I figured I would put my comment separately, for ease of replying.
Wow, what a show. For having absolutely no idea what I was getting into, I don't know what I was expecting, but it was NOT what I watched. Perhaps one of the most intelligently constructed anime I have watched in sometime, I was sucked in by (and this is a first for me) the opening theme. I LOVED the song, and tracked down the artist before I even finished the first episode. For those that are curious [here it is] On to the show itself. From the very beginning this show has you asking questions, questions, questions. There is suicide, an internet that connects people at a subconscious level, mysterious messages from the dead, all in a world seemingly no different than ours. I find that SE:L is more interested in making one think about what's going on then giving direct answers. In a world of overstated and often overly dramatic anime, this was a refreshing watch, and I quickly devoured it in about two days of binge watching. The anime itself has more depth than average, but figuring out the main "plot" if you will is not necessarily so hard, it's the extra details that you don't HAVE to understand, but more than likely add a considerable amount of insight into the story. There are several parts of the story I personally don't have a solid theory for, and those are what I'm hoping to talk about with the rest of you once you arrive. Namely, the alien, who/what her parents and sister were, how the wired connected people. I will try to think of more as the discussion moves on. But, for now, I am hoping most people remembered and are excited to talk about it today.
One of the best scripts I ever wrote was about a young girl's descent into acute schizophrenia. I read like twelve books for that script and did three interviews. SE:L was very familiar when I first watched it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ASerial_Experiments_Lain#Schizophrenia_and_psychosis
Schizophrenia runs in my family, so I ponder it a lot. I've often wondered why it's not something we see much of on the big screen. Did it get made?One of the best scripts I ever wrote was about a young girl's descent into acute schizophrenia.
That sounds fascinating.
Cinema would be good for exploring schizophrenia.
My initial thoughts as well, there was dis-associative identity and schizophrenia, but in the last few layers, her "delusions" start having real life impact on others, namely Arisu being attacked by the "God" of the wired. Which is where I kind of came to a stand still with what was actually happening.