A family plays an MMO.
It’s hard to review this without spoilers, but wow does this not go where you are expecting in the first couple episodes. I thought I would get Sword Art Online but instead I got Serial Experiments Lain. The brutal alienation between people, the confusion between digital and reality, the loneliness.
Episode six was one of the most soul-crushing episodes of anime I have seen in years.
The show certainly wasn’t perfect— the ending was a bit of a mess— but this kind of mindfuckery is one of the things that appealed to me about anime in the first place.
Terrible show, I liked it.
Storytelling – B – Wish they had thought through parts a bit more, but did choose an interesting direction.
Voice – A – Captures a creepy atmosphere very well.
Characters – B – They were all good but had a few aspects I had trouble buying. Like the father was kind of too terrible to redeem, brother was kind of nuts, they mostly just forgot about the mother.
Attention Grab – A – Haven’t marathoned a show in a while.
Production – B – Looks fine.
Overall – B+
Recommendations – Serial Experiments Lain
