it's time to talk about something i legitimately care and think about a lot. that being three absolutely legendary anime: serial experiments lain, ergo proxy, and texhnolyze.

covers of all three of the d ark threead

so i'm gonna go out on a limb here and say as far as denpa goes these are like THE denpa. there's obviously more than just these three but where we get the idea of what a denpa is comes almost exclusively from lain and these other two are like directly fucking inspired by it or at least influenced by it idfk.

oh yeah a denpa is
"denpa (電波), also denpa-kei (電波系) or denpa-san (電波さん), is a japanese term for individuals or persons who may feel disconnected from reality or dissociated from the people around them. they may entertain wild fantasies and persecutory delusions or other strong beliefs, and their speech or actions may seem strange or incoherent to outside observers. the literal meaning of the term is "electromagnetic wave", and the original sense of denpa-kei and denpa-san was of someone who thought they were receiving voices, thoughts, or instructions directly to their mind via electromagnetic radiation." according to wikipedia.
it's safe to say though that at this point what people think of as a "denpa anime" is just an anime that's kinda like lain (or "laincore" if you suck).

cerial experinmetns lain

serial experiments lain is a wild, confusing, and pretty awesome ride. it's got a lot going for it: fucked up characters, unsettling settings, a plot that needs a master's degree in femcel to dissect, etc. this shit has it all. and i really do like lain, but a little bit less than when i first watched it. i really like what it discusses, and i think it does a good job (in fact, my original take on it was "an anime that you'll get the meaning of before you get the plot"). it could be a bit more cohesive though, or maybe just longer. that's certainly one thing the other two shows i'm gonna talk about have over lain, considering they're both double the length of lain. at the end of the day, lain is iconic and a true must-watch for anyone who wants to watch some cool and disturbing shit.

erugo purakushi

i hope you like hearing the words "ergo proxy" because you're gonna hear it a lot when you watch this show. the plot of ergo proxy is significantly more straightforward than lain's, probably because it's an adventure show even with all of its psychological themes. for me, the main thing i like about ergo proxy is the characters. re-l is a bit of a rude main character (though she does improve), so it's a good thing about 5 episodes in the show decides that it wants a way more awesome character, vincent law, to be the main character instead. this was a great decision that was consistently good throughout the whole show. vincent law is awesome and i love him.

vincent law falling backward in episode 3

i really like how ergo proxy goes from being a pretty standard mystery to being fucking insane. it really doesn't take that long for you to start questioning what is and is not happening and i really enjoyed that. there are some phenomenal episodes in there that fuck with your head. there are some stinkers, but it's mostly awesome. the ending is alright and is a good conclusion, but it's truly the journey that counts for this one.

also ergo proxy would not be nearly as good without pino there. she's fucking awesome because she just sits around playing her fucking harmonica flute pipe thing and it's adorable. she's a ray of sunshine in an absolutely desolate world

TEXHNOLYZE

yeah that's really how you spell that by the way. it's very early two thousands edgy in that way but i would not write this show off as "edgy." out of this dark threead, texhnolyze is easily my favorite. it has an atmosphere that's so indescribably good. the oppressive white artificial sky that follows the characters everywhere makes a huge difference in its presentation. i really love ichise's character arc going from suffering and being essentially rabid in the first half to learning how to exist in human society in the second half. i will not spoil texhnolyze here because it is truly worth the watch, but what i will say is that i see a lot of people say that the ending is really depressing. i disagree; i think it's actually optimistic. ichise's whole arc is learning how to actually live and not just survive as a stray in the city of lux, and he really does. that's part of why [AN ARC TOWARDS THE END THAT'S REALLY GOOD] is so good.

one of these days i'm gonna have to write a blog post with spoilers (or figure out how to make spoilers work in html/css/js (it would probably just be like homestuck pesterlogs)). texhnolyze is one of my favorite shows and i just can't stop thinking about it. brief shoutout to the ending for being insanely fucking sad and somber and never failing to give me a pit in my stomach. both texhnolyze and ergo proxy gave me that feeling of emptiness after you watch something really really good for the first time. that's how you know something has the sauce.

well that's all for tonight. i actually haven't been STOPPING as much THIS STUPID BIT as normal due to various reasons but i think i might actually be a bit TIRED OF THE BIT because i've NOW over DONE of BIT in the past THREE OR MAYBE FOUR BLOG POSTS months. see you all
-lego jujutsu kaisen