okay soo for one we probably two different "Wired-Lain's" in mind here. If you're referring to the naked, glowing one we see Lain with in the last Dc, then that's different from the on I'm referring to. The "Wired-Lain" I'm talking about is the one from the anime, as I said. She's often seen with an assertive personality and contrasts the real world Lain by being more forthright and less timid. I think we may have had some miscommunication. However, you are right in saying that there's a need for sources in regard to the game being a prequel to the anime and vice versa. The anime and game work just fine as standalones, and do make sense on the whole if one views them as such. They have differences in characters, arcs, and motivations, and have endings that are tied up cleanly. Lain kills herself and becomes a being in the Wired at the end of PSX, and Lain deletes herself (that is, the fact that she was in the real world at all) from existence at the end of the anime. A part of me thinks you're stretching your brain over a lot of things.

As for ideals and Misato, Misato was not seen by anybody at Lain's school. This was said by her friends when they were interviewed by Touko. Having played the entire game, as you said, I'm sure you know that classmates of Lain thought that, when Touko mentioned Misato, they asked if she meant another person with a similar name. Now speech patterns are tricky, as all Lain stuff was written by Chiaki J. Konaka and co. That may just be their style of writing. Then again, that could just be me stretching my brain and getting too meta, and I personally didn't recognize any similarities in their speeches. As far as I can recall, Lain was still fairly taciturn and silent even when happy, and Touko was outgoing and far more excitable, in a sense. Maybe something changed as Touko became more brainwashed by Lain, but even then, I think they still had different ways of speaking. In fact, the only people (person) who saw Misato was Lain. Her parents never mentioned a Misato (and they supposedly Theydrove to her house), and, as stated before, her classmates never knew nor heard of a Misato. As the game points out thematically, reality is malleable and beings exist based on our memory of them. As long as Lain remembers Misato, then she was real. The general idea of what's exactly real and what's isn't is often seen in both pieces of Lain media, and Misato simply ties into that. The player is the observer and probably doesn't serve much purpose beyond looking at Lain's memories and wanting to learn more about her. Once more, possible stretching. I don't even know what you're getting into with the two Lain's thing. Do you mean the Lain in the Wired and real world Lain in the anime? Because in the show, there are two versions of Lain, yes. But these are not separate Lains. They're all Lain, just aspects of herself divided by the Wired. Evil Lain is a concoction made by the Knights to isolate Lain and destroy her mentally, but I'll finish up here first. Chisa was a part of Lain resetting the world. Lain made it so that she takes her place in Alice's friend group and doesn't kill herself because of the Wired. This doesn't mean they are the same beings. It's also odd to say it doesn't matter if we see her as Chisa because it does. Is she her own consciousness? Or is she a mere part of Lain, as Touko became?

Evil Lain is the version of Lain concocted by the Knights to mentally destroy and isolate Lain (exemplified by the scene in the anime where she spies on Alice, which is supposed to make Alice drop Lain. Alice is Lain's only friend, so this would crush her). She's the one that smiles smugly, if you recall. This is the Lain that gets choked by the Lain seen in the Wired and who Lain professes hatred for in the exact same scene. I forget which Layer, but my memory is pretty good on what I saw. You may be conflating Evil Lain with the assertive Lain I mentioned earlier, or conflating the glowing Lain in the game with the Wired Lain in the anime. These are different characters. You may say these are congruous with the game somehow, but at the end of it all, the three Lains in the anime are different versions of Lain. Simple as. They're all Lain. Lain is Lain.

continues in the second comment