I don't think I've mentioned this before, but recently I got into anime and I'm totally hooked. I just finished Dennou Coil a couple minutes ago and I need to talk about. Warning: spoilers.
So Dennou Coil starts out kind of meandering along, building world and characters with a very slice-of-life sort of feel. The premise is that if you put on these glasses, you can see a world of cyber pets and laser fights were anything you can code becomes real. The action in the first half mainly comes from the kids' fights with cyber robot-cops who seek and destroy anything glasses-related, and the dangerous obsolete tech called 'old space'.
One thing I love about this show is how complex it is, but how it doesn't feel complex as it builds the world around you piece by piece, episode by episode. The smallest details contribute to the overall plot. And since Dennou Coil's pacing is a thing of beauty, there aren't any info dumps. Every bit of world building comes in bite-sized chunks.
The halfway point is the only thing I don't like about this series. There's three filler episodes and a recap that kind of drag the pace down. Since we weren't going very fast to begin with, this isn't good. However episode sixteen turns that around.
Yes, the second half of Dennou Coil goes by at the pace of a runaway train, dabbling in some horror and mystery plots I never saw coming. Actually, it's hard to see anything coming in this show. Those edge-of-your-seat moments feel real, like the protagonists might not make it through this. I advise you not to watch 16 17 and 18 at night. Terrible idea.
Anyways, this series looks light-hearted and childish from the outside, but it's a show centring on the pain of growing up. The world of 'old space', and especially the 'Coil space' that apparently steals children's consciousness from their bodies, was made for one girl, the tough and cold Amasawa Yuuko, to help her move on after her brother dies in a car accident. But because thoughts and feeling can become reality in this world, Yuuko's memories and perception of reality become skewed, so that she thinks her brother is alive and can be found in the Coil space, aka the 'other side'. Each of the main characters venture into this 'other side' and confront their own inner conflicts. Haraken comes to terms with his guilt over the death of his friend Kanna, and Yasako lets go of her beloved pet and realizes that, as the series has being saying, reality isn't really just what you can touch. There's way more to this series than I can get to in this stream-of-conciousness piece, but that's the beauty of this show. There are so many layers and thematic lines, probably more than I actually noticed watching it. Even the little sounds Yasako hears when interacting with cyberspace have a meaning. The amount of attention to detail that went into this show is incredible.
So, that's enough rambling for one night. Long story short, go watch Dennou Coil. And probably also Steins;Gate, but not all at once and definitely not at night. Meanwhile, I'm gonna go watch the Rolling Girls and get my nonsense fix for tonight. See ya!
