AMINE AND MANGA

Yoshitoshi ABe confesses to have never read manga as a child, as it was "off-limits" in his household. His major influences are "nature and everything around him".Specifically speaking about Lain's character, ABe was inspired by Kenji Tsuruta, Akihiro Yamada, Range Murata, and Yukinobu Hoshino. In a broader view, he has been influenced in his style and technique by Japanese artists Chinai-san and Tabuchi-san.
The character design of Lain was not ABe’s sole responsibility: her distinctive left forelock was a demand from Yasuyuki Ueda. The goal was to produce asymmetry to reflect Lain’s unstable and disconcerting nature.It was designed as a mystical symbol, as it is supposed to prevent voices and spirits from being heard by the left ear.The bear pajamas she wears were a demand from character animation director Takahiro Kishida. Though bears are a trademark of the Konaka brothers, Chiaki Konaka first opposed the idea.Director Nakamura then explained how the bear motif could be used as a shield for confrontations with her family. It is a key element of the design of the shy "real world" Lain (see "mental illness" under themes). When she first goes to the Cyberia night club, she wears a bear hat for similar reasons.The pajamas were finally considered as possible fan-service by Konaka, in the way they enhance Lain’s nymph aspect.ABe’s original design was generally more complicated than what finally appeared on screen. As an example, the X-shaped hairclip was to be an interlocking pattern of gold links. The links would open with a snap, or rotate around an axis until the moment the " X ” became a " = ”. This was not used as there is no scene where Lain takes her hairclip off