VIDEO
Take giant machines running amok in a postapocalyptic city, throw in severed limbs and wide-eyed innocents, and you've covered a broad cross-section of contemporary anime. But notSerial Experiments Lain. This 13-part series could double as the work of David Lynch, if his next Disney movie were animated.
The series opens with a young girl's suicide, and an email. When classmate Lain Iwakura receives the note, she enters a chain of events where the natural and virtual world become entangled. Fractured news reports tell of a brain-accelerating designer drug and an online gamer group that takes their shoot-'em-ups way too seriously.
The movie's visual style shifts from bright, impressionistic blasts of the hip Tokyo district Shibuya to detailed renderings of computer hardware. The subtle hum of a power transformer threads through the narrative and suggests the dark side of connectivity. It's no accident that these episodes are called layers.
Serial Experiments Lain: $29.98 per videotape or DVD. Pioneer Entertainment:www.pioneeranimation.com.
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