Otakon 2000 lain panel
The pair's first big US panel, answered through an interpreter. Ueda says he had the idea about four years earlier and found ABe by surfing the web. ABe names his university training in Japanese painting with crushed-mineral pigments and the painters Chinai and Tabuchi as influences. Ueda confirms that the end-credit image of Lain wrapped in cables is a womb, not a trap. He explains that TV sound is usually built from a fixed palette, but that Takemoto and Kasamatsu reworked sound episode by episode as an exception. He addresses his much-quoted Animerica line about a cultural war with America: he means a frank exchange of values, and mentions that his grandparents died in the atomic bombing without that leaving hatred in him. He says the red spots in shadows were the director's idea, meant to show the Wired underneath the real world, and that nobody on staff had read Snow Crash until after the series. He reads the smoke from Lain's fingers as a private reality, explains Mika as a victim of the Wired who is left like a puppet or fax, says Lain's family were placed to gather information for someone, and states that after the reset Lain is simply gone. He credits Konaka with the real people in Layer 09, and explains Alice, Julie and Reika as names carried over from Konaka's earlier game Alice in Cyberland.
- The cable-wrapped Lain in the credits is a womb, not a trap
- Sound was reworked per episode by Takemoto and Kasamatsu, unusual for TV
- Red spots in shadows were Nakamura's way of showing the Wired beneath reality
- No one on staff had read Snow Crash before making the series
- Mika is a victim stuck between worlds, acting like a fax
- Lain's family were watchers reporting to an unnamed party
- After the reset, Lain is gone
- Ueda reframes his 'cultural war' quote as a wish for honest cultural exchange
Sources: archived page · lawmune.net