Serial experiments: Lain. Vol. 04: reset

Finale of the animated Japanese series, “Lain”; Volume 04 “Reset”, episodes (layers) 11, 12 and 13. Lain is an introverted thirteen year old schoolgirl who is drawn into the world of “The Wired” (a euphemism for the Internet), an alternate reality where minds roam freely unencumbered by their mortal body. Episode 11, “Infornography”: in an increasingly disoriented existence, Lain is perplexed as to whether she exists at all. Episode 12, “Landscape”: realising she is a multiple presence, Lain struggles to comprehend the dark forces that are enabling the Wired to become connected to the real world. Episode 13, “Ego”: “Where is the real me?” asks Lain, in this final instalment of the series. If Lain deletes herself in the Wired, she may fail to exist at all. Conceptually, “Lain” is comparable to the classic definition of cyberpunk - a paranoid moral and psychological parable that centres on the relationships between people and technology.