>>12718278I extended this in another thread. Reposting for a record.
Honestly, I think it's pretty normal for males to relate with Lain. She's not really male nor female, she's a representation of the core proto-feminine state within all humans. In women this (generally) develops into what we know as female in childhood and continues as such, in men it's modified and takes on the characteristics we know as male. There you have it. That's the secret to why males would watch anime about barely pubescent girls. It ticks all the boxes, regression to the infantile and early childhood pre-gender state (disarmament, resolution of castration anxiety), regression to puberty, and the ability to look back on the whole thing anchored in the adult present. I can't think of any better mechanism than the formula late 80's to early 00's happened upon. If you make a show about a little boy men may realize, but are overall just going to have in their mind "he should", "he should've", "he needs to", "he will need to" and so on, they will blame and criticize him. With proto-feminine characters it still affords access to the core self, but there's none of the rest of it, it is a state which is apart from TIME. It's timeless. No past, very little present, no future. I'm not sure why the Japanese seem to know this so much better than the other races, but they do seem to think like Jews which is interesting.
The other themes just add another layer of relateability.
