There are a few shows that I’ve reviewed that can really be considered classics. A number of these are fairly well known to show their age; they obviously have something to recommend them, that their names are still remembered after twenty years or more, but they can be affairs where a casual viewer would probably prefer something that came after, learned from it, and built on it. It’s true not just in anime but in media in general that, after a point, anything is going to show its age. Some do so more gracefully than others.
But there are some older offerings that do really hold up, where even if they show age or are the product of their times, they can be looked at significantly later and still shine bright.
Serial Experiments Lain is a show that exists, compared to those two extremes, in a very interesting place. A big part of what means it straddles the line is that Serial Experiments Lain deals with humanity’s interface with modern technology, particularly computers and the internet. In some ways, Lain was actually weirdly prescient about how such technology would alter human lives. In others ways… it came out in 1998, so give it a break.
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