Denno Coil - RePost

Denno Coil was a series I highly anticipated when I found out about its pending run. This 26 episode series aired on NHK and played out like something Hayao Miyazaki would write, but it wasn't by him.

    The series takes place a bit into the future, where computer technology has grown to allow full blown AR systems. AR (augmented reality) is a currently existing technology that uses a peripheral device, such as heads up display goggles, to overlay digital images in the real world. The easiest example of how this could work is by having AR advertising that exists on the side of a building and only appears on the transparent lens of the HUD goggles. This series takes place in a fictional Japanese town which is the first to have a fully implemented AR network through out the city. The story centers on a group of 5th grade kids who exploit the network for their own interests. Our main character is Yasako, who has just moved to the city with her parents, into her grand mother's house. Upon exploring the city that she frequented when she was younger she runs into another girl, Fumie, chasing a weird AR creature. After helping capture the creature, Fumie asks Yasako to join a cyber detective agency she is a member of. When she agrees she finds out that the head of the agency is none other than her grandmother. In the AR world the children use powerful codes and programs called Meta tags to manipulate data. The tags are created by Yasako's grandmother by reprogramming residue left over from parts of the network that are from outdated system versions.

    Fumie and Yasako are also in the same class together and end up pitting a war against the hacker club headed by Daichi. The war comes to a culmination when another new girl, Isako, arrives. Yasako had previously run into the mysterious and off putting Isako. Using unusual AR powers Isako caused a major malfunction at a building project on the network. She had captured a bug in the code known as an illegal and was trying to hack it when the incident occurred. Yasako, being on the hunt for illegals as well, witnessed the entire incident. The hacker club gets wind that the new girl is responsible for the net disruption at the building site and wages an all out war with her. Yasako and Fumie watch the battle unfold in order to measure Isako's ability, to try and find a weakness. In the end Isako single handedly wallops the hacker club while blocking Fumie's attempts at hacking her.

   The AR network in the city is regulated and patrolled by attack programs know as Satchimaton. Satchi are responsible for formatting old spaces on the net, destroying illegals and unauthorized devices. The children, who use all modified devices and illegal codes such as the Meta tags are always targeted by Satchi, who try and reformat/delete the codes the children use, including their own cyber bodies. The Satchi are both controlled and created by a woman know as obachan, or auntie, by the children. Much to their surprise obachan is actually their friend Haraken's aunt. A few years earlier Haraken's best friend was killed in a freak traffic accident due to a malfunction in the traffic grid of the AR net. With his aunt's help he has been studying illegal's to determine if they caused the accident. Yasako and Fumie help Haraken out with this research as both a friendly gesture and a way to track down Meta tag materials. At the same time Isako has taken over the hacker club and begins a frantic city wide search for large unformatted old spaces and illegal's. She is trying to utilize the illegal's to get to "the other side" of the net. The side that is filled with mystery and rumors of malicious spirits, including a ghost that steals children's souls known as Ms. Michiko.

    As both parties franticly search for the rapidly disappearing network bugs a subtle war breaks out between the children as they learn that there are some truths behind the urban legends. As disruptions to the network rapidly increase, in sometimes very noticeable ways, the organization responsible for policing it begins an aggressive campaign against them. When auntie isn't producing favorable results a new security member is brought in requiring auntie to protect herself, her job and her nephew.

    I had high expectations for this series before it even started and it delivered more than I expected. The story is incredibly engaging and well written. As stateds, the character design and the feel of the series reminds me of something Hayao Miyazaki would do, without any pro nature message though. It is done almost entirely through the viewpoint of the children, even the so titled auntie is only a high school student. I always tell people that this series is what Miyazaki doing a cyberpunk story would be. There are some funny moments in the series, such as Yasako's younger sisters penchant for screaming poop all the time and an episode that humorously (at first) explores a weird illegal colony/virus that ends up turning into a personal game of Civilization for each of the children. The colony/worlds show up on everyone as facial hair. When Megabaa (Yasako's grandmother) decodes their language, the children begin to interact with there infections as their personal gods, helping to control the fate of the people. In the end inter-facial nuclear war breaks out leaving the children to question their own ethics. As the series draws to an end it becomes increasingly somber.  The children's play world begins to result in real consequences that are sometimes irreversible. This show can largely be categorized as a sci-fi drama with light comedy. I think one standing point for this show is that it continued to be more involving and interesting as the show went on. As is the case most times a series can lag heavily in the middle and near the end, as you await the forcible conclusion. This series was good at keeping you guessing for a long time as to the final outcome of the story.

    One complaint I could lodge would be to have seen more of the peripheral characters fleshed out. Half way through the series a group of hackers operating in the other part of town show up but only make minimal impressions on the story. Until they were brought in you thought the main characters had the run of the entire town, but you find out they only deal with their local neighborhoods. It would have been nice to see what those children where up to and how they did what they did, without the aid of Megabaa. There were a few characters that seemed to have been added in as a way to end more neatly, such as Tekaru and a girl who had previously been Yasako's friend. These characters were pretty two dimensional and did not provide much insight into the overall decisions.

    All in all, this is one of the best series I have ever seen and highly recommend it to everyone I can. Unless you are only a fan of the mindless action titles such as Dragon Ball you will find something to like in this series, hell there's even a fair amount of action. A favorite scene to show people involves Isako owning a Satchi with her mysterious coding powers; it's a pretty explosive scene. I have not heard any word on this series being licensed anywhere outside of Japan. I do not know how well it was received in Japan but it did win some awards in 2007 from the industry. If the series does not come out in America or Europe I would be greatly troubled and bothered. But, as with most really good, well written titles, it might take a while to be picked up. They tend to drag their feet on these exceptional titles while running over each other to get the crappy ones (like Dinosaur King Wtf?).

 UPDATE: February 23, 2016 it was announced that Section 23 division, Maiden Japan, has licensed and will release the series in North America on June 28th, 2016.