DENNOU COIL Part 2 DVD review

(Wow. Just... wow!)

Siren Visual released the second half of "Dennou Coil" on DVD last month and this is the review for that. The review for the first half can be found here (link) so if you want to know about this series' set-up, go there to read about it. This article will focus on the second half.
There are two reasons why I return with a separate review to the second half of "Dennou Coil". One is to tell people that the story thankfully does not fall apart, and to avoid spoilers I could stop there plotwise.
But reason number two is that Siren Visual knocked this release out of the park, with a good set of extras.

Is this series recommended? I'd say it is essential to own, more likely! Read on...


The Story:

Yasako and her friends are making progress with their investigation on why the augmented-reality-Internet is acting so weird in their city, and if it's all just "buggy" or if there is something more sinister behind it. But as they get closer to the truths, the danger increases as well. More and more fog appears in cyberspace and the dark shadows within get more eager. Is it possible to open a gate into cyberspace itself and can you actually lose your mind once there, at The Other Side? Can the comatose and even the dead contact the living through the Internet?

The kids discover that the truth is NOT pretty and just taking off your augmented-reality glasses does not always prevent you from getting damaged... especially when prying into the cause of schoolgirl Kanna's death or worse: dealing with the mythical Michiko from The Other Side...


The Series:

The first half of the series ended strongly with some standalone episodes which didn't necessarily moved the main story along, but did flesh out the world and provide little bits of information.

This second half starts with an episode which gives a general overview, providing the perfect reminder of where you were if it's been a couple of months since you saw the previous release. And at the end it pounces on the main storyline, with the first of many cliffhangers which will make you fly through these episodes at great speed.

Many anime series start meandering at this point, setting up dead ends to be reopened in future seasons, throwing in extra characters or desperately trying to hide that the second half actually hadn't been written yet. Not so with "Dennou Coil", which gets tighter and tighter as it sprints towards a surprisingly personal finale while sidestepping most of the general pittfalls prone to anime.

In my review for the first release I already mentioned that this series oozed intelligence, and the final part even increases this feeling. Details frequently seen turn out to be plot devices, loose ends turn out to be tied together when you weren't paying attention and every reveal has been foreshadowed without being too obvious about it. "Dennou Coil" begs for diligent watching and rewards whenever it is closely scrutinized. You cannot say that about many anime.

Also noticeable is that writer/director Iso Mitsuo knows the difference between an anime for kids and an anime which happens to have kids in the lead. The cast of "Dennou Coil" may consist of children but I wouldn't show this series to them, at least not if I wanted them to sleep at night. Events turn pretty nightmarish and while "Dennou Coil" has been compared to "Serial Experiments Lain" for its content, I'd like to add non-anime 80's chiller "Sapphire and Steel" for mood. Augmented Reality or not, at times the danger to these kids gets very real and there is a sub-set of three episodes which are quite nightmarish, like a mini-version of Darabont's "The Mist".

All in all "Dennou Coil" is an extremely satisfying series to follow all the way to its conclusion. As I said when I reviewed the first half, I hope Iso Mitsuo has several more series in him and will get the chance to show them to us. The man is an anime legend, having worked in some supporting role in nearly all the great works of the past three decennia in this genre, and if his legacy as a creator consists of output like this I can only hope we will be getting a LOT more of it.


Conclusion:

It's a rippin' yarn well told, with an actual ending and earned emotions. Keeping things just on the plausible end of the science-fiction scale doesn't hurt either.
"Dennou Coil" is one of the absolute best series I've ever seen, period. I love it and it comes with the highest possible recommendation.


On to the Discs:

Just like with the first half, the second half of "Dennou Coil" is released by Siren Visual with a Japanese 2.0 soundtrack, and English subtitles only, as a DVD set. The discs are PAL encoded and region 4 only.

Siren Visual has had one hell of a release year in 2011, getting out a lot of excellent anime series previously unavailable to English-speaking people and I love them for that. Having said this, if they do have a weak side it would be that often they are not able to provide many extras on their discs. Japanese rightsholders often try to cripple foreign releases because those are bound to cost only a third of the original Japanese release. Therefore, rightsholders try to prevent Japanese fans from importing these foreign editions and refusing to release DVD extras (or Japanese 5.1 soundtracks) outside of Japan is one of the tools available to them. So even though there is allegedly an HD-version of "Dennou Coil" out there with 5.1 sound, this is likely the best we'll get for the English-speaking market in the foreseeable future.

Extras-wise it seemed sour grapes as well for "Dennou Coil" as the first half of the series was released pretty much barebones. So to my surprise the exact opposite is true for this release: all extras for the entire series have been included with this release, to the point that these need their own separate disc. A necessity as there is a whopping three-and-a-half hours of them, too.

The first extras are two extra bonus episodes, labeled "13.5" and "22.5", leaving no doubt where they belong in the series. Actually these are more summaries instead of actual episodes, as they contain no new content, and are basically episode-length primers to get the audience ready for what's next.
Next up are two press conferences, one in which the series is announced and one held mid-season. Both items are a mere six minutes and typically don't tell you much.
Next up are nine interviews, each of which featuring a pair of voice-actors. These interviews are obvious marketing pieces, with everyone sounding as spontaneous as if they are reading ransom notes aloud, but nevertheless there are some interesting bits to be found amongst all of the polite backslapping. On average these last 20 minutes each so there is a good three hours worth of this to rummage through!
Next are three production documentaries which focus on sound recording, music and final sound editing. Together these last twenty minutes and they are the closest thing providing a true peek behind the scenes on this production.
Finally there are creditless opening and closing songs.

All in all this makes the extras very much biased towards the "sound' part of the anime, and I would have loved to see more on the design and storytelling front although you do get bits of that spread through the items already.
Nevertheless these discs are relatively stacked by Siren Visual's standards.

This is an excellent release for an excellent series. Currently it is the only English-friendly version in the world so I urge everyone who can play region 4 PAL discs to go seek this out.


"Dennou Coil part 2" can be ordered through Siren Visual's website.