I’ve been watching Needy Girl Overdose after hearing people describe it as “Lain 2.0” because the creators were inspired by Serial Experiments Lain.
Maybe that’s why I’m struggling with it.
What made Lain work wasn’t just that it was weird. It had purpose. When it suddenly stopped to talk about something like the Schumann resonance, it wasn’t random “look how deep we are” material. It served the story. It added to the atmosphere. It made you question what was real. It was experimental, but it knew exactly why.
That’s why Lain has such a devoted cult following (and yeah, I’m definitely part of it). It’s incredibly 90s with that “the Internet is mysterious and magical” vibe, yet somehow it’s still timeless.
With Needy Girl Overdose, though… I keep feeling like the creators confused “being artsy” with “looking artsy.”
Every few minutes it feels like the show remembers there’s supposed to be a plot, briefly returns to it, and then goes right back to flashing walls of text and abstract imagery. Sometimes an artistic reference lands. Most of the time it just feels like teenage angst dressed up as profound philosophy. Ironically, it ends up feeling as shallow as the influencer culture it’s trying to critique.
Maybe that’s also because the original game didn’t have a huge narrative to build on. I played it too, and honestly there wasn’t all that much story there in the first place.
I wanted this to be Lain 2.0. I really did.
So far, though… I’m pretty underwhelmed.
I’m curious what everyone else thinks. Do you genuinely see it as a worthy spiritual successor to Serial Experiments Lain, or is the comparison doing it a disservice?
I watched the full season and by the end it was a serious struggle. I think I hated it?
The first episode had me excited. It seemed like it had something interesting to say and a dark mystery to unlock. And I loved all the crazy visuals, especially the OP.
Unfortunately the endless walls of dialogue that felt gripping in the first couple episodes quickly became droning, self indulgent, and well just kinda dumb. The writers like to bring up metaphors and literary references they think make them sound smart but really don’t.
Ultimately the plot didn’t really develop the way I’d hoped and I lost interest. I made myself finish it just in case things got better. There’s an episode near the end, I think it’s 11, that is frankly gross.
I’m not sure how far you are into it; Kache has one “hell yeah” moment but past that her character just kinda ceases to matter, which is odd considering she was kinda the focal point at first.
Thats the problem with anime’s like that, when watching becomes a chore instead of a fun thing to watch. Anime should in the very least be enjoyable to watch and not feel like daily homework. I intend to battle my way trough till the end I’ll keep you guys up to date if it was worth the watch for me.