Have you ever stared at your phone at 2 AM, blue light burning your retinas, wondering if the “you” on the internet is the real you?

If yes, congratulations! You are living through the plot of Serial Experiments Lain.

Released in 1998—back when the internet was mostly just chat rooms and slow-loading pictures of cats—this anime didn’t just tell a story. It looked into a crystal ball, saw our modern obsession with social media, memes, and digital identity, and said, “Hold my juice box.”

It is weird. It is confusing. And it is arguably the most important anime ever made about the digital age. Here is why this 25-year-old show is more relevant today than ever.

Wait, What is it About?

Okay, explaining the plot of Lain is like trying to explain the flavor of water. But here is the simple version:

Lain Iwakura is a quiet, awkward middle school girl. Her life is boring until her classmate, Chisa, jumps off a roof. A week later, Lain gets an email from Chisa.

The email says: “I have only abandoned my physical body… God is here.”

Lain gets curious, upgrades her computer (called a “Navi”), and dives into “The Wired” (the internet). As she spends more time online, the barrier between the real world and the digital world starts to break. People see Lain in places she hasn’t been. She develops different personalities. Reality starts glitching like a bad video game driver.

Why It’s Still Mind-Blowing Today

You might think a show featuring clunky CRT monitors and dial-up sounds would feel dated. But the themes? They are terrifyingly fresh.

1. The Internet Isn’t Just a Tool; It’s a Place

In the 90s, the internet was something you “visited” for an hour before your mom needed the phone line. Lain predicted a world where we never log off.

In the show, the “Wired” bleeds into the real world. Today, we have Augmented Reality, the Metaverse, and people walking into traffic because they’re looking at TikTok. Lain understood that eventually, there would be no difference between “online” and “offline.” We live in the Wired now.

2. The “You” Online vs. The Real “You”

Lain develops a split personality. There is the shy, quiet Lain in the real world, and the bold, terrifyingly powerful “Lain of the Wired.”

Does that sound familiar?

• Real Life: You are too shy to ask for extra ketchup at McDonald’s.
• Twitter/X: You are a fierce political commentator fighting strangers at 3 AM.

Lain asks the big question: Which one is the real you? Is it the physical body, or the data floating in the cloud? If everyone knows the “online” you, does the “offline” you even matter?

3. The Loneliness of Connection

There is a recurring haunting phrase in the show:

“No matter where you are, everyone is always connected.”

It sounds nice, right? No! It’s actually a horror story. The show depicts a world where privacy is dead and everyone is mentally linked, yet the characters feel more isolated than ever. It perfectly captures that specific modern sadness of having 5,000 followers but nobody to eat lunch with.

Is It Hard to Watch?

I’m not going to lie to you—yes.

Serial Experiments Lain is an “avant-garde” show. That is a fancy way of saying “you will spend 50% of the time staring at the screen asking ‘What is happening?’“

There are long silences. There are shots of power lines buzzing for no reason. There is a guy in a suit with laser goggles. It is a mood piece. It’s less about understanding the plot perfectly and more about the vibes. It feels like a fever dream you had after scrolling Instagram for six hours straight.

The Verdict

You should watch Serial Experiments Lain not just because it’s a classic, but because it is a warning we ignored.

It predicted that we would upload our memories to the cloud. It predicted that rumors online could change reality. It predicted that we would all worship the glowing rectangles in our hands.

Plus, the opening song (“Duvet” by Bôa) is an absolute banger that will get stuck in your head for the next decade.

So, go watch it. Just remember: if you get an email from a dead classmate, maybe just delete it and go touch some grass.