Denou Coil is one of the most acclaimed anime series released in the last decade and I’ve been looking forward to watching it for a LONG time so let’s dive right in and see how it holds up

Storyline

Set in the year 2026, Dennou Coil focuses on a group of young children who use a massively popular new type of technology “computer glasses” that mixes the many technologies but manly the internet with augmented reality to create an intriguing and efficient new way of life.

Seemingly playful at first, the series delves into the various and more serious aspects of the “viewing glasses technology” which leads to some interesting questions about friendship, reality, addiction, disassociation and even urban legend.

Oh and let’s not forget a possible murder mystery.

Animation

Done by the overly popular Madhouse in 2007. The character designs look a bit simple yet strangely detailed in terms of motion, which give characters a very realistic look to them.

The CG of the actual augmented reality was beautifully and cleanly animated. Things flowed together seamlessly with the glasses technology and many of the action oriented scenes where great to watch.

Backgrounds and scenery where also very detailed and looked great overall, the animation’s still looking very good even now in 2012!

Sound

Not all that memorable. The opening / closing music was quite mellow and nice. Voice acting sounded fine and most of the sound effects felt like the right choices and suited their given purpose.

Nothing standout but overall decent sound.

Characters

About 90% of the characters are under 11 years old and as such I wasn’t expecting fireworks or anything but to be honest the cast was surprisingly likeable. I mean, for kid characters they were not all that annoying and I found most of their interactions to be quite charming.

If I had to nit-pik the main character Yasako was a little annoying for me actually. As she was such a gentle and mousey type character, even in the more dramatic moments I just wanted her to step up a lil bit and that rarely happened.

The few adults that are in the show are also quite likeable and cunning at the same time.

Character development in this show is good but the slow progression of the actual story made things seem stagnant at times…..but when push comes to shove and all is said and done the characters all work well together

Progression Problems

Now my major gripe with this show is the way the story progresses. I mean after reading other reviews I had an idea things would start out slow but DAMNN this was a bit too much for even a seasoned power watcher like myself. I mean starting this show, up until episode 14 you would think this is just a sci-fi slice of life children’s anime with some noteworthy undertones.

I mean for the first 13 episodes I was basically watching two groups of kids collecting databugs and trying to out-do each other in an extremely childish way. Now I know a lot of people will say “they were setting up the premise and giving you information needed for later” Yes I understand that but honestly there’s a limit to how long you can drag things on for before you start asking yourself “is something substantial actually going to happen here” and from looking at other peoples reviews it seems like people where just so caught up in the visual marvel and technological detail they were able to overlook half this show just being about…..well…..childish fluff.

Well sorry for a 26 episode series…..that’s a big fat X in my book….regardless if things pick up later……and I’m sure for that reason alone fans of this show will disagree with my review…..well that’s fine with me…I’m just calling it how I see it.

Anyhow......

So after episode 13+ I really felt this show started to hit its stride and I finally got to see why this show has such high praise…..i just think it could have done the same way with fewer episodes of childish antics.

Enjoyment

I did enjoy this show after everything was said and done but tbh if I didn’t already know beforehand things would get better after halfway I would have definitely dropped this series because although the premise is very cool, I have seen similar things such as .hack and GITS and the story wasn’t exactly engrossing to me, more creative and yes at times even a little bit captivating.

Oh and the ending was a little convoluted in terms of how some characters ending up knowing each other and or being somewhat related in the past…but due to forgotten memories or people keeping secrets..certain lines between characters could not be drawn until the super emotional climax…..really?…..well alrightee then

Value

It’s a decent show that imo would be better cut down as a 13 episode series. It has a good mix of light-hearted playfulness with a lot of interesting social & techonological questions wrapped in a dark mysterious undertone.

However I was not as completely blown away by it as may other s out there seem to have been.

An English dub of this would be very nice…don’t know why it’ hasn’t happened yet.

Denou Coil: Watchable