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Anime Review-Lain: “it’s a little odd...”. Qut of the Spotlight

With apologies to Otaku
North who wanted me to
review Silent Mobius, but |
didn’t have time to rent it, so
the review is of what we
ended watching at the staff
party, ‘Serial experiments
Lain’ so its a whole staff
anime review!

Kathleen:

Lain is another new release
by Pioneer, and it's been
described as an anime that
will let you get in touch with
your encyclopedia. There are
a lot of higher themes in Lain,
everything from life, comput-
er upgrades, gaming, drugs,
nanotechnology, suicide, the
interconnectedness of all
things...and that is just what
is on the surface! The sym-
bolism of Lain is deep, heavy
and. overwhelming at times,
because nothing in this
anime is just what it seems,
even a flickering shadow
seems to imply more than
just it’s shape. On the point of
shadows, which are normally
thought of an absence of
light, the shadows in Lain are
shown as flickering scarlet
masses’ which probably
implies more than a wonder-
ful animation technique, but |

don’t know what that might
be. Watching Lain is a fot like
reading a James Joyce
novel, all the dialogue, all the
movements, they are all
planned out to get the maxi-
mum effect. | liked Lain, so |
give it 3.5 stars out of 5.

Andrea:

! was really drunk, and it did-
n’t make a whole lot of sense,
but that was probably just
because |! was drunk...So, |
give it 1 star out of 5.

Dave:

It was dark and incomprehen-
sible, but the animation was
very good. 3 stars out of 5.

Colleen:

It didn’t make any sense until
later episode. Good anima-
tion, best watched while
stoned. Don’t have any
Com-sci majors in the room,
you will feel dumb. It leaves
you tringing to feel the com-
puter force. 12 stars out of
43.

Jeremy:

My finger smells... Huh? Oh
Lain? | liked it, there was a
lot of detail and symbolism,
so it seemed to me like the

type of show that you could
watch over and over again,
and pick out a new thing each
time. (3.14... stars out of 5.

Destrudo:

Rich in symbolism (like me),
Lain is a roller coaster ride,
no, refreshing taste, no,
wait... Doh! Anyway, Lain is a
wistful journey utilizing a
wealthy array of analogy to
take the viewer into a realm
where even shadows have
content. Repeatedly, the pro-
gram returns to shots of
power lines that hang over
the city like a web, waiting for
any sign of a helpless victim.
After all, “everyone is con-
nected” in this domain where
the hum of electricity never
ceases. The online world of
the Wired is what | refer to. A
world that has caused some
people to commit suicide:
“There is a god in here.” Lain
gets interested in this world
and her interests escalate to
an unhealthy degree. The
borders of fantasy and reality
blur, and Lain is in danger of
either losing, or gaining her-
self. As the caption reads:
“Close the world. Open the
next.” | give it 4 flying fallopi-
an tubes out of 5.

(continued from page 13)
charge of the new forestry lab
across the street from the
university's main buildings.
They expect to help with the
David Douglas garden, and
are already helping with the
Alumni Garden, around the
cafeteria. They are currently
growing baskets for
Convocation as well. As
John says, they are here to
give service to faculty and
students, and they do. If your
professor has a plant in class
to illustrate her point during
the lecture, John and Steve
supplied it.

If you are a graduate student
doing research, John and
Steve will help you design
and run your experiments.
They do tours of the green-
house and _ the forestry lab,
for people in industry, rela-
tives of Ike Barber (the man

-the forestry lab is named for),

Girl Guides, the Science
Alliance camps, or even you.
The greenhouse doesn’t hire
students, but if you’re dying
to get in there, they do take
volunteers. John and Steve
can’t delegate their regular
tasks, but they have a long
list of projects that students
could help with including,

building a place for the car-
nivorous plants, a cactus
exhibit, and propagating the
orchids.

Be sure to plan your time,
though: John says the
biggest problem with stu-
dents is that their help tends
to be sporadic, as they are
apt to realize halfway through
the semester they don’t have
enough time for study. They
have some really exotic
seeds and seedlings: seeds
of almost anything except
agricultural crops can be
readily imported, if you're
careful. John advises check-
ing the Customs Canada
website for advice. The
greenhouse currently has
baobabs, cashew nuts, wild
mandarins, gardenia and
guava growing, as well as a
mango grown from the pit of
an Overwaitea purchase.
John says there is no such
thing as a person who can’t
grow plants, and anybody
can do it if they put in the time
and thought.

12 Hours: Final Destination

by: Lorenzo Sia

From Kamloops down the
Coquihalla Freeway and

‘through the watershed and

passes, the coach traveled in
the dead of the night. | fell
asleep on the coach, tired
waiting and trying to keep
awake for the entire trip. |
was up for quite a few hours
prior to the trip; more in part
because | finished my final
exam earlier that day. But
now, it was morning, about
three of four in the morning.

My body ached like a prison-
er confined to chair. | was
very thankful that the seat
reclined back, but | felt
robbed that the chair seemed
to recline only a quarter of the
way | wanted it to. If the seat
could recline all the way, |
would have been in paradise,
but real paradise would have

been to already be home and
not have this twelve hour
travel by coach.

| cursed myself for such an
ordeal, but at the same time,
| felt it was good; the suffering
inflicted by time, the hardship
of a student on the fringe of
finances and the wanting to
be home all came together
‘and reminded me that this trip
was not so bad.

Getting some sleep, | dreamt
of_have real home cooked
food the way | want it, real
Filipino food, hot from the
pan. | dreamt of reading on
my desk with my lamp, and
watching the StarCade or
reruns of the Wrestlemania

‘on my 46 inch television. So |

slept through the remainder
of the trip.

The coach came to an abrupt
stop when we reached a
drop-off point. It was

Chilliwack, and my friend,
Rob Beischer, disembarked.
Before leaving, he gave me
his eMail address, but little

“did he know | would publish

this grand adventure in the
Over the Edge newspaper
when | returned to school in
the following semester! The
coach pulled away and made

more drop-offs at Abbotsford,
Langley Township, and then
afterward, New Westminster.
The coach pulled into New
Westminster coach depot
and | disembarked. It was
nice to see the familiar sights
and sounds of civilization, but
even better was the familiar
sight of my dad waiting for me

at the entrance to the depot. |
saw my parents and sisters
that morning when | got back
home. | returned home at
6:30 in the morning, at the
completion of a 12 hour trip
(13 if you include the ride
home from the depot, and of
course, loading and unload-
ing times).