Serial Experiments Lain is a multi-media series released between 1998 and 1999. The series contains roughly three entries- a 13-episode anime originally aired from July 6, 1998 to September 28, 1998, a PS1 game released on November 26, 1998, and a short manga by character designer Yoshitoshi ABe titled Nightmare of Fabrication (published in 1999 in the Omnipresence in Wired artbook).

Serial Experiments Lain can be divided into two continuities- the anime continuity and the game continuity, with the manga bridging the two together. While both share the same protagonist, a girl named Lain Iwakura, and cover similar themes and topics, the story and supporting casts are completely different. In the anime, Lain is a shy middle-school girl who's introduced to the Wired (the story's version of the internet) after a classmate who commited suicide sends emails to everyone at their school after her death. Meanwhile, the game follows 3 years of the life of an 11-year old girl named Lain and her psychiatrist, Touko, whom she begins seeing due to her hallucination.

I've known about Lain for far longer than I've been a fan of it, thanks to its massive cult status. It wasn't until the PSX game was brought to my attention that I grew curious about experiencing the series for myself and watched the anime. I enjoyed it, but it was playing the game that made me a real Lain fan. While I love both entries, I'd still say that the game resonates with me more than the anime, so I have a bit of a preference towards it, ehe. Despite my love for it, SEL is rather low on my collection priorities