destroying all monsters

Augmented reality, where the ‘net and real life collide, is the theme for this new anime.

“Go get ‘em, boys!” Isako plans her counterattack.

I ADMIT I was feeling a little bit lukewarm about the spring anime season’s offerings up to a few weeks ago, but any lingering doubt about overall quality has been blown away after the epic first half a season of Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann and also by the delightful Dennou Coil (I can still give or take the rest of the shows served up to us though).

Technically straddling the spring/summer divide, Dennou Coil (or Coil – A Circle of Children to give it its full Engrish title) is set in a future where the internet or cyberspace (dennou) meets those ‘virtual reality’ headsets that were such in vogue in the early 1990s but which have been refined to the point where they look just like a pair of glasses… thank goodness. Think Web 3.0.

There is plot, which involves various teenagers, which is mostly setting the scene stuff – showing us what the dennou is all about and introducing the key concepts behind the show – and so far the first four episodes have been highly enjoyable, with a nice cast of characters and some good action. Maybe something like Serial Experiments Lain but on the happy pills (although there are clearly serious and darker plot elements that are hovering around in the background which will be introduced later). Something which is also echoed in the muted colour palate. Greys and browns are in vogue in the fictional Daikoku City, where the story is set.

What has marked out Dennou Coil, is the sheer amount of interesting ideas that have so far surfaced in the first two hours, not all of them new, but when those gimmicks are lifted and made to be wholey part of the show, then you know that you’re on to a good thing.

I’ve watched a stupid amount of anime, and very rarely do I think, I want this technology, I WANT THIS NOW! No, not even my very own Gundam, or Swordfish II, although I guess a Tachikoma wouldn’t be so bad. But anyway, DC gives us cool virtual ‘head up displays’ which aren’t used for quite the same comedy factor that they were in something like Martian Successor Nadesico, but I did like the way that in one episode Fumie used one of the HUDs to attack a dennou object.

We have Satchii(s) – some kind of dennou equivilent of a virus checker or spam killer – which is a touch on the trigger happy side, virtual pets which are, well, almost real pets, and a mad granny that is a master of bending the virtual rules. There is a cool mysterious transfer student (Isako), who sports a nice line in cyber hacking skills, and has a crack team of furry things at her disposal, ready to leap into action at her command.

Then there is the main protaganist, the Yomi-lookalike Yasako (who shares the name Yuko with Isako), pet Densuke, who occupied so much of the story in the first few episodes and Fumie, a seasoned member of the coil investigation agency, with her faithful dennou servant, the selfless Oyaji, and a bottomless bag of tricks – a joke that never ever gets old.

Episode four ends on the cliffhanger that we’d been expecting. The rumoured Miss Michiko (legend suggest that “kids who call out to Miss Michiko are sent to the ‘other side’”) is inevitably going to become a big part of the story, so I guess this is where things start to get serious.

There is so much going on in each installment that I think I need to start rewatching DC and we’re only one sixth of the way in. Probably the best show of the season then, certainly the most imaginative. I’d recommend it to anybody, anime fans or mildly interested parties alike.

There is also a useful Wiki page here.