lainProtocol 7
lain : Protocol 7 visual
LANGUAGEJapanese Page日本語ページへ TTL 2019-2028Fan WorkBased on the official TTL guideline

Independent 60 min OVA Project / not official

lain : Protocol 7

Is that voice really yours?

An approximately 60-minute fan-made OVA project reconnecting the questions of serial experiments lain to the 2020s: generative AI, life logs, digital clones, and replies generated before the person speaks.

Support the 60 min OVATeaser PVProject XDirector X
LanguageJapanese Page日本語NewsProject X@Lain_pr7DirectorDirector X@moyashin12SupportCAMPFIRECrowdfunding

Teaser PV

Teaser PV

Noise, silence, terminal sounds, and the first entrance into the Wired.

About

If a reply sounds like you, is it you?

This is planned as an approximately 60-minute OVA animation project.

lain : Protocol 7 is an unofficial, independent fan-made OVA project planned as an approximately 60-minute OVA animation.

Search histories, unsent drafts, deleted messages, voices, heartbeats, sleep, response delays, and moments of silence. In our current world, a reply that feels like a person may be generated before that person speaks.

This project aims to express that question with the mood of late-1990s to early-2000s anime: quiet frames, hard shadows, terminal screens, noise, and uneasy stillness.

Titlelain : Protocol 7
FormatApprox. 60 min OVA project
ProductionStudio Kingyoiro / Studio Jiyu
Director伊藤魔鬼 (ITO MAKI)

Simple Synopsis

One day, records that reply before Lain herself begin to move around her.

Emails she does not remember sending. Drafts that should have been deleted. Logs that answer more naturally than the person. Through counseling sessions with Lain, school counselor Toko Mera approaches the shadow of the personal-log response-body experiment known as “Protocol 7.”

When records overtake the person, can a human still say, “I am not data”? This question is shaped as an approximately 60-minute OVA project.

present day / present time
please remember me

RECORD_ASSIST: active
UNSENT_DRAFTS: mounted
VOICE_LOG: duplicated
BODY_REFERENCE: lost

not as data

Story

Records begin to spread faster than the person herself.

After an email arrives from a girl who should be dead, strange rumors spread through the school.

Around Lain Iwakura, messages she never sent, replies that behave more naturally than herself, and another Lain existing only inside records begin to multiply.

School counselor Toko Mera notices the anomaly through her sessions with Lain. But the very act of recording her may be producing more of her.

This story is structured as an approximately 60-minute OVA project built around silence, noise, and the weight of the body.

Visuals

Scene Images

A selected set of images that show the atmosphere and visual texture of the project.

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More scene images / 29 images
Scene 0303 Scene 0404 Scene 0606 Scene 0808 Scene 0909 Scene 1010 Scene 1212 Scene 1313 Scene 1515 Scene 1717 Scene 1818 Scene 2020 Scene 2121 Scene 2222 Scene 2323 Scene 2424 Scene 2525 Scene 2626 Scene 2727 Scene 2828 Scene 2929 Scene 3131 Scene 3333 Scene 3434 Scene 3535 Scene 3636 Scene 3939 Scene 4040 Scene 4141
01

Personhood and records

A response body that is more accurate, kinder, and less flawed than the person. What remains of human value?

02

Body and data

Data can be copied. But body weight, temperature, pain, fear, and touch remain differently.

03

The observer's contradiction

Recording someone in order to understand them may also multiply and distort them.

Characters

Main Characters

Lain Iwakura

Lain Iwakura (CV: NaruNaru)

A quiet, introverted girl whose records begin to spread through the world before she can speak for herself.

Toko Mera

Toko Mera (CV: ????)

A school counselor who tries to observe, understand, and protect Lain — while facing the danger of recording her.

Production Method

A question about technology

Old and new technologies exist on the same desk.

Editing workspace Cel animation work Semi-analogue shooting setup

A question about technology — A middle-school kid who was told “That isn’t art” is now making lain.

I am ITO MAKI, the director of lain : Protocol 7. I would like to talk a little about the technology used in this project.

When I was in middle school, I was absorbed in drawing with online drawing boards and pen tablets. Digital illustration is ordinary now, but back then it was still unusual and not always understood.

When I brought printed drawings to school, people said, “That isn’t art.” “That is cutting corners.” Honestly, it hurt.

So I asked my parents to let me attend an art prep school. I drew charcoal studies of plaster casts, painted hundreds of works with poster color and acrylic gouache in high school, and made animation with cel materials and analogue shooting in university.

It was never only digital. I love analogue work, too.

That is why I understand the anxiety people feel toward new technology. New things are a little frightening at first. That was true then, and it is probably true now.

Technology is not the goal. It is a means of expression.

serial experiments lain also used cutting-edge digital expression for its time, and it caused both praise and criticism.

If, in 1998, people had feared new technology as “too early” or “wrong,” I do not think that work could have been born.

So with lain : Protocol 7, I want to use whatever is necessary for expression without prejudice: hand drawing, cel animation, optical materials shot with a camera, digital drawing, 3DCG, and generative AI through Adobe Firefly, whose training sources are disclosed.

None of them is superior. They are all tools for creating images.

In my workspace now, a high-spec machine, a semi-analogue shooting setup, and acetate film for cel animation exist side by side. Old and new technologies are on the same desk. That slightly strange scene feels very natural to me.

lain was a work that depicted the future. In 2026, that future is already right beside us. That is why I want to depict the wired of 2026.

And someday, if someone who watches this project thinks not “what technology was used,” but “that was a good work,” that would make me happiest as a director.

Crowdfunding

Production support

This is planned as an approximately 60-minute OVA project. Because it is being made by a small team, crowdfunding support will help cover animation production, voice recording, sound mixing, music, sound effects, studio costs, discs, printed materials, shipping, promotion, and CAMPFIRE fees.

If you want to see this project completed, please visit the CAMPFIRE page. Both support and sharing help the production move forward.

Goal¥2,000,000
FormatApprox. 60 min
GuideTTL 2019-2028
Digital versionDVD / Blu-rayEnglish subtitlesArt materialsScript PDFStoryboardBookletEnd-credit name
Support on CAMPFIRE

Notice / TTL 2019-2028

This is a fan work based on the official TTL guideline.

This project is an unofficial fan-made OVA project based on the “TTL 2019-2028” fan-creation guideline published on the official serial experiments lain website. It is not an official work, official sequel, or officially supervised work.

The official TTL guideline permits fan-created use until July 6, 2028, under the condition that users agree to the guideline and terms. The permission applies to individuals residing in Japan and fan communities without legal personality.

No official footage, official audio, existing product materials, scanned materials, or other official assets are used. The project is composed of newly created materials and properly usable materials, and is produced in a way that avoids being mistaken for an official work.

Official TTL GuidelineJapanese Page