Serial Experiments Lain-Volume 3: Deus (1998)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Device #08: Hair; Device #09: Uterus; Device #10: Body DVD Credits Theatrical Trailer TV Spots Trailer-CD; Playstation Gallery-Concept Art Trailer-Blood: The Last Vampire; Akira; X; Gasaraki Trailer-Neon Genesis Evangelion; Martian Successor Nadesico Easter Egg-Lain in blue bear suit
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	71:44 (Case: 100)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Ryutaro Nakamura
Studio Distributor	Pioneer LDC Madman Entertainment	Starring	Kaori Shimizu Ryunosuke Obayashi Rei Igarashi Ayako Kawasumi Yoko Asada Chiharu Tezuka
Case	Click
RPI	$34.95	Music	Reiichi Nakido

    Serial Experiments Lain is a Japanese animated science fiction series examining the blurring of the lines between the traditional world and the Wired.

    The series starts with the apparent suicide of a young school girl. Shortly after this tragic event, her classmates receive a number of emails appearing to come from the dead girl. Lain is an eighth grade student who has little experience with computers and the online world, the Wired. After receiving the strange email she decides to investigate further and quickly finds herself pulled into a world she knows little about. Young gamers are committing suicide at an increasing rate, a new drug hits the streets and a covert group of hackers all seem to be connected.

    This disc contains three episodes from the thirteen part series. This series is extremely entertaining but many viewers may find that it does not initially make much sense. As the series progresses, different parts of the story will begin to fall into place and by the end it will all become clear.

    I have included a very short description for each episode but as these may contain some very minor spoilers you may wish to skip directly to the Transfer Quality section.

layer 08: RUMORS
    Someone is spreading rumours about Lain's fellow students - is it possible she is the one starting these rumours? As Lain discovers more about herself she finds that she may not be the only version of herself.

layer 09: PROTOCOL
    Links to various government and corporate organizations are discovered as the truth is slowly revealed to Lain. Lain returns to Cyberia to obtain some more information about a new computer chip she has received.

layer 10: LOVE
    As the mission of the Knights becomes clear they are exposed and must face the consequences of their actions. Lain is faced with the question - what is a god and why do they exist?

Video

    This is an excellent high quality transfer with very few artefacts present throughout.

    The full frame transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is exceptionally sharp throughout but a number of scenes are very soft. These same scenes are also very soft in the Region 1 transfer, so this would appear to be intentional. During the few dark scenes, such as in Lain's bedroom, excellent levels of shadow detail may be seen and this faithfully reproduces the original animation.

    The colour palette appears slightly muted, washed out and subdued. During the scenes at Cyberia, bright vibrant colours are displayed. As Lain becomes increasingly detached from the physical world, the colours of this world become more muted. This colour choice works well with the animation and helps to emphasize the different worlds.

    No MPEG artefacts were detected during the transfer.

    A very small number of aliasing artefacts were detected during the transfer, such as at 36:51 and 64:44. All of these artefacts are very small and are only minimally distracting to the viewer.

    A number of minor film artefacts may be seen during the transfer. Some examples of these may be seen at 12:41, 19:54, 20:47, 21:36 and 57:32. These artefacts are all very small and are never distracting.

    A single set of yellow English subtitles is provided with this transfer. These subtitles are easy to read and appear to be consistently accurate. During the episodes, there are a small number of instances where English subtitles are burned into the image. These subtitles appear in white and are used to translate Japanese characters also on screen. The Region 1 version of this disc also has these same subtitles burned into the image. During the closing title sequence for each episode, the song lyrics appear as burned-in English green subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times.

    As this is an animated feature, there are the expected obvious problems with audio sync for each soundtrack. A single audio dropout was detected during the Japanese audio track at 19:19..

    The music for this series is by Reiichi Nakido and this works well with the on-screen action whilst never drawing attention to itself. The distinctive opening title music is provided by Boa and is quite enjoyable.

    The surround channels are not utilized during the transfer. Some low frequency information, such as the humming of power lines, is included in this soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The animated menus are presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Device 08-10

    This short collection of clips follows each episode and examines different human design influences for the character of Lain.

Australian Trailer (0:30)

    This short trailer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

TV Promotion (0:25)

    This short trailer for the Japanese release is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

CD Promotion (0:20)

    This short promotion for the opening title music from Boa is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Playstation Game Promotion (0:35)

    This short promotion for the related Sony Playstation game is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Concept Art

    This is a collection of 18 different character and location sketches. These sketches continue the series that have been seen on previous discs in this series.

Trailer: X (1:44)

    This trailer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Trailer: Gasaraki (1:31)

    This trailer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Trailer: Neon Genesis Evangelion (1:08)

    This trailer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a musical Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Trailer: Martian Successor Nadesico (1:31)

    This trailer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Trailer: Blood The Last Vampire (1:02)

    This trailer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Trailer: Akira (1:15)

    This trailer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.66:1 with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Easter Egg (0:05)

    This is a drawing with Lain in a blue bear suit and may be viewed by highlighting the word lain in the main menu.

The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Textless closing sequence
• Pioneer Trailers

The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• Australian Promotion
• TV Promotion
• CD Promotion
• Madman Trailers

    Unusually the Easter egg included on this disc is found on the fourth disc in the Region 1 series. On the Region 1 version, this Easter egg also includes a textless purple version of the closing credits, which is not included on the local release. As both versions of this DVD appear to be nearly identical I would have no preference for either version.

    Lain is an interesting and unusual series that should appeal to all anime fans.

    Like the previous releases in this series, the video transfer is of excellent quality and displays very few artefacts.

    The Japanese and English audio tracks should appeal to fans of both dubs and subs.

    The concept art and collection of marketing material is interesting and will appeal to fans.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall