Serial Experiments Lain, an anime series that I have watched more than any other. I have seen about 5 times now and I still find it to be a very thought provoking and intriguing series that I still get a lot out of each time I watch.
All though despite what I have said thus far, I don't consider Lain to be my favorite show, but as far as a "thinking man's anime" for begginners are concerned, I think it's easily the best one.
As far as the series' reputation as being "too confusing" and "hard to understand", I don't think that is true at all. Sure, it may need at least more than one viewing to completely understand and if you are younger and aren't used to kind of story Lain is, it might be offputting but I think the series gets easier to understand the more you watch it especially years apart from the rewatch too after gaining more experience when it comes to life, human nature, and internet culture in general. It's short length also makes rewatches of it a lot easier too.
Now, on to the show itself and I will get the negatives out of the way first. The first 5 episodes are admittedly kind of dull. While having some interesting imagery and moments, not a lot really happens during them. A lot of those episodes are spent with silence and not a whole of explanations as to what exactly is really happening. I can see some people getting turned off by the first few episodes too and think it's just one of those stories where it's just people saying cryptic things and with a lot of "visual" storytelling and expects the symbolism to do the heavy lifting but that changes around episode 6, while the show is still not 100% direct with how the story is told, there is much more explantations as to what is going on. It kind of feels like a different show by episode 6. The show has more dialogue explaining the setting and the overall plot. So if you are bored by the first 5 episodes, get to episode 6 and see if the series is still your thing.
Another big issue I have are the characters, outside of Lain and Eiri, the rest of the cast is rather forgettable and don't have much to define them as characters, Alice is a very important character and outside of one major scene in the series regarding her fantasies, all there is to her is that she is very kind and that is really about it, so if you are an anime fan expecting characters to be the thing you look for, you might not get that here.
Alright, issues aside, the positives, I will admit that I am not a big fan of surrealism stories or stories that aren't told directly to the viewer. However, I do think Lain handles this in a rather compelling way. Mainly in that surrealism actually enhances the story rather than detract from it. While the overall setting can be rather vague, this actually works to the show's favor in that the whole series is about what is real and what isn't and how society that the characters are in is crumbling due to how powerful the "Wired"(this show's version of the internet) is becoming.
Another big thing about this show that I will admit that I generally don't care for but this show handles wonderfully is the theme exploration and particularly the theme exploration of how much power something like the internet can give to people. The show handles ideas like thought experiments, internet cults, government conspiracies, the idea of "god hood", online impersonators, having different personalities on the internet and how the internet can ruin someone's life all within it's short run time and the way it's told with it's surrealism and ambugity makes for a very fascinating watch even many decades after it's release. There's many concepts the show explores that are relevant even now. The show feels like a "surreal experiement" and that's esstentially what the series is when you strip it down to it's core.
As far as an anime, no a story that is purely about theme exploration, this show handles it better than many.
Overall, Lain is a very good series to me despite it's issues, I watched it 5 times for a reason, and while most of the characters can be dull and the early episodes can be kind of boring, the show rewards you with an engaging portal of what the internet and how society could be when given so much power with technology.
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