Interviews and Events

The creators of serial experiments lain have been interviewed or have spoken publically a number of times, and some of the transcripts of these talks have been translated into English. This page will attempt to provide or link to as many of these as possible.

Sakura Con 2004

Yasuyuki Ueda and Yoshitoshi ABe were Guests of Honor at Sakura Con 2004

conducted by Mangaes in Tokyo, March 2002. English translation (offsite link) provided by Babel Fish.

Anime Expo 2001

Chiaki J. Konaka granted me an interview to present at the serial experiments lain Fan's Discussion Panel that I hosted during Anime Expo 2001.

Anime Central 2001

Yoshitoshi ABe was a Guest of Honor at Anime Central 2001

conducted by Zigzag Asia Anime.

Otakon 2000

Yasuyuki Ueda and Yoshitoshi ABe were Guests of Honor at Otakon 2000.

held on August 5th at Otakon 2000 in Baltimore, Maryland

Notes:
Although I tried to be as accurate as possible, there are bound to be some mistakes in this transcription, especially since some of the questions were difficult to hear.
U was Ueda
A was ABe
M was the moderator/translator
M(U) was the moderator/translator speaking for Ueda
M(A) was the moderator/translator speaking for ABe
Q was the audience

Much thanks to...
Yasuyuki Ueda for giving me permission to post this transcript.
Jerry Hsu for letting us use his trusty minidisc player, and John Garza for setting up the recording
John Garza and James Kao for asking questions for me since I couldn't attend

conducted by Anime Jump! during Otakon 2000.

conducted by Anime Jump! during Otakon 2000.

on August 7th, 2000 hosted by The Anime Colony.

Notes: Other transcripts I've seen online (including the official one) do not include the unmoderated portion of the chat. It was a little noisy and possibly offensive at times, but Ueda and ABe were still answering some questions, so I've included the unmoderated chat for your reading pleasure.

Geronimo-U(eda) was Yasuyuki Ueda
ABe-SAN was Yoshitoshi ABe
I was logged in as Lawmune, Myu-Myu, and Taro
This transcript was recorded for me by Anthony "Chiral" Yan

More lain-related coverage from Otakon 2000

conducted by HK magazine (France) in the Winter of 1999.

conducted by FRUiTS magazine (Japan) in late 1998, translated by Equator.

on 27th February in "Loft-Plus-One", Shinjuku, Japan

By the way...

Be sure to look at the scanned Animerica and Manga Max lain articles featured on this website. The Manga Max article has some interesting tidbits regarding the production of lain, and the Animerica article contains Ueda's controversial comments that are referred to numerously in the interviews above.