>>145641
This Reimu outfit for Space Station 13, earning it a spot on the References to Touhou page.

>>120518
I've cleared SA on hard!

>>120518
Sometimes I see funny images I made being posted by people that aren't me

>>145887
"The internet is bad" isn't the surface level theme. IT's the central theme.
>what about the themes
The producer being a pretentious twat lifting shit from his favourite highschool books. Little more than aesthetics.
But it was the right call - specifically, esoterism is a perfect tone-setter for the series.

Apply occams razor for a moment, a solid third if not more of Lain is analogue to real internet stuff and not philosophy.
What they are describing here was something that was already happening in japan and 10 years later became a worldwide problem: internet & social media letting kids go hang out with irl lowlives.

Lain has a very technical approach to what it wants to say: The Internet will enable abusers of the worst kinds.
They throw this on your face hard when they point to a bunch of middle school kids handing on an underground electronic nightclub whose entry was through the 'net. The "wired drug" being a very clear reference to MDMA.
Other shit like personas/prismatic online personalities, lain arguments on identity is a very embellished account of teens coping about her life by being an internet tough guy (remember, this was new in '97), allegories to identity theft (something that could fast put your ass in jail in 1990s japan) or online harassment the central moving elements on the story.

These are the things that actually mattered to the 20 to 40 year olds making this, and some of these events the writers likely saw irl. If anything I'd blame the producer for clouding the point with too much esoterism.

>>145977
According to the producer, the central theme of Lain is a meditation on the influence of the west in japan, as you seem to be aware. I'll expand on that in particular. Please note that I have no intention of discussing politics, this is about the themes of the anime.

You can immediately notice that every single solitary thing that has to do with technology is in english. "Navigator", "Wired", "Protocol", "Copland OS", "Accela", "Cyberia". iMacs feature prominently. All the user interfaces are in english. The "layer" title screens. The damn opening song, the tile itself.
You have to think: this was a deliberate choice. When they designed the fake user interfaces, and everything else, they deliberately went out of their way to make it all english. This was not the standard then, but it was a trend that was noticeable and possible to extrapolate if you just took a look at pc-98's katakanized (横文字) interface and how japan was definitely falling behind on being the leader in the IT revolution.
There are many references to secret US government programs in the conspiracy scenes in ep.9 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOVlx4PRxZE ), explicitly portraying the Wired as a project for american control.
There is a pervasive atmosphere of cultural colonization. What does it mean when a japanese person has to say "Hello, Navi", to interact with computers, which increasingly blur with real life? What the series is describing is technocapital becoming a vector for westernization, the anime can be described as a prolonged, slow abduction. As Lain becomes more and more plugged into the Wired, she loses contact with who she is (schizophrenia/identity dissolution) and becomes tricked by a false god - 英利

Eiri's name, is written 英利. "英" as an exonym in japanese, means english or anglo. For example, "english language" is written 英語. The antagonist is quite literally named "English/Anglo". And 利, roughly means "profit" or "gain". Him, representative of the west, thinks of himself as the one and only system there is and will ever be. This has parallels with both monotheistic religions, and with western post-enlightenment systems, which both lay claim to one and only system of truth. This is what Burroughs' calls One God Universe, in fact it is it almost word for word. An axiomatic system that stops not at denying other belief systems, but denies the very idea that a real conflict for the nature of reality exists in the first place. This is in extreme contrast with eastern traditions which do not lay a claim to absolute truth, existing in the what Burroughs' calls the magical universe. The traditional, animist, shintoist beliefs of japan in particular could be described as as archetypal of the Magical Universe worldview as actually exists on this world.

Lain is rescued from "Anglo Gain Beautiful Goverment" by Alice, who, in the scene I linked, rescues Lain from her catatonic state, where Lain identifies herself using the words program, application, denying her very humanity, with a simple touch. She at this moment takes all the traits associated with is yamato nadeshiko, saving lain with the words "dokidoki, dokidoki", archetypically japanese.

I don't disagree with your post, really. I think the show can be deeply philosophical while at the same time also incorporating real social problems and or phenomenon that were going around.

>>146204
>What does it mean when a japanese person has to say "Hello, Navi", to interact with computers
It would mean... pop culture? Inserting english stuff to seem cool began in the mid 80s, it was already an old thing. Jap music was already hard into it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJZeuvbUQkc

In Lain's case I think it's the opposite. It's not cultural imperialism, in the turn of the 90s and early 2000s I feel it was vogue at the time for anime producers to have 2deep4u, intellectual-ish references, many of them foreign but also many japanese.
Go watch Earth Maiden Arjuna, where they also go hard on social critique and even bring western concepts like third genders and sex reassignment surgeries on the table - but mind, the primary philosophy is from a japanese environmentalist that is in turn coated in a subversion of the indian myth of Arjuna. While not actually as dee´p as SEL it's a prime example of the "layers upon layers" style i'm describing.

>>146274
>It would mean... pop culture? Inserting english stuff to seem cool began in the mid 80s, it was already an old thing. Jap music was already hard into it -
Is that not validating my point? Yes, there was a progressive americanization trend from the end of the Pacific War. It didn't start with the IT revolution - IT was and is a vector through which the trend intensifies, but it can be seen as a progression of the same mechanism in other words the influx of foreign technocapital concentrated in America. SEL is a projection of those trends into the future.
>even bring western concepts like third genders and sex reassignment surgeries on the table
I won't reply to this as to not derail, but know I am sending disapproving radio waves your way.

>>146319
>Is that not validating my point?
I'd say it's a very western mindset to apply to Japan. I think the Japanese as a populi simply never cared for such things. Even 2ch the HOMELAND of the japanese fringe right whose ancestors (ayashiiwarudo & tech underground forums) were lightly referenced by SEL loved their english references.

In order to understand the work we must first stand from the pov of people behind it. The Producer, forget his name was a primary influence, but he was part of a whole team, one which seemed worried about the effects the tech revolution was having in youth culture.
>I won't reply to this as to not derail, but know I am sending disapproving radio waves your way.
You'll miss out on prime 2000s anime~

>>120518
I have a fairly respectable (physical) collection of Range Murata artbooks.

>>146204
>"英" as an exonym in japanese, means english or anglo.
just in case i would amend to this that the base meaning of 英 is greatness/excellence, and it commonly appears in the word 英雄 referring to accomplished heroes, like in the title of logh (銀河英雄伝説) and it also pops up and also appears in names bearing this meaning (also flowers)
BUT it was later used phonetically to refer to england, in the same way that 米 means rice but also stands for the USA in certain words because it was also used phonetically in 亜米利加/amerika, or 露 for russia, 西 for spain, 蘭 for holland, etc.
so in this case eiri would be a form of wordplay, referring both to great gains and to english-language gains

>>146464
Thank you. I do know that but I did not want to bloat the post with explaining how japanese works. In this case I believe it is hard to argue that using a name with 英 is a coincidence.

It's incredibly refreshing and vindicating to read commentary like this because it stands in stark contrast to teenagers inauthenticly yelling and screaming about their love of the series. I last watched it in 2019 so I'll probably need to watch it again before I can give a reasonably articulated comment but for now I also think that
>It would mean... pop culture? Inserting english stuff to seem cool began in the mid 80s
corroborates what he was saying. Post Edo-period (1868-present) Japan has been subject to all kinds of Western influences with the Japanese government paying Western experts in all kinds of different fields ranging from law and military to science and engineering to move to Japan for the duration of their contracts and guide the country into the modern era through Western techniques. Although importing Westerners on a government salary ended around the turn of the century, importing Western values was more or less forced upon the country as a result of the postwar occupation going so far as playing dubbed American television shows - often depicting a stereotypical American nuclear family - in Japanese theaters.

I don't know much about programming but as far as I know and what a quick search reveals, most commonly used programming languages are English based in that they use Latin script and words and abbreviations. If you learn to program, you learn to program in these languages because they are the lingua franca of the programming world due to English being the lingua franca of the real world. Interestingly you can see a contrast between Western influence in Japan compared to China by simply looking at their websites; Japanese sites feature much more English on them compared to Chinese and I think Korean too. I'm just rambling now and I sort of forgot where I was going with this so I'll stop

>Him, representative of the west, thinks of himself as the one and only system there is and will ever be.
After I watch it again I'll come back to this but just going from what you both wrote I think you can fuse the two themes or interpretations using Eiri as an analogue for monotheistic religion and Lain - and anyone else - as an analogue for polytheistic religion.

>>146348
For admiring or cranking the hog?

I own a real Japanese wakizashi, multiple vintage kimonos and I import all the cosplay I wear from Japan.
I also own a Sensu that was made in the 1960s as well as a tea set from the same era and finally a scroll from between 1950 - 1970.
I am a very high ranking Japanese fashion and desgin Otaku.

>>146612
Ken-sama...

>>146612
That is really nice.

>>146625
Truly an inspiration...
>>146634
I started this when I learned that the Japanese doesn't have a strong culture around hand-me-downs so people there tend to sell overseas via online markets or just throw stuff out so I wanted to give some things a good home.

>>146612
I have a yukata. The guy who sells them even sent me a little packet of green tea.

>proudest
Brother I'm embarrassed of my otaku behavior

>>146612
Bro you're just a cringe wapanese retard. Not Otaku.

>>146725
>>146730
Took a bit of time but the niwaka finally arrived.

>>146730
You're only calling him that because he's not throwing his money away on figures or character wall scrolls or whatever consumerist crap you deem to be for "true otaku".

I'm neither embarrassed nor proud.
I merely am.

>>142488
probably not going to let it get to that size.
it'll be too large to organize & sort by then.
how do you even find stuff?

>>148141
I used to organize everything into specific subfolders. Now I don't, and I don't find anything anymore.

>>145620
do i need the context of the first 20 or so episodes in order to watch the first two movies?

>>153927
Not really. You might be missing some character introductions, I guess. Maybe read a basic synopsis of the plot? It's quite simple, though. Lum is an alien blahblah thinks Aturu wants to marry her blahblah Aturu is annoying and so on.

>>120518
Me winning like 10 bucks in a small anime discord server drawing contest

>>153932
Yes, I was gay shipping all of the characters I was drawing.

>>153927
You can probably pick it up through context.
It's an ensemble comedy so most of the characters are pretty simple.
Ataru is a horndog in love with the idea of a harem, while Lum is a jealous possessive alien (japanese oni) who loves him and wants him to be exclusive to her.
Ataru is also (supposedly) extremely unlucky.
Other characters are probably pretty easy to guess at.
You know I started typing a full description of like every major character from memory and got like 10 of them down. Huge post. Before I realized that that's pointless since there's a fucking wikipedia page on the characters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Urusei_Yatsura_characters#Main_characters

>>120518
when i watch anime i can recognize and understand some words and context, and notice how the subs are wrong

>>153947
This is your punishment for not bothering to learn Japanese.
Either accept and swallow the shitsubs or don't use them.

>>153954
There's a second plateau where you recognize enough of the intended meaning from keywords and cultural background knowledge absorbed through osmosis, and you stop caring about the trivial stuff the subs get wrong.
My proudest accomplishment is laughing at arguments about honorifics, wordplay and slang on nyaa.

>>153947
You and me both. Too tard to watch raw but just smart enough to know when the subs are wrong.

>>153947
>>153957
me three

>>153947
care to give some examples?

>>120518
I converted my two ex-norp acquaintances into otakuism and we had been best friends ever since. At times, they surpass even me. Proud of them!

>>153980
That image made me realize that i guess i do have something i'm pretty impressed i was able to accomplish... but i guess it might not really be something you can be proud of, and i'm probably going to have to figure out a way to get rid of it all eventually so my relatives won't have to awkwardly find it after my passing.

>>154027
what the kig has seen shall never be unseen

¥Site is called kissu
¥Nobody posting has ever actually kissed
I will report you for false advertisement.

>>154031
I kissed a girl last week. It was ok.

>>154032
Clean your monitor already, bacteria is growing.

>>154031
kissu's core message is to kys (kiss your sister)

>>154031
>>154032
>>154034
>>154036
kyses to you aaaall!!

>>154034
sorry I only kiss 3D
I know it's a bit gross, but...

>>154034
really good disgusted face

>>120518
There was this anime called Capeta that used to air on TV in 2008 when I was like 7, it was dubbed but they left the opening in Japanese, which was 1 minute 30 seconds long. I thought it sounded cool and so did my brother so we used our father's work laptop and recorded it using Windows voice recorder that came with WinXP, which only recorded one minute of audio, and then we recorded the remaining half a minute of audio the next day and brother sewed it together with Windows Movie Maker on our Pentium 3. I listen to Japanese songs a lot now, and I realise it wasn't actually that good but it was the first Japanese song we heard so it sure sounded that way. Fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB0ylpYfxkY

>>154059
Ah that is a banger huh.
This is how I learn they had Initial D for kids.