Serial Experiments Lain Hypes 25th Anniversary With Mysterious New Game

Serial Experiments Lain is one of those anime you can never forget. After watching the series, Lain Iwakura and her techno-horror journey sticks with you in the best of ways. Created by Yasuyuki Ueda, Serial Experiments Lain was well before it time where all things tech are concerned, and soon the series will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a mysterious new game.

Currently, you can find the game's prologue as anime fans were led to Layer 3301: De-Cipher at the start of June. It seems the mysterious alternate reality game was made for fans who wanted to explore the Wired more than they ever dreamed. Ueda worked closely with Anique Corporation and Studio Kasagi to bring the full game to life, and you can access its prologue early thanks to this new site.

As for the entire game, Layer 3301 will be made available later this year. The digital title can be played after fans buy a Protocol Key. "Fans can use the Protocol Key to interact with digital elements to unlock new aspects of the story of Lain. Upon completion of the puzzle, users will receive exclusive digital, real and physical items, as well as the actual cells used in the production of the Lain anime," explains the press release regarding Layer 3301.

The game itself will be released sometime before the end of June 2023, so this website is giving fans a taste of what's to come. Of course, the title's debut has plenty of new and old netizens looking to see what Serial Experiments Lain is about. The 1998 anime tells the story of a young girl who finds herself immersed in the Word, a digital network that connects humanity in unexpected ways. Our heroine must traverse the digital landscape in a bid to find meaning to life, but as you can imagine, the Wired leaves Lain with more questions than answers.

Want to know more about Serial Experiments Lain? You can stream the series over on Funimation and Crunchyroll right now. For more details, the anime's official synopsis can be read below:

"Close the World. Open the Next. Decades before the internet was something people carried around in their pockets, these words introduced anime fans to a surreal existence where computer monitors served as portals to brave new worlds. Serial Experiments: Lain and its deceptively "ordinary" title character redefined an entire generation's concept of the world wide web, prompting us all to suspiciously take note of humming power lines and central processing units. Follow along as fourteen year old Lain – driven by the abrupt suicide of a classmate – logs on to the Wired and promptly loses herself in a twisted mass of hallucinations, memories, and interconnected-psyches. Close the World. Open the Next. It's as simple as the flip of a switch."

What do you think about this throwback anime ahead of its 25th anniversary? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.

HT – Crunchyroll