The MyAnimeList website has gone down after suffering a cyberattack.
According to Anime Senpai, someone hacked MyAnimeList, one of the largest anime and manga websites, on May 10. On that day, users found all anime series titles replaced with the phrase "LET'S ALL LOVE LAIN" from Serial Experiments Lain. As per MyAnimeList's Notice of Emergency Maintenance, a "malicious individual" has tampered with user scores and inserted a code to display a pop-up to anyone who visits their profile or list during the attack. They have also reported no data breach of their users' personal information at this time. MyAnimeList has also updated its users that the emergency maintenance will end on May 12.
MyAnimeLists Hacked By Serial Experiments Lain Fan
MyAnimeList acts like IMDb for anime, allowing users to rank them and search through a database. Over the years, it has become the most extensive anime website in the world. After the site went down, some fans thought it might be part of a prank by the MyAnimeList staff owing to similar experiences with it over the years. On April Fool's Day, MyAnimeList pranked users by doing something similar to the hacker by replacing the cover images of various anime with pictures of cats.
The irony of someone using Serial Experiments Lain to hack into MAL wasn't lost on fans who have either watched the anime or know its synopsis. The series follows an awkward and introverted junior high schooler named Lain Iwakura, who receives a mysterious email from a dead classmate who turns out not to actually be dead. The classmate, Chisa Yomoda, tells Lain she has left her physical body and currently lives in the cyber world called The Wired. Series Experiment Lain has garnered praise for its questions about the physical and virtual worlds, social alienation, mental illness and theology and has been lauded for being ahead of its time.
Created and produced by Yasuyuki Ueda and written by Chiaki J. Konada with Ryutaro Nakamura directing, Serial Experiments Lain released in July 1998 for 13 episodes. The anime received the Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival. The series has also inspired a video game-esque graphic novel.
In the meantime, since MAL will remain down until around 8 PM PST on May 12, fans can watch Serial Experiments Lain on Funimation, so they can also "love Lain."
Source: Anime Senpai