Sorry, I can't let the nostalgia blind me. One Piece is an absolute mess and the epitome of shōnen brain rot. I've never seen a series that fails on so many levels. It's just so bad, and not only is it just bad; it's one of the largest media franchises in history. How?
One Piece has nothing going for it. The power of friendship and vague idealism are the most anyone will ever derive from its story and characters. I mean, really, there's nothing there. There's absolutely nothing about One Piece that even attempts to be good. Luffy is like Eren Jaeger if you stripped
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Mar 2, 2024 Not Recommended Funny 
'The Fruit of Evolution' is allegedly an anime television series based off a light novel of the same name, but personally, I take issue with this dubious origin story.
In 1969, Adam Levine published a notoriously controversial text — one that, without doubt, had a substantial impact on perceptions of religion, morality, media censorship, and even on the very substrata of modern culture. There are many factors attributed to our divergence from faith, but none can as succinctly elucidate this drift as a question I asked myself as a child — and one that many people have pondered upon: "Why?" Why? Why am I being told this? For ... what purpose, and with what explanation? Clearly, the author of this series had similar thoughts. Only a blind man could create something so profoundly devoid of light. On that note, here's a quote from the aforementioned Satanic Bible: "Can the torn and bloody victim 'love' the blood-splashed jaws that rend him limb from limb?" Allow me to correct for context. "Can the unfortunate viewer of this show 'love' the cursed world in which they were born, just to suffer through it?" No, they can't. I can't. I have no more faith left — not in God, not in myself, not in the world. ... 'The Fruit of Evolution' reaches a degree of flagrant incompetence that I didn't think possible. To refer to it as 'bad' is insulting to anything I've ever called, well, merely bad. It's incomprehensibly terrible. It stoops so far below the realm of mediocrity that it's absurd. There's not a singular positive quality: the animation is dull, ugly, inconsistent, and stiff; the characters are fools with no actual 'character' whatsoever aside from the most mind-numbingly tropey bullshit; the humor is lame, immature, and in utterly poor taste; there is no depth to the story, nor any semblance of interesting or detailed writing or theming anywhere to be seen. I swear on all that is holy, one of the most important scenes in the entire series is literally only possible because the authors forgot how to do basic multiplication. That's how little effort it was made with. Not only that, you know what the annoying, bland, unfunny, uncool, pathetic excuse for a protagonist says in spite of this? "It's basic math!" You're a basic bitch. You also made out with a gorilla. Freak. 1/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Jun 15, 2023
Serial Experiments Lain
(Anime)
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Really fascinating. 'Serial Experiments Lain' is a detailed, intelligent, and overwhelmingly dense series. It contains and conveys a multitude of ideas, motifs, and messages, with these themes being dissected to a legitimately daunting level. At times reaching the esoteric, 'Lain' is a very challenging show, but if that challenge is passed, the viewer discovers a series with unrivaled depth, containing a truly eloquent vignette of human coexistence in a disconnected world.
The viewer is first met with a haunting visual of television static accompanied by its audible drone. Following this, they are eerily greeted by an iconic utterance: "Present day, present time." These four words, ... far before the story truly begins, sum up the story in its entirety: a depiction of contemporary and transcendental grievances. Finally, the screen returns with familiar static and the first appearance of Serial Experiments Lain's enigmatic protagonist, shrouded within a digitalized haze. "I am fading. I am falling. I have lost it all." Quickly, you're submerged into a bleak, nearly dystopic world. Prominent visions of sexual indulgence are shown in a time of chaotic technological overrule. The satisfaction of flesh. The drone of airborne cables and the emotional disconnection of individuals, the phone and computer-obsessed habits of child and parent alike. The satisfaction of flesh's mind in a hypothetical, dualistic mind-body structure. The abandonment of physicality and the worship of human connection through pure, unimpeded consciousness. You're met with cafés representing social media and technology representing the internet, both forming a double entendre that simultaneously conveys humanity's connectivity through electronics, the culpability of technology in the dissolution of individuality, and an alleged independence between one's own body and mind. The central themes of Serial Experiments Lain include existentialism, psychology, identity, and the dangers of technological advancement. Predominantly represented by the titular character, Lain Iwakura, these topics are explored with an astounding level of detail. Particularly later in the series, where they are mostly explained through cryptic depictions of Lain's own self-consciousness. Earlier in the series, however, it takes a different and much more concrete approach, focusing more linearly on Lain, her dissociation with the world around her, and her reasons for beginning to rely on technology to form connections with other people. Of course, deeper and more grandiose intentions were present from the very beginning, but they felt much more secondary to Lain Iwakura. At the start, it mostly appeared that philosophical and psychological ideas served to enhance Lain's story and character. By the end, it felt more like Lain Iwakura existed purely to demonstrate and utilize the show's understanding of those ideas. This shift in thematic presentation is potentially the only 'flaw' I can really find in regard to this show. Don't get me wrong, I didn't mind how abstract it became, but I did feel like 'Lain' may have been even greater if it continued to focus primarily on the ideas of dissociation and technology, specifically in Lain's context. It could've used these allegories pertaining to philosophy; especially metaphysics, as more of a supplement to her story, but it wholly shifted to them, and I personally felt it could've done slightly better than that. It could have also been similarly thematically focused from the beginning, and that would've been alright. Regardless of this mild inconsistency, Serial Experiments Lain easily had some of the greatest theming I've ever seen, marching across countless boundaries of thought while succinctly and brilliantly representing each of them. Even if the prioritization may have been slightly off, the nuance with which 'Lain' explored its themes is absolutely supreme. How it managed to so emphatically depict the essences of belonging, isolation, and ultimately human existence entirely while being such a cold, lonely series is something I'll never understand. 'Lain' may explore its themes through incredibly abstract means, but those means only serve to illustrate the confusing act of deciphering our minds in the first place. For example, Masami Eiri's character, who represents a human's disdain towards the impulses and necessities that accompany individuality and the self's physical vessel: the sexual and contradictorily self-preservative behaviors and motives that drive life. The existence of Lain Iwakura's drastically differing multiple personalities, all of which represent the multiple aspects of the (colloquially) theoretical psychic apparatus—the list goes on. Everything that 'Lain' strives to showcase, it does so with flying colors. Yes, it did have slightly conflicted priorities on what to focus on, and what direction to go in. Is it more than merely a nit-pick? Absolutely not. The characters are simply outstanding. The protagonist, Lain, is handily one of fiction's greatest. Despite existing within such an incredibly fleeting series, she is imbued with a remarkably broad array of themes, true depth, and gorgeous characterization. I previously pointed towards psychoanalysis as one of the key concepts explored within Serial Experiments Lain, and this is quite easily demonstrable through Lain herself. She is, for all intents and purposes, meant to be a representation of the human psyche in its entirety, as well as the posited distinction between physical and non-physical forms of existence. She is a medium by which 'Lain' communicates ideas pertaining to the psychic apparatus, collective (un)consciousness, and other various psychologically, theologically, and philosophically relevant themes. The 'idea' of the character Lain Iwakura. The idea of conflict between unconscious, conscious and conditioned desires within oneself that affect action, belief, and expression. The idea of 'ideas' in and of itself. They are all equally Lain, as she is a character whose essence is to symbolize consciousness and the interactions between one's own parts of self, as well as the sheer concept of that self's interactions with others. To me, she is one of the most perfectly written characters of all time. Even though I believe the show lost a bit of its focus by straying slightly too far from her, she served purposes that were equal parts profound, personal, and poignant. Serial Experiments Lain is a very protagonist-centric anime, but other characters are not to be underestimated. An incredibly surprising and emotionally resonant inclusion within the story is Alice, whose purpose is to essentially act as an anchor for the series' more abstract themes. Alice and Lain share somewhat of a duality, wherein throughout the series, Alice is depicted as a well-adjusted and socially functional person, with Lain largely depicted as the polar opposite. She is basically one whose senses of reality and perception, despite the adverse circumstances that arise, continue to be wholly grounded, free from the dissociative behaviors exhibited by Lain, and mostly free from The Wired's grasp on consciousness. Alice represents a more 'human' approach to the psychological ideas that Serial Experiments Lain explores, whereas Lain represents a very brutal, 'inhuman' approach. She is the show's realistic anchor, as well as the anchor that allows Lain to complete her character arc. Due to Alice's influence, she rejects the creation of a unitive, literal interpretation of collective consciousness, and therefore she prevents the dissolution of human individuality. Masami Eiri is an incredibly effective villain, with his ideology being one of the primary subjects explored by Serial Experiments Lain throughout its length. Humans, by nature, have an existence that is based upon the codependent relationship between mind and body. The complex intermingling between mental self-perception and the external perception of others through the viewing of your physicality, along with the ramifications thereof; expressions of pain, sadness, joy, and love being accessible through one's physical behavior; the sexual desire, which is ostensibly psychic in origin yet fulfilled through physical contact with others or oneself, but further yet has purposes and origins formed through reproductive and evolutionary motivation, and further yet only actually exists due to concrete biological concepts. All of these serve to demonstrate both the world we truly live in, and the dualistic reality presented within Serial Experiments Lain. 'Lain' creates a scenario in which physicalism is severed and individuals possess the ability to transcend material constraints through The Wired. The Wired is analogous and thematically relevant to three things: posited mind-body dualism; the internet and technological means of human connection, communication, and self-conception in general; and, broadly speaking, the connection and interaction between humans through their individuality. Through 'The Wired', individuals leave behind the ostensible burden of physicality, choosing to exist as a collection of consciousnesses whose perception of reality and self is blurred by the very nature of their collective. Due to the forced merging of thoughts and emotions with others, along with the destruction of the human form, the result is a near-absolute loss of individuality. Without bodies, the human's primary mode of social comparison and self-other distinction is lost. The beauty of real-world humanity is not that we are all connected in some inseparable, muddied, or indistinguishable way, but that we connect through the shared and comprehensible yet individually experienced and conveyed emotions within our lives. It is the differences between us and our ability to recognize those differences, and therefore recognize ourselves, that is our source of finding meaning. However, physical existence also results in pain. Indeed, it is the conscious and physical disconnection between individuals that is the impetus for human emotion and socialization. Simultaneously, it leads to suffering, insecurity, loneliness, and the inability for anyone to objectively understand each other. This is where Masami Eiri comes in. Eiri wishes to harness The Wired's power in order to convert the sum brain-juice of humanity into a single, amalgamative body of consciousness, thereby bypassing the physical constrictions of human existence and hypothetically 'evolving' beyond such a necessity. This is the main conflict within the narrative, wherein Lain, having been born into the world through wholly unnatural means with very little social basis and therefore an overwhelming and profound sense of dissociation, is continually manipulated into accepting the world as Eiri sees it. Serial Experiments Lain doesn't necessarily claim whether or not Eiri's hypothesis was correct, but as I stated, the self is necessarily accompanied by the individualized, concrete body that it occupies. In the absence of this body, not only is self-conception lost, the physical conditions under which any psychological process is possible become nonexistent. With that in mind, upon being forced back into the material world and wishing to recreate a body in order to interact with it, what does Eiri transform into? A jumbled, grotesque mass of wires, computer parts, and bastardized flesh. It's also worth mentioning the damning, incredibly visionary view of internet-based socialization that Serial Experiments Lain had, especially through one of fiction's biggest fanatical computer dorks, Masami Eiri. As well as the self-psychological aspects, how many people have you personally seen lose themselves over the internet and its information, becoming radicalized, losing track of the real world, or even their own bodies? 'Lain' was remarkably, truly ahead of its time. Serial Experiments Lain is visually stunning. The quality of animation and overall appearance are great for their time, and the cinematography is perhaps the greatest I've ever seen in an anime. It's just amazing in every way. Jarringly gorgeous, poignant composition; really good usage of... 'meta-techniques', for lack of a better word; and gorgeous lighting, both aesthetically and for the story's emotional tones. Such an exemplary narrative may be wholly possible without these factors, but the end product is enhanced to an unbelievable degree. It could make Anno blush. Aurally, it's excellent as well. The voice acting is fantastic, the effects are surprisingly detailed, and the soundtrack is flawless. In terms of sound and its appropriate usage, everything is just perfect. The presentation of 'Lain' is honestly just perfect in general. Saying that is probably more useful than describing aural and visual qualities separately. The story is amazing, and the ways in which it's presented to you are just as good. To tell you the truth, I probably 'appreciate' or 'admire' Serial Experiments Lain slightly more than I 'like' it. And that's not to say I don't like it. I adore it. Spanning from June 9th, 2023 when I first wrote this, to my latest update on April 10th, 2024, I have it as my second favorite anime of all time. There is, however, definitely something in my mind giving me that impression. Perhaps that's simply due to how inaccessible 'Lain' is, or perhaps simply due to its sheer brilliance. Every time I think about it, 'Lain' just feels so vast and so rich with detail, as if each thought reveals to me something beautiful about it I hadn't yet considered. It's a wonderful series but a harshly deep one—one that is so great that, frankly, it's kind of difficult to review. I really can't do it justice at all. There's just that much going on within its narrative, and it's just that damn good. Nevertheless, I loved it a lot. I enjoyed it immensely, and I certainly won't forget it anytime soon. 10/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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