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Lain Discussion Panel At Otakon
Lawrence Eng writes: "At Otakon 2000 earlier this month, the producer and character designer of Serial Experiments Lain, Yasuyuki Ueda and Yoshitoshi ABe, answered questions at a Lain discussion panel. The full transcript of that discussion, the IRC transcript of the talk with Ueda and ABe that took place the day after the convention, and other related interviews can be found here. I thought people might appreciate a chance to look into the minds of the Lain creators."
Uhh this is no more off-topic than Cowpland leaving Corel. If you like to read about Corel more than you like to read about Anime, filter out the "anime" category but leave the "Corel" category.
The two have a lot in common superficially, but if you actually watch all 13 episodes of Lain, you'll see that the two are like night and day.
The US release of Lain happened after everyone saw the Matrix, so a lot of misinformed people on this side of the ocean think that Lain ripped off the Matrix, when in fact it did not.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
As explained on Lawrence Eng's fan page, that voice is in fact called Whisper, and it comes standard on every Mac.
And while I'm posting anyways, I have a question about Otakon -- why is it so dang expensive? I would have loved to drop by for a couple hours and browse for some DVDs, but the door price was over $20.
Yeah, yeah, I'm know I'm not a real otaku. But why doesn't a big con like that set aside a section as an admission-free space for vendors to sell goodies to the public at large? The Baltimore Convention Center has 7 Halls, 4 Ballrooms, and 50 meeting rooms, and I'm pretty sure Otakon rented the whole thing that weekend.
I'm just testing something with Slashdot, ignore this message.
People, if you don't like anime, CHECK THE EXCLUDE BOX FOR ANIME ON YOUR PREFERENCES. Then you won't even have the opportunity to start screaming about anime being a "genre" (it's a MEDIUM) in which people get raped by tentacles (and it isn't -- all you've being watching is hentai if you think this is so).
I don't apologize for this sounding like a rant, because it is. I'm rather annoyed, and I think that all of the other otaku out there who read Slashdot are also, because they too have to go wading through a bunch of crappy posts by uninformed people just to read anything of value.
Please, for the love of God, if you don't like anime, check "the box."
Now watch me get moderated down for this post by some moderator just because they don't like anime. >_
As one friend to another, I must clue you people in.
:-)
*lain* is not the same as *laid*. If you think that getting lain is the same as getting laid, please check again.
We geeks won't become the sex symbols of the 21st century if we can't even get the slang right.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
I think that after a certain point, you can't get moderated up. I've had a few highly rated posts recently and my karma is stuck at exactly the same point - 6.02E23.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
You seem more like a troll than man.
And all those posts you hold so dear
Should be crammed in your ear.
And you know I mean to beat on you,
But you don't really mean very much.......
Heheh now all you Lain fans will have the intro tune stuck in your head for hours! muaahahahah... Anime is great and just because the simplton trolls cannot think about what they watch it doesn't mean it sucks. Come on you trolls would rather criticize a movie's credits' font than actually enjoy the movie itself!
"Survival of the fittest Max, and we've got the fucking gun!" - Pi
I know that this will most likely not change your mind about the subject of anime, but from some of the comments that you have made it is clear that you have had exposure to the darker side of anime (the half that more in common with porn). If Urotsokudoji is all that you have seen from the genre (I don't believe that it is just any other genre... more like a set of sub-genres) you would see that anime is much more than character drawings of guys with "six dicks".
/. contributors and editors tend to concentrate on anime titles that have most in common with scifi and fantasy, but there are plenty of other titles out there that don't fit into either of those genres (take for instace many of the anime movies directed by Miyazaki).
Take for instance Lain. Lain's subject matter has more in common with scifi movies like The Matrix than with porn. Lain has little if any sexual content. In fact I think Trinity and Neo are more overtly sexual in several scenes than in any scene from the entire 13 episodes of Lain.
I think what is so special about anime is that it tends to be very diverse. You name a genre and I bet that you could find an anime title that would fit right in. Yes the
one last parting shot... when was the last time you saw an american movie that did a cyberpunk theme that did not turn into a "shoot'em up"?
See, Latin is on the rise again - everyone is speaking it now - even in Latin discussion panels. Now I guess I should brush up on my ero eris erit erimus eritus erunt. Sheesh, and I just had a good use for the pluperfect tense.
Oh, wait, you mean to tell me this has nothing to do with the Roman Language??? Stercus!
Extra Linux Non Es Vita!
Wheeeee
Lain is one of my favorite anime series, and with regards to whether or not it should be posted on /., there's nothing wrong with it being posted. I, for one, enjoy it when there is an anime post on /. I consider myself a geek, and I think that many geeks do enjoy their anime. I am careful to say that not all geeks enjoy anime - as they all don't - which is shown by many of the "Stop posting this sh*t on /." posts. However, I think there are as many people who enjoy anime posts as there are people who enjoy Space posts, and who enjoy posts about games for Linux. /. posts many things for many different people and their interests.
Anyway, back to my subject - Lain. Cafe-Lain is a nice site for people who enjoy Lain as well as other anime. I highly recommend it.
mmm...physics...
I like the whispering speech synthetizer voice that announces the episode's name: "Layer Zero One
(...)and liked the intro/ending song.
Great song! The group is called BOA, the song, Duvet. Look for the extended accoustic version on Nap__er, it's got great guitar works!
---
In the meantime, there's always Nanako (boing boing)!
okay...
Here is a link to an interesting Lain site, Thought Experiments Lain. It has spoilers galore, and a good explanation of the computer, literary and historical references in the anime. Don't visit the site unless youve seen Lain in its entierty and are trying to make some sense of it.
Here's a link to my little' 'ol Lain Gallery. With plenty of pretty pictures for you to look at.
I was also at otakon, but I went to the bandai panel instead of Lain. Got an interview with the guys for atanime.com too. (eep, shameless self promotion!) BTW, did anyone else who was there think that BOA's Performace at otakon was sub-par?
Anipike has plenty of links for other stuff.
Personally, I loved this anime and found it intriguing. Yes, I do think it is VERY pretencious, but that just part of the experience. When doing an anime like this, its impossible to avoid it. Eva was amazingly pretencious too. Lain is currently my favorite set of anime dvds, and if you havnt seen it yet, I honestly reccomend checking it out.
Okay, Im done..
no
AnimeOnDVD.Com is basically the source for anime on DVD news. This past Monday, the site's main artist - Bethany Neal (who drew the marvelous Divi-Chan) and her husband, Justin, passed away in a car accident.
I don't know the details since that's what was posted on AnimeOnDVD. There is an address to send condolences to the family:
Bethany and Justin Neal
130 SW 112th Street
Seattle, Washington 98146
More information is here.
[rant] It was probably some moron who felt he could drive while having a beer. Fucking morons. [/rant]
You should never take life too seriously - You'll never get out of it alive.
as a frequent slashdot reader, i'll add my voice to the fire: i don't think of /. as just a "computers-n-such" site, and i found the lain discussion to be very interesting.
this site may be viewed by some as computer-specific, but the fact is that it also tends to pick up some of the more interesting -- and oftentimes elsewhere-neglected -- stories from across the spectrum that tend to be of interest to those of us involved in the "tech" side of life. lain may not have the social importance of linux or MPAA v. 2600; but if, to some degree, "lain" and slashdot share an audience, then that community is all the 'relevance' that the story needs to belong on this site.
cmdrtaco: thanks for the post. i wouldn't have read the transcript otherwise, and i'm glad that i did.
crib
Please don't read my journal
Seeing as how Lain was out in Japan before Matrix entered production, I'd have to say that the idea-thieving was the other way around. The directors of Matrix said they took ideas from Anime -- guess which one was high on the list?
/.
And the "What is the Wired" slogan you refer to never to my knowledge appeared anywhere with relation to Lain (okay, maybe it was said once in the series). The slogan is "Exit the world enter the nExt", a clear neXt reference, which Lain is full of. If you can't remember what the slogan is, no wonder you can't remember anything happening.
Or, in a word: THWACK.
P.S. This is still a dumb thing to post on
The enemies of Democracy are
got a garage full of the stuff I could sell you cheap, except of course for the UK -> US container rental/tansport prices, and of course the fact I enjoy the stuff way more than any pleasure a T1 could give me, then again my favourite game as a kid was jumping out of the top of large pine trees and sliding down. I've heard you can do wonderfull stuff with bamboo though. And anyway isn't it worth it to trancend this short brutal /. existence?
~ppppppppö
It also seems that you are a weak individual who gives in to peer pressure easily and has to do everything your friends tell you to do just to be "cool" or "mature". Personally, I think watching anime has nothing to do with the intellectual capacity of anyone. I am a very art oriented person, but I definitely see more depth and intelligence in some anime (not all anime mind you) than in a lot of 'artsy' films. Of course, I realize that both have their own styles and ways of portraying different ideas, and so I can appreciate both.
I hope that you can one day do the same, instead of basing your opinions on the beliefs of other people...
what i do not understand is where there is this great rift of understanding about anime. it is generally recieved as marvelous, and is generally classified as a genre because of a few key factors:
anime has much more imagination and thoughfulness than anything distinctly american in terms of animation
anime is not afraid to take cultural and subject-matter related risks
anime is very high quality, with accomplished artists putting more hours and frames into just average anime filmes than most american animators can claim.
so i guess people should actually watch anime and/or Lain, specifically, prior to making derogatory comments about it.
also, being that the slogan is "news for nerds. stuff that matters." one should observe the typical anime otaku (anime-lovers) would be considered nerds. so it matters to them. which i suppose, is a lot of slashdot.
uhh. thanks for posting about Lain.
ciao
So, you want a 2 line summary of something that isn't easily summarized, so people can get a very, very basic impression of the series (or whatever the topic is), and quite possibly the wrong impression to begin with?
And if you don't have the time to read the links, what are you doing reading the comments?
-1 Flamebait
If I were Rob, I'd be reading this trash while humming the tune to "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to" happily to myself. I think it's pretty obvious by now...if you don't want to read about a topic...DON'T READ THE FUCKING TOPIC. This is a simply concept, one would think.
I laugh everytime I read a comment from some half-assed imbecile that actually took the time to open up a topic they didn't want to read about, click the reply link, and explain how "inappropriate" the content is on slashdot.
Perhaps someone could enlighten me..what, pray tell, is appropriate content here? News for Nerds, Stuff That Matters....seems pretty broad...whatever that nerd Rob feels is news, and whatever matters to him...