[Regarding Yasuyuki Ueda's comments in the October 1999 Animerica interview... 
The following text was originally sent to the lain mailing list on November 
5th, 1999. See the list archives for the full discussion.]

Here's my take on the matter:

I don't know Mr. Ueda personally, and maybe he's a great guy in person,
but judging strictly what he says in the Animerica interview, he seems to
have a narrow view of Americans and American culture. And even if American
culture is far from perfect (like any other culture in the world), that is
not justification for stereotyping or buying into sterotypes as portrayed 
by the media. Reading his statements, of course it's upsetting. I don't
think it's wrong for us to be upset. Now, I can't say anything about his
true intentions or personality. I still acknowledge that the translation
of the interview could have been horrible, or maybe Ueda was just having a
really bad day. But if he meant what I think he meant (and his language
seems unambiguous), what does that mean in terms of the lain anime we know
and love?

Now I agree a lot with what has been said about a work transcending its
creators, and the fact that it no longer belongs solely to the creator
anymore, but to all of us now that it has been released. When each of
us watches lain, it is not a passive process, but an active one. We
are creating her in our minds, and we are also discovering that she was
always there. What ABe-san said about the omnipresence of lain and
"finding" her rather than just creating her really corresponds with how I
feel about the process of discovering lain. In the end, the intention of
the creator is not so important as the work itself, as we can only see and
interpret the _work_, but not the inner thoughts of the creator. 

Even the "creator" I refer to is not a fixed and clearly defined entity.
Lain was the product of the work of many people, not just Yasuyuki Ueda
(producer, original concept). Most notably, we have Yoshitoshi ABe
(original character design), Takahiro Kishida (animation character
design), Chiaki Konaka (scenario and screenplay writer), and Ryutaro
Nakamura (director). If lain is the brainchild of Ueda, we are forced to
ask "who raised this child and how?" 

It is important to consider the process by which the lain anime came
about. I say this, motivated by the fact that I have a really hard time
finding good clear examples of "cultural warfare" in the lain anime. I am
not Japanese, so maybe that prevents me from seeing it, but if it's there,
it's way more subtle than some of the other nationalistic and
anti-American sentiments that sometimes make their way into various anime.

I get the impression that some of the "cultural warfare" aspect of
serial experiments lain may have been diluted as Ueda's general concept
was executed by Chiaki Konaka, Takahiro Kishida, and Ryutaro Nakamura, and
in a more metaphysical sense, Yoshitoshi ABe who found a character design
which is appealing to people all over the world.

Reading the Animerica interview, it becomes clear that the various people
involved in making lain do not share all the same ideas regarding what it
means or even what was intended (notice how the questions and answers are 
not uniformly distributed). Each creator has different ideas and is
influenced by different things, perhaps giving the anime somewhat of
a multiple personality syndrome (which is very appropriate, perhaps).
Deciphering the original intent of the anime becomes even more difficult
and pointless when we discover that the various creators have differing
ideas about that. Ueda himself describes how his original plan was
different from what actually happened, and how the various creators added
to and evolved his concept beyond what he could do alone. See:

http://www1.raidway.ne.jp/%7Eequator/english/lain/magazine/fruits1.html
and
http://www1.raidway.ne.jp/%7Eequator/english/lain/magazine/fruits2.html

(part 2 was just uploaded a few days ago).

Despite its multiple personality character, I _do_ feel it's possible to
view serial experiments lain as a coherent whole, especially since the 
screenplay and scenario was written by one person (Chiaki Konaka). Despite
his deference to Ueda regarding the creative origin of lain, I hold Chiaki
Konaka in high regard. Looking at his webpage (www.konaka.com), and
having briefly corresponded with him over email, it's clear that he knows
much about American culture and enjoys various aspects of it. A lot of the
technical details mentioned in the anime (like the computer stuff) can
seemingly be attributed to him. He also brought a vast amount of sci-fi
and horror knowledge to the table. Did you know he's a fan of HP
Lovecraft? Perhaps it can be said that serial experiments lain follows a
lovecraftian horror-style, but I don't know enough about lovecraft to be
sure.

If the lain anime "clicks" with a lot of us, I'd say that Mr. Konaka's
influence has a lot to do with it. He is the one who provided
a singular coherent storyline. (coherent enough, anyway) =)

Even if serial experiments lain was created by various people, it _does_
have an identity that can be interpreted. I do not think lain is just
random and meaningless. At the very least, it doesn't feel random or
meaningless to me. In the final analysis, serial experiments lain and Lain
herself is the synergistic product of all of us, both fan and
creator alike. And for all that Ueda said that is questionable, I can
agree with him that ultimately, it's about loving Lain, the girl.
I do love Lain. Don't we all?

-Lawrence Eng

the full text of the Animerica interview can be found here:
http://www.cjas.org/~leng/lainmisc.htm#mags