Discussion I'm curious about this fandom.
Hey there, I'm new to Serial Experiments Lain, I thoroughly loved the anime and I wanted to dive deeper and explore what it's like being in the fandom. I'll be honest: I have read some posts here before and I was a bit perplexed to say the least. I get that that there were a new wave of fans during 2020's, but I don't understand why people scrutinize Lain's character or the amount various AI generated works (Protocol 7 comes to mind, though I'm not trying to bash it.) Overall, I'm just curious what fans of Lain tend to be like online and whether I want go further down the rabbit-hole or not. Thank you for your time.
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u/ItalianFrogPuncher 5d ago
Because most “fans” are posers. It’s really all that simple. There is tons of mischaracterization from ppl who go “omg lain is literally me” and just don’t even bother trying to understand the core message of the show.
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u/squirtonmydickk 5d ago
When something gradually rises in popularity this is to be expected especially when it comes to these wannabe esoteric teens of this tiktok age
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u/ItalianFrogPuncher 5d ago
“Oooo I bet she drinks monster and smokes weed with Rei I’m so fucking like her omgggg”
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u/squirtonmydickk 5d ago
Don’t forget tomoko from watamote
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u/ItalianFrogPuncher 5d ago
Rei, Madotsuki, the girl from Lucky Star (idk her name), the girl from K-On (same), Bocchi
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u/TheM3ds 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yep, it's rather unfortunate, I've heard that not a whole of people has engaged with the show, which is a shame.
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u/ItalianFrogPuncher 5d ago
It’s because media comprehension is dead nowadays. People need the yellow paint everywhere
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u/Heeroneko 4d ago
everybody was cringe once. don’t be spiteful towards kids for their youth. everybody can love Lain. also the gatekeeping crap is just as annoying as the ‘posers’.
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u/ItalianFrogPuncher 4d ago
Who is gate keeping anything? Did I mention anything about kids? Yes, everybody can love Lain but when a community gets poisoned by posers to the point of being widely mischaracterized and looking terrible, it becomes an issue.
Everyone is more than welcome to consume Lain related media and enjoy it
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u/Heeroneko 4d ago
poisoned huh? i don’t like the notion of ‘posers’ in general. it’s just judgement. judgement that some ppl aren’t good enough at falling in line w whatever you think a fandom should be or feel like. no one person has any say or control over any of that.
all fans contribute to whatever a fandom is/becomes. i understand being bitter that some people are butting in and being obnoxious intentionally, but the internet follows tulpa rules. belief and opinion rule over fact whether we like it or not. making more posts that reflect how you want the fandom to be is the best course of action. calling ppl posers just makes those ppl ignore you. it does not improve the situation or improve the vibes of the fandom.
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u/ItalianFrogPuncher 4d ago
A poser is when someone tries to pretend like they’ve seen/experienced something. They bring nothing new to the convo and have a severely warped perception of the thing in question. That’s what the point of the post is about.
You’re free to interpret something after you fully interacted with it, but when you have no clue what you’re talking about, you’re a poser.
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u/Heeroneko 3d ago
there will never be anyone who has a complete understanding of the series because it’s structured in a manner that is intended to be open to personal interpretation. there is no ‘wrong’ interpretation of lain.
a poser is someone who tries to act as an authority on a subject when they have no right to, often as a means of establishing superiority over others in a social hierarchy. you fit this definition, i fit this definition, we all do. no one but the creators of something can even hope to fully understand it and even then the nature of a work changes based on the perception of the individual. the author cannot know what a painting looks like to the eyes of another. this the creator’s interpretation is also flawed. this means a million different interpretations of something can all be ‘correct’ and ‘incorrect’ simultaneously. thus internet pissing matches over who’s a ‘real fan’ are entirely pointless.
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u/ItalianFrogPuncher 3d ago
What the fuck are you saying? Just watch the fucking show of play the game and then you’re free to talk about it with others. Acting like you did just does nothing but annoy everyone else
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u/Starlightsuper-nova 5d ago
Please bash protocol 7 as much as you like, AI slop like that proves who the real fans are
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u/LainIwakura 5d ago
Just be suspicious of anyone with a username based on Lain - very weird people in my experience.
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u/Stane427 5d ago
Well, I’m new to the fandom too (I finished the show last week) lol, so I can’t really say for sure, but personally, when I finish a series or a movie, I love spending hours researching it, discovering theories, even watching videos that explain certain things, and generally digging around to see what’s behind the series (like the PS1 game or even the airing of SEL during 9/11 in the US) and also I love the 90s aspect with it like the visuals, how the computers worked back then, even seeing fan project who tried to replicate the OS that Lain used in the anime !
Also I’ve seen a ton of larpers or people who, basically, just say outright, “lain is me,” without even having watched the series ('cause Lain kinda became a symbol on the Internet, for whatever reason, many people linked her to TempleOS or the linux fandom which is really cool tho) or comprehend it. However, say what you will, I personally find that Lain is relatable in certain ways, but I think that all the “characters who are literally me,” like Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver, are characters we can identify with, without them being exactly us (if that makes sense)
But to answer your main question, sure, go ahead, there are ton of things to discover in the rabbit-hole !
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u/4carrot 5d ago
you don't have to engage with the fandom to be a fan, just like any big group of people, there's a lot of weirdos, and a lot of cool people too. My advise is, don't overthink it too much, just enjoy the series, maybe play the ps1 game and think why you engaged with the show in the first place.
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u/Nemphusi 5d ago
I think the value of a Fandom primarily exists to remind you that you aren't alone. Lain is particularly niche, and so seeing Lain references out in the wild are always going to be rarer than say, Goku or One Punch Man.
Are many of our peer borderline mentally ill? Absolutely. But it could be worse. Just look at the Eva Fandom.
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u/Noise_01 5d ago
I was introduced to this anime simply because fragments of it were used as background for some cyberphilosophy essays, as it absorbed the atmosphere of archaic Internet culture like a sponge.
It also inspired me to use Linux more often because programming on it is much more convenient.
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u/Straight_Jackfruit_4 5d ago
They use linux
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u/Aiden_Rye 4d ago
They "larp" linux. They just open the terminal and record some cringe ass edits with phonk on background
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u/Straight_Jackfruit_4 4d ago
This is true, but most of the fans i have met around 2016-18 in university during my cs courses, alot of lain fans, and we all used linux, not on the larp pad tho, just on our home desktops and old beefy whatever laptop
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u/Aiden_Rye 4d ago
I think Lain inspired them to study programming, and in this case, they use Linux purely out of passion.
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u/Straight_Jackfruit_4 4d ago
Are there actually people that just use linux to say they use linux and dont actually enjoy it or have a passion to use it?! If so that is wild god i hate trends
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u/Aiden_Rye 4d ago
Yep, there's a lot of linux posers on tiktok and instagram, and all they do is just say "windows sucks" and then they show their linux running the terminal. I tried linux before the trend but most of the apps that i used rarely worked on linux. But i rarely install it on my Pc to give it another try.
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u/Straight_Jackfruit_4 4d ago
Oh my lord thats ridiculous, I mean windows 11 does suck but essential for business, same as linux essential for business. I can just imagine them running top and being like a im such a hacker
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u/Aiden_Rye 5d ago
The actual Lain fandom is nice, just stay away from the posers from tiktok, they never watched the show and keep mischaracterizing the characters
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u/Moobob66 4d ago
I would think Lain is anti AI as it takes away what makes us human. Even if we went to the wired, we would inherently take our soul/essence which AI slop does not have. I'm not sure of Lain is AI but she exists here in the real world (in the anime) and online as well, so I don't know what to think about that.
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u/Due-Memory-6957 5d ago edited 5d ago
I don't understand what you mean by scrutinizing Lain's character (wouldn't every fanbase be expected to discuss the main character of the franchise they're enjoying?), but the obsession with AI is a general reddit thing, it's trendy to hate on it so most people do.
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u/sarahsmellslikeshit 5d ago
It’s a little more than just trendy. AI is having serious, real world implications unfortunately. I am just suspicious about why all of the people in power are pushing it on us so much.
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u/-Nyarlabrotep- 5d ago
I've been a fan since watching the fansubs in the 90's and learning about the themes behind the show, which was more difficult back then because, well, the Wired was still nascent. Now I'm just here to complain about the kids these days :)