Serial Experiments Lain is a very intriguing anime and it’s one that will make you think a lot more than the average show. I am one of those viewers who believes that you should always form your own opinion after finishing something. So, there are probably a lot of theories about what really happened throughout the show, and I’ll try to shed some light on it. The series is pretty short and only contains 13 episodes, but it’s enough to set the tone of the show. You know that this won’t be your average anime when the narrator doesn’t sound like a good guy. The theme song also isn’t that cheerful and it’s a hint of what’s in store.

Chisa jumps off of a building, but instead of dying, her soul goes into the “Wired”. Without a body, she has complete freedom to do whatever she wants and be wherever she wants. Or so she claims. Chisa doesn’t actually appear much, but it sets the seeds for the real protagonist of the show. Lain is gifted with special powers that help her in the “Wired”. The ability has some pretty good perks like teleportion and granting the user a genius level intellect, but the downsides are pretty lethal. The wired rapidly spreading and people are beginning to mysteriously die around the world. Lain could care less about the strangers, but will she be able to protect her friends and stop the “Knights”?

Lain isn’t a bad main character, but I can’t say that I ever got around to really rooting for her. For the first three episodes, she’s extremely quiet. (Reminded me of Peter Parker from The Amazing Spiderman movie) She got better when she began to talk more and started utilizing her powers in more effective ways. Of course, Lain’s abilities seem to have a mind of their own and there are other Lains running around….or so it seems.

Lain has three friends, but the only one to really get a large role in the series would be Alice. For the most part, she attempts to help Lain through her school life and even tries to make Lain have some fun. She’s a good character until we get a pretty big plot twist that made her into an unlikable character. I never really cared for the character before then either. She was constantly thinking that Lain may have been responsible for various things and then changing her mind abruptly. (Of course Lain usually was behind those things….)

“god” also appears and he’s in charge of the wired. He admits that he’s not the real God, but he’s the god of the wired world. He is everywhere at once and his power knows no limits. Unfortunately for him, one can only be a god if others worship him. Lain gets an idea and takes him on. This “god” character was pretty underwhelming and he’s definitely not much of a fighter. There are also two government agents who spy on Lain for most of the series, but in the end they are just pawns in a bigger game. The humans are extremely weak in this show. A little girl armed with a teddy bear succeeds in completely terrorizing a grown man and he runs all the way home. Unfortunately he’s unable to get the lock to open and things don’t go very well for him.

Alright, let’s talk more about the show as a whole and what really happened for most of it. My guess is that Lain was created a little before the wired so that she could control it. Or that she was an all powerful, cosmic entity who wanted to experience life and adopted a human form. Were her parents really her parents? I’d say that foster parents may be a better term and it would explain why they act pretty fake/off for most of the time.

After Chisa jumped and left the school a message, it slowly started to reawaken Lain’s latent powers. At first she couldn’t control her abilities at all and developed split personalities. “Wired Lain” was a lot meaner than the normal one and had a much better perception of her powers. She was basically the total opposite of the regular Lain and probably would have made for a more interesting main character. Lain’s other personalities started exerting their influence on the wired a lot more actively as they went out of their way to knock off some civilians and even mess up Alice’s social life. Lain’s other personality may have deleted her sister as well, but it’s possible that the Knights had something to do with it. The sister’s scene was pretty intense and she put up a decent effort, but nobody can escape the Wired.

The border between the real world and the wired continues to weaken throughout the show. Eventually, humans in the real world can even see Lain up in the sky as a messiah type being. They take it pretty well and nobody ever asks Lain about it. That should probably be the first hint that something’s off….

Lain has unlimited power on the wired and since the real world is almost completely connected to it, her abilities are enhanced in both worlds. She seems to have some telekinesis (Shown in her battle against “god”) and she’s a very advanced reality warper. Not only can she alter people’s memories, but she can also completely rewind time to whatever point that she feels like. It would seem that Lain could have become “god” at anytime, but she didn’t want to give up being a normal person. She liked having a body and not live her immortal life as one with everything. Based on the ending, it would seem that she has made her choice on whether to stay as an immortal humanoid being, or an abstract entity.

There are also some mild hinting that Lain could in fact be an alien. I wouldn’t be surprised, since the government found the alien ship near the end of the show. There are definitely a lot of theories that can be had here, but the important thing is that you know the basics.
1.Lain is All Powerful
2.Lain is “god”
3.Lain can do anything.

Everything else is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things when you think about it. Lain could have just created the entire planet with her abilities, which would explain why things always went badly for the victims. When the sister was trying to escape, people would flicker in and out, not to mention that reality seemed to be against her. In a way, Lain is just toying with everyone as she watched from above. Most of the time, she’s not doing it consciously, but eventually she begins to understand.

One negative of the show would be the lack of fight scenes, but you’re not really supposed to expect those in this show. None of the characters ever really get to be likable characters and there is some really unneeded romance scenes during the show. I liked the theme for the night club that the kids would go too, aside from that, the kids were pretty awful characters.

This anime is a very unique experience to watch and I’d recommend checking it out. There are a lot of really weird and random moments that increase the spookiness factor of the series. It may be the closest that you’ll get to a horror show about the cyber world. It contains some elements from The Ring, The Matrix, and a whole bunch of other things. It’s a good way to learn some fun facts as well. While most of the show can be considered “trippy” with all of the assorted lights and crazy camera angles, the final episode takes a break from that for the most part. The Red light from the first 12 episodes finally turns green for the final one. Knowing this show, it was probably symbolic for something. Anyway, this definitely makes for a great anime to watch during the dead of night!

Overall 5/10

Achievements
Own Whole Series

Axess continues the Megaman NT Warrior franchise and brings the series to new heights. While NT Warrior was pretty good, Axess is excellent and it’s everything that I could have hoped for in a Megaman series. The grand scale of things is definitely a lot larger than NT Warrior and the threats are very real.

Axess starts off with Megaman effortlessly defeating his opponents. It has been a time of peace and everyone has moved on from the past dangers. Even Megaman seems to be pretty overconfident as he toys with the opponents. When someone tries to eliminate Lan and his friends by removing the air in the building, Lan send Megaman in against his most lethal opponent yet. Savageman is behind this and he may be Megaman’s first true threat in a long time. Megaman hits him with the program advance, but it doesn’t seem to have any noticable effect. Things get dangerous when Savageman appears in the human world! Lan and Megaman are forced to Crossfuse to take him on.

This is just the beginning of the Nebula saga. Crossfusion is a major part of the series, since it’s the only way that the good guys can really fight. (Although, I think that Megaman and pals could just materialize into the area like the villains. I’ve always wondered why they didn’t just do that. It would be simple enough and they could hopefully win.) The series opens up with a lot of solid episodes including the battles against Vineman and Flashman. They introduce a new type of super form called Doublesoul. With this ability, Megaman can merge with a netnavi and gain his abilities, or just absorb a portion of his power and add it on to his own.

The saga reached its climax in episode 27. Megaman and Protoman launch their final offensive against Nebula’s boss, but the Darkloids have also come to finish things. Their are many powerful darkloids and I will talk about several of them later on in the review. When Megaman and Protoman reach the big boss, they find that he is gone. “MY NAME IS LASERMAN!” a voice yells out as a being of pure power gets up from the throne. Megaman and Protoman were quickly dispatched by the leader of the darkloids (Shademan) and are unable to challenge Laserman. Laserman and Shademan quickly have a talk and then Laserman leaves…after blowing up the dimensional area generators. Shademan decides to blow the place up in the hopes of destroying Laserman. Now, Megaman and Protoman must fight Shademan in the cyber world. The battle is very nostalgic, but things get dangerous for the heroes.

The 2nd saga is about Laserman’s group of darkloids. Lan and Megaman have their work cut out for them and they are now outnumbered by a large amount. Chaud can’t do much since Protoman is unable to help at the moment. They call in Raika and Raoul for backup and they come in handy…they just aren’t quite at Protoman level. The climax of the series is definitely intense and has a very cool atmosphere about it.

Lan is still a pretty solid protagonist. He hasn’t changed that much from NT Warrior and he’s always ready for a fight. Now he actually gets to fight which is pretty cool, but sometimes he doesn’t handle it well. His battle experience isn’t as good as Megaman’s so he definitely holds them back.

Megaman is also pretty similar to his NT Warrior counterpart, but he makes less puns. He does seem to be pretty confident during the earlier episodes which is good and he hesitates less than in the old days. His double soul abilities are pretty good to have and they are much better than the Style Change.

Chaud is a pretty solid character for the first saga, but he doesn’t do as well in Arc 2. He makes the ultimate sacrifice and gives Megaman the vulcan, but (Thanks to Lan) he hesitates and loses some time. He fires off the vulcan, but it is too late. That scene was definitely one of the greatest in the entire series and it felt like I was watching a shounen anime. Protoman is pretty solid as well, but once in a while he won’t look so good. Still, he’s one of the better heroes in the series.

Mr Famous is a new character to the show and he seems to run the NetSavers division. He’s not a fighter in the anime and while he’s smart, it’s never enough to help Lan out. There is also a detective and his assistant, but I can’t even get into those guys. They weren’t really great characters and never pulled through when the going got tough.

Lan’s friends don’t appear quite as often in this show. Dex gets an appearance, but he looks pretty bad and he can’t stop Burnerman. Maylu and Roll try to help Megaman out against Flashman, but he proves to be too powerful. Yai and Tori are around, but they also don’t really get to help.

A new hero added to the bunch is named Raika. His netnavi Searchman is pretty good for long range combat and his fight against Shadowman was pretty cool. Shadowman is far stronger thanks to his speed and close range combat, but when you throw a wildcard (Megaman) in to shake things up, Searchman has enough time to get out the shot. Searchman is willing to destroy innocent lives to achieve his target, so he doesn’t get along with Megaman at first. Of course, we can’t totally call Searchman a hero after that right? Arguably he changes his ways, but do we know for sure? Prismman is also a pretty cool navi. He has a solid fight against Gravityman and even takes on Megaman. He’s a solid close range fighter and his design is pretty epic. I wish that we could have seen more of him.

We also can’t forget about Tamako and Metalman. Tamako is one of Lan’s newer rivals and her netnavi packs a punch. Metalman has a lot of raw power, but Megaman’s speed is a good counter to that. He comes in handy during the big battle against Searchman and they’re both decent characters. I can always use a new rival for the main character.

Savageman is the first darkloid to fight and he’s also one of the best ones. Like his name suggests, Savageman is a very savage fighter. He’ll take any opening and launch a powerful attack. He was able to take on the powerful team of Metalman and Megaman. Definitely not an easy feat and one that few can reproduce. He’s very fast and in his final form, he may be one of the strongest darkloids of all time. He’s definitely a high tier Megaman fighter.

Flashman is another great darkloid and his thunder abilities are very quick. He was doing pretty good against Megaman and nearly deleted him. Roll went to take him on as well, but Flashman proved to be too strong. He has a pretty good array of attacks and he’s also a master at close range combat. He was actually holding his own against Protoman in a sword fight.

Shademan was the leader of the darkloids for Arc 1 and he’s a very strong fighter. He’s not that agile, but he makes up for that in raw power. One solid attack is enough to take down Megaman and Protoman teaming up. (In Crossfusion, since Lan and Chaud can’t endure that kind of power. In the net, things would be different) Shademan’s definitely a powerful fighter and he manages to go up against Laserman! He has Bubbleman as a loyal minion, but Bubbleman’s pretty weak. He’s definitely one of the worst darkloids..maybe The worst darkloid.

Desertman is also one of the best Darkloids. Not only does he claim to be immortal, but he has a lot of raw power. He was defeating Megaman with minimal effort and his abilities are great. He’s most dangerous in an enclosed space thanks to his sand lions. They will home in on the opponent and charge. It’s pretty tough to dodge them when there isn’t time to maneuver. His attacks also deal great damage and a couple of lions would end any battle.

Gravityman appeared pretty late in the series, but he quickly became one of my favorites. His gravity drive is immensely lethal and it’s nearly impossible to dodge. Once it gets near, the gravity pushes the opponent into the ground. He can also use gravity to block any projectiles, so he’s essentially invincible in a one one fight. Protoman and Megaman teaming up were nearly destroyed.

We can’t forget about the mighty Laserman! In arc 2, he’s a pretty major character. Not only does he lead the villain armada, but his abilities are very potent. He doesn’t fight until the final episode, but it’s a pretty great one. He uses his super speed to fight with Shademan and then relies on his sheer durability and power to take on Megaman and Protoman. He must be the only fighter to survive a program advance and 6 double souls. “Tremble Before me!” is just one of his cool lines. He’s definitely a fighter to watch out for. Dr Regal is his human ally, but he doesn’t make for an interesting villain. He’s pretty smart though and even surpasses Lan’s dad in that area.

There are many other darkloids that I could continue to mention. Vineman was pretty awesome and his episode was one of the best in the series. Burnerman is also a solid fighter and a decent character. To end on the characters note, I should mention that…BASS appears later on! It’s a small role, but he hints that he could take down Laserman and Shademan pretty easily. He’s definitely not an opponent to underestimate.

Megaman Axess is an anime that I strongly recommend watching. The soundtrack is superb, (The vulcan scene is an example of the greatest music in the show. Possibly one of the greatest of all time!) there are a lot of cool techno music and other sounds from the games. The animation is also a solid step up and the battles are amazing. The cliffhanger also makes you eagerly anticipate watching the next show in the franchise…Stream! So, check this anime out right away!

Overall 9/10