Serial Experiments - Lain: Deus (Layers 8-10)

Starring:Japanimation
Studio: Geneon [Pioneer]
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
As Lain's story continues to unfold, she--and the viewer--become increasingly unsure of what is real and what exists in the cyberrealm of the Wired. The cyber-Lain grows bolder and more unpleasant, spying on her friends and spreading rumors, while her real-world counterpart seems to be fading out of existence. Does she need a body any longer? Does she still possess one? Her father departs, announcing that her family has never been anything but a group of actors. The Knights, who seemed omnipotent within the Wired, lose a critical power struggle: its members are executed by agents of Tachibana Laboratory. Lain greets these revelations and questions with her usual fixed stare and little indrawn breaths. Chiaki Konaka clutters his already-fragmented screenplay with references to alien contacts and some odd theology. Lain debates the nature of God and free will with the Masami Eiri, who researched the idea that human minds are linked like electronic circuits on a subliminal level--before he was found murdered. Director Ryutaro Nakamura doggedly re-uses the same close-ups of Lain's eyes, the shots of power wires, the simple computer graphics, etc. Viewers will love or hate Lain; no one will watch it with indifference. (Ages 16 and older due to violence, implied sexual situations, and an abstruse story line) --Charles Solomon
Description
I am God in the wired... I created you, lain. There are rumors that lain is stealing people's secrets and spreading them in the wired. Her friends, including Arisu, start to leave lain. Lain finds that her "other" self in the Wired is the one revealing these secrets. "Which is the real me!?" Even her parents leave lain, telling her that they were not her real parents. Lonely lain then encounters Masami Eiri, who calls himself "God" in the wired... layer 08: Rumors layer 09: Protocol layer 10: Love

Serial Experiments - Lain: Deus (Layers 8-10)
Average customer rating:

A WUSSY DEITY IN THE WIRED

Things Start to Get Very Strange

"...no one can catch me"

Lain of the Wired

... Lain continues

Serial Experiments - Lain: Deus (Layers 8-10)
Starring: Japanimation
Manufacturer: Geneon [Pioneer]
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Serial Experiments Lain | Characters & Series | Anime & Manga | Genres | DVD | Video
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Serial Experiments - Lain: Reset (Layers 11-13)

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Serial Experiments - Lain: Navi (Layers 1-4)

Kino's Journey - The Complete Collection

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ASIN: 6305583226
Release Date: 1999-10-12

Amazon.com

As Lain's story continues to unfold, she--and the viewer--become increasingly unsure of what is real and what exists in the cyberrealm of the Wired. The cyber-Lain grows bolder and more unpleasant, spying on her friends and spreading rumors, while her real-world counterpart seems to be fading out of existence. Does she need a body any longer? Does she still possess one? Her father departs, announcing that her family has never been anything but a group of actors. The Knights, who seemed omnipotent within the Wired, lose a critical power struggle: its members are executed by agents of Tachibana Laboratory. Lain greets these revelations and questions with her usual fixed stare and little indrawn breaths. Chiaki Konaka clutters his already-fragmented screenplay with references to alien contacts and some odd theology. Lain debates the nature of God and free will with the Masami Eiri, who researched the idea that human minds are linked like electronic circuits on a subliminal level--before he was found murdered. Director Ryutaro Nakamura doggedly re-uses the same close-ups of Lain's eyes, the shots of power wires, the simple computer graphics, etc. Viewers will love or hate Lain; no one will watch it with indifference. (Ages 16 and older due to violence, implied sexual situations, and an abstruse story line) --Charles Solomon

Description

I am God in the wired... I created you, lain. There are rumors that lain is stealing people's secrets and spreading them in the wired. Her friends, including Arisu, start to leave lain. Lain finds that her "other" self in the Wired is the one revealing these secrets. "Which is the real me!?" Even her parents leave lain, telling her that they were not her real parents. Lonely lain then encounters Masami Eiri, who calls himself "God" in the wired... layer 08: Rumors layer 09: Protocol layer 10: Love

Customer Reviews:

A WUSSY DEITY IN THE WIRED.......2005-09-18

After 10 episodes, Lain is still left wondering who she is. Is the cyberworld version of herself the real one or is it the human version in the real world? Who are the Borg Brothers that are always tailing her? Are the Knights trying to kill her or help her? Has she been living a lie for all these years at home? Who are her parents and sister really? And just wait till she meets "God", the intelligence that runs the Wired! He's just an effeminate man with blue scarves and long hair wrapped around a lab coat. Lain is truly pointless and awful, but luckily there is only one more DVD left in the series. How bad can it get? Another highlight of this volume comes again when she speaks to the "God" figure and he's in the form of a silver pulsating blob. How imaginative! Oh, did I forget that interspersed with one episode we bring in the Roswell UFO crash, crackpot earth resonance and humans as neuron theories on top of everything else, with hardly any connection to the show. I was expecting the writers to bring up the Lochness Monster and give Sasquatch a cameo too. What an awful snowballing sludge Lain has transformed into! The character is a callous and uncaring nitwit. For instance, her sister has become a mumbling vegetable, muttering incoherent words, and stumbling against walls and looking maniacal, and Lain's only response is something like "She sure is acting different!" Might as well swim in a stagnant pool of mosquito larvae and get more sense of plot advancement and inertia than in the 3 dvds of this series I have watched.

Things Start to Get Very Strange.......2005-09-16

Serial Experiment Lain: Vol. 3: Deus contains Layers (episodes) eight through ten. Deus is the next to last DVD in the Lain anime series.

When I was reading reviews of Lain, another Amazon reviewer commented that the series will "blow your mind." At the time, I had only watched the first two volumes of Lain. I was like, this is interesting, but I guess my mind must be too superior to be "blown." After watching Deus, I may have been wrong. I am glad I did not watch Deus at night. I am very thankful I am typing my review while the sun is shining.

Part Matrix, part X-Files, part Boogiepop Phantom, and all post-modernist, Deus suddenly brings up Roswell, the Grays, MJ-12, the Knights Templar, Memex, and Xanadu. Don't know what they are? Run these terms through a search engine and see what comes up. There is a terrifying scene in Deus where Lain is paid an odd visit. I won't spoil it, but don't watch this in the dark!!

In this volume, Lain's life is really turned upside down. She is questioning "Who is the real me?" There seem to be even MORE Lains than the Lain in the Wired, and the Lain in the real world. There is some kind of horrible leering Lain who scared the crap out of me.

I really like the character of Taro. He plays a large role in the episodes here. I hope he is in the last disc.

I do have a comment that the classmate's suicide that started this series has completely been swept under the rug. I hope the girl's death is addressed in the final volume. Even as fiction, teenage suicide should never be used as just a story-starter.

Extras are woefully meager, with a little concept art, a "comercial" for a Lain Playstation game that reveals very little, and of course the episode "previews" that are basically Japanese child porn, with closeups of a teen's body parts such as lips, stomach, and - oh, joy, crotch.

"...no one can catch me".......2003-05-02

By this point in the series, the viewer knows that this is not an adventure story about a waif-like girl who falls though a hole into the Internet. The crisis that builds over the three episodes is Lain's loss of her sense of reality. This starts as disruptions in her friendships, continues into her family and the fragmentation of her personality. Confronted, she goes on to challenge a God that cannot be. In counterpoint to the human story, we are presented a history of the Internet that makes X-files seem totally reasonable,

Beyond any doubt, Lain is about the destructive breakdown of barriers. Lain's family falls away from her, the suppressed part of her personality acquires a life of its own, her friends mistrust her... nothing is preserved. The deeper question is what are symptoms and what are causes, and, at the end of ten episodes, we are left with an uneasy feeling that the process is not over.

If I am surprised by the end of the series, it will not be for lack of thinking and guessing. And that is the true art of 'production 2nd' and director Ryutara Nakamura. Lain always invites the viewer to look a little deeper, connecting the visual and textual dots to create our own monsters in the same way that The Wired is an intensive abstract for real life. Trust nothing, we are told. The truth is nowhere.

Once again, credit has to be given to the artistic staff that takes the plot and gives it its stunning visual and aural presentation. Emulating what life is like in The Wired believable is no trivial task, and this is so well done that it sets a new standard. Reflecting it with a reality that is even stranger is far more difficult.

Lain of the Wired.......2003-02-03

This series is simply the best. I have all four DVDs and a special edition, but this one remains my favorite. Everything begins to make more sense. If you havent seen the series from the beginning, DONT buy this DVD and start with it. You'll be so confused you'll get a headache. You might want to find a resident computer nerd to have handy though for some questioning.

... Lain continues.......2002-05-24

If you've seen the previous DVDs in the Serial Experiments Lain series, you know that Lain is an intricate, complex, and breathtaking series. It doesn't go downhill, I can assure you. "Dues" is a mindblowing continuation of Lain, and by the end of the DVD, wou'll not only be more drawn in than ever, you'll be eager to see how Lain can possibly finish out in the upcommming final volume

Average customer rating:

Serial Experiments Lain: Deus
Starring: Lain
Manufacturer: Geneon [Pioneer]
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Anime & Manga | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Animation | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

lain - Reset (Vol. 4) (Geneon Signature Series)
Serial Experiments - Lain: Knights (Layers 5-7)
Serial Experiments - Lain: Reset (Layers 11-13)
Serial Experiments - Lain: Navi (Layers 1-4)

ASIN: B0001IXT7M
Release Date: 2004-04-13

Customer Reviews:

The acid trip that is Lain continues in this third volume, and I'm loving every second of it. The captivating imagery and usage of sound continue to haunt the mind with its masterfully created mood, but as these episodes get down to the nitty-gritty of the series, the plot's got some surprises up its sleeves too. Revelations considering all we've seen are made, highlighting strange details and bringing tons of twists and surprises with it. Those not having paid much attention during earlier episodes will come to regret it now, as these episodes get into what seems to be something that might be heading for Lain's grand finale. Yet, as always with this series, there's absolutely no telling what's going to happen, and all that is yet to be is yet to be seen in the next batch of episodes.

Continuing its haunting imagery and directing, Lain continues to be a stunning product of cinematography, but those who dislike the oft-confusing and occasionally messy storytelling might find something more of their liking in this volume as well, as more distinct sections of the plot start to become clear (And everything else starts to become even vaguer).

5 stars out of me.

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