm? That man never existed now. Even if he does, he won't get any ideas into his head being God.
-If I'm nowhere, who am I? Where am I?
-You yourself said it. The Wired isn't an upper layer of the real world. That's what that man was mistaken about. A network is a field to pass along information. Information doesn't stand still there.Information functions by always being in motion.
-Really?
-People's memories aren't just personal or one part of the historyof humanity. No, not even the shared unconscious. Do you think that humans could create something that could store memory that's that vast? The Wired was just connected to something else...
-But where was it connected to?
-Do people really need to know that? Look at how far they've come without knowing. The human world creates and prays to it's various gods, and humans convince themselves "This is how the world is."
-I don't like how you're saying this.
-Either way, it's Lain that's saying it. Me. You understand that, right?
(There are a lot of Lains in the empty classroom)
-Oh, right... Lain was never a person, was she?
-Lain is omnipresent, existing everywhere.
-Lain watches quietly.
-Right, Lain is God!
-No... You're wrong!
-It would be so much easier if you become God. I think I'd be a lot easier than being human. You wouldn't have to do anything. Just stand there and watch. No one would look down on Lain. No one would hate Lain...
-That's...
-Hey Lain, Let's start everything from the beginning! I mean you did go and reset everything, after all...
-Stop it!
-Then what are you Lain?
-I... Where am I?
-Come on Lain.
-Dad? (her dads face appears above)
Now they are sitting on the table, Lain has her bear costume, talking with her dad.
-You don't need to wear that anymore, Lain.
-Dad do you know?
-What?
-I... Everyone... I...
-You love them?
...
-Isn't that right? (she cries)
Now we are in the real world, Lain is still a child looking human, she sees Arisu, who has become a mature woman. Arisu thinks that her face is familiar, she runs towards Lain.
-Hello! Have we met before?We have, haven't we? Did you go to the school I was a student teacher at? No that can't be it.. Let me think... (Lain smiles)
-Pleased to meet you. We haven't met before.
-Oh well. I'm pleased to meet you then! I'm Arisu. Strange name huh? I'm kinda embarrased about it. What's yours?
-Lain.
-Lain?
At that moment her fiancee arrives. "A friend of yours?"
-No I thought she was someone else. Well, goodbye, Lain. Maybe we'll run into each other again someday.
Lain waves her goodbye.
... -I'm here so I'll be with you forever- ...

END

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I'm really sad to see the ending one more time. I haven't seen such great atmospheric anime yet. Well there are good animes still, but Lain is for me perfectly written and designed. Artwork, character desing, musics, sound effects, plot, number of episodes... And I'm so glad to be able to understand deeper. Well what I think is, there can be a lot of different views about Lain, there are a lot of things to comment about. During my commenting and reviewing the scenes I had a lot of new theories, but some of them failed by the time. Sometimes they explained some parts, but mostly they wanted us to think and understand what is going on. They wanted us to deduce by ourselves first. There were a lot of unanswered questions in the beginning. At this point of writing, I've decided to check what I wrote after the first two episodes. I saw that I questioned really deep even in the first two episodes, and all my questioning was not because of the storytelling, but the atmosphere. It was so surreal that even at first, it made me question what is real and what is not. We saw how everyone is connected to the Wired, how they are sharing all their information, even the kids are there. We saw that some people are killing themselves, because of having no value in real life and they think that this human network will keep their memories and info all the time, so they don't feel a need to a body. We saw that there are even some games which already broke the wall between real world and the Wired. This job is done by a secret group called Knights. We saw how Lain improved herself and her Navi to be able to hack these people and find their identity. Then another company killed all the members of the Knights by gently saying that they dont want real world to be interfered with the Wired, they should be seperated. But later that we learned actually this company's boss was just bluffing and using his workers to get the power. While all these were happening, Lain always believed that her life and body matters. But she sacrified it to be able to reset everything so she wouldn't cause such pain. So she rather prefered to be alone in the Wired, questioning herself. She doesn't even need to do anything because the dead people's information is not going out of the Wired anymore. But at least she knows that Arisu is happy, her only friend. So that's the end of my review. I will further question some details that I missed. There are still a lot of interesting things to discover. Hope I will forget the details of this anime again one day and have a chance to enjoy watching it one more time. Then, I can also compare looking at this review that how I used to think before. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________