 On Saturday,
a fan at the Serial Experiments Lain panel asked two key figures in the
series if the image of a wire-wrapped Lain was meant to represent a womb
of technology. The answer, much to the audience's delight, was "yes." Yasuyuki
Ueda (left), Lain's creator, and Yoshitoshi Abe, the character designer
for the series, had some observations about the mystifying, stream of consciousness
story that uses a schoolgirl as a symbol for the computerized human of
the new century. |
 Fans were
fascinated by the odd background sounds which are always swerving in and
out of phase. Ueda said they sound engineers for the series created a background
"sound palette" which they used in all episodes. He also said that Lain's
director chose the red and black color scheme because he wanted to show
that "...the wired world is in the shadows." |
 When a fan
mentioned the scene where Lain, in her classroom, sees smoke rising from
her fingertips, Ueda first joked that "That's a given in Japanese high
school," then added it's a way of showing Lain's separation from conventional
reality. "Everyone has their own reality. Just because I want you to feel
a certain way doesn't mean you'll agree," said Ueda. (Dave Fleming, who
translated Lain into English, added that the smoke also is a common hallucination
for psychotic patients.) |
 Ueda made
some fascinating observations on the series, all the more profound because
Otakon is held (by coincidence) on the anniversary of the second atomic
bombing of Japan. "I find american culture very interesting, but there
are some things I don't understand. There's a feeling that there are some
taboo subjects. For many countries, World War II left a lot of scars. As
for Japan, this generation has forgotten about the war - they really don't
look back. My grandparents died in the atomic bombing, but I don't feel
any hatred or regret. Basically, I want to keep going forward." |
