I’ve watched the first 6 episodes of this show, imo everything past episode 4 is really vague and hard to understand. I’ve read that I shouldn’t expect to understand it on my first watch but if I’m not enjoying it my first time through I’m not gonna torture myself by rewatching something I dont like a bunch of times to understand it. It also makes me feel dumb for not appreciating something deep like this, especially since it’s something that you’re actually supposed to think about while watching it. Credit where credit is due, it is definitely one of the most unique anime I have seen.
Serial Experiments lain is my favourite anime, so I’d definetly recommend watching more… but if it’s just not for you it’s not going to click. For me, I enjoyed the anime already from the first few minutes and watched the whole thing on the edge of my seat in a single night.
Even when I didn’t understand anything on my first watch, I still enjoyed the visuals, audio, unique direction and storytelling, and really liked trying to make sense of it all and thinking about everything I just saw between episodes. Plus I could relate a lot to lain. But it’s definetly not for everyone.
I actually really liked lain and thought it was gonna be my new favorite anime until I got to episode 5, my comprehension went downhill from there. I enjoyed the surreal visuals and sound too but without a coherent plot to follow I just couldn’t be bothered to keep watching.