June 12th, 2007
Fumie and Yasako manage to escape the insidious advances of Sacchi thanks to Fumie’s quick thinking and never-ending bag of cyber tricks; however, Densuke’s infection by the Illegal means he is almost out of action, and so Fumie takes Yasako to visit “Mega-baa”, the doyenne of digital goods. Mega-baa, however, turns out to be Yasako’s grandma, with whom she will be living; she’s Fumie’s main source of supplies for weaponry against Sacchi and the Spheres, although not without a price.
As Densuke attempts to recuperate in his kennel (although the Illegal’s mark fails to disappear), however, Isako has her next move in place; her “Mojas”, tiny puffballs wielding capsule-producing rings, are tracking Densuke down, although their task will not be easy with both a poop-obsessed little girl and a geeky grandma to contend with…
Aside from the necessary eulogising about how generally awesome Dennou Coil is, this episode is a prime example of how to do one of the things I usually hate in anime properly, and that’s “cute”. The Mojas are absolutely adorable precisely because they’re a crack force of kidnappers that happen to be blobs of fluff with arms, not because of big eyes and annoying moe voices. They’re actually even more awesome than Oyaji is, and that’s saying something.
Anyway, this episode really shows that the team on the show knows how to handle its story effectively. The pacing (something which a lot of other pretty decent shows this season aren’t really getting right - Heroic Age, RomeJuli and Seirei no Moribito would be prime examples of this) is absolutely perfect, managing to weave together exposition and action effectively to keep even my attention-deficit brain engaged, and despite the mounds of techno jargon that the setting necessitates it never really feels like the audience is being lectured to - it all (just about) makes sense. Sure, some of the interactions between the digital and real world do require a pretty huge suspension of disbelief (Yasako is just a bit too good at “handling” Densuke, for instance), but I’m more than willing to do so for this show. Great stuff.
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May 12th, 2007
OP - Prism (Ayako Ikeda) - the OP animation itself is nothing overly exciting (more interesting) although it’s well done. I love the song, though; like the show, it’s got a good mix between the technological and the soulful in its mix of synth noises and more acoustic instruments. Lovely stuff.
ED - Sora no Kakera (Ayako Ikeda) - Densuke walks across several backgrounds (and falls over when he gets tired, bless!) to a lovely, soothing song. The OP and ED are two of the best this season, IMHO.
Yuuko Okunogi, or Yasako, moves to the city of Daikoku when her father moves for work. Her parents leave her and her bratty little sister, Kyoko, to get there by themselves; Kyoko mostly entertains herself by torturing Yuuko’s “cyber pet” dog, Densuke. In this mildly futuristic world children wear special glasses that enable them to see a second, digital world around them modelled on the real world with creatures like Densuke in. After Densuke ends up chasing some kind of black, blob-like creature into an area devoid of data, Yuuko enlists the help of the slightly overbearing Fumie, a member of the so-called Coil Digital Detection Agency, to try and get him back.
Fumie sends her servant, Oyaji, in to try and track down Densuke, but the two girls are cornered by the patrolling Spheres (”kyuutai”, or “kyuu-chan” as Fumie calls them) that repair tears in the digital makeup of Daikoku; Densuke and Oyaji (and possibly the black blob virus that may have attacked and infected Densuke) get out of the dataless zone just in time, but they are all cornered by the monstrous Sacchi as they try and escape…
I haven’t even touched upon huge amounts of stuff in this episode - the enigmatic Isako, who conducts tests on digital creatures and seems to have found power in chalk circles to hide herself from the Spheres, or the spunky Daichi who antagonises Fumie, or the backstory behind Yasako’s deceased grandfather giving her her glasses and Densuke… suffice to say, it’s a bare-bones summary.
Mostly because you need to watch this show. Like, now. Whilst Dennou Coil is not mindblowingly amazing or anything, the first episode is slick, highly polished and well put together; it’s hardly standard otaku fodder as it’s very clearly aimed towards a younger audience but it doesn’t patronise its audience (well, me at least) in any way whatsoever. The obvious selling point of the show has always been its art and animation, given that its directed by the somewhat legendary animator Mitsuo Iso, and on this front it doesn’t disappoint in the slightest. Every character has a moment or two where a sakuga fan will freak out at the naturalism of their movement, but more importantly from a general point of view it’s stylistically impressive and fluidly animated; this is really top-notch stuff for a TV animation, although certainly in a different way from a show like Seirei no Moribito’s beauty or Gurren Lagann’s spazziness. If you watch it, I hope you’ll understand what I mean when I talk about naturalism, even for the digital characters (Oyaji is SO awesome…)
The story certainly sets itself up to be a blast, even if it’s not going to pack in random religious symbolism or insane ranting uber-villains; the glimpse we see of Isako is intriguing, and the Coil Agency which looks to be a central part of the story should certainly bring us some entertaining filler if nothing else.
I don’t think Dennou Coil is going to be a mega hit on fansub, as essentially it’s a family show about young kids and it definitely feels like it. However, the 22 minutes just flew by for me and I’m really excited about seeing what’s coming up in the next episode as this one ends on a massive cliffhanger!
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