The forum has a lot of topics about the popular shounen series: Bleach, One Piece, Gurren Lagann, etc., so I thought it might be a good idea to start a topic about series that aren't regurgitated on 4chan every other second, no?


So, Denno Coil.  The anime is about children living in a futuristic world, and in my opinion, it's one of the better anime series to come out in the last few years.

The show is set in a pseudo-futuristic world.  No, people don't live in domes, and there's no spaceships going to Mars or anything to that effect.  Instead, the world is pretty similar to our own modern cities - suburban houses, skyscrapers, normal buildings, and people walking around in T-shirts and khakis.  The only difference is that microtechnology has reached a new height, and people wear conveinent glasses that are basically miniature computers.  These glasses display a perfect virtual world on top of their own, and facilitates many of their everyday activities.  For example, if a man is going somewhere and needs to check his schedule book, he can make a virtual display pop up in front of him that displays their version of Outlook, and if he needs to type a document, a virtual keyboard and a virtual word processor screen will simply pop up in front of him.  In the end, despite being a science fiction anime, Denno Coil as a whole feels very modern, and very relatable to our current world.

The glasses are a handy technology, and of course, the children are the first to delve into this technology and make it a part of their everyday lives.  When the main character, a sixth-grade girl named Yuko Okonogi (Yasako), moves into her new home in Denkoku City, she is pretty quickly acquainted with and pulled into the "Coil Cyber Detective Agency," which is a group of kids that goes around trying to find glitches ("metabugs") in the virtual world and remodeling them into "tags" that can create walls in the cyberworld, mess up traffic lights, etc.  The Coil Cyber Detective Agency is hostile to another gang of kids called the Daikoku Hackers, and they would often compete with each other to find more metabugs, starting war games, and sometimes even hacking into the other groups' glasses and filling them with popups and spam.  All in all, it's a bunch of children having fun with their games, and the show is very clear about this.

The plotline is not about Yasako outdoing the other group.  Instead, there is another girl, Yuko Amasawa (Isako), who is trying to forcibly open a pathway to the "other side" of the cyberworld in search of her brother, who she believes to be lost in the cyberworld.  Amasawa is an expert hacker, and is currently attempting to find larger glitches ("kirabugs") in order to accomplish her task.  Eventually, as the show goes on, various childish urban legends about the cyberworld emerges, such as the story of "Miss Michiko," a supposed entity with many horrifying rumors behind her (such as how she grants people wishes in exchange for a child as a sacrifice). 

One of the most amazing things about Denno Coil is its realism.  The show's children, unlike those of fantastical shounen anime, do not act like benevolent and peerless heroes; instead, they have the feel of normal children with no exaggerations.  The show's atmosphere is very mellow and believable, and the childrens' views on technology are true to their age - they grew up within this virtual-interlaced environment and, much like MMORPG items to a gaming addict, they assign personal importance to their activities, their hacking and war games, and the world within their glasses.  It's as important to them as our games and our collection of stamps, and even through the fantastically animated war-games with digital items and data walls, the show makes its story seem natural and normal, as if it could easily be a part of our own childrens' lives.

More importantly, like Haibane Reimei, Denno Coil is an exploration of life.  The main storyline is about a phenomenon where a person's cyber essence - their consciousness, if you well - is transported to the "other world," leaving their bodies in a lifeless state.  As Isako continues to try to unwind this mystery and Yasako slowly entering this journey, this concept develops into a story about what is real and what isn't real to a child, about a child's mindset, and about whether digital, intangible objects could be as important to a person as a real object.  In the end, the hero doesn't suddenly gain an answer and scream some pseudo-philosophical dribble to the antagonist (I assure you, there is one); instead, a series of events occur within the childrens' lives, they mature, and in the end, life goes on.

Oh, yeah, and just in case if I forgot to mention it, the setting is amazing.  The glasses makes it akin to a science fiction world, and yet, the skyscrapers, the houses, and pretty much everything else evokes a modern feel.  The technology isn't presented as something pretentiously complex or convoluted like Moonlight Mile - the first six episodes do a very good job of explaining the basic setting.  It's one of the best "cyber-world" adaptations that I've seen from Japan, if not the best and most effective setting that I've seen.  The art and animation is equally great, and really serves to enhance the setting.


(Disclaimer: This image is a screenshot from Denno Coil.  I did not make this.  Copyright Madhouse blah blah)

Wikipedia Article: Denno Coil
THEM Review: Denno Coil

Overall, Denno Coil is very different from the "UBER-MOE LOLOLOLOLLL" and the "ZOMG MOAR FIGHTING" crap that seems to be pouring out of Japan at an alarming rate.  Though it's a show about children, it doesn't have a shred of dependence on cuteness, nor does it display a hint of the glaring fanservice that you see in so many other shows.  It doesn't have a philosophically profound plot, but it's similar to Haibane Reimei - it's one of those special shows that focuses on life and realism.  I would highly recommend this anime, especially if you want a stop to the rampant Gainaxing or giga pewpewlaser cannon train.


So, now that I'm done with that wall of text, what did you think of this show?

I agree strongly from what I've seen so far. I had to stop watching this at about episode 11 (due to lack of disk space, of all things) but it's easily one of the better anime to have come out recently. The setting is fantastically rendered and the whole thing feels kind of nostalgic (despite the fact that I did not have internet-connected augmented reality glasses as a child, although I kind of wish I did now). AzureFenrir's post sums things up pretty neatly so I won't say much more other than that Dennou Coil is definitely a recommended watch for a lot of imagination and minimal bullshit.

I've watched it, downloaded most of the eps, stoped watching neer the end, simply becase other things got in the way and i haven't gone back, will do one day. It is a great anime, if not of the plot  then just for what goes on in the story itself. It is one of the better anime's and no anime fan should miss watching it. not sure what else to say, oh and for the record, what makes this story so geat is that its definatly possible to see somthing like this in the future and in my opnion is what makes the story really interesting.

I was just looking at pictures but this looks like something I'd actually want to watch, reminds me of FLCL or something more than something so CYBER

i wouldn't call it lesser known since it's pretty popular outside the NARUTO YESSSS circles.

but it's definitely my favorite syndicated tv series.  i generally hate anything and everything that isn't OVA/OAV but this is an exception