Dennou Coil

TITLE: Dennou Coil

ANIME: Dennou Coil was directed by Mitsuo Iso (well known for his key animation work on early Ghibli movies and Neon Genesis Evangelion) and was produced by Madhouse (well-known for their work on Death Note and Paranoia Agent). It ran on Japanese TV from May 12th, 2007 till December 1st, 2007 and, as of the time of this writing, has not been licensed Stateside.

STORY: The year is 2026, eleven years after the technology to turn the internet into augmented reality by the use of immersive "cyberglasses" was developed. Yuko "Yasako" Okonogi, a young girl in sixth grade, moves to Daikoku City, ... the center of the technology behind the glasses, and is strongarmed by her grandmother into joining her "investigation agency", composed of children with powerful illegal software codes and tools. On her first day in town, she runs into Yuko "Isako" Amasawa, a cold, aloof master hacker chasing a mystery in Daikoku City, that will soon involve both Yukos and their friends...

Dennou Coil is probably one of the best shows I've watched in a good long time. This show has been in development for about ten years, and with the incredible subtlety of this entire show, I can believe it. Every aspect of the technology, how the world works, and every tiny detail that one can think of for this blends together to make the world seem incredibly believable, if not possible in just a few years' time. It's just futuristic enough to seem amazing, yet grounded enough in reality to seem incredibly possible.

The plot and characters in this are incredibly well-constructed as well. Characters are slowly developed through various interactions and their relationships to others in episodes, and even though characters may not take a prominent role for a few episodes, they're always there in the background. And the plot itself is intricately woven; the smallest details from the earliest episodes, which seem like throwaways, come back to play in full force in the last half of the show. The first third of the show establishes the basics of the world and characters, then comes a brief filler arc that slowly brings things to the fore, and then the last third of the show takes everything that's come before and takes it into far darker places than everything up until this point would have you believe was possible. The final episodes of the show are probably some of the darkest I've seen in a show aimed towards a younger audience to date, but, regardless, resolve amazingly well.

ART: Dennou Coil has a bit simpler character design than other shows that Madhouse has done; the kids and adults are a bit more angular, and are a bit less intricately designed than, say, characters from Death Note. However, their traditional realism shows through in the interaction of the virtual environment and the real environment; incredible amounts of detail are put into the various software codes and tools that the children use, along with how they manifest (and yes, some will call similarities on some of the patterns that show in the hackers' codings and the arrays in Fullmetal Alchemist, but really, let's not be nitpicky here).

MUSIC: The background music for this series doesn't particularly stand out, but, regardless, is a well-done score, and worth a listen to. The OP and ED are done by the same singer, Ayako Ikeda, and are some of the best opening and ending songs I've heard in a long while, the OP and its eerieness in general especially.

SEIYUU: Fumiko Orikasa (well-known for her roles in Hellsing as Seras and in Saikano as Chise) takes a starring role in this as Yasako and does an incredible job in the role. Otherwise, all the other seiyuu in this production do a solid job.

LENGTH: Dennou Coil was meticulously planned, I think, to be just the right length; not too long, so that it wouldn't drag, but not too short, so that there wouldn't be information overload. No complaints here, in general, a wonderful job in planning - then again, ten years in development does that to a show.

OVERALL: One of the best shows that I've seen in a good long time, with incredible amounts of detail, and well-constructed plots and characters, and solid background music, art, and seiyuu.

An underappreciated gem of the 2007 season; watch it.

STORY: 10/10
ART: 9/10
MUSIC: 9/10
SEIYUU: 9/10
LENGTH: 10/10

OVERALL: 47/50; 94% (A)

I almost dropped this series halfway through, but I'm so very glad that I didn't.

STORY - Dennou Coil's story is a very unique and interesting take on a popular old subject: digital technologies and the human consciousness are both subjects that have been explored for years. Usually though, a series' protagonists are similar in age to its primary target audience, but that doesn't seem to be the case here as Dennou Coil's themes are actually rather sophisticated and suggest a complexity beyond what may be expected when the characters are in the 10-11 year old range. The connection between the consciousness and a digital projection ... of oneself has been examined in series such as Ghost in the Shell, but it's definitely interesting to see this sort of stuff with Digimon-aged characters. The story is good and solid, but what can be a point of frustration is the leisurely pace the plot seems to progress at for the first half of the series. Though it's a mystery at its core, the series often lapses into almost slice-of-life or simple adventure-type episodes that seem to contribute very little to the overall story.

This was indeed frustrating to me, and I was close to dropping the series as a result. But I stuck it through on my brother's recommendation, and I was definitely rewarded. Almost all the "useless"-seeming episodes contain nuggets of important information, and even the recap-like episode has bits of new, and very relevant, material slipped in between the recycled animation. In retrospect, this was actually incredibly clever as it mimics the mystery of the series and forces you to recall things later as you suddenly realize their importance. Keep your eyes pried.

Once you hit the second half of the series, everything starts progressing very quickly. The tension rises, the suspense more than doubles, and the mystery deepens as the characters explore avenues and possibilities they hadn't considered before. The story becomes even more engaging and intriguing as you delve into the pasts of various characters, intertwined in ways they don't realize. It gets scary too, in that wonderful creepy way that most horror movies aren't able to accomplish. Watch the second half of this series by yourself with the lights out in the middle of the night. It's fun. 8D

CHARACTER - The two main characters in Dennou Coil are both wonderfully in-depth characters. Yasako and Isako appear to be polar opposites, and it's really great watching their relationship change and grow throughout the course of the series as they are forced against each other and along side one another by circumstances. As they're both new the area at the start of the series, it's also interesting to follow their interactions with the other children as they carve out their places among them. They're great foil characters, and though this comparative nature is made obvious by their similarly pronounced given names (they're both named Yuko, though the kanji is different, allowing them to have different nicknames), I don't really feel as if that cheapens it. Additionally, though I usually tend to dislike wholly "good" characters, the fact that we're dealing with children makes their personalities and motives easier to sympathize with, regardless of "goodness." Besides, it's not that hard to believe that children just aren't that jaded, even if sometimes they pretend to be.

The rest of the children vary in complexity of character, but none of them seem completely flat or boring. Daichi and his gang may seem pretty stereotypical at first glance, but all of them are explored further (sure, Daichi and Denpa more than the rest, but even the lackeys have some ulterior motives). Fumie, Akira, and Kyoko interested me the least (Kyoko annoyed the hell out of me, really), but they facilitated plot points well enough, and the latter two are minor enough (and young enough) to not really matter much beyond that. Haraken I kind of have mixed feelings about because his character never seemed to change much, even when it seemed like he should have. It was an understandable staticness, to some extent, but it still bugs me somewhat. Still, his relationship with his aunt was fun to follow, and I think it's kind of hilarious that the aunt is only seventeen, but considering the ages of most of the other characters, that's pretty damn old! Then again, there's also Mega-baa... who's ancient, but possibly more childlike and energetic than anyone else in the series!

All in all, I was very happy with the characters in Dennou Coil, even the ones that appeared kind of generic found ways to make themselves entertaining for the most part.

ARTSTYLE & ANIMATION - I don't think there was anything especially notable about the art or animation in this series, but both were definitely fitting. The characters looked appropriate for their given ages, and there was a softness about the general style that seemed to suggest the same. The animation I would consider to be on the high end of average; the explosions, the shininess of metatags and metabugs, as well as the Illegals were all very well done.

MUSIC - I'm very fond of both the opening and end themes in Dennou Coil; both have this sort of mysteriousness and anticipation to them that go very well with the story and general mood of the series. The music present in the series itself must not have been anything too memorable since I can't seem to recall anything right now, but nothing stands out as bad either so. There may actually be some good tracks I can't think of right now though; there were some pretty nice action and suspense scenes, and I'm sure the music was appropriate for them. I just can't recall anything right now.

VOICE ACTING - This series hasn't even been licensed yet, I don't think, so subbed is your only choice for now. Average? Yeah, I'd say about average, average-good? Most of the voices were pretty nice, especially for more eccentric characters like Mega-baa and Haraken's aunt, but otherwise nothing particularly notable.

OVERALL - I think Dennou Coil is a great series, despite its slow pacing at times. You can consider it reflective of reality -- mysteries aren't always solved immediately, and children tend to have short attention spans, so they may wander off and do something else for a little while before being reminded of the task at hand. Mystery is a pretty neglected genre in anime in my opinion, but Dennou Coil handles it very well while matching familiar digital/reality themes with characters that aren't traditional to them. Everything wraps up neatly in the end (yes, that does mean it's a mystery that has a good ending!), and I was left feeling very satisfied.

Dennou Coil is a very intriguing Sci-fi anime showing the fun possibilities of mixing reality with virtual reality, whilst including supernatural elements that adds a lot of suspense and mystery to the story. ^_^

The story basically follows the adventures of different elementary kids who are trying to uncover the secrets of this augmented reality. As the series begins it doesn’t give the viewer much to go on, except a few things you’ll notice and able to pick up on straight away. Once having a basic understanding about what this whole plot and story is about, it becomes very interesting to watch, as these little kids ... end up discovering different mysteries. The characters themselves are pretty ordinary and don’t really do much for the story, accept later on once the story begins to find its place. However viewers may find themselves getting annoyed by some of the characters, but the intriguing and dramatic story will help you forgot about these little annoyances.

The animation has a certain uniqueness to it, as it seamlessly blends in drawn animation with 3D CG. It is not all the time when you find an anime which works so well with CG but it actually helps portray the half-virtual world in this one. The music is pretty good as well, with fun melodies while normal things are happening, dreary tunes for the mysterious moments and exciting tunes for the pockets of action throughout.

Overall Dennou Coil is an intriguing sci-fi anime that is similar to “Ghost in the Shell”, in the way that it shows another possibility of future’s technology. The story itself is very interesting, as it somehow portrays a realistic possibility of developed city, whilst also managing to incorporate many mysterious supernatural elements as well. This helped to add some incredibly intense drama in the highly eventful 2nd half of the series. Yet amongst all the fun, interesting and exciting episodes are a few incredibly dull and boring ones, in the 1st half, which let the series down.

Other than this, Dennou Coil is definitely an anime worth watching and I would have given it a higher overall rating but the uneventful 1st half of the series prevented me from doing that.

^_^

Dennou Coil is an anime series about a circle of children who are growing up in a city that is becoming increasingly virtualized. The female lead, Yasako, owns a cyber pet. Giant robots named Satchii wander the city applying software patches (even the city buildings are part virtual) and eliminating viruses and other illegal or malicious software-- using lasers, apparently. The characters wear special cyberglasses that have all the features of modern computers and much more. It's all pretty cool if a tad unrealistic and I was hooked after the first episode, although it took me pretty long to finish the ... rest.

To start off, the story is pretty good. The anime slowly draws you deeper and deeper into the central mysteries of the series, always letting you know enough to keep you satisfied but not to the point where you can tie all the loose ends yourself. You always get the feeling that there is something deeper in the background, pulling the strings, manipulating the protagonists like a bunch of puppets.

The main storyline has several branches: a search for what killed Kenichi's childhood friend, and the resolution of Isako's brother's fate. This puts the anime on a rather tragic path, but surprisingly the writers manage to keep the emotional appeal stable, never letting the anime descend for too long into excessive melodrama at the expense of the sense of fun and adventure of childhood that the series is fundamentally about.

There are many side stories interspersed throughout the series. Most of them are interesting and woven quite well into the overall framework (eg The Last Pleiosaur being one of my favorites), but a few of them are kind of sleep-inducing (mostly due to poor pacing), to be honest. This is especially the case towards the early middle of the series, which was when I stopped watching for a couple months, only coming back later to finish. Some of the stories have a "slice of life" kind of feel, and I'm not a particular fan of that genre, so maybe that explains it.

The art is fantastic. It is very reminiscent of Miyazaki's style for some reason, and in fact the storytelling itself feels very much the same. Dennou Coil is like My Neighbor Totoro meets Mushishi, with a strange cyber twist. Don't get the wrong idea though. The series is not cyberpunk. The anime is not gritty, though it can be dramatic. There is no attempt to really explore the implications of AI or emergent behavior. The nature of objective reality, and its relationship to virtual reality, is examined, but the themes and the conclusions drawn are more akin to classical Japanese fantasy than cyberpunk.

For instance, one unique part of Dennou Coil's fictive universe is the meta-tags, which are apparently snippets of code on ofuda scrolls or something similar (ofuda scrolls are those things that Rei from Sailor Moon uses, in case it isn't clear). Another example would be the spirit-like "null illegals" that wander the obsolete cyberspace. These are clearly inspiration from Shintoism and, while they are interesting, they are part of a large reservoir of reasons why the universe feels like a wannabe fantasy world rather than a real cyber world. All the tech is just magic with a modern twist. Don't expect anything to make real scientific sense. Instead, see Dennou Coil for what it really is: a beautiful supernatural story recasted in modern terms. It succeeds wonderfully in this regard.

Some who have seen the anime will notice that some interesting parallels can be drawn to Fullmetal Alchemist. The "encode" system utilized by some of the hackers in Dennou Coil is very similar to the alchemy system in FMA. Interestingly, the symbols and patterns, despite being apparently pretty much just magic, are justified as "science" and technology in both series. Like Fullmetal Alchemist, Dennou Coil is also very much a "coming of age" story that has somewhat dark tones occasionally, especially towards the end. So I would suggest that fans of FMA take a look at Dennou Coil, though it's definitely not going to be the cup of tea of every FMA fan.

The music and the sound effects are generally good but not outstanding. The opening and ending, however, are absolutely wonderful. They project an aura of mystery and hopeful melancholy that captures the spirit of the series very well.

The characters in Dennou Coil are quite good. Sometimes during the series I felt like, somewhere, sometime, somehow, these people could actually really exist. The circle of children is composed mainly of girls and they all act realistically for the most part. Don't expect the stereotypical bubbly lolis you see in a lot of modern anime. The characters are charmingly human in their range of emotions and will feel quite familiar.

My only complaint with regards to characterization is Isako. She was a much more interesting, respectable character before the series made her out to be a tsundere. Personally, I felt this transition deviated too much from her original presentation, and rather than adding depth to her personality, turned her into a stock character. But aside from this, I would say that the characterization in the series is very strong.

Overall, this is one of my favorite anime series so far, but I don't think it's for everyone. If you are a fan of "coming of age" stories and/or enjoy Miyazaki movies (in particular the aforementioned My Neighbor Totoro), this is a must watch. If you like FMA, you might like this. If you enjoy science fiction, you might like it, as long as you don't place too high a premium on plausibility. Last but not least, if you found the strange universe of Mushishi fascinating, you might also like the universe in Dennou Coil. As for myself, I fit in all those categories.

I will say this first: there are very few series that have wrung out such a wide array of emotions from me in such a way that Dennou Coil did. One of my friends even said I was cold-hearted for the way in which I didn't cry at anything she cried over. Still, Dennou Coil has made me laugh, cry, and feel downright freaked out (as in, scared, not "OMG THIS IS AMAZING" freaking out, though I do think this anime is quite amazing).

I will admit that the first half of the series is a bit ridiculous and feels very episodic. It's more of a ... "slice of life" anime than anything else, but I still got the sense that there was something much deeper under the surface - and I was right! Don't get me wrong, though. The first half of the series is still enjoyable, but it just doesn't feel deep enough to really draw you in or to feel unique, as if you've stumbled on a rare jewel of an anime. Still, once you get into the main plot, it's hard to get away from. The tension skyrockets and our young heroes (and antagonists?) get pulled into something they never fully expected. Even in the end, the true nature of the cyberworld and the Illegals is never 100% explained, and some interpretation is left up to the viewer as much as it is to the characters themselves.

While the show seems to be directed towards kids (especially given the ages of the characters), I found that the real storyline is actually very mature. After I finished the final episode, I had to sit and think about it for a while. There is such a mixture of themes here, including love, the complexity of friendship, the difficulty of relating to another's feelings, dealing with death and loss (ranging from the loss of a dear friend or family member to a cyber pet), the consequences of being too greedy, and chasing after your dreams and never looking away from your goal, even if the goal is ridiculous. Not all of these are very obvious, but it's all presented quite realistically and it's all there for you to think about should you want to.

For the technical stuff...
The art was in general very well done, if a bit simplistic in style. It almost reminds me of Miyazaki's art style. However, it does the trick well enough. The computer graphics are superb in creating the cyberspaces and all the technological stuff. As for sound, the ED "Sora no Kakera" has a special place in my heart - I absolutely love it. The OP is good, too, but a little lacking. The animation sequences for both of these, however, are great, especially watching Densuke walk across various scenery (and then fall at one point!) in the ED was unexpectedly charming. There is also one track featuring a violin that caught my ear and it brings about a really tense atmosphere quite nicely. The other tracks sort of faded into the background and I didn't notice them too much, which probably means they were neither good or bad.

Overall, I definitely recommend Dennou Coil. Give it a shot and get through the first half of the series, though don't skip them! They contain important tidbits of information (for example, the legend of Michiko-san/Miss Michiko) and the episodes after would be confusing without them.

OVERVIEW (10)
Dennou Coil is probably one of the most artfully constructed anime I've watched and yet it remains light-hearted and fun throughout. There were only a few episodes of "filler" but even these were pretty fun to watch.

The opening theme, "Prism", caught my interest right away, but it was the concept and character development that really sucked me in. As the story progresses, it really deepens, and you realize that the digital "layer" of reality is actually an extended metaphor for something much more.

This is a fresh take on the age-old "growing up" plot line. The interaction between the kids is very ... believable as are their internal struggles, which are far more age-appropriate than in other series, without being too childish for older viewers. There are some life-questions that we never outgrow, and there is something refreshing about seeing them through these elementary-aged kids.

All in all, an excellent series. I would recommend this for viewers who like analyzing, as well as for those that just want to enjoy a Miyazaki-esque short series.


STORY (10)
The story is superbly written and deceptively simple. The pacing may start off somewhat slow, but each episode is building the story up to it's climax. In the end, the momentum picks up and all the pieces come together for an exciting conclusion.

Unlike other shows that rush to a disappointing end, Dennou Coil's ending is fast-paced, but very carefully planned out. The last two or three episodes are truly the culmination of all the character development in the series, so you really feel that in the end, the episodes are all part of one story. It's a satisfying package.

In addition, the story has a very realistic psychological level to it, which really resonated with me because I have seen it in real life. Isako's struggle is very accurately and artistically portrayed, giving the story a relevance that other stories do not have.

ART (9)
The art is similar in style to Miyazaki films. The color palette suits the story and characters perfectly. It's not as technically brilliant or polished as say, KyoAni, but it was very appropriate. The animation was consistent, staying true to it's style and to a high quality.

SOUND (8)
The opening theme, "Prism", instantly caught my attention. It sets a good tone for the mysteries of the cyber-world, and the tinge of loneliness that the two Yuukos feel. I have a bias in favor of Houko Kuwashima's voice, but most of the voice acting is very good.

Nothing extraordinary here, but good work none the less.

CHARACTER (10)
Character drives this story, and I think the development of all the characters is very good. I found the interactions to be very believable for children of that age, far more so than in most other anime featuring 10-11 year olds. They were not flat personality stereotypes, but very well rounded. For example, the way Yasako is generally very gentle, but a little less so with her younger sister, Kyouko. That was a very well balanced characterization without over-exaggerating the difference in treatment. (No over-the-top tsundere, bipolar action here).

All the character relationships are excellently rendered in subtle details. I actually want to rate this category 12 out of 10. A++

ENJOYMENT (10)
As someone who loves to analyze literature, this story was a huge treat. But even without that, it's just an enjoyable story to watch. The characters are very likable in their imperfections, and the story maintains a light-hearted humor to it that made it a pleasure to watch.

Dennou Coil is an anime that portrays the overlapping of a virtual world and reality, but focuses mostly on children and how their lives and relationships are affected by it.

Story: 10
The series present a very intriguing plot, with secrets being revealed little-by-little, without blatant verbal explanations by the characters like those sometimes found in other sci-fi anime. Each episode starts with the main character mentioning some sort of rumor or urban-legend related to that specific episode, bringing up more how mysterious the actual functioning of the virtual world is, and how important are those rumors spread among children themselves in order to solve those mysteries. ... The plot darkens and speeds up around the second half of the anime, but the first half is nowhere near boring or overly "happy".

Art:9
The virtual realm has a very interesting design. Mixing with the real world in the background, artifacts such as old version incompatibilities, dennou terminals and encodes seem realistic and functional.

Sound:7
The intro and outro songs fit well with the overall theme and pace of the anime, the background music is good and has a varied selection, but doesn't manage to impress.
Voice acting is solid and has a couple big names in the cast, the actors portray their characters beautifully, but the dialogues themselves don't offer much of a challenge in order for them to stand out very much.

Character:9
The main characters have very interesting back stories, personalities and goals. Those are often revealed slowly throughout the series along with the plot, and it is fun to watch how they juggle school, family, friends and other duties along with the investigations for the mysteries involving the glasses industry and the virtual world.

When people partake in the enjoyment of various mediums of storytelling, it seems a lot of people tend to forget about what sits at the center of it: the story.

Dennou Coil's obvious appeal is in its story. The setup is outstandlingly creative; no synopsis can really do it justice. There are aspects and mysteries about just the cyberspace itself that have to be seen to be believed. There are more than enough questions to keep those junkies guessing. It may sound simple at first, but there is simply much, much more to everything than meets the eye.

The story takes a little ... while to get rolling, but once it does, it'll grab you and won't let go. My only major complaint is that there's essentially no initial setup for you in the beginning; instead, we are plunged headlong into some action with no time to settle in, whereas a simple, short exposition (by Yuko, the central character)--perhaps 30-60 seconds long--would've served that purpose plenty without sacrificing much screen time at all. We aren't told most of the simple rules regarding the glasses and cyberspace before much stickier and complicated matters are thrust at the viewer. We don't even get a picture of what SHOULD be before we see what shouldn't.

It takes a little while for the REAL plot going on underneath it all to unbury itself, but once it does, your eyes will be glued to the screen and your brain will be given a nice workout; it's great to get that "OH!" moment when things finally start clicking. It's for that reason that I don't recommend watching Dennou Coil while you're tired--or if you're stupid--because you really need to be able to follow if you're going to enjoy it to the fullest. Some things are pretty damn complicated, but if you can understand most of it, then you'll be in for an intense ride.

It's important to note the heavy usage of foreshadowing. Many objects, characters, events, and rules governing cyberspace have far more impact on the story than they first appear. Details are revealed bit by bit as the plot progresses, gradually piecing the whole picture together.

Serving as the fuel for the labyrinthine story is the cast. The main characters are children who are thrust into new and confusing situations and behave as you'd expect they should. They express uncertainty when faced with the unknown, doubt when faced with pain, and fear when faced with danger. This opens of plenty of avenues for character development--times for them to mature, take a deep breath, and be brave; opportunities for them to overcome lingering emotions and grow up. Realistic and compelling motivations are at the core of their actions, but they also make mistakes and suffer the consequences. When all is said and done, it's easy to look back and see how the character was in the beginning and how far they've come by the end.

They are the solid foundation grounding the viewer in reality in a world where things that aren't, are and things that are, should not. Their emotions--and the drama they stir up--are a relieving and powerful foil to the synthetic space they live in. It's not hard to find oneself identifying with their plights and problems.

The seiyuu do a great job portraying how an uncertain kid sounds, pausing to think about the words they're going to use next even in mid-sentence, or voice wavering when gripped with uneasiness or fear, or even just the simple notion of hope. Children aren't the smoothest talkers--frequently stuttering or verbally misstepping. Just the right amount of emotion is felt in delivery: not too much as to sound melodramatic, but not to little as to sound disconnected or robotic. Simply put, the characters sound realistic.

The aspect that needed the most work is the OST: many scenes simply would've had much more gravity had the music been better/more fitting. There are a few good tracks, but aside from those, the rest are quite disappointing. There are many silent scenes; sometimes, this is the best choice, but others could definitely have used some music in the background. One track in particular, a simplistic series of rapidly escalating notes played during many suspenseful or apprehensive scenes, is overused and frankly doesn't fit many it's employed in--especially the particularly darker ones. It puts a damper on the mood whereas a better, more serious (perhaps darker) track would've intensified it instead and imbued the scene with more emotional power. Some choral pieces would've been particularly good choices during certain scenes.

On a similar note, there's an obvious inherent imbalance in volume between dialogue, sound effects, and background music. The voices of the seiyuu always end up on the short end of the stick, frequently nearly drowned out by sound effects of what's happening on screen. Not only that, but the voices are far too quiet in general--even when they're the only thing going on audio-wise. The music is also in a competition with these effects, making it almost unnoticable at times (not like it's particularly important to hear).

The sound effects are pretty outstanding nonetheless, from the zap of a laser, to the projection and distortion of a hologram, to crumbling bricks, to even explosions. It's obvious that a lot of work was put into creating some truly unique effects.

Dennou Coil utilizes a pretty unique art style. Character designs are different and interesting while maintaining a more realistic depiction of people you'd normally see in Japan, but cuter. Animation in general is superb, with a high amount of attention to detail. Remember how I mentioned that the characters sounded and acted realistic? They also look realistic, and their motions are animated smoothly and realistically. Hair and clothes bounce and sway normally like they do in real life, wrinkling and stretching as the wearer's body moves and bends.

The most outstanding aspect of the animation is that of cyber objects: mysterious fog, particle effects, distortion and disruption of cyber space and objects, shadows, and passageways between obsolete space and the real world. Every aspect of the visuals is superb; even simple things like lighting at dusk or dawn are given a lot of attention.

Dennou Coil is a fun and enjoyable experience with plenty of mystery, suspense, and drama to keep you wanting to see what happens next. If you appreciate creative sci-fi scenarios and settings with compelling stories with layers of mysteries that keep you guessing, Dennou Coil is for you.

Just don't take the glasses off, or you might never come back.

Taking place in a surprisingly plausible future, Dennou Coil's story revolves around a group of kids struggling to grow up in the first generation of a society influenced by the introduction of AR glasses. The glasses open up another side of reality, not unlike a child's imagination brought to life.

The show’s shy and squirrelly protagonist Yuuko Okonogi moves to a new city to live with her grandmother, accompanied by her younger sister and her AR dog. On her first day in town, she encounters a high-strung but good-intentioned girl named Fumie. She’s a talented hacker who's skilled at using the tool known as metatags and ... at avoiding the big red smiling robots known as searchamatons (or sachis) who serve as antivirus for the virtual side. The sachis zap away anything they find in outdated E-Spaces, which makes them an enemy to the kids. Soon we learn she is one of the members of the hacker group known as Coil Denno Investigation Agency. Coincidentally the agency is run by Yuuko’s grandmother.

Yuuko meets the members of the energetic kids that make up this group and hacking shenanigans ensue. The mood is very fun and goofy for the first half of the show. Some may say the initial twelve episodes are filler because they do little to progress the plot forward. I'd call them slice-of-life. It’s a good kind of SOL because of attention to small details and gradual character development. I quite liked the irreverent slice of life and comedy that populates the first half of the series. The drama during the second half is an intense shift after getting used to the comfy everyday life. If you’re not totally engaged by the halfway point, stick with it.

The world of Dennou Coil inspires imagination in a similar way as Made in Abyss. If I was a kid living in Daikako city like Yuuko, I’d want to search for the city’s currency ‘metabugs’ with my friends and run from sachis just like the characters in the show do. Not unlike running from our parents to have a few more minutes to be outside to look for treasure.

While Dennou Coil is targeted at kids, it treats its audience intelligently with attention to detail and thought-provoking themes. There’s a fair bit of passive commentary on how we interact with technology to keep you engaged through the first half. In the second half, the show’s messages are placed in the forefront so they hit with maximum impact during the satisfying conclusions of the show’s greatest arcs. The way we see Yuuko and her sister with their beloved pet AR dog evoke the idea of what the difference between artificial and real is. When Yuuko's mother struggles to understand why she can love a fake dog, the generation gap becomes clear.

The whole augmented reality aspect of the show is developed well to become easily understood. Just through seeing characters use the tech and try to troubleshoot when they run into any number of problems that result in their experimenting with it shows how interwoven it is in their society. Like all good science fiction, it is clear this world is affected by advanced technology.

My main point of contention with the story’s structure is the way it cuts off abruptly at the end of each episode. It almost never felt like an episode concluded in a satisfying way. Usually, characters would be cut off mid-conversation then the ending credits and opening credits would follow, and finally the conversation would pick up right where it left off. This wasn’t a huge issue because I binged it, but it hindered the flow of some important conversations. Also, the pace is as I've already mentioned, slow early on. This will bother viewers who aren't too interested in the themes or funny slice of life stuff, but it didn't bother me personally.

When Dennou Coil released, it flopped. It looks childish and the poster art has quite a muted color palette. The characters themselves are full of energy and have well-defined personalities—so all I have to say is don't judge a book by its cover. There's enough depth to them for you to be able to explain why they act the way they do, what makes up their minor dispositions and mannerisms. For example; the main character has a past of being bullied so it's not surprising that she's shy and closed off.

Sometimes they do act a bit too mature or too intelligent to be real kids, but when considering the environment they grew up in I can look past these small grievances. With a cast as large as this, it was inevitable we wouldn't see huge changes in them as the story progresses. The story and setting are what get the most development in the show, thankfully they're good enough to make up for the lack of stellar character progression. While the main handful of characters are memorable enough, the minors ones stand out as well because they all have their own distinct mannerisms and expressions.

Including the character art, the show looks great. Madhouse outdid themselves. To say Dennou Coil is easy on the eyes would be an understatement. Even though it was released over a decade ago it looks better than most shows we see today. The show’s subdued color palette eases you into the mellow tone. This isn’t like the adrenaline-infused color explosion we’d see nowadays for the standard kid-targeted comedies, it’s melancholic but uplifting, slow but engaging, it's even fair to call it even unkempt. Yet in spite of its appearance, it's so realistic.

Even the opening and ending songs follow this trend of taking care of your senses. The opening especially is foreboding and layered with symbolism that the show gradually reflects with time. Its melancholy song does swell as it goes to become uplifting, inspiring hope for this seemingly bleak future. As for the rest of the soundtrack, it’s quite good. For the most part, it’s just easygoing and simplistic. Sometimes songs only consist of a single acoustic guitar or just piano.

Dennou Coil isn’t an action show, but the action it has is beautifully done. The moments where the kids had to escape the sachis were exhilarating thanks to the fluid visuals. It was during these moments that the show uses (visually appealing) CGI quite frequently, but in a creative way that deserves praise. A majority of the augmented reality is in CGI as well as the robots that moderate the digital realm. This difference between visual styles might sound jarring, but in actuality, the CGI does a good job of showing what’s digital and what’s real. While looking quite impressive. To complement the fantastic action, the show’s sound effects are impactful and visceral.

Dennou Coil is a fantastic blend of the in-depth sci-fi, childlike imagination, and fluidly animated visuals you'd expect of a Ghibli film. It lulled me into its mellow atmosphere with subdued colors, misty visuals, and seamless world-building.

New problems arise when modern technology is being introduced.
In the world of Dennou Coil, this is yet another truth.

The story takes place in the near future, where glasses would allow us to interact with virtual entities. As a result, virtual creatures are being augmented in our reality. It became very popular to own cyber pets; A.I. that lives in a world parallel to ours, called the Cyberspace.

The viewer follows the story mostly through the eyes of a certain Okonogi Yuuko, one of the many kids who play around with the glasses. She recently moved in to Daikoku, a city with unique virtual features. For instance, ... there's Satchii, a giant robot-like creatures that governs the safety of citizens by attacking "illegal" cybermateria. These materia consist of mysterious creatures called Illegals (which are thought to be viruses), Metabugs (yet another unknown material that benefits the health of cyber pets), virtual weapon-like toys and obsolete spaces. Obsolete spaces are corrupted or outdated versions of the virtual reality, thus requires constant attention in maintenance.

Indeed, living in a world with augmented reality is not as easy as it seems.
And it certainly doesn't get easier for our main character, when another girl who's also called Yuuko moves to Daikoku at the same time as our protagonist. She's devious and ill-tempered, and goes as far as trying to kidnap Okonogo's cyber pet. What's her motive? And what are the weird dreams that Okonogi Yuuko keeps having lately, about a certain person called 4423?

The story develops in a very easing way. It starts of as an introduction to this unknown modernistic world, and it subtly introduces fictional items through the eyes of the newly arrived citizen, who doesn't know these objects herself. But surprisingly, some of the side-characters suddenly play a big role, and would even serve as the key to the plot. Almost everyone has a huge impact on the plot, and if not, they get fleshed out too by full-filling the other side of the series: the introductory slice-of-life in a post-modern world. It's very common to have some romance and friendship going on in the episodes. For example, there's a very touching interaction between the pets and their owners. The characters develop a strong bond with their cyber pets, even with the realization that they're not real. It's so emotional that we, as a viewer, would love the those characters in the same way too. The children would go as far as to question if it's actually okay to love something fictional. That is, in fact, quite applicable to our world that frequents the cyberspace more and more.

Dennou Coil is graphical-wise a superb anime. It's created, animated and directed by Mitsuo Iso. As expected from the key-animator of FLCL, the dynamical way of animating is prominently present. People move in a credible fashion; it's all supported by little details, like manually drawing blurry movements, to the hair that moves in a very natural way. It all adds up to the credibility of a fleshed out character. As a result, the world of Dennou Coil feels lively and believable.

In conclusion, the world of Dennou Coil is strange and fresh, thus interesting. Each episode unravels the many mysteries of this world step by step. Whether it's about the new discoveries of weird cyber creatures or traces that demystifies the main character's personal past; it all keeps tickling your interest in all sorts of way.

This is a kid's show.

Yes, it deals with themes about death and moving on. Yes, it involves complicated plots and settings that'll have you double-guessing whether something actually happened in the show or not. Yes, it treats characters and events in a much more mature light than other kid's shows.

But none of that's gonna change the fact that this show, in its best and most genuine moments, is a kid's show.

This is a very different kind of show.

It's a show that frames mature events or themes through the eyes of a handful of innocently young children, all still in middle school. It's not a show ... about teenagers struggling through depression. Nor is it about adults struggling through life. It's about a handful of kids.

Because of this, the show is almost free from the limitations that an older cast would have. It is almost completely free from all cynicism. All the pessimism and negativity that more 'mature' shows tend to have. All that anger, depression, and hatred. Instead, it is replaced by this more genuine innocence. This heartfelt idealism. This hopeful outlook on life all true youths share. Sure, it wasn't totally free from all nihilism (those beardlings were the funniest little things ever), and I'm not saying that a show that's filled with skepticism and criticism can't be good. However, it was just a wonderful breath of fresh air to see these themes and problems dealt with not from a cynical adult's point-of-view but from an idealistic child's point-of-view.

I'll be honest. I felt a sudden pang of nostalgia while watching this show. I wasn't sure at first why, but I think it's because everything in this show is supposed to give this youthful and childish feel, from the characters down to the artstyle.

All the children feel like real children. They got the children to actually act like children. From the silly stupid and sarcastic banter, to the things they think about, to their motivations. I felt like I was in middle school again. These ARE middle school students. What else could they be? Too often in shows, kids like these are often depicted as either too young for their age, wherein they only serve as foils to older siblings or as comedic relief, or too old for their age, wherein they are shown as scarred emotionless beings or as overly wise which is symbolically (or comically) used to contrast their appearance. It has been a while since I've last seen middle school students act like middle school students. They act spoiled towards their family but genuine towards their friends. They think about what to do with their friends and how to spend their time together a lot more. They're easily motivated by relatively shallow things but act upon these motivations in a very genuine manner. The children were indeed spot-on, especially Yasako and Fumie. The only characters who didn't follow this were Haraken and Isako who both acted older. Haraken acted more like a depressed teenager whilst Isako was pretty much an adult. While this is not really a bad thing because of their scarred lives, I would've loved to see them act more like children especially during the ending when they have already gotten past their problems. (Isako did get her moment however that was only during her lowest moment and we never got to see her as an actual genuinely happy child).

The artstyle too gave everything a youthful feel. It's the pastels, I think. The pastel color palette gave everything a more foggy dreamlike mood (y'know, other than the abundance of actual fog). This color choice alone gave me a huge bout of nostalgia. It was exactly how I saw everything back when I was younger. Like a dream. Foggy. Muted. Or maybe that's just how I remember it. Maybe that's not how I saw things back then. That's just how I see my memories. Anyway, I'd certainly like to commend the artstyle. I wouldn't say it's pretty or anything, but it certainly set a good mood for the entire show.

Something I also want to mention which is something that I don't usually talk about is the setting and how 'enclosed' it is. What I mean is that everything that happens in the story, all the events that happened to the characters, happen just to these characters, just in this certain part of the city to a small handful of kids and adults. Yes, there are groups of people who sometimes butt into the affairs and there are also implications that the events of the story does have some effects on the outside world however everything that happens in this story happens only to a small bunch of otherwise insignificant people. There's this sense of 'enclosedness' such a setting gives. This is not the only show to do this though. Practically every show that has a cast of less than thirty characters have this kind of setting. It applies to every show that only seeks to focus on smaller things. Small events in one's life instead of actual wars or events that affect entire populations. The thing is though, the events that happen in this show are actually fairly big. They should affect at least an entire city, the denizens of Daikoku. It should also affect the entire reputation, scope, and development of cyberglasses which, if I'm not mistaken, is already adopted by a good majority of, at least, the Japanese population. And yet, it never does this. The show never acts like anything that happens in it affects anyone other than its main cast. However, as much as this is a detriment to the show, it also, to me, adds something to its very youthful feel. Back then, when I was a kid, I used to think that everything that happened to me was everything that happened. I knew there was an entire world out there with lots of other things happening that didn't involve me, but I didn't care about that. It didn't involve me. So, I guess the fact that the setting was so enclosed added to the enjoyment I was already getting from the nostalgia. Critically-speaking, this is probably a writing flaw, but to me, it enhanced my experience by, at least, a little.

EDIT: After looking at the other reviews, I realized that I barely placed focus upon the ACTUAL setting about the technology and virtual reality. Everyone seemed to be talking about it in their reviews. The thing is, the technological aspect concerning virtual reality and human consciousness never actually stood out to me. The reason being the show treated the technology instead as a superpower, depicting metatags as magical grenades and the Coil domain as just "The Other Side". It treats metabugs and kirabugs as magical gems and encodes as magical spells. It never fully explores any of this as technology, never pointing out the philosophical ramifications of having your consciousness ripped out from your body, and the show is more akin to a show about fantasy than towards a show about technology.

Plot-wise, it's fairly 'mature'. Several dark things happened in a complicated manner in a very complex setting. People died, characters were forced to move on from these deaths, and there were a handful of sad backstories to pick from. Not overwhelmingly dark as something like Evangelion, but is not scared to tackle such themes and events. And it tackles them in a very tasteful way, into terms even a child could understand. It doesn't sugarcoat any of its dark themes, but it doesn't force you to deal with it either. It just presents it to us enough for us to stop and think about them intellectually, slightly playing with our heartstrings here and there but it never really tugs on them. Enough for a young middle school student to deal with. It does so by mixing its dark themes of loss, moving on, and human distance with more common kid's show themes of friendship and emotions that middle school students often feel (with a hint of first love) and forms connections in between them. It teaches younglings about these themes in a way they would understand. A lot of this can be seen with the show's pets. SPOILER We've all had pets we've lost before, right? Those companions we really cared for that we were forced to part with? END OF SPOILER The happenings of the pets are then placed side-by-side to what happens to the other characters. By doing this, it creates a comparison that can help the many middle school students who've probably had pets to further understand the darker concepts the show tries to present.

However, people say this show's plot is complex. And, in reality, it is very complex, annoyingly so. It gives you so many plot points to remember that you end up forgetting a good majority of them. There are many moments when the show refers to something that has already happened and I go "Wait. When did that happen?" after which I head towards Wikipedia's episode list (ignoring all the episodes coming after) and rechecking the previous episodes summaries. There's just quite a number of things to keep track of and it becomes tiresome to remember them all. To me, it feels like there are plotholes, however, when I try to remember an example, I can't think of any. This is a bad thing. If you write a show that makes your viewers feel like there are plotholes even though you've completely ironed out your entire setting and plot of all inconsistencies, then congratulations. You've made your plot too complicated. I really feel like the show would've benefited greatly if it had a simpler plot and setting. I believe it would've added more to the youthful and childish feel this show gives. Instead of flooding us with a truckfull of plot points with characters running around, encountering all these plot twists and developments and all these revealed secrets about this forgotten company, maybe we could've just watched these same characters still running around but without all these complicated explanations and backstories. Keep all the important events, but tone down on the context.

This show also has some pacing issues. It takes a long while to start up and get on its legs. It spends its entire first cour setting up all the characters and setting very slowly (it was nice seeing all the friendships develop though which is almost entirely absent in the latter half), then there's this several-episode long gap filled with nothing but filler (although, it does include episode twelve which, although still filler, is the funniest episode of an anime I've seen in a while), and starts going faster and faster. It reaches a point where it's enough for me to handle around episode 18 to 19, but after that, the show just goes into MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE and barrels us with plot developments on top of plot developments. This has apparently also been in development for a decade, so maybe that's why? Typically, projects that take a while sometimes lose track towards where they're going. I don't know. Just a theory.

Of course, this show has other flaws too. Fumie, the best friend character who acts all best friend-like and Daichi, the jerk character who is actually kind of sweet are practically completely forgotten in the second cour of the show which is absolutely frustrating because the show shipteased them in an early episode but never did anything to add towards this relationship development. Also that Denpa kid, that soft-spoken kid who's pretty weird but really a good guy. I wish we got to see more of him. The plot twists at the end, although sometimes pretty awesome, can start to feel like the writers are just pulling everything "WOAH" they can think of. Yasako's backstory, although sounded pretty goddamn cool at first, just ended up kind of random. The character from her past just kind of comes in to criticize her then leaves. I felt that although it added a bit of character to our protagonist, it could be easily dropped from the show without changing anything. Or they could've gone full-on with that backstory. That would've been cool. I wanted to see a mean Yasako being mean. Also, even though I praised how the show takes dark themes and makes it understandable to young kids, I feel that a lot of the small nuances such themes have are lost in translation. Finally, the antagonist is a very one-dimensional character. There's barely anything to it, and his motivations are paper-thin.

Overall, it was a refreshing breath of nostalgic air. I don't see it as a masterpiece like everyone says it is, but it does things in a way few other anime does. It managed to present mature themes in a way children can understand, it managed to keep me on the edge of my seat even though it does so inconsistently, and it made me feel and think like a child again, giving me very relatable characters such as Yasako who really acted like middle school students.

I recommend this to those who'd like to see a show that deals with nihilistic themes in an optimistic way even if it may be in an oversimplified way, to those who like plot twists even if they don't come in in a very well-pace manner, and to those who just want to feel like a middle school student again.

Overall, I'd rate this show a 7.35/10.

+ very nostalgic
+ presents mature themes in a way children will understand
+ full of plot twists
+ very relatable characters; especially the protagonist
+ unique art style
+ very refreshing and different from the usual anime

- lots of plot points to keep track of
- overcomplicated setting and context
- not well-paced; slow at the first half, filler in the middle, extremely fast-paced ending
- somewhat simplifies its mature themes
- some characters are forgotten by the end
- the protagonist has a random backstory
- two characters act too old for their age
- one-dimensional antagonist

Dennou Coil might very well be the most difficult anime series to evaluate with nothing more than a simple numeric grade. It's odd combination of childlike charm and philosophical substance make it a very on and off show, yet the unique execution of it makes this a rewarding show for those willing to sit through it's few dragging bits.

Story; 10. The story in DC really does begin to develop as you would expect your average kid's show to progress. The elements are all there, however the plot is executed with far more complexity than a kid's show, and is interwoven in a way that allows ... it to stand center stage, yet coexist with the enticingly fun childish atmosphere brought about by the various other aspects of the series. Another interesting point is the "filler" in DC. There are a handful of episodes that stray almost entirely from the main story arc, generally following the antics of the cyber detectives club. And more often than not, such plot deviation is a recipe for disaster. However, the opposite would have to be true in the case of DC, as these seemingly random tangents in the story wound up being some of my favorite episodes (the bearded ones comes to mind especially, being my favorite episode hands down.) It's really it's own style, and save for a small number of slowly paced episodes, DC manages to pull off a feat that looks like a disaster on paper very well.

Art; 8. This really does come down to opinion, but I loved the art for this show. It was extremely simple, which helped to make it very inviting. The way many things were portrayed physically (ie. antivirus software, etc.) I found to be very creative, and the digital pets were also pretty damn cool themselves. There was a certain playful artistic air about the series, and while some may frown at the simplicity in the face of many newer, far more aesthetically pleasing shows, I'll go for the fun of Dennou Coil over that any day.

Sound; 8. The few BGMs in DC actually fit where they were used, and while one in particular was kind of cheesy, it really did fit, and that's more than you can say for the average anime OST. I also didn't find the opening theme to be terribly grating. Which is usually the case.

Character; 10. It's unusual with a show featuring more than three or four cast characters to have a completely fulfilling roster for me, but this is yet another area that DC managed to completely divert from what I am used to. All of the characters had, by series end, grown on me in one way or another. The series boasts a cast of middle/elementary school kids who ACTUALLY portray convincing kids for the age group. I think they well done characters helped bring about that playful, childlike mood perfectly, while also being able to maintain a fairly "heavy," adult plotline at the same time. It is my pleasure to say that DC has an essentially perfect cast of crazy, fun and enjoyable characters.

Enjoyment/Overall; 8. I'm torn with giving this a fair numeric grade, as it seems to bounce between perfect and average. Though it unquestionably leans towards the former, the fact remains that a few slow downs here and there, along with some small technical issues keep it from being the ten it easily could be. If I were to grade it on content and artistry alone, I could very easily give it a ten. But I can't ignore the small issues that come with it, so I have to try and settle it out somewhere. Suffice to say, I think anyone who either enjoys a serious plotline, or just enjoys a good fun time, will be able to find something to love here. I waited far too long to sit down and watch this, and I suggest you do not make the same mistake I did!

I'll say this first and foremost, this anime is not for everyone.

No spoilers review

When I see you reading here, I am expecting that you've already read the synopsis so I wont have to repeat it twice.

Story:

Viewer Ratings can be somewhat deceiving. As this show is rated G, the first thing that you will think of is that this anime is rather simple and lighthearted. But no, says this show, add a little twist and make it a little complicated. I hope this author knows that he overdid it.

... The First part: 6/10
This anime starts right off the bat without explaining even the tiniest bits of information(except for the synopsis). Well this is bad(but not very bad) in a sense that the viewers will not get most of it and instead it expects you to get it piece by piece. The story layout in the first part is simple, each episode tends to focus on something and develop it. So why did I rated this 6? Well, the pacing is very bad and it tends to stray to the main plot. The mystery also is almost left untouched. In short, the first part is like your lighthearted slice of life anime which focuses on development needed for the second half.


The Second part: 10/10
This is obviously better than the former. As the plot starts rolling, it will never stop. The story gets deeper and deeper as the characters delve into the mystery. This is why I said earlier that viewer ratings can be deceiving, heck why is this show rated G when it the plot is so dark. The overall pacing is even great with almost all of the episodes ending with a cliff hanger or something that will definitely make you want to watch the next. In the end, this was the best last set of episodes I have watched in a long while, it's just that good.


Art: 9/10

For a 2007 anime, I would say that the animation is very good for its time. The details and character design are good and polished. It's not on the level of animation of ufotable and kyoani but overall, no complaints.


Sound: 9/10

I'd say I would like to praise the voice actors/actresses in this anime for sounding like elementary school kids. The OP and ED are also very good and fits well in the show. The OP sets the tone for the show by being mysterious and the ED is a little sad that really fits well as an ending. The Bgms and sound effects are also good but not outstanding.


Character: 9/10

This show heavily focused on character development. Every main character has been developed by giving them focused attention for at least 1-2 episodes while revealing their thoughts, motives. Good thing that they are not 1 dimensional and tend to be static. Instead, over the course of the anime, you will see them grow and tend to relate to them. And Hell even the supporting characters that doesn't have a lot of screen time later gets developed which can be also a good thing. My only complain though is sometimes they can be hard to understand that I start questioning myself, Are they really elementary level kids?

Enjoyment: 9/10

About the random rambling earlier about the first part being too much of a slow pace, I did enjoy it at least. This show has lots of action, lots of shooting of laser beams, and lots of sachi which is also fun. I'm happy that I did not drop this show for not having a plot for the first part. The second part is really the best part I have watched in a while.


Overall: 9/10
When I question myself, will I give this show a 9 or is it a masterpiece? I say that it is the former, yes this show is highly enjoyable but this show suffered a lot due to the slow pacing of the first part.


Recommendation Level: If you are a sci-fi fan and does have lots of patience or you like complicated stories then this anime is definitely for you.

Recommended Related Anime: Steins;Gate
If you have watched this and liked it. I will recommend you this anime. It is also sci-fi, uses the same pacing but it is more epic.

INTRO [Kira-bugs! Got to catch ‘em all!]

Dennou Coil is one of the best family oriented action series I know of. Although it is aimed at a younger audience it also has a lot of attention in its writing, visuals, and storytelling, easily elevating it to something far more than a proxy battle anime. What sticks out the most is its great presentation of augmented reality. You know, like in Pokemon GO where the world around you is full of digital creatures you can only see and interact with by using a device. It does that here, plus it gives the players the motivation to look ... around for resources they have to gather so they can cash them in for digital currency and with it buy all sorts of weaponry. It’s not a throwaway gimmick, it builds an entire world around it and explores it in numerous ways, especially with the pocket worlds called Obsolete Spaces that resemble ghost towns made of two-dimensional buildings. They even bothered to include glitches and errors in the program for more realism in the unreal. It even becomes philosophical and existential at times, giving it a layer of depth you would normally not expect in such a type of a show. It’s never something nearly as heavy as the stuff you will find in Ghost in the Shell or Serial Experiments Lain since it’s overall light-hearted and optimistic in tone. But it’s also not like K-On where there is no actual conflict and nobody has to struggle for achieving something.

VISUALS [According to a rumor on the net Miss Michico will get you!]

Despite its age it also holds up in terms of animation and visuals by having very detailed body language and facial expressions, like they used actual actors to do the motions and then drew over them, plus very creative skirmishes when it comes to action. The setting in general feels very lively, despite being a village out in the boonies. The normal world is very detailed and the ethereal details that are added to it through augmented reality make it fun to look at and explore.

PLOT [So put your grasses on, nothing will be wong]

With that said it’s also a niche series since it doesn’t have the usual stuff that attracts most casual fans. Unless you really like science fiction, you won’t be drawn in by its simple and semi-episodic plot. Also although it has a lot of action it is never epic in scale, as is in Digimon or Yugioh. It’s not about saving the world from complete destruction; it’s more about simple skirmishes amongst children which almost never cause any actual damage or injury because everything happens in an augmented reality. That means for anyone not wearing those sci-fi glasses it comes off as elaborate LARPING. It is very important for the kids since it can damage their expensive glasses, but for the rest it’s make-belief and doesn’t actually affect the real world. Until it does in the second half of the series, when rogue AIs cause actual problems in the electronic systems. That is actually the worst part in the whole show.

The plot starts as a silly scenario about kids playing with fake guns while hunted by a huge toy. Then it gets somewhat deep with stories around AI programs causing all sorts of trouble and making the kids ponder about serious issues. And then it gets dark with a murder mystery, people falling into comas by a cyber ghost’s curse, and an avenging youth out to deal with a cover-up made by a mega-corporation. It sounds like a cool escalation, from a silly slice of life to a weird combo of .hack//SIGN and Sword Art Online but the atmosphere doesn’t change much, it remains light-hearted, and most of the weird dark web stuff come down to obscure metaphysics that don’t have a plausible explanation, which is not like the explanations you were getting in the earlier parts. Basically the final arc will not be as thriller-ish as it should be and it won’t be that down to earth or even realistic compared to the rest of the show. It can be off-putting if you were in it for the silly kids LAPRING over digital peanuts, and not for the sinister megacorporation conspiracy that covers up crimes with bizarre metaphysics.

A nice touch is the parents who actually notice something is off and eventually try to stop their kids from dealing with a game that becomes progressively more illegal and dangerous. How many shows bother to have parents, and how many of those shows with parents actually prevent the children from doing dangerous things? The main reason parents usually don’t exist or the kids are orphans is for allowing young children to do all sorts of ridiculous things that would normally be stopped by the adults. You have to appreciate the show for touching a subject almost any other anime sweeps under the rug.

CAST [Boku Satchi!]

The most average part of the show is its human characters, basically stock character archetypes of children. The lively one, the timid one, the brass one, and so on. Like in most such shows, they get fleshed out through their interactions rather their very short pasts or goals in life. It can be an issue for many who prefer characters being interesting from the very beginning because of something in their past or a certain superpower they have. You also need some tolerance with middle-aged women voicing 10 year-old boys. The support cast on the other hand, the cyber-creatures, are awesome! From cats that play ROCK-PAPER-SCISSORS with their ears to cyber-cops in the form of huge smiling toys, they are all very memorable and creative in the way they behave. Unfortunately most will just notice they are not firing energy blasts or have 52 evolution stages each and will not bother much with them.

CONCLUSION [Cash in your rare Meta-bugs for powerful Meta-tags.]

As a whole Dennou Coil is definitely standing out and I do recommend it, even when I know it can’t be unappreciated by most since it wasn’t trying to be too much of a single genre thus it has a hard time attracting any specific audience. It doesn’t have a lot of action for shonentards and it’s too smart for little children to follow properly. Most casuals who want a lot of action or plenty of character interactions instead of theme exploration or good directing can’t appreciate such a show, because they are not actually watching anime for the artistry and prefer easily digestible mainstream stuff. It’s why Dennou Coil went completely unnoticed during its initial airing and is considered a failure in terms of marketing. On the other hand a pile of shit like Fairy Tail is considered a major success because it made a lot of money despite having horrible writing and relying heavily on fan service.

Last week I started watching Dennou Coil and yesterday I already finished the 26th and last episode. Not many anime pull you in this vastly but Dennou Coil had me super-glued to my screen.

The story starts frenetically introducing the main character Yuuko "Yasaka" Okonogi who moved to Daikuko City just recently. One by one characters and elements are thrown to the audience but never spoiling the mystery which covers it all. Dennou Coil's plot is one of the greatest I've come by ever since I started watching anime. Everything has its place in a puzzle that's led down piece by piece.

At the beginning ... the art may not seem shiny eye-candy but its simplicity works perfectly for this anime and even adds depth to the surroundings and characters. The intro and ending songs made me sing along each time, meaning I liked them. They also fit well in the digital/traditional worlds which reign in Dennou Coil. The OST was nice and didn't get disturing at any point.

In the first few episodes, the digital world which complements the real world is explained, as are the relationships between characters. Some hardships are overcome while Yasako and her friend Fumie try to discover the truth about their classmate Isako and the Illegals, black grainy creatures resembling virus' in the digital world.

Halfway through, the story centers more on supporting characters though never without adding something useful to the main story. Every character is unique and as the story evolves, so do they. Some really pull you into their tearjerking moments. The overall feeling through these episodes is more relaxed and feel-good then the action-loaded first half.

After this, the plot becomes a lot darker and more intense. Up until now many mysteries were left unsolved but now the loose ends are tied together, including the little details some of us had probably already forgotten all about. The story remains unpredictable until the very end, reaches a most excellent climax without overdoing things and has an ending I believe most anyone would be happy with.

I felt very satisfied after watching Dennou Coil, as if I just ate a huge plate of my favorite food. If anything less loathing is to be said it would be about the music, of which I remember very little, meaning it wasn't much of a asset. There's a little bit for everyone in this series; drama, comedy, sci-fi, action, mystery... But it never becomes too much of the good stuff. I'd say one of series' trump cards is it's balance. This genre-balance guided by the amazing storybuild make Dennou Coil what it is: one hell of an anime.

I was suprised about this, Its been a couple of years since it aired in Japan, but I only recently decided to watch this series, and I am glad I did, the idea and the imagination required to create such a work of art and such a strong powerful story and with the correct mixture of characters and their personalities, really pleased me in every way. There was not a second I was bored or began to lose concentration.

The idea of a futuristic world, where technology has advanced greatly upon the information infrastruture, and the use of cyberglasses over the nation is just brilliant. ... I love how there is an aspect of RPG to it, with the metabug hunting and detective work.

But the aspects of mystery of the cybernetic world behind the glasses, how the glasses allowes you to see cybernetic objects, use of metatags, metaweapons and even the existence of cyberpets, makes me want to have one off those pair of cyberglasses, it just seems so cool, to be able to call anyone as long as they had glasses. The glasses also acted as a portable PC, allowing you to go onto the internet, and able to write and store all sorts of information, even acting as a GPS.

The creation of such a world is amazing and very appealing to me.

But even such a creative and fun world has its mysteries and flaws. with the exisitences of illegals (virus type pet infiltrating shadows), who can only exist in obsolute spaces of the cybernetic world. And the exisitence of Cybernetic juristiction, with the post office being the main security system implace for the public to destroy or format obsolute spaces and illegals, using a system called Satchi and Kyuu Chans.

The Characters are very well diverse, and I enjoyed the developement of their relationship, and how they open up the characters memories and past. I like how the pieces of the puzzle begin to link together, and however thing slowly begins to make sense, drawing you into the story and plot.

The art work fits very well, and I like the style used on the characters, as it fits their personality very well, and goes well with all the CG used throughout the show, I loved how everything was portrayed so you could understand them, and I loved how the metatags were like the talismans used in exocism by the chinese taoists.

I would go into the characters and who they are..... but for now I will leave you with this explanation.

Overall it was amazing to follow, I really enjoyed the show and wish it was longer so I could have enjoyed it for longer living in that suspense and excitement of the show.

Dennou Coil, A pretty complex story about how children get lost in technology and need help to get out.
STORY: The story is great, it keeps you hooked if you like this style of anime. Even though for the first about half of the series, the episodes are just little mini 'adventures' that the children have. They are significant because they lead up to the main story line. The story stayed to the mystery side but hopped around everywhere else. There was some adventure, some action, some comedy, and some romance.
ART: The art takes some getting used to because there's no special thing about the characters. ... They are all like normal children with normal looks and such. Otherwise the art is fantastic. The scenery is amazing, and all the animation is wonderful.
SOUND: I loved all the music in the series. It's calm, and mysterious. It keeps the mood of the series on the right track.
CHARACTER: The characters all looked different, but not major difference. There's no hot pink hair or other obnoxious colors like that. They all have natural hair and natural-sized body parts. The only thing that changes the characters is their style, eyes, hair, and personality. Even though the characters are sort of the 'same', they still stand out from each other because of how the act and dress.
ENJOYMENT: I enjoyed the series very much. A few laughs, and a few sudden surprises, along with some romance and drama really boosted the show. Even though some episodes have epic cliff-hangers, it's just what keeps you hooked.
OVERALL: The show was great. Nothing too bad. I don't have anything I don't think I liked about the series. It was all great.

First of all I'm a BIG FAN of DENSUKE! I want a huge poster of him.

Because of a busy schedule it is rare for me to stick to an anime after the 2nd or 3rd episode premise without it showing early on as something that is unique, or have at least flawless animation/execution and above all hints of a rewarding series to finish.

Actually, I never write reviews unless a series has tugged my heart strings and inspired me to do so. Nowadays, I am more skeptical of the quality of anime that is out there now. A lot of shows are easy to categorize ... and just scarcely inspired or would end up with a mediocre ending.

Well, Denno Coil [Ureshii fansubs] definitely awakened the long-lost anime fan in me. My first impressions of the first episode is the 'unique' character design : the eyes are not too big, with heavy eye lashes and too much glitter.. One of the few downsides i found though is the hair-styles look too similar.. haha. (maybe they want it more realistic - because in real life people don't have too varying hairstyles?) Next, the very fluid, genuine-to-life with anime flair movement of the characters. The execution and the vision of this is quite flawless and very believable. In short, it is something I haven't seen before. The non-human characters too are designed very much unlike the typical sanrio/clamp cuteness but something of 'ugly-cute'. I think the message is : 'imperfect, clumsy-looking creatures are cute as long as they show heart.' I totally love the dog Densuke for his bravery and loyalty, although what first got my attention is Oyagi - maybe because anyone not wearing pants is automatically high in my list. (jk!)

Speaking of which such non-human characters, DC gives 'personalities'. In the first episode, Oyagi is introduced as 'different' for being 'shy' - blushing and bowing politely when he was first introduced. He was also shown as someone who felt pain when a 'metatag' was rudely slapped on his back. Nonetheless, he didn't mind such treatment - like Densuke - he shows only loyalty and fondness for his master. The Moji's are cute too but they fall in third. The Micet I couldn't care less if it gets blasted in a beat for they are boring. Haha. Conversely, the 'illegals' are more fun to watch because it reminds very well of miyazaki's creatures. I remember the first time I saw the character run - and 'Ghibli' came to mind in an instant. And of course Satchii the villain you just looove to hate! :)

Actually, all of the characters in DC have certain flaws (personality-wise), imperfections that doesn't stop the viewer from liking them. I think it was the ability of the characters not to be one-dimensional that made them endearing and interesting - and as the story progresses they unfold their hearts, their pasts… how each are related to one another, combined with lively dialog and conversations that suck the viewer in. It is simply a 'delight' to get to know each character and their personal hurdles as the story progresses. I have to commend here the voice actors for lending the emotion needed as well as Ureshii for the fan subbing effort.

Among the characters I immediately liked Kyoko and Densuke - their relationship of owner/pet is child-like innocence wonderfully captured. I also appreciate the missing tooth for the 'too-young/old' characters in DC. Next is Megabaa for being clever and funny and a smart-a** for her old age. Then Daichi - I'm glad he didn't fall to the one-dimensional bully that is often seen in many shows. Like the rest of the characters he shows his own incompetence for summoning up the courage and be liked by his crush that he ends up being a jerk. His being the unwilling guardian for Kyoko in some key parts are also one of the most enjoyable and almost heartwarming scenes I've seen in an anime for the realism and again the excellent capture of child-like awkwardness and innocence. It also goes to say that Daichi (like Megabaa) often steals the scene and makes me howl in laughter every so often. PS: I LOL'd when Tamako called for 'reinforcements'. There are a few instances that I have to pause the player and admire the meticulous design they spent on Tamako being hot and edgy, btw. As you know, I am a fan of good animation skills you can check out my art gallery at http://chisaikame.deviantart.com/gallery/

I have to take a moment too for the kind of expressions the animators used when showing distress or funny faces. It is not as 'grotesque' like in GTO but it is toned down as well. I also liked Denpa kun, Akira kun… as they seem to be the kind of folks you'd want to grow up with, protect from bullies and share the same loyalty, honesty and esteem of friendship they have. Akira may not be the same as Denpa but he helps when he can.


I also liked the story of cyberspace as being visually present in the Denno Coil world. And the terms most people in the internet generation are aware of and rearranging them to make a new plot/story line. Highlights for me is the 'war' not the 'duel' around episode 4? Another thing I liked about DC is the attention to detail… even the 'still shots' for whatever episode: may it be the characters having a great time in the local festival, or treading in a group these 'still shots' are not run-of-the-mill pictures.

*very mild spoiler*


(eg. When Akira and a friend was in the 'duel' episode and a booby trap of a skinned human anatomy model swung at them - Akira and his friend can be seen as wetting their pants in horror.)

Overall DC would develop in a nice plot of mystery, surprise, intensity, sadness, loss, philosophy of the meaning of life, Truth itself. I like how such critical questions like 'where are we (civilization) heading to'… and the simplistic desire of being able to communicate to a Supreme Being and ask this question would satisfy the deep longing in our hearts. And that to define something as real is not literally something that could be touched/felt. Right now I am in episode 24 - and couldn't wait to finish it, moreover I felt a review is merited because it has clearly surpassed my expectations. *edit* I just finished it - and i can't urge you enough to watch it - you're in for a sure treat! As far as theme goes, I also like the message that the 'path' that 'connects us all' is the path our hearts take to achieve what is Good and what is best.. the path where we can show our love and care for one another, in every possible way - I think there is genuine reflection there. At this point too the story deals with heavy-drama and wistful longing for the things that we lost and the hope to regain once more, that is sure to get those tear ducts workin. DC is one of the rare animes that will easily get me to trouble for delaying work and watching a dozen episodes in a single sitting. All I can say is omedeto to the production team of Denno Coil and for the excellent fansubbing from Ureshii! Thank you for sharing such a wonderful and unforgettable masterpiece as DC. I could't quite get enough of it - but it is upper-tier, excellence as it is. Ganbatteyo!

Dennou Coil is a rarity: it's a show driven by pre-teen characters and at a glance seems to be geared towards younger demographic, yet it possessed so much more maturity and depth than many other supposedly "grown-up" shows.No creepy pandering, no annoying stereotypes, and no excessive violence; just a fun and thoughtful sci-fi adventure.

The kids in DC wear special type of glasses nearly all the time in order to access 'augmented reality', a virtual world with alternate space, communication tools, collectible items that can be parlayed into software goodies, virtual pets, and mysterious black creature known as 'Illegals'. Mitsuo Iso, the series' creator and ... a renowned animator in the industry, did a very fine job integrating this speculative high concept into mundane daily settings, and as a result created a near-futuristic world that feels genuine and unique. The overall production value is top notch; while there's nothing mind-blowing or exceedingly gorgeous, it has distinct aesthetic and great creature design ranging from quirky (Satchi, the ruthless anti-virus program with smiley face), adorable (Densuke is giving Cowboy Bebop's Ein a run for his money as the best anime dog), and creepy (the Illegals, often presented as black mass of shapes). The music is also very good, with fun and memorable audio cues as well as lovely OP & ED sung by Ikeda Ayako.

The anime does have some problems with its narrative. Pacing tends to be sluggish for most of the series, and it can be quite repetitive with way too much time being dedicated to scenes of kids running around from errant anti-virus program. There's also a daunting number of jargons and terminologies being tossed around at the very start, so understanding how the whole augmented reality thing works could take a while (*although I certainly appreciate the show not over-explaining and trusted the audience's intelligence). On the other hand, while the central mystery takes a while to gain steam, there are some nifty world-buildings presented in the filler episodes; in fact, a particular episode concerning digital beard is one of the most brilliant anime episodes I've ever seen, filler or otherwise.

Somewhat surprisingly, the tweener cast ends up being the best aspect of Dennou Coil. It's uncommonly good how the kids ae being portrayed here, from the timid Yasako, feisty Fumi, and icy Isako, to the goonish Daichi, quiet Haraken, and hyper-active Kyoko; there's a great dynamic between them and they behave and interact in very age-appropriate way, with their determination and resourcefulness being consistently highlighted. Design-wise, they're also a lot more expressive and adorable than your typical anime kids-especially the moe-ified crowd. While I certainly didn't get to have crazy adventure while wearing virtual glasses back in the day, seeing these kids in Dennou Coil evoked a lot of childhood nostalgia. Discovering and collecting this cool stuff that all kids your age are crazy about, forming attachment with you sibling, having first pet, having a petty rivalry, sharing urban legends... DC should reminded you of these stuff, while exploring some heavy and serious concepts that all children will eventually have to face.

There's really a lot to like in Dennou Coil: an intelligent premise, very likable cast, and one of the most emotionally resonant resolution I've ever watched. What a breath of fresh air.

You can’t talk about Dennou Coil without talking about Digimon Tamers. They don’t just use a similar technique to tell their stories. Their stories revolve around the same theme. The ending also includes a girl trapped in a visualization of grief. It never feels like a rip off. Both shows wanted to explore a subject that needs exploration, and found different inspirations.

The core difference between the two is the mode of storytelling. Tamers was a heroic journey, but Coil is closer to something like Mushishi. It’s more concerned with the world it created and what it means.

Nature is odd, but so is technology. At some ... point, inventions become so advanced we can’t predict their behavior. Even the most simple ones contain surprises. They often spin out of control, and the internet is the perfect example of this.

Do the people who invented the internet thought it would be used to exchange Japanese cartoons, cat photos and have people’s suicide notes on them? The internet is now out of our control. It’s a constantly-changing frontier, with pages being born and dying. It’s a way to connect to others, where bullshit rumours spread and where you can escape your reality.

The technology in this show is just a visualization of this idea. It juxtaposes the exploration of the virtual frontier and the physical one. You might think kids today are all just stuck on their computers, but weren’t the astronauts stuck on exploring the moon, rather than the Earth?

Space is not the final frontier. The internet is another one, but it’s one that we create. The spaces weren’t here before. Every piece of data was created by someone else, a product of their thoughts. Exploring the internet is exploring what others think, whether you’re looking for funny pictures someone uploaded, their writings or stuff they thought was cool and reblogged. I think once someone said we are the final frontier. If this is true, then the internet is how we explore it.

The kids in this show may seem too independent,but this isn’t a plot device. Kids on the internet are often more independent and loose than outside of it. If you play outside, your mom can still look out the window and see what you’re doing. If you go somewhere, she’ll want to know where.

It’s easier to build an independent culture when you’re on the internet. Close the door or minimize the window when mom comes in. If she doesn’t know the address, she’ll never know what’s going on. Even if she does, you’re creating a new identity she might not recognize.

The new culture the kids have built in Dennou Coil isn’t alien. I’ve seen it happen myself. I remember those message boards that were the beginning of Nerdom in my country. I still see communities with a distinct identity in message boards or video games.

Here, we got a physical reality along it. So the rivalries aren’t just name-dropping in forum posts but the old fun of shooting each other. That’s something people do online all the time. They shoot cyber-avatars of other humans.

These avatars can be convincingly real, even when they were just pixels. That’s the problem with the internet. A lot of it appears real, and the line between reality and the virtual blurs. Maybe it doesn’t exist at all. Densuke only appears when you put your cyber-glasses, but you can only see Jupiter with a telescope. Densuke is not a real, biological dog. A real dog is also not a virtual one. What makes one dog better than the other?

Both dogs actually exist. Both respond to us. Even a virtual pet in an RPG game responds to your actions. The fact one is manmade isn’t much of a difference. Dog breeds are an invention of men. The difference is that the virtual world is full of data and information, but nothing sensory.

Stuff on the internet is not something you can feel. That’s why some people can be social on message boards but socially neurotic in real life. Densuke is a virtual dog and will never be a real one. If we try to program humans, they will just be virtual versions. They will never be a real human.

Grief does its thing, though. It messes with our minds, and we want more to find a new reality where the event didn’t happen than find good in our reality. A character gains the option of creating her own reality without the death of a close person.

A purely man-made reality is nothing, though. Nothing is purely man-made or exists on its own. A reality where nothing is connected is barren and dry. This is the same world of the D-Reaper. A grieving person can’t escape into his world. He’ll just dive deeper into his own sadness.

All we create is just a reflection of us. Isako couldn’t re-create with her brother. She could enjoy a projection of him, something similar. It’s not the real thing, and in the end it’s not a proper replacement. Things can’t be replaced with second hand versions.

If this sounds like it’s too heavy for children, then you’re not paying attention to the best of children’s fiction out there. Children deal with loss. Their stories need to address it.

While Dennou Coil treats it with maturity and empathy, it falls short of Tamers. Its technology is more imaginative and conceptually deep. The Digimon are a plot device, but the idea of a ‘virtual reality’ isn’t explored. Tamers kept the technical stuff at bay. At too many instances the mechanics of the virtual reality will be explored. None of it is ever coherent. It’s just a physical manifestation of the internet and that’s it.

Dennou Coil also sports a problematic art style. There is a great difference of creativity in the character design and the virtual reality design. The designs of anything virtual are beautiful. They’re simple, but the little details are excellent. The Illegals’ black, blurry body, Densuke’s round shape, Oyaji’s lack of mouth and small eyes are all details that stick out.

The character design does the minimalist-realist Mushishi did. It’s not as bad as that one. They find subtle details to give them personality, but too often they feel dry. Auntie is supposed to be the beautiful character, yet nothing about her looks significantly different than the others.

Two episodes are noteworthy. One is the comic apex of the series. It’s a brief history of humanity as if they were the hairs that compose a beard. The episode is complete with a bearded old lady. The other episode comes right after it, and is actually the most psychologically deep one of the series. The climax isn’t as powerful as Tamers’ D-Reaper. In that episode, it is. If only they could use the ideas there, reshuffle them and make a different climax.

Even if it doesn’t manage to reach the heights of Digimon Tamers, it comes close. It’s not treading the same grounds. It uses the same tools to tell an equally deep story with its own take on things. In some places, it’s weirder and bolder. Anyone who wants to see how good children’s fiction can be should watch this.

4 illegals out of 5