#inaccessible

you might find in a standard Shonen anime Ala. Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, or Soul Eater. In these scenes, usually, each side spends inordinate amounts of time explaining things. These explanations can be either totally nonsensical in the context (a villain explaining every fighting move he uses to the protagonist, or vis versa), or reach eye-rolling lengths (rants that go tens of minutes in length with no real reason why fighting isn't happening. (I know it's called filler material, and I don't care))

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The primary flaw in a consistent need for the viewer to suspend their disbelief is that the long-term impact of the show is lessened in proportion. While suspending one's disbelief opens you up to the realm of the ridiculous and the fantastic, it also increases the emotional distance from the show and the real world. A viewer might get swept off their feet by a story about forest spirits and cosmic gods, but once we return to our daily lives, "real world" begins to over-write and obscure the emotions lingering from the experience. This is because the premises we are subjected to outside of the show have nothing in common with reality. In this regard, Serial Experiments Lain is incredible in a sense that not many show's I've seen have achieved.

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This quality, which is the utter lack of any cause for disbelief, is facilitated in two key ways, the first being the characterizations of the show. Just like the qualities of the expositions method (and by extension the existence of the entire plot), this is also an inaccessible part of the show. The characterizations of the show are, for lack of more interesting words, straight-forward, serious, and extremely mundane in a very "real life" way. This may seem like the shows biggest down fall, due to it lacking any sort of conventional values of humor, drama, goofy/silliness, or any sort of distinctly Japanese flavor of 'wacky'. However, these issues are only skin deep, as they, just like the plot, serve to ground the viewer in a sense of absolute realism when the later half of the show begins to take off. That is, in the moments of absolute madness, there is no point in which the idea that "this could happen to real people, or people I actually know" falters.

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The second key point is the plot. Speaking of which...

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Serial Experiments Lain is a paragon of many dimensions, and completely unparalleled in many more. It's a masterpiece of intellectuality, and utterly unparalleled in providing a mind-warping trip into extreme psychological and philosophical themes whose impact lingers and haunts like nothing I've ever experienced.

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This is going without saying that Serial Experiments Lain is one of the most inaccessible creations of art to grace the medium of Animation, and it is difficult to even describe its complexity. There is a broad range of ideas, all of which have massive depth in their facets, which could all be focused on as a main point. Generally, these themes involve technologies impact on society, thorough deconstruction of the internet, the psychology of an impersonal god, Etcetera. In addition, the massive breadth of theoretical possibilities to many of the open-ended points in Serial Experiments Lain's plot and themes is without limit.

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There is more things to breakdown and go into detail than could ever be summed in a simple article, especially considering the more subjective aspects. What I will going into is the realistic nature of the setting and plot of Lain, the mechanics of the show, and ultimately to the madness that lies within the later themes of Serial Experiments Lain.

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**Section 1: Exposition Methods & Related Devices**

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Concerning the plot of the first half of the show, the delivery is extremely cryptic and mysterious. There is little aspects of the plot structure in which one definitive point is summed up, rather it's ever-evolving, chapter-less, and amorphous. Points are conveyed not through clear, upfront events, but through innumerable small details continuously revealed throughout the course of each episode. Everything is a puzzle made up of tiny little fragments of information, the bonding of each piece comprising of the viewer's continuous contemplation and theorization of what is going on, and what is next. Eventually, through no clear, definitive point, but over a general expanse of time, the big picture clicks into place.

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The latter half of the show, starting somewhere in the 6th episode or so, is an even higher dimension of intellectual exposition. In the first half, the themes involved with each small detail conveyed would be mentioned some way or another. The philosophical notions and ideas, as well as most of the psychological aspects, are found entirely through the viewer's own questioning. This side of the plot, which holds some of most powerful ideas and content of its genre that I've ever witnessed, are never expressed in any moment through the face-value of events that occur, but entirely through the varying levels of connotations. There are no narratives, clear explanations, or dialogue, only the viewer's ability to string together the numerous implications of events into powerful, complex systems of ideas.

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The methods listed places Serial Experiments Lain on a level of intellectual sophistication..

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Cette personne que tu rencontre...Tu commence a lui parler, pour toi ce n'est qu'une fille banale. Tu commence a lui parler de plus en plus souvent, tu commence a t'attacher, tu ignore si c'est réciproque. Tu regarde ces photos, tu te dit qu'elle est tellement belle, tu pense qu'elle est inaccessible, tu sais même pas elle tiens a toi...Vous commencer a vous mettre des "♥", tes petits mots doux, des surnoms mignon...Tu te demande si elle en dit qu'a toi, si elle ne se fou pas de toi...Tu commence a être jaloux quand d'autres mecs commence a lui parler, mais tu dit rien. Tu la questionne, tu lui demande touts le temps si tout va bien. Tu l'appel, vous rigoler, vous parlez de tout & de rien. Dès que tu lui parle tu a le sourire, vous commencez a vous dire des petits "Je t'aime", des "Tu me manque", "Je pense a toi" et etc...Dès qu'un mec s'approche d'elle tu a juste envie de le tuer, de lui dire qu'elle t'appartiens, que si il a le malheur de te la piquer ; il le regrettera. Tu veut que cette fille soit totalement a toi, a jamais. Quand tu te couche le soir tu pense a elle, tu t'imagine avec elle en couple, en train de vous embrasser, vous faire des câlins...Quand tu la voit démaquiller, pas coiffer, tu la trouve quand même belle...Tu t'en fou de ce que pense les autres, tant que tu l'a elle, tes heureux. Si elle n'est pas heureuse, tu ne l'ai pas, si elle est triste, tu l'ai aussi. Tu aimerais la plaquer contre le mur et l'embrasser. Quand tu est avec elle, tu ne regarde même plus les filles dans la rue, même pas un regard, car tu la ELLE dans ta tête. Tu veut passer ton temps libre avec elle, une minute sans elle te parait une éternité. Quand elle est jalouse, tu trouve sa super mignon, tu t'amuse a bouder pour qu'elle viennent t'embrasser, tu la taquine, tu lui dit "Je t'aime" dans l'oreille, tout ce que tu veut c'est son bonheurs, tu a limite l'impression que sans son cœur le tiens ne pas plus non plus. Pour moi ? C'est sa l'amour. Désolé pour les fautes ou les choses que j'ai oublier.. :$ <3

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