That's an apt description of another Japanese film: Akira Kurosawa's "Flowers". It's a beautiful live-action collection of remembrances and short stories from a master filmmaker. Check it out.

Try BlockBuster or Netflix for "End of Evangelion". That will cost you less than $40. Your local BlockBuster may even have it.

That's great to hear; I'm glad you both enjoyed it. Yes, it's beautifully told, and I think it is quite accessible to people who haven't seen Anime before. Having seen that, you might be interested in some of Miyazaki's earlier work: "Porco Rosso" and "Castle in the Sky". Porco Rosso is 1920's-era historical fiction about ex-World War I pilots in the Mediterranean; Castle in the Sky is a bit more fantasic and magical. I haven't seen "Nadia of Blue Water" but I think it would be like Castle in the Sky.

Something else you may want to try, if you can get it: Episodes 21 - 24 of Neon Genesis Evangelion appear twice in the platinum edition, with a separate DVD having numbers 21', 22', 23', 24' which are the "director's cut" editions of 21, 22, 23, 24. Most interesting of the new stuff there is, inserted at the front of 21', a "Top Secret" video of the moments in Antarctica just prior to Second Impact. And inserted at the front of 22' is a private moment between Asuka and Kaji at night on the deck of the aircraft carrier prior to the events in "Asuka Strikes!".

Frugality is fine, but when I admire a piece of art enough, and I can afford it, I'm happy to buy it in the usual way, knowing that part of my purchase price is returned to the artist in royalties.

Right now on Amazon.com, the 26 episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion, plus the 4 director's-cut episodes, are available in a nice boxed set of 6 individually cased DVDs for $45.99. End of Evangelion is available for $22.99, or as little as $11.96 if you want to buy a used copy. Shipping is free if you're willing to wait a few days for delivery.

For me, those prices deliver a pretty good value, and I don't have to bother with file conversions, etc. But I can understand that your circumstances may be different from mine. That's what's great about the marketplace... we can each shop for what we want at a price we're willing to pay.

Yuki was right - I have no idea what Lain is about. You're told that Lain is actually a physical manifestation of a wired program designed to dissolve the boundary between what's "real" and what's "virtual". That implies that most of the story takes place in the physical world. But there are clues all over the place (like the colored shadows and the growth of wires on the side of her house) that seem to point to it being a virtual environment. The only thing I can come up with is that the story is what it might be like to be a program that's self-aware but going insane. I also have no idea what the alien connection is. As far as I could tell, it only appeared once and was only mentioned indirectly with the short blurb about Roswell.

At some point I'll have to see what Wikipedia has to say but I'd love to hear someone else's interpretation.

Well, now... seems it's time for me to finish watching my copy of "Castle In The Sky". I started & got interrupted a while ago. Nice to hear you liked it and that it had a bit of a puzzle at the end.

Many people say nice things about Miyazaki's "Nausicaa and the Valley of Wind". I think I have a copy but haven't watched it yet.

You said you saw "Spirited Away". "Princess Mononoke" is also quite good, with similar quality of animation.

The trailers for "Nadia of Blue Water" make it seem a bit like "Castle In the Sky", being another team-up of a magical girl and a adventurous/courageous boy, I think, so I think you'd like that too.

This would be a good time to see "Dreams" by Akira Kurosawa, the master Japanese film director. "Dreams" is a collection of eight short live-action films, each said to be based on a dream that the director had at one time in his life. I think this film gives you a good sense of what's behind the anime tradition, where we see beauty and mystery alternate with apocalyptic horror. The atomic explosions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki left a deep searing scar across the artistic consciousness of Japanese film makers. (The apocalyptic "nightmares" in this film don't rely on gore or violence to make their point; rather they bemoan a possible future of mankind.) But don't be put off by that; the beautiful moments exceed the sad moments, and the overall impression is one of peace with the earth and with life.