HK's Anime Club: Serial Experiments Lain (Layer One) (Patreon)

On this week's bonus episode, Hussein once again forces Phoebe to watch Cartoons, despite her insistence that she is above them. We watch the first episode of Serial Experiments Lain, the 1998 cult anime series "Serial Experiments Lain", written and produced by Chiaki Konaka (who, it turns out, also wrote the first series of Digimon). We talk about the ideas of the series as it emerges in the first era of the internet - namely, how 'online' and the 'real' are not distinct, separated categories, and the themes about embodiment, virtual spirits and immortality that run throughout the series. Plus, we try to figure out why Lain's dad has so many dang screens (says a lot about society!)