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[A Black Falcon]

Lain: Lazy, stop trying to judge it without watching it... I know a lot of anime isn't unique, but Lain IS, and succeeds completely at it.

Milennium Actress: Good movie, yeah...

Haibane Renmei: more conventional than Lain, but just about all anime is more conventional than Lain so that's not saying much... I loved it of course, it's one of my favorite anime serieses, but I don't know if someone who clearly wants to dislike anime would like it.

Azumanga Daioh: I rented the middle third. Great show... weirdness within "normal life", done well... yeah, it's got a lot of anime cliches, but it's not quite what you expect because while it's cliched in a lot of ways the basic premise actually isn't something you usually see... As in, high school is probably the most common subject animes set in the "real world" deal with... but instead of being a show about sports, or about robots, or pure comedy, or romance, it's just about ... life... with weird, definitely not normal characters. A similar example would be how, like so many animes, there are a lot of female characters and few male ones... but instead of that being the standard "one guy with a bunch of girls around him who all like him" it's just a show without male characters in major roles (except for the one creepy teacher... :)). So it's both well within an established genre and different... I think it does it well, but of course I like anime. But still, it's very, very well done...

"Charming" would be an apt description... "cute" works well too. Oh, and the songs are interesting... light and nonsensical weirdness. I mean, "everday, the temptations of wheat, so fluffy"? :)

As for these shots they're talking about, yes there are a number of close-ups of Lain's face but I don't think they're unnecessary. Oh, and Lain is most certainly NOT dead.

Did he mean that girl at the beginning of episode 1 who jumps off that building? As for Lain being dead... yeah, she's not...