SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN VOL. 01 - NAVI (M)
SYNOPSIS: May contain spoilers...
Synopsis from Madman.com.au: There is the world around us, a world of people, tactile sensation, and culture. There is the wired world, inside the computer, of images, personalities, virtual experiences, and a culture all of its own. The day after a classmate commits suicide, lain, a thirteen year-old girl, discovers how closely the two worlds are linked when she receives an e-mail from the dead girl: "I just abandoned my body. I still live here..." Has the line between the real world and the wired world begun to blur? Contains four episodes: layer 01: WEIRD, layer 02: GIRLS, layer 03: PSYCHE, layer 04: RELIGION Rated M.  Video $27.95 - English language DVD $34.95 - Multilingual (English/Japanese, Dolby), trailers, conceptual art, hidden extras Running Time: 100 minutes. Available in Australia from Madman.
HEROIC-CINEMA'S REVIEW: "We're all connected" - so goes the saying in LAIN. This oft repeated message is the mantra that the masses live by in Lain's world and when you think about it, ours too - we have to be technically savvy, zooming on the information superhighway and most importantly we have to be connected.
Lain, the protagonist of the series is thirteen, a junior high-schooler and considered slightly strange among her compatriots - she's computer illiterate. Compounded by her shy personality she's often mocked for her naiveity. However all this change when Lain starts getting emails from a dead schoolmate. Yes, Serial Experiment LAIN starts being very interesting around this point. The plot is ten times more convoluted than The Matrix, and Lynchian-like uneasiness abounds. It does move a lot slower than other anime series, the action is deliberate and often surreal. Visually, it has a very strong style of its own and likes to do things a little differently. This all comes across in the overall feel of the show - incredibly atmospheric, very pensive and beautiful. After four episodes into the series and I still don't understand what's going on but despite that fact I still like it.
I like it because it is a little off centre and kooky, and it raises many questions and doesn't answer them. Everything is unexpected and a haunting sensation stays with you long after you press the stop button. If you're after action then perhaps this isn't the right series for you but if you give LAIN a chance and it'll grow on you. Rating: 9 electrical buzzes out of 10 Reviewed by Ching Yee

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