Review of Den-noh Coil
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 Obsolete spaces are corrupted or outdated versions of the virtual reality, thus requires constant attention in maintenance.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.