In this post, we take a closer look at the current status of the series “Serial Experiments Lain”, also known by the following titles:
- シリアルエクスペリメンツレイン
Status#
Based on our analysis, the series is FINISHED. ✅
Here’s how we reached that conclusion:
- All related entries are marked as finished on MyAnimeList
- The series is listed as ended on Trakt
These sources consistently confirm that the main story of Serial Experiments Lain has been fully concluded.
Watch order#
Serial Experiments Lain ↗ ↖
Summary
Lain Iwakura, an awkward and introverted fourteen-year-old, is one of the many girls from her school to receive a disturbing email from her classmate Chisa Yomoda—the very same Chisa who recently committed suicide. Lain has neither the desire nor the experience to handle even basic technology; yet, when the technophobe opens the email, it leads her straight into the Wired, a virtual world of communication networks similar to what we know as the internet. Lain's life is turned upside down as she begins to encounter cryptic mysteries one after another. Strange men called the Men in Black begin to appear wherever she goes, asking her questions and somehow knowing more about her than even she herself knows. With the boundaries between reality and cyberspace rapidly blurring, Lain is plunged into more surreal and bizarre events where identity, consciousness, and perception are concepts that take on new meanings.Written by Chiaki J. Konaka, whose other works include Texhnolyze, Serial Experiments Lain is a psychological avant-garde mystery series that follows Lain as she makes crucial choices that will affect both the real world and the Wired. In closing one world and opening another, only Lain will realize the significance of their presence.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
Background
Serial Experiments Lain won the Excellence Prize in the 1998 Japan Media Arts Festival. It has been subject to commentary in the literary and academic worlds such as the Asian Horror Encyclopedia and The Problem of Existence in Japanese Animation by the American Philosophical Society.
Serial Experiments Lain: The Nightmare of Fabrication ↗ ↖
Summary
The Nightmare of Fabrication is a beautifully drawn full-color manga from Yoshitoshi Abe. The 18 page short story can be found in the "an omnipresence in wired 'lain'" artbook.It’s a bonus story which apparently isn’t related with either the anime nor the PS game. It shows characters who were included in the PS game but not in the TV series (like the psychiatrist), but also determinant characters from the anime who didn’t appear in the video game (like Deus).
(Source: MU)