DENNOU COIL Part 1 DVD review

(You don't need special glasses to love this series...)

Siren Visual continues its winning streak of strong releases this year with "Dennou Coil", a detective story with a strong science fiction angle. In it, a group of children tries to solve crimes using an intricate Internet interface which can be seen when you wear special glasses. Whatever you see of the real world when wearing such glasses will be slightly augmented: extra roadsigns help you find your way and a phone and laptop are always at hand, even if it is only in virtual form.

Unfortunately there are dangers as well, as the children soon find out. Hell, it wouldn't be much of a series if they didn't, right?

But much of a series it is, and I loved it. How much and why? Read on!


The Story:

Twelve-year-old Yasako moves with her family to a new city. She befriends a group of computer hackers in her class who reveal that the Internet around this city is "weird". When using "Augmented Reality" glasses the Internet can be seen superimposed over actual reality. But many Internet "glitches" can also be seen, strange black creatures roam the virtual streets and there is a lively trade in illegal software.

Yasako and her friends try and solve the cyber-mysteries of her new neighborhood, but the oddities seem to get worse and worse and the group stumbles onto some big secrets along with some very real dangers. Tension builds once the kids realize that a classmate who died in a car accident a year back may in fact have been murdered...


The Series:

For some strange reason the whole phenomenon of "Augmented Reality" for me will always be linked to anime and this is because l saw it for the first time with my own eyes during the Cinekid Festival in Amsterdam, just after I watched "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea". There were technology displays there as well and one of those allowed kids to hold a small cube covered with symbols in front of a camera. However, the television screen which showed the camera's view did not show a cube. In its place there was a tiny room with people walking in it, and as the little cube got tilted in some direction, the people in it reacted to that. Cute, but the sort of thing you'd only see at a science fair, not in your living room.

Three years later (a few weeks ago) I'm fiddling with my Nintendo 3DS, finally checking those strange cards that came with it. To my surprise, the cards start "Augmented Reality Games", in 3D no less. The surface of my desk is suddenly a shimmering lake in which I can go fishing for Red Snapper and I've shot a hole in my dining room table, out of which a fearsome dragon crawls. Damn! I've even shot some pictures of me and Mario together, with the little guy standing in the palm of my hand.

And it's not just games either: provided you have the right app, at several building lots in my city (Rotterdam) you can point your i-Pad at the building site and see the finished building superimposed on the camera's image, rendered in real-time.

It just goes to show there is no predicting how fast technology reaches us these days. Will we live in "Augmented Reality" for most of the day in 2026, wearing 3D-glasses which are both laptop and mobile phone, filtering and augmenting everything we (don't) see? I would not be surprised at all, and "Dennou Coil" shows an intelligent view on how such a thing would work as well as the consequences of our dependency on social network technology.
On top of that it also tells a kick-ass story about kids, mischiefs and a dangerous mystery which needs to be solved.

Science Fiction in its original form concerns the impact a certain invention will (or might) have on society, and as such "Dennou Coil" is science fiction in its purest form. Yet while science fiction often is preachy in nature, this series fully aims at also being a piece of entertainment. "Dennou Coil" is often compared to "Serial Experiments: Lain" because both feature people "moving" between the real world and the cyberworld, and both toy with the idea of losing your physical self through death while your online persona lives on. But "Serial Experiments: Lain" is a very adult oriented and philosophically minded series from the outset, while "Dennou Coil" tells a thrilling adventure. In focus, the two series could hardly be more different.

That doesn't mean "Dennou Coil" is made with any less intelligence though. The script in particular is very strong, juggling humor and dread in equal measure while the interactions between the kids are believable and often hilarious. It helps that the cyberworld bugs they encounter are often quite bizarre. Like for example the virus which gives everyone, women and children included, beards consisting of thousands of intelligent stubble-creatures. And of course these beards can only be seen when wearing the cyber-glasses as they do not exist in the real world. This particular episode escalates neatly into parody as the beards start to evolve into high-tech societies by themselves and even launch rockets to visit other beards. Other episodes also cover problems similar to email-spam, to great effect.

The main man responsible for all this intelligence is the series' writer, creator and director Mitsuo Iso. Although he may not be a household name (yet) he has a jaw-dropping resumeé, having worked for Studio Ghibli, Production IG, Bandai Visual and Madhouse. Whoa!
Mister Iso worked as a key animator under both Miyazaki and Takahata, on such diverse projects as "Porco Rosso" and "Only Yesterday". He wrote (and co-directed) episodes for both "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and "RahXephon". He animated the famous Kusanagi vs. The Tank fight under director Mamoru Oshii for the original "Ghost in the Shell" movie, and also was responsible for the big Asuka vs. the Production Evas fight in "The End of Evangelion". Oh, and he was a key animator under director Satoshi Kon on "Perfect Blue" and under Katsuhiro Otomo for "Roujon-Z".
There's more but, well... you catch my drift. The man's body of work is certifiably awesome. "Dennou Coil" is entirely Mitsuo Iso's baby and all I can say is that I hope he will create more series in the future.

Back to the series: the animation uses abstract but distinct character designs, yet features realistic enough technological designs to make the world seem plausibly real, both with and without cyber-glasses. A generally muted color palette helps giving the town an urban, polluted sheen but it never seems to be artificially "artsy". Episodes alternate between stand-alone stories and an ongoing grander arc, and show the children's schoolyard politics as well as a few more sinister things.

But the series' biggest trump card lies in its depiction of kids' behavior. Despite the added science fiction angles kids in the future will still be kids, and the way this is shown is marvelous with instantly recognizable mannerisms. I especially liked the way everyone lifted his or her glasses for a moment,to check if what they were seeing was really there or just virtual. Also, it is a big cast Mitsuo Iso is presenting here but remembering who-is-who never gets complicated. And because the characters are so likable the story got to me.
This review just covers the first half of the series as the second half will only arrive on DVD in December, but rest assured I was sorry I couldn't continue when the first boxset ended. Gripping stuff indeed...


Conclusion:

While its focus may seem to be on technological science fiction and it does a great job at that, "Dennou Coil" is actually a great adventure story of "kids in da hood" growing up together. This is one of the best anime series I've ever seen. It has a riveting central story with interesting characters, and it wastes no opportunity to be thrilling, scary, sad or just plain fun. That the SF-elements work fine as well and are excellently thought out is a nice bonus.

Highly, HIGHLY recommended. I loved it!


On to the DVDs:

Inexplicably there was no English-friendly edition out for "Dennou Coil" yet, despite the series having been made and aired in 2007 already. That's been solved now: Siren Visual has released the first 13 episodes of "Dennou Coil" in a 2-disc set. The discs are PAL-encoded for region 4 (Australia and New Zealand) so make sure your equipment can handle that should you want to buy this edition.

Picture Quality is really good although some episodes have been artificially "sharpened" by using too much edge enhancement. It's a minor gripe though as most of the episodes look stellar, and the unique subtle color scheme is kept intact at all times.
As for sound, as often with hard-to-get licenses there is no English dub. You only get a 2.0 Japanese track but the good news is it's a pretty decent one. The English subtitles are excellent, going out of their way to describe different meanings of Japanese words whenever those issues arise.

The extras are limited to clean (meaning untitled) versions of the opening- and end credits, and trailers for "Durarara!!", "The Tatami Galaxy" and "House of Five Leaves".
The lack of a making-of or any interviews is a shame though, as I would have loved to hear Mitsuo Iso talk about this series.

But so far this is the only English-friendly version of "Dennou Coil" in the world, and with the good visuals and subs accompanied with decent sound, this edition is a must-have for any fan of this genre.

"Dennou Coil part 1" can be ordered worldwide through Siren Visual's website.