Dennou Coil – 13

This episode continued to flesh out the Illegals. While the previous was a comedy, this one was a tragedy. There’s no Daichi this time, or Kyoko. This episode was all about Denpa, and it turned out really sad and overall an incredible episode. Only a heartless bastard would not be moved at the end of the episode. The episode starts with Haraken’s aunt, who is using the Kyuu-chans to get rid of the white fogs that surround the old buildings. And this couldn’t have been a better introduction, as it really shows that the Illegals are in trouble, people see them as viruses, which need to be exterminated. This episode introduces an illegal you just have to feel pity for. It seems that Denpa has been taking care of it, at an old football-field where the Sacchi’s can’t come. It’s based on the stories of the Loch Ness monster. He ran into it among its friends. They disappeared very soon afterwards, though, and only that particular illegal stayed, because Denpa fed him some metabugs. It’s interesting as it can only move on the muddy parts of the field, and it gets hurt by the grass, like it’s water. It also hates direct sunlight. Yasako and Haraken discover Denpa at one point, and they comment on how sad it is for such a creature to be there without its friends. When Fumie sees it, though, isn’t enthusiastic about it, and she reckons that Kunbinaga (as Denpa seems to call him) will die soon anyway, and leaves. Later, however, Denpa discovers that the soccer-field is about to be turned into a new building by construction-workers. Therefore, in order to save Nessie, they have to find a new home for him. Yasako manages to find a nice spot in the end, though there’s one problem: getting Kunbinaga there. They decide to ask help from Haraken’s aunt. And finally I know her name! Harakawa Tamako. Finally I can address her as something other than just “Haraken’s aunt”. Another interesting thing to note is that she is in fact seventeen years old, and she does attend a high-school (god, she looks strange in a school uniform). In any case, there won’t be help from Tamako, since she started asking strange questions. Yasako, Haraken and Denpa then decide to just try to move Kunbinaga themselves. The first attempt fails when the Kyuu-chans and Sacchis arrive. Fumie then arrives and decides to help them. They spend the rest of the day, trying to find the best route, while Fumie stalls the construction-workers as much as possible (quite funny, actually ^^;). In the end, the best way turns out to be to use the local river at the time of dawn, when the sun hasn’t reached it yet. That morning, the move can begin, and Kunbinaga has to try and survive beams from the Sacchi, beams of light, coming from the streetlights, the white stripes on the asphalt, and the atmosphere of the new buildings. The children try to help him as much as possible with darkness spray, though he suffers much damage from them. Becuase of this, they run out of time, and reach the river after the dawn had reached the river. Kunbinaga then sees a couple of industrious towers, and thinks that they’re his family; he tries to swim to them, but is overwhelmed by the incoming sunlight, and dies. It’s interesting how Fumie ends up crying along with everyone, even though she once said that Kunbinaga would die soon anyway. Anyway, that scene in particular was awesome, and an excellent closure to the first half of Dennou Coil. Isako is beginning to look like a villain more and more. Not only does she have a huge amount of power, and does she make use of everyone she runs into, she also got her powers from taking them from Illegals, who turned out to be intelligent creatures, just like humans and animals. It’s a miracle that she didn’t run into Kunbinaga. I also believe that the current episodes are not only awesome to watch, but also vital for the final part of this series, as they illustrate that Illegals themselves definitely do have their own problems, and right now we’re really sympathizing with them. The Illegals sometimes remind me of the mushi from Mushishi. They’re all just trying to survive. The Illegals are just taking control of the pets because they really don’t have anywhere to go, and the amount of white fog is decreasing drastically. I believe that the creators are using this as a parallel with our world, where countless of animal species are about to get extinct by the hands of humans.]]>