46. Dennou COIL (Anime)

Raw image by Mitsuo Iso, MADHOUSE, no infringement intended.

Summary:
The story takes place in the fictional Daikoku City. It follows a group of children as they use illegal AR visors called Dennou Mégané "computer spectacles" to unravel the mysteries of their half real, half Internet environment. The world displayed in the internet-connected visors contains games, virtual pets, and also internet viruses. The children interact with and reshape the digital landscape with the help of software tools. (copy pasted from ANN, because I've been writing too much stuff lately)

Review:
I know, Dennou Coil hasn't even been out for 3 weeks yet, and only recently has it been fansubbed, so why is it I am confident enough to type a review up for it? The the question can apply to almost all of my previous entries, since they were all blogged before even half of the series had ended. I'll tell you why, because I think it has originality and it has the potential to make me a "omg he's the guy that discovered Mariah Carey!"-person. Thats good enough for me!

Dennou Coil is about a bunch of junior/middle school aged kids who live in a city that is programed by computers. The first few episodes, we are gradually introduced to the characters... and analyzing them will not be my duty. So we begin by a in-depth analysis of the first episode, since in many animes the first episode determines how much effort the production company put into the show.

The opening sequence of the show contains a close shot of all the characters' faces, and a little blur of movements on the grounds near where they are standing, and they all turn to follow it. The opening song starts. "PRISM", by Ikeda Ayako, is a song that doesn't have anything special, but seems to fit the animation anyway, moving on. The narrator/girl tells how pets around the city have disappeared, as the train containing the main character move into the city of Daikoku. Yuuko, her little sister Kyouko and their pet electronic dog, Densuke, get off the train. The city is enshrouded by a layer of soft mist, pretty creepy. It appears that everyone in the show wears pairs of electronic data glasses that they can use to see virtual substances. Everything is in terms of data. Densuke appears to be unable to do any tricks and Kyouko gets mad by calling him bad names, which makes the little dog run off. The search for Densuke is on. As they move around the city, Yuuko meets up with Fumie and Daichi, electronic detectives (part of the DENNOU COIL Agency) who are no older than she, but they are too preoccupied in capturing a lost cat. Next paragraph.

Yuuko uses her special locater device to find Densuke, but manages to find a little black animeal-object first, she realizes its electronic when Densuke jumps out and defends his master. The little black blob tries to run away and makes it in through a patch of data blur on a fence. The wall repairs itself just as Densuke pursues the blob into the darkness. Yuuko and Kyouko couldn't do a thing about it, so they sat near the fence. Yuuko remembers a card Fumie gave her, and calls the Dennou Coil, and Fumie comes to the rescue.

Fumie shows Yuuko a bunch of gadgets bought at the Megashi candy store (what kind of candy?) and uses a black-bug spray can to open another hole to the abandoned dimension. Fumie then sends her loyal servant (cutest little thing), OYAJI (naked) into the hole to find Densuke. Fumie explains to Yuuko that the black blob is an "Illegal" virus that needs to be captured. After a little while, Kyuutais (spherical data repairers) float by and start repairing all the holes. The data world is being reformatted and they finally get Densuke out before it got him. Yuuko and Fumie run from the Kyuutais, but they get cornered by 2 of them. At this moment, the monster Sachi pops out from the data world in their midst, how will the chaos end?! Ending time.. the animation features Densuke walking on the path..and he keeps walking.. keeps walking, and looks up, very soothing ending.

The animation is very crisp, the characters' faces are not distorted, but merely stretched a bit lengthwise, which isn't a big problem. The colors used in this show are very earthy, mainly beige, brown, black and gray. Densuke and the whites of the eyes of the characters remind me of Crayon Shin-chan for some strange reason, but that's also a plus since I like Crayon Shin-chan. The sounds for the characters aren't annoying either.

The story itself revolves around symbols, and I can find a few of them myself! (I don't, usually) The data blurs are damaging/negative/irregular/rule-breaking behavior/actions, and the Kyuutai and the whatevers fix it, just as our own society can have criminals and still function well because of the judiciary process. The black bug spray can is just representative of graffiti around every metropolitan area these days. The glasses are like computer screens or the internet, where you can see virtual items. The electronic dogs and cats are like online games, which can be hacked by viruses.

The 3-D animation (isnt too hard since they can use blurs) is actually pretty good, the buildings and blurs can all coexist well on any frame. The angles are also very good ---> tell the story well.

In general, the show is very... well controlled, the speed is consistent, and the sounds never kill your ears. The plot is interesting, and going to be interesting. However, without a manga as a reference, the producers might do crazy things no one anticipates, so I won't be making any guarantees. Watching this show, or watching the 10-20 different shows that aired BEFORE may and AFTER may is up to you!

Dennou COIL Review Ratings

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Popularity:

-Male: [68%]
-Female: [32%]
-Japan: [92%]
-RoW: [8%]

Availability:

-Spoiler Info: [2/5 (Blogs)]
-Thorough Reviews: [1/4 (Blogs)]
-Manga: [NONE]
-Raw Japanese: [3/3 (100%)]
-Anime Fansubs: [2/3 (67%) LunarAnime]

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Total Ratings:

Appearance & Aesthetics

-Anime Theme/Colors: [8.8/10]
-Anime Aesthetic Direction: [9.1/10]
-Anime Script: [8.5/10]
-Watchability: [9.3/10]
-Attractiveness: [8.5/10 (because many shows are competing)]

-SS Ratings: [88.4%]
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Review by SilentMic, research with help from aniDB and Baka-Updates. No directly copied text whatsoever. Copyright 2007.