Den-noh Coil

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 The sachis zap away anything they find in outdated E-Spaces, which makes them an enemy to the kids.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.