ur drunk

>>33255
I like your explanation, however I also think the fact that it's bundled with the image of a quirky girl probably helps the fascination ('she's just like me!')
that old webcomic Megatokyo kind of exemplifies your points, where the concept of Lain is kind of adopted through the character Largo: pursuing an understanding of computers to a point where it starts to transcend human limitations – also now that I think about it, the Matrix was around the same time, and that also contributed to the super-hacker idea

cute nerd girl who is low-maintenance and not a stacy and is so into cyber she becomes it!!!!11 just like me but in female and cute!!1

it's really not that deep

>>33269
>low maintenance

maybe socially, but lain buys some serious computers, pricing somewhere in the SGI indigo kind of range

>>33269
>low maintenance
She hallucinates pretty regularly and is accosted by gangs of stalkers. She is neurotic and anxious when AFK, and capricious in the Wired.
>not a stacy
The Lain of the Wired is a turbostacy according to the druggies and dance club regulars of the show, who all demonstrate an uncomfortable level of familiarity with her. And Lain is an aspect of the Lain of the Wired.
>so into cyber she becomes it!
Lain was always of the Wired. She matured into her adult self. This is a huge part of why it's thematically important to the show that she be in junior high, IMHO, with Lain it's not just "it's anime so of course they're young teenagers." Adolescence is that part of life where a person's body develops and grows at rates that can be alarming and in ways that can be disturbing and disquieting, when issues of personal identity and belonging are sorted out.

I need to rewatch this show. I liked it when I was 15 for the visuals and atmosphere, but I think a lot of the symbolism and themes went over my head.

>>33306
Literally no one understood Lain on the first watch I think

>>33255
I like SEL but it's kind of autistic that you expect people to care.You sound like a weeb.

>>33255
I don't think it's that complicated. It stars a young girl which obviously appeals to fetishistic weeb men. It is cerebral sci-fi which also appeals to techy nerds, and it strongly involves the internet, which appeals to men who spend a lot of time on the internet. It is also somewhat cryptic which encourages people to obsessively discuss and analyze it.

So yeah, sex drive + sci-fi geekiness = cult following.

The anime really isn't that good. The cool things about it are the aesthetic and the cute computer programmer girl.

Anyways, for some reason most people who like lain are extra precious.

>>33960
I'm personally of the opinion that it portrays a particular headspace and that anyone who is unfamiliar with that headspace will only see the aesthetic and the cute computer programmer girl and then assume that this is the only appeal. It's like Evangelion in that sense. If you've never been depressed and lonely, it's hard to "get" the appeal of Evangelion. That isn't to say that anyone familiar with the Lain or Evangelion headspaces will automatically like those shows but that there is a subset of the population that is unable to appreciate what it is that draws certain individuals to them. It's like trying to explain the appeal of music to those who have been born deaf.

>extra precious
What do you mean, precisely? Your opinion apparently conflicts with that miner who said that Lain fans are frequently creepy pedophiles and not to be trusted.

>>33962
The point you make about needing the right headspace to understand it is interesting. For me, being a female programmer was reason enough to like her.

>What do you mean, precisely?
Most lain fans I've met were a specific kind of cute nerdy guy. They seemed to be more interested in being lain than being with her.
Then again, Lain is mostly popular with the imageboard crowd, and a larger portion of them are creepy pedophiles. Somehow I managed to avoid these types though.

>>33963
>The point you make about needing the right headspace to understand it is interesting.
I think that it's appropriate for the show to begin its opening with "And you don't seem to understand." It's a show that represents a perspective on life that some share but many can't sympathize with. To a degree, I think Lain as a character is a representation of the more abstract sentiments and concepts explored in the show (anxiety, paranoia, alienation, existential dread, boundless inquisitiveness, etc.). To sum up her appeal as "cute programmer girl" or "not a Stacy" as the above poster put it seems to ignore certain relevant facts, e.g. the creator explicitly borrowed from Lovecraftian horror devices in producing the show's "vibes." There's a lot going on here apart from simple moe. Further, such explanations ignore the subset of the Lain fandom that is composed of heterosexual females. While I don't know how large this subset is, I should think that it exists in some significant capacity. My model of sex/gender suggests that if something is appealing for X reason to a member of one sex/gender, then X reason likely constitutes part of the appeal of the thing to the other sex/gender. If we accept these premises, then we can learn something about the appeal of Lain to males by learning about her appeal to females. Any miners who like Lain, feel free to weigh in.

I will conclude my hopefully well-reasoned response above with a bit of pseudoscience. Lain is practically the prototypical INTP, a personality type that is not well-represented statistically among females. This would hypothetically make her more appealing to INTP males as a "rare breed" of waifu or whatever while having the same effect on INTP females in terms of providing a rare fictional self-analog. The serious lack of INTP females in other media could contribute to the utter devotion seen in Lain's fandom. I think it's a more complicated phenomenon than that, though, and what a phenomenon it is. To be honest, Lain's "memetic power" among certain circles is apparently growing at such a rate that I'm confounded and perhaps a bit frightened. The TSUKI thing is only part of what I'm referring to. The Black Mirror writers should be taking note.

>>33279
guys who would buy that stuff for themselves wouldnt think of tech as a waste, like they think of makeup and clothes.