As an experimental animation that appeared almost at the same time as EVA, LAIN was not as popular as EVA back then. It was a typical OTAKU animation, which means that the analysis was deeper than the plot. After flipping through the previous strong articles, it is obvious that the class is making an axe, but if I don't say anything, I seem to feel very sorry for this classic, so I will try it.
In the discussion of people and networking, the most famous one is GIS, but the setting and analysis of LAIN should be deeper and more thorough. The name LAIN brings to mind the word "lie". It seems to imply that the whole existence of LAIN is a lie. Going a step further, when the global brain is established, all people are just neuron terminals, and everything can be easily reset, the world and society are nothing but absurd lies.
The idea of RESET is very appealing. Probably everyone has thought about what if they could do it all over again. In LAIN's story, the concept is rationalized for the first time with a rigorous hard sci-fi setting. To put it simply, it is the integration of people and networks that makes the restart of the world possible. At present, what we call a network is based on the principle of hardware and protocols, which is different from the virtual world of the real world. The fusion of the two worlds has been discussed in many science fiction works, but most of its setting ideas are that individuals enter the network, including GIS, and do not exceed this limit. The radicalness of LAIN lies in doing the opposite, assimilating the real world into the network. The so-called "there is no difference between the two worlds" is not an abstract understanding, but a literal meaning. With the development of communication technology, almost every corner of the earth's surface is covered by telecommunications, satellite signals, and electromagnetic waves. The principle of Schumann resonance can be understood as the existence of something similar to brain waves on the earth itself. Today, man-made network signals interfere with Earth's brainwaves, potentially causing various abnormalities. However, if we boldly expand the application and connect the foundation of network construction directly to the earth's brain waves, it is possible to build a global network that does not require hardware connections. In other words, people themselves can be hardware terminals for acceptance and communication. In the story, medicines and chips that can directly use the human body as a network enhancement device appear many times, including the last LAIN directly connecting wires to itself to achieve networking, which is a very vivid performance.
But the discussion of LAIN does not stop there. In the realization of the global network, it is more accurate to say that people are software and programs rather than hardware. The human consciousness is connected as one, and what Jung called the collective subconscious can rise to the level of consciousness. LAIN has always emphasized, We're all connected. As Yingli Zhengmei pointed out, if the knowledge and information accumulated by human beings for generations cannot be shared and used, it is just a pile of data and has no meaning. The realization of global networks makes it possible for them to become knowledge shared by all mankind. However, the question is, what is all humanity here? In a world of integrated consciousness, the subjectivity of individual human beings is completely wiped out, and individual human beings are just neuron endings, just programs, and the body is not even needed. It might be said that this is the end of evolution.
LAIN is not a real person, just an experimental program designed by Yingli Zhengmei. Under the circumstance that human brain waves can intervene, it can easily make people consciously recognize a virtual individual as a real body, which is the existence of LAIN - a lie. Fake parents, fake family, fake past, LAIN keeps saying, here I am, I exist, but no one can hear me. This phenomenon of individuals depends on the memory of others to exist. What does not exist in memory does not exist in reality, and vice versa. As the OP picture shows, LAIN is everywhere, but not everywhere; everyone sees LAIN, but no one sees her; LAIN is talking to everyone, but no one hears her; LAIN can only be a Bystander, LAIN can restart the world, but it cannot participate and change it. In the new world she restarted, there is no place for her own self-sufficiency. LAIN has become an existence equivalent to God, but has lost its individuality.
Yingli Zhengmei also claims to be a god, but it can only be a false god. In an integrated network at the subconscious level, RESET is possible, and arbitrary programming seems to be possible. However, the awareness of retaining higher editing authority for himself made him unable to surpass LAIN. LAIN's attack was straight to the point. If technology hadn't developed to this level, his manipulation of the world would have been impossible, but the world existed before that, so how could he explain that he was absolute in the true sense? He himself is nothing but the program of the world. More ironically, the LAIN program he created has surpassed him and approached its origin.
Another question, even if the world can be restarted like a program, is the past world really wiped out completely, written off? The veiled answer in LAIN is, no. In the regenerated world without LAIN, the blank space she left still affects the people around her more or less: at the dining table of a family of three, her father looked at the vacant corner of the table thoughtfully; When I get out my phone, I can't remember who to send it to... Even if the memory of consciousness disappears, the memory of the body has not been erased, or in other words, existence itself reminds existence. The fact that LAIN existed, perhaps recorded in another deeper and more eternal place, perhaps the Akashic Records of the universe that contains all the past. It is also reminiscent of the setting of "Chilling". Even if everyone does not realize that the world around them has been destroyed and rebuilt countless times, the pain and lessons of the past destruction also remain in people's subconscious, prompting them to choose a better way.
Japanese anime always has a warm and upward factor, even a dark film like LAIN is no exception. For example, the friendship between LAIN and ALICE is regarded as a bug by Yingli Zhengmei, but it is the most important bond for LAIN to maintain the world. LAIN believes that even if you are not connected to ALICE, you can still connect with each other. But ALICE has a nervous breakdown while witnessing the battle between LAIN and Yingli. LAIN pressed the RESET button in order to give Alice a world where she could live with peace of mind.
As a discussion of technological fantasy, LAIN's first work is quite perfect, but on another level, it stops too early. After breaking the false myth of the creation of gods by Yingli Zhengmei, LAIN could not find her own existence in the new world. She gained ultimate freedom and LAIN, who was above all existence, but she could only cry alone, and no one could comfort her. , can only fall into an unanswerable panic in the dialogue with the other self. LAIN likes this world, LAIN wants to be needed, LAIN wants to hear Alice's heartbeat, all of which are incompatible with her ultimate freedom. The film hastily gives a religious answer. A higher existence redeemed little LAIN, so that she was finally no longer alone. This answer obviously doesn't satisfy me.
Many years later, in the world that started anew, ALICE, who was walking side by side with her boyfriend on the street, met LAIN who was still a girl, and suddenly felt a sense of deja vu.
"Hello, do we know each other?"
"No, we met for the first time..."
LAIN replied. We have never met in this world. But she still remembers her.
Smile, break up, see you again one day. Or, never see again. But it doesn't matter because human beings are connected. LAIN, who knew the secret, smiled quietly.
Previously, LAIN was classified as an animation at the deep house level. In fact, whether it is LAIN or GIS, it is not difficult to understand the story, even if it is not OTAKU. The reason why it is particularly popular is probably because of the interpretation that can be continuously digged outside the plot, and there is room for OTAKU symptoms to play. Now that the world is connected, these rambling explanations may correct some people's prejudice against animation. But at the same time, it also made me reflect on the level at which ANIME was accepted, and what it brought us. From today's point of view, I have to admit that the main body of ANIME is indeed for the juvenile group. Even a film with such an obscure setting in LAIN is no exception. It is true that from a technical point of view, it is not inferior to any adult-level sci-fi works, but the core emotion is still a kind of juvenile pure and simple. All ANIME is like this. It can be used to express strong feelings, but it can never bear the complicated emotions. It can stimulate deeper thinking, and it can give people a sense of satisfaction like a mental game, but it cannot be used in perceptual experience. Reach the same depth and cannot mature. Hiding behind ANIME is an eternal boy. This also puts people in a very embarrassing situation. It seems that they have passed adulthood, but they still maintain a sub-adult state. In contrast, children who grow up in literature are like being exposed to the adult world too early. They have never experienced a full teenage period, and are prone to fall into a stage of pseudo-adults, but in fact they are not as mature as they should be. There is no bridge between the two. From the perspective of the ANIME industry alone, animation producers often cater to the original tastes of the audience for commercialization purposes, making OTAKU more and more stuck in the old state. Originally, animation, as an art carrier, did not only serve the juvenile group, but also had adult-oriented works. But nowadays the word adult has too strong one-way ambiguity, and it does not carry the weight it should carry. Animation works that have an adult IQ but lack an adult mentality are very similar to the general mentality of the current society. Then, commercialization has fueled the flames, making people worry about the prospects of animation and the macro level. Hopefully it's unfounded.
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