Serial Experiments Lain: KTEH's US Television Premiere

Lain, one of the most interesting, most highly

stylized, uh, anime series we have yet been able to

bring you.

We have been in search of this series for two years.

We have been trying and trying and trying to convince the distributor to

let

us have a crack at it, but until now, they were unwilling.

Well, finally, they have come through and allowed us to show this to you,

and that means this is its first time ever on

television in the United States of America.

We are proud to be continuing that tradition here at KTEH

of never-seen-before on American television anime

series, and this one, we think, is very important

because we believe it's one of the best of all the anime series

we've found to date. We're really enjoying it.

Hope you are as well, and we've got lots of great reasons for

you to become a

member of this public television station this evening in order

that we can continue doing this extraordinary thing

of bringing, as a single station, bringing world

premiere, or a US premiere, I should say, uh, anime

series to our audience here in the Silicon Valley.

No one else in public television that we know of is doing this.

We are the only ones, and as the only ones, it means

everything is more expensive to buy.

This is simply the most unusual anime that I have ever seen,

Lain. We've been trying to find it for you for

two years now.

We have found it and have brought it to you.

Uh, once again, we wanna say that normally we would, uh,

bring you these

anime, uh, adventures, uh, subtitled, but in this case, the only way

we could get it from the distributor was dubbed,

so that's what we're doing this

evening because we have waited so long to bring this to you, and this

is a US television premiere, about the third in a

row, uh, of the anime series we've brought you

that have never been seen

anywhere else on US television. We're delighted to be able to do that,

but boy, I'll tell you, we truly need your help

if we're gonna keep

doing it. We are less than six weeks away from the

end of our

fiscal year here at KTEH, and by the end of that fiscal year,

when the books close, we must have a balanced budget.

If we're gonna be able to continue to afford to do things

like brand-new, interesting US

premiere, uh, anime series, then we've got to go

into the fiscal year, the new fiscal year, with a balanced budget.

The only way that's gonna happen is if you become a member this evening,

and in

order to assist us in that, we're under the conditions of a challenge

match right

now, wherein every level of pledging, $40

and up, will be matched this evening, more than

doubled, on behalf of something we hope you care

about.

So we're asking you right now-

I sincerely hope you have enjoyed the first three episodes of

Lain, and this is our final chance this evening

to ask for your

help with this kind of breakthrough

Japanese anime. This is a US premiere,

never seen before. It took us over two years to negotiate the

deal to put it here, and that was because the distributor was

so sure he was gonna make a huge cable sale.

Well, he didn't make a cable sale. That should let you know something.

Here's where the US premiere is taking place,

right here on your public television

station in the Silicon Valley, a place where animation is something

that we

see every day, but we don't see Japanese

anime presented the way we present it here week after week

after week on KTEH.