Ask John: Is Lain for Playstation Available in the US?

Question:
I have been trying to find information about the Playstation game Serial Experiments Lain. Is it available to buy in the United States and where could I possibly pick one up at? If it’s not available yet in the U.S.A, will it soon be available?

Answer:
The Serial Experiments Lain Playstation game, released near the end of 1998 in Japan, stayed in print in Japan for only a very brief time and is now extremely difficult to find. If you’ll indulge a personal anecdote, when I spent two weeks in Tokyo during the summer of 1999, in all of the dozens and dozens of anime and video game stores I visited, I found only one shop that had two used copies of the game. That’s two copies of the game found in two weeks in all of Tokyo. While there are certainly more copies than that floating around, this should still give you some idea of how rare this game is. I haven’t heard of any plans for the game to come to America, nor do I expect it to ever make it over here for two reasons. Lain is now a relatively old property, and even at the height of its popularity, it was never popular enough in the US to support the release of a domestic Playstation game. My second reason for doubting the release of the Lain game in the US is because the game is unlike anything ever released in America before. In fact, the game is unlike any game ever released on the Playstation. The game is not so much a game as it is an exploration of Lain’s Navi. The game itself has no Sony labeling, nor is it ever presented as though it is a game. When the game loads, it loads as the boot-up screen for Lain’s computer. The action of the game involves navigating through the various layers and directories of Lain’s computer, listening to audio samples, reading Lain’s diary entries, and watching video samples of Lain’s life. While I can’t guarantee anything, you may have some luck inquiring about this game’s availability to one or more import video-game specialty retailers.