8.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Acclaimed artist Yoshitoshi ABe (Haibane Renmei, Texhnolyze) brings to life the existential classic that paved the way for blockbuster films such as The Matrix. Follow along as fourteen year old Lain—driven by the abrupt suicide of a classmate—logs on to the Wired and promptly looses herself in a twisted mass of hallucinations, memories, and interconnected-psyches.
Starring: Kaori Shimizu, Show Hayami, Rei Igarashi, Ayako Kawasumi, Jôji NakataForeign | 100% |
Anime | 90% |
Sci-Fi | 13% |
Drama | 9% |
Surreal | 9% |
Psychological thriller | 7% |
Mystery | 2% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.41:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 2.0
Japanese: Dolby TrueHD 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Four-disc set (2 BDs, 2 DVDs)
DVD copy
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Even those not especially well tuned in to anagrams have probably noticed that “weird” and “wired” share the same letters, only slightly rearranged. That little bit of orthographical synchronicity rather nicely sums up Serial Experiments Lain, certainly one of the weirdest anime of all time, and one which exploits a virtual world known as the Wired, which for all intents and purposes boils down to our very own internet. The press sheet accompanying this handsomely packaged new set from Funimation Entertainment claims that Serial Experiments Lain “inspired” The Matrix, but lovers of cult television flops may wonder if perhaps Serial Experiments Lain was itself “inspired” by the little remembered 1995 series VR5, which saw star Lori Singer as a telephone engineer lapsing in and out of various realities, with the viewer never quite sure what was actually happening and what was simply part of some mysterious virtual world. Much the same thing happens to the heroine of Serial Experiments Lain, a young schoolgirl named Lain Iwakura who, as the series opens, finds herself a bit taken aback to receive an email from a classmate who has supposedly committed suicide the week before. (There’s an awful lot of “inspiration” going around, for lovers of cult film flops may recall something very similar happening in the 2006 thriller Pulse.) Serial Experiments Lain is one of the most intentionally intellectually dense pieces of anime ever produced, one which doesn’t shirk from exploring, at least tangentially in some cases, some very thorny philosophical and even epistemological questions. As such, this is not typical “popcorn fare”, and in fact requires a certain level of concentration to begin to ferret out what exactly is being hinted at, sometimes quite obliquely.
There has been a lot of online chatter (appropriate, given Serial Experiments Lain's setting) about
Serial
Experiments Lain's AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.41:1 courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment. Most of the
alarmist
postings have dealt with the quite noticeable banding that is especially prevalent in the series' opening few episodes,
but I
wonder how many of the folks virtually screaming and yelling about the issue bothered to look in the accompanying
"commentary" booklet, where it's quite unabashedly mentioned in a conversation between Ueda and Saito, specifically
with
regard to the first episode, which has been one of the prime examples that disappointed fans have been disparaging
rather
vociferously since receiving their sets. The bottom line is this: the banding has always been an issue with
Serial
Experiments Lain. Should it have been dealt with more aggressively here? Probably. The one thing that very few
people are seeming to realize is one of the reasons the banding is so much more evident in this new transfer is that this
is quite
noticeably brighter than either the Japanese set or the previous DVDs. This also affects black levels, which are
pretty inconsistent throughout this presentation. Quite often blacks look almost like they have a milky or even purplish
overlay on top of them, and yet at other times (like Lain's hair in the closing credits sequence) they're exceptionally solid
and deep. My personal opinion of this set, taken as a whole, is that it is certainly a quantum leap forward from the DVD
set
(which frankly isn't saying much), and is often comparable to the Japanese Blu-ray set in terms of sharpness and clarity,
which, banding aside, is commendable. Colors are nicely saturated and line detail, which has been a problem in previous
releases, looks very stable. The brightness issue is really my biggest concern, and I have no facile explanation as to how
or
why it's happened, especially since it seems to be a passing situation in any given episode.
Note: It should be mentioned that some of the online chatter is devoted to the fact that the first BD, which
contains episodes 1 thru 9, is a BD-50, while the second BD, containing episodes 10 thru 13, is a BD-25 (our specs can't
accommodate this anomaly, hence the listing above showing only BD-50). Some feel that the episodes have been
"crammed" onto the discs, but that's simply not the case. The first disc runs about 3 and a half hours, far less than a BD-
50 can accommodate at a more than amply decent bitrate, and the second disc is barely an hour and a half, again
well within the capabilities of a BD-25. Whatever issues this set has is not due to the amount of content on the
discs, at least in my considered opinion. Would things have improved had we been given, say, six episodes on one disc
and seven on another, both on BD-50s? Maybe, but I think you'd be hard pressed to make a really serious case
that quality would have been improved dramatically by such an approach.
Serial Experiments Lain features two Dolby TrueHD 2.0 audio options, one with the original Japanese track and one with an English dub. The Japanese track sounds strangely tinny to my ears, overly boxy and not as full bodied as one might hope for. The English dub, by comparison, boasts much stronger amplitude and overall full bodied sound. Voice work on both languages is excellent, and the really fantastic opening and closing themes sound great on both mixes. The English language track offers sterling fidelity and good dynamic range.
This is something of a deluxe set from FUNimation, coming in a slipcase and containing both a smaller booklet with episode commentaries between Saito and Ueda, as well as emails from Saito, and a much larger book full of key art. The on disc supplements include:
Serial Experiments Lain is one of the higher profile domestic anime releases of the year. This is a much beloved series and has only been available on Blu-ray via a very spendy Japanese import up to now. That fact may at least partially help to explain the rather astoundingly hyperbolic reaction some viewers have had regarding the banding issue, but my personal opinion is that this is at least a bit of an overreaction. The banding is evident on the Japanese release as well— not as much, due to the brightness issue, but it's there, so I'm kind of surprised at all the fuss. And from my studied review of the entire series, it's really an issue in the opening few episodes for some reason, therefore largely absent from many if not most of the subsequent episodes. I personally am more bothered by the brightness issue, which seriously affects some of the black levels, although not consistently. All of this said, the general image quality is excellent, with great clarity, good and stable line detail and very nicely saturated colors. The on-disc supplements are a little on the slight side, but this handsomely packaged set comes with two great pieces of printed matter. Taken as a whole, and with certain caveats noted, Serial Experiments Lain comes Recommended.
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2012