Rika Furude and her group of friends live in the small mountain village of Hinamizawa; in June 1983, they welcome transfer student Keiichi Maebara into their ranks, making him the only boy in their group. After school, they have fun playing games and spending each day living their lives to the fullest. Despite this seemingly normal routine, Keiichi begins noticing strange behavior from his friends, who seem to be hiding the town's dark secrets from him. Elsewhere, a certain person watches these increasingly unsettling events unfold and remembers all the times that this, and other similar stories, have played out. Using that knowledge, this person decides to fix these broken worlds. However, when certain variables change, the individual is faced with a horrifying realization: they have no idea what to expect or how to stop the impending tragedy. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Five years ago, a string of grisly murders shook the city to its core and now the rumors have begun once more. Boogiepop... Everyone knows about Boogiepop: meet her one dark night and you are taken. People tell each other the stories and laugh: no one believes that she can possibly exist in this day and age. Still, strange things appear to be going on and the darkness is taking on many forms. Something is out there. Are you safe? (Source: RightStuf)

A rusted door opens to a decrepit apartment filled with darkness. Inside, the masked Storyteller waits to spin more twisted tales of horror, inviting all to listen. In one story, a woman is tormented by her past sins; in another, a man visits a chilling art exhibit, where things quickly go awry when he ignores the warnings regarding taking photographs. That is not all, though—an unsuspecting woman hears strange noises from her veranda, but when her boyfriend investigates, he receives the shock of his life; a lady receives a frantic call from her sister, who begs her to come to a phone booth, but when she arrives, she realizes that things are not as they appear; and a man looks for one of his belongings in his little sister's room, only to soon discover that a malevolent presence lives there. The Storyteller is all too eager to share these tales, which will no doubt shock and terrify his audience. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Lain Iwakura, an awkward and introverted fourteen-year-old, is one of the many girls from her school to receive a disturbing email from her classmate Chisa Yomoda—the very same Chisa who recently committed suicide. Lain has neither the desire nor the experience to handle even basic technology; yet, when the technophobe opens the email, it leads her straight into the Wired, a virtual world of communication networks similar to what we know as the internet. Lain's life is turned upside down as she begins to encounter cryptic mysteries one after another. Strange men called the Men in Black begin to appear wherever she goes, asking her questions and somehow knowing more about her than even she herself knows. With the boundaries between reality and cyberspace rapidly blurring, Lain is plunged into more surreal and bizarre events where identity, consciousness, and perception are concepts that take on new meanings. Written by Chiaki J. Konaka, whose other works include Texhnolyze, Serial Experiments Lain is a psychological avant-garde mystery series that follows Lain as she makes crucial choices that will affect both the real world and the Wired. In closing one world and opening another, only Lain will realize the significance of their presence. [Written by MAL Rewrite]