Category: Dennou Coil

Whoa, this episode is not to be missed! It starts out like random filler, but ends up to be the perfect example to demonstrate all good qualities of Dennou Coil. It’s got hilarious moments, the mystery is excellent, a huge amount of characters play some kind of role, and some major revelations are made. Everything is revolving around the match, which was agreed at the end of the previous episode. It ends up being a combination between a sleeping-party and a kid’s playground. The set-up is like this: wait till dark, and then divide in two parties, who will fight against each other. These parties then split in two groups: the attackers and the victims. Basically, the attackers launch different kinds of attacks at the victims, and the victims try not to get hit. Yuuko and her drunk teacher (who stayed over as well, to keep an eye on the children, but ate a bit too many whiskey bonbons) are the victims for Fumie’s party, and Akira and Gachagiri (please tell me if I got their names wrong) play the victims of Daichi’s party. But first: ghost stories! Both Daichi and Haraken tell supposed rumours about Michiko-san (I loved the artificial lightning that was used to create the mood ^^;). Daichi’s is obviously fake, but I can’t help but wonder whether some parts about Haraken’s story may be true. Obviously, the black faces were made up, but there could be some truth to Michiko, being once a student of the same school. She found herself in an empty school-building, even though it was already morning. She then tried to take off her glasses, only to realize that she wasn’t wearing them, and then realized that she had become part of the cyber-world herself. Like I said above, lots of characters had some kind of important role, and lots of characters got a bit of development. The reaction of Daichi and Fumie to Haraken’s story was priceless, and it again shows how similar they are. We also get to see Daichi’s father during this episode, and I must say that I’m not surprised at all that the two of them are related. For Yasako, this episode can be seen as her “Hazing”, since she had to protect both herself and her teacher from Daichi’s assaults. Because of that, this episode can be seen as the end of the introduction for Dennou Coil. She did pretty well, actually, after having been drilled by Fumie for this task. Akira also was too cute when Daichi found out about him, being a double-spy. After all, they can all imagine the idea of being abused by a woman too well. ^^: Denpa also tells Haraken why he is friends with Daichi in the first place. It seems that he once was bullied, and then saved by Daichi. Denpa seems to be more sensitive to the cyber-world, by the way. It’s a bit annoying that his name means “radio wave” in Japanese. Only now I realize that Daichi wasn’t talking about the radio waves inside the cyber-world, he just talked about the guy named Denpa! Still, the funniest moment of the episode definitely was when Haraken’s aunt secretly sneaked a Sacchi inside the school with the help of a meta tag, after which it ran off on its own and zapped some of Daichi’s friends. That must have been a huge wtf-moment for the two of them. xD Now, regarding the plot. Remember the red meta-bug that Haraken got after the previous episode? At the beginning of the episode, he finds out that it makes a sound, so he lets Denpa translate it for him. The sound turns out to say: 4-4-2-3, which can also mean Yonyon Nii-San, or brother Yonyon (Anime News Network strangely lists 4423 as one of the characters with a voice-actor, hence why). Isako spends the episode tracking the illegal that’s been hiding in the school, explaining the fog that came out of the classroom in the previous episode. There is something different about this one, though. It already formed a keyhole on its own, without the help of Isako. A strange glowing fairy-like thing came out of it, and started to run around the school. Haraken notices it, and strangely, it reminds him of Kanna, so he follows it. It then brings him to some strange kind of room, with a phone in it. He dials 4-4-2-3, and somehow Kanna’s voice comes out! Things get even weirder when Isako arrives, traps the fairy, calls it Michiko, and absorbs it!]]>

This episode had lots of different focuses. It’s the time of the year for the summer-festival to come, and let’s just say that a few couples get developed: Yasako and Haraken, and Fumie and Daichi. We especially get a lot of Daichi this time. Oh, and Isako looks quite strange in a yukata. Anyway, the usual list of new information (new for me, at least): – According to a legend, if you wear your glasses at night, a child can enter its own dreams. – Yuuko has the strange dream again, where the boy’s voice advices her to run away, after which she’s attacked by a giant illegal. – Haraken’s aunt seems to be interested in Yasako and Isako for some reason. – There’s a white mist in the teacher’s office as well. – Yasako’s dad is Haraken’s aunt’s boss, instead of the other way around like I first thought. He also was the one who designed Sacchi, and gave it its name and made it say “boku sacchi”. – Ken keeps contact with Kanna’s mother. She fully supports his research. In this episode, she gives him Kanna’s glasses. She wants to know what happened to Kanna on the day she died as well. – Daichi has had a crush on Fumie a long time ago. He wanted to ask her out to the sumer festival since a long time ago, but every time he was too scared to do it. – Either Haraken or Kanna had a dog, called Kuro. This dog went lost, and in this episode, Haraken finds out that it turned into an illegal. It gets blown up by a Kyuu-chan, though. – Kanna seems to have had a few hidden files behind a password, and Kanna needs some sort of key to access them. – Kyoko hates Daichi. The most important focus of the episode, though, was Daichi. He had been too scared to ask Fumie out to the festival, but now Isako orders him to duel her to obtain her glasses. Why? Because she wants Michiko-san’s power. Why Isako would want Fumie’s glasses for that, I have no idea, it must probably have something to do with the data she stole. In any case, the plan is for Daichi to challenge her during the festival, but he ends up having fun with her. Isako was quite evil when she forced him to actually fight. We also finally get to know what Isako has been after: Michiko-san. What is she, actually? And why does Fumie play a role in it? I also wonder why it took Yasako so long to mention that her father wwas the one who developed the Sacchi.]]>

First, before I start with the entry, another summary of the new information revealed in this episode. I can’t believe that we’re already at episode seven and there’s still new information coming in. Either that, or I missed a lot of information in the previous episodes. – Illegals can be found in old buildings. – The current episode introduces Kirabugs, or stronger versions of metabugs. They seem to emit a bright light. – Isako is a very good drawer. – Illegals seem to live longer when they’re in ordinary pets, instead of old buildings. – Kirabugs seem to be rather mythical. A legendary hacker is supposed to have obtained one once, though it broke and died afterwards. This suggests that the kirabug was a living thing, according to the legend, at least. – After the kirabug died, it turned into what we now know as Metabugs. This episode mainly focused on the relationship between Yasako and Isako. The two of them are in the same building, Yasako searches for a lost pet, while Isako tracked another Illegal. In the process, Yasako accidentally set off a trap that Isako set, and gets locked inside a sound-proof chamber, along with Isako who fails to stop her. In this episode, it again appears that Isako loves to feel superior. The chair she sits in just screams that she has total control. In the middle of the episode, she scares Yasako by telling her a fake story about the illegals (which would have been awesome if true, by the way), and she really feels uncomfortable when she’s on her knees to try and fix her error. I’m also beginning to warm up to Kyoko more and more. Why? Because she really gets portrayed as a little girl. Unlike other anime, the creators do not make any attempt to make her character better to swallow, and the sister-relationship between her and Yasako feels extremely realistic and life-like.]]>

Due to the absence of both Isako and Daichi, this episode had a lot less flashy graphics. Instead, it focuses on Sacchi, Haraken, Kyoko and the mysterious black motorbiker we’ve been seeing. Another clear building-up episode. A quick list of the new information: – Yasako and Fumie’s teacher is getting stalked by another teacher who has the hots for her. – Haraken seems to be researching about Illegals, according to some rumours, he seemed to be doing this with a girl named Kanna, but she ended up dying. After that, he carried his research out on his own. – What really happened was the following: Kanna and Haraken carried out their research on a strange place, and got in a fight. Kanna left first, and that’s the last thing Haraken saw of him/her(?). It could be that he or she was killed by an illegal. – Haraken frequently visits a flower shop, which happens to be right next to a post office which is the homebase of the Sacchi. – Kyoko likes to put on two different pairs of shoes. – Sacchi can’t sense its target at a distance of 30 metres. – Fumie once had a pet as well, but a Sacchi killed it. Oyaji apparently doesn’t count as a pet. – Yasako and Fumie agree to help Haraken in his research. – The black biker we’ve been seeing is actually Haraken’s seventeen year old aunt. Instead of going to school, she seems to be high-placed in some company in charge of the Sacchi, which is why Haraken had so much control over it. – At the end of the episode, Kyoko has given up her “unchi”. Right now, she bothers everyone with motorbike impressions. – Yuuko’s father seems to worn under Haraken’s aunt. And I probably missed a few things. The fact remains that the characters and settings in Dennou Coil need lots of explanation, which is what the previous episodes have been giving. I’m looking forward to the point where the introductions are over, and this anime can start to develop its characters, and use the information it’s been giving us for th past few episodes. Kyoko also is quite interesting, in the fact that she really looks like a five-year old girl, and the creators did not bother to tone down her annoyingness. You don’t see that in many anime nowadays.]]>

Heh, and here I thought that Isako would soon befriend Yasako. This episode again showed that she’s got enough plans of her own. She really came to the city for a specific reason, and spent this episode recruiting Daiichi and his four comrades to help her do the dirty work. This episode also introduces another character: Haraken. He seems to be the president of the biology-club, but he also is really knowledgeable about illegals, something that has rather interested Yasako after her own experiences with them. He joins Yasako and Fumie as they go after Isako, who might be after a huge ore of meta-bugs. They’re not the best trackers, though, and I believe that Isako knew about their plans, ever since she saw Oyaji spy on her. In any case, Haraken’s skills are a big mystery, since he’s incredibly shy and never uses them. Even though he’s the leader of the biology club, his leadership capabilities are zero, and Fumie keeps saving him from things like Daichi’s pranks. Fumie also explains that Daichi has grown up like a reach brat. It first started when he found out that lifting skirts was fun. When he then got introduced to hacking, he kept bugging others with his pranks. I also finally realized how people can actually get hurt. It’s probably already explained by now, but I finally realize that the cyber-world heavily uses radio-waves. Whenever Sacchi cleans up dirt, it also uses radio-waves, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the cyber-world entirely consists out of these radio-waves. I can indeed imagine that a long exposure to these radio-waves can get harmful. That’s why Daichi clinged to his friend when his body was affected by too much of these radio-waves, in order to turn back to normal a bit. Anyway, basically Isako takes Daiichi and four of his friends to a bus-graveyard. In one of these buses, they find a number of explosive meta-bugs. At that point, Yasako and Fumie, who still were spying on them were surprised by a Sacchi and gave themselves away. In the confusion, one of the kids gets separated from the others: Akira, Fumie’s little brother. She doesn’t like it when she finds him, though, and tries to frame him into spying on Daichi. I’m not sure whether he’ll actually do this. 😛 We also see two or three scenes which feature a mysterious motorcyclist. I’m not sure what her role is, but she seems to be spying on Isako, and Isako doesn’t like it. We’ll probably know more about her in the future. The episode ends with something quite interesting: Haraken is able to manipulate the Sacchi. The question: how and why? Overall, the episode was quite good. I especially like Yasako in this series, even though her role has been small up till now. I also love how Isako keeps messing with the others. Like how she knew that Yasako and Fumie were trailing her, causing her to throw some explosives in their direction. ^^]]>

Episode four continues to introduce new things, most importantly a few new side-characters and Dennou-style warfare. The newly introduced characters are basically classmates of Yasako and Fumie. We’ve got the henchmen of Daichi, who consist out of a few geeks and one wimpy boy who follows them everywhere, but basically is too scared to do anything. There’s also this girl that lunches along with the two of Yasako and Fumie. We also get our first clues on Yasako’s past as well. She tries to befriend Isako, but the latter declines. When Yasako keeps asking, Isako reveals that she knows that caused some kind of trouble in her old school. What she actually caused is either never said, or I didn’t pick this up. But the fact remains that this can become very interesting for the future. I could have sworn that Yasako also said that she likes to be friends with everyone, perhaps she acts like this because of her past experience. She also seemed troubled when “Michiko-san” was mentioned. Most of the episode focuses on Daiichi&co trying to attack Isako, Isako getting back at them, and Fumie taking advantage of the situation to launch a surprise attack on Isako. The boys use another new kind of weapon to attack: teleportation holes, by lack of better names. The shoot cyber-bullets in them and these teleportation holes then shoot these bullets to wherever they’re pointing at. In this case: Isako. The latter, though, proves to be way too skilled for Daichi to handle. By the way, you have to love the visuals. Certain scenes in particular looked really beautiful, despite the simple character-designs. While Daichi and his friends tried to attack Isako, Fumie meanwhile hasn’t been standing still herself, and once the former have been knocked out, it’s Fumie’s turn to take action, and she actually provides a challenge to Isako, collecting a small piece of information. I’m not sure what kind of information that was, but neither has Fumie, since Fumie, since it turned out unreadable. Yasako, however, notices one word which rather startles her: Michiko. Who is Michiko-san, and could she be related to the boy that called out Yasako, a few episodes ago? She’s in an interesting position in this anime, by the way. I mean, she’s surrounded by people who are extremely good with the cyber-world, and compared to them, she knows nearly nothing about this, yet she is the main character. Will she get some special role in the future? This episode also showed how dangerous the virtual world can actually be. It seems that if you overload the glasses, you get hurt yourself as well. Is this some kind of weak point in the whole cyber-world? It’s kind-of freaky that these “toys” can actually become dangerous when used in the wrong hands. Ah well, this episode was mostly meant to show some stunning visuals and flesh out the characters a bit. It’ll be interesting to see how the characters will react to each other after this episode, and there’s also this matter of why Isako came to the school in the first place. Is the case just as simple as “parent moved”, or is there something in the school she’s looking for?]]>

That was another excellent episode, if I had to say so myself. It’s meant to develop the other character called “Yuuko”, or Yuuko II, as I’m going to refer to her from now on. This probably is one of the few anime that dares to feature two characters with the same name. Anyway, this episode still continued to introduce new things, how more extensive can this world get? Anyway, my favourite new feature was the phone, which you use by putting your thumb near your ear and your pinkie near your mouth. That really would be so cool if we had this in the real world. ^^; Anyway, the chase which started in the previous episode comes to an abrupt halt when Mega-Baa’s back starts complaining. She gives Kyoko, who happened to be passing by the feature she displayed at the previous episode, but instead of catching the fur-balls, Kyoko starts zapping everything she runs into. ^^; The fur-balls then finally manage to catch Densuke. He’s quite a smart dog, by the way, outsmarting these fur-balls for so long. Him, crying in the trashcan does show that he’s got a few human traits. With the help of Oyaji, Yuuko and Fumie are able to track down Densuke, though. But then two Sacchis appear, I think that they’re after both the illegal and the fur-balls Yuuko II set free. I’ve been wondering, though, what happens if you get seriously hit by a Sacchi? I mean, it is the virtual world after all, but the reactions of Fumie, Yuuko and Yuuko II seem to suggest that these huge moving child toys are actually very dangerous. Anyway, eventually Yuuko II gets her hands on Densuke, by tricking Yuuko. She then gets the illegal out of the creature, and then sticks a key inside a keyhole that just appeared on this illegal. I first thought that she wanted to destroy it, but in the end, her goal doesn’t seem to be getting rid of all illegals in the world (but then again, we’ve got Sacchis for that). It seems that there was something inside of that illegal, but it blew up before she could get this out of the creature. The explosion did quite a bit of damage to the surroundings as well. Heck, it looked like a virtual earthquake had just occurred. Quite interesting. It’s also quite interesting that Yuuko II doesn’t need any meta-tags. Instead, she just has to draw lines on the floor with chalk. The simple, Full Metal Alchemist-like ones create shrines, while the more complex (and very interesting-looking, by the way) ones are able to halt creatures like the Sacchi for a while. It’s interesting that unlike FMA, the drawings themselves actually have a lot in common with their functions. The four lines, symbolizing a shrine, with a closed circle drawn around it makes perfect sense for if you want to protect yourself, after all.]]>

That was the coolest old lady ever!! Seriously, though. This episode showed that Dennou Coil doesn’t only have a huge amount of imagination, it also showed that this series is going to be heaps of fun. Most of the episode was standard character-fleshing out, but I loved the climax. It starts with Yuuko and Fumie escaping from the strange red creature called “Sacchi” by hiding near a shrine. Apparently, shrines and schools are off-limits to them. Then we see a bit more about the girl we saw briefly in the previous episode. She seems to be after the black speck, which seems to be called an “illegal”, or computer virus. It seems that this virus has entered Densuke, and isn’t planning to let go of him soon, as later in the episode showed. She sends a bunch of strange furballs to track it down. We then get to see the rest of Yuuko’s family. Her grandmother runs a cyber-tore, where all kinds of strange items and cyber-items can be bought. She and her daughter (aka Yuuko’s mother) seem to be arguing a lot, though, so I wonder what made them move in to this city in the first place. Yuuko’s grandfather seems to be dead, but notice the picture she has of him on his death altar and understand why the two ended up married with each other. 😛 I also wonder, if you pet a cyber-pet, do you feel anything? I mean, Yuuko touched Densuke like it was an actual animal. And if you can feel it, what happens if a cyber-pet bumps into someone who doesn’t wear glasses? I also kept wondering what “unchi” meant, so I decided to look it up…. I wish I didn’t. It seems that Kyoko learned a new word recently… This episode, I also noticed the use of papers for all kinds of purposes. One version attempted to cure Densuke (either that, or to stop the virus from downloading stuff), and one was even able to change the lights in a traffic light. They seem to be produced from these strange crystals that were introduced in the previous episode (sorry, forgot their names), which does explain why Fumie charges these crystals instead of money for her services. When Yuuko’s grandmother also sells something to her, she seems have gotten a number as well (8). Fumie herself is 7, while grandmother herself is 0. I’m not sure what these numbers mean, though. The awesomeness in the episodes begins with a strange dream Yuuko has, which suggests that the mysteries in Dennou Coil go way deeper than what meets the eye. Inside this dream, someone who claims to be Yuuko’s brother and stuck in one of the shrines asks her to free him. The next day, Kyoko gets the “interesting” idea of using her cyber-crayons on Densuke, with hilarious results. The furballs then make their move, though, and when Kyoko grabs one of them, it actually manages to zap her, which causes her arms to get all… cybered up, by lack of proper term. Yuuko’s grand mother, however, then shows that she doesn’t run a cyber-shop for no reason, as she starts chasing them and the episode ends. That was really nice, and I feel that there are many more mysteries that will be introduced in the next couple of episodes.]]>

Hah, no need for quick first impressions here, simply because I know I’m going to blog this anyway, and it would take to long till the next show starts to air. Dennou Coil was THE show for me to look out to this season, and when I have to compare it with the other first episodes that have aired during this series, then it’s safe to say that Dennou Coil so far has featured the most unique and imaginative first episode of the entire season. Still, when you were expecting a show with high-budgetted graphics, then Dennou Coil will probably disappoint you. The graphics are kept very simple on purpose. The animation looks great, though. The backgrounds are brighter than normal, and they give off a strange feeling. Still, I love it so far. 🙂 The story: Yuuko comes to move in to a strange city, along with her younger sister Kyouko and pet dog Densuke. Her parents apparently moved to that place before, and now the two of them arrive in the city as well. So far, so good. But now the concept: Dennou Coil plays in the future. I’m not sure exactly what year, but one major invention is virtual reality. At the point of the anime, this has become more and more integrated with real life, up to the point that you can have cyber-pets which only appear if you put on special kinds of glasses. Densuke is indeed one of these virtual pets. The strange thing is that you can actually hug him, even though he doesn’t exist for real, but when you drop a bag on it, it falls through him. Naturally, every character in this anime wears glasses. ^^; They provide some handy features, such as a mobile phone, a gps, and a people-tracker. Also, once you have a pet, any type of glasses can see it, creating a real cyber world. I love it so far. Things get even weirder when there are even places in the virtual world that don’t exist in the real one. Special types of UFOs have been employed to destroy these places, and things that shouldn’t be in the virtual world. One of these things is a mysterious dark speck, which hangs around in the neighbourhood, doing random things. Densuke ends up chasing it, even when it goes to a space that exists only in the virtual world, and ends up getting lost. Cue another main character: Fumie. She knows quite a lot about the cyber-world, and actually hunts for lost cyber-pets in her free time. Thanks to her, I’ve lost track of what’s real and what’s cyber. For example, she carries a pouch where anything can fit in, including a strange, wobbly creature she uses to track Densuke in the virtual world. Two other characters introduced in this episode, but not much time has been devoted to them. One of them is a girl who probably knows even more about the cyber-world than Fumie does. She seemed to be either after the black speck, or cyber-cat that we see Fumie hunting later on. The other is a boy who seems to be either Fumie’s friend, or her rival. Dennou Coil has been created by one man: Mitsuo Iso, and I have to praise the guy’s creativity. There are so many original ideas in this anime, I feel like the future episodes have something very interesting in stall for us. ^_^ EDIT: okay, never mind me saying that everything in this anime is brighter than usual. That was just the video-file that I downloaded. ^^;]]>