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Wednesday, July 12, 2006

ABe Appreciation Week: Serial Experiments Lain




Okay, so today's tribute turns -- as was inevitable -- to Yoshitoshi ABe's Lain... For this series ABe did the character design among other things. Lain was the first of his works to attract my own attention and probably remains the anime series that still solicits the widest devotion among his fans. I think this is because the piece connects up with quite a lot of the moody coloration, thematic preoccupations, narrative complexity, and visual tropes you find in influential anime like Akira and Ghost in the Shell. For today's tribute, I'm offering up two selections: first, the somewhat melancholy opening sequence for the series above, as well as an AMV that foregrounds the work's cypherpunk appeal for many of its fans. Here you go:

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