Okay, this is it. Dennou Coil is my final marathon of the year. I don’t really know what to say about a series that isn’t an epic or monumental adventure out beyond the stars at this point, but I’ll try my best…
Dennou Coil is an inner journey, a testament of the consciousness, it doesn’t span a large period of time or space, but it has heartfelt meaning. It deals with kids in a future where reality is overlapped with cyberspace, as well as “other” spaces. It is so simple, slightly subtle, but wow, it is truly great.
Relative
I’m really struggling to connect this with influences and such, but the character design is very Ghilbi. Due to the nature of DenCo, it does seem related to sci-fi futuristic computer titles like Ghost in the Shell, but it is hardly like anything at all; an original feel.
The creator/director is Mitsuo Iso, who has not produced a piece of this magnitude while driving the production. Though, Iso has been staff on many solid works; NGE, GiTS, FLCL. In short, whatever inspired DenCo was something youthful and awesome, and I believe that it is possibly related to being around healthy productions.
Highlights
Of course, the original nature was quite enjoyable. Many of the middle episode had a great slice-of-life feel to them, but the story still churned a magnificent sci-fi drama. It was a good example of diversity. There were really comedic scenes and thrilling action sequences, but the major driver was the seriousness of the mysteries (details revealed around episode 20).
Diversity: did I mention the 17 yr old in leather, HarakawaStrangely, while the story is amazing, I didn’t find myself strongly impacted by any single character, I didn’t identify well. The characters did have their own charm, and the characterization was very good, but even without a strong connection for any character, I empathized.
It is noticeable that all the characters are a certain way, they are distinct, especially in their feelings. Halfway through, It was easy to get lost in the “Who wants what out of this mess?” etc, but unlike many series where it may be tedious to find answers, or speculate, DenCo presents everything just enough and at the right moments.
As for the final episodes, the deal was sealed. I was taken away… simple.
Overall
THIS, Dennou Coil, is my number one series of 2007; and I’ve still not published my year in review, damn. Everybody has their favorites, but why choose Coil over TTGL, which I was more enthused and ignited to experience, or over Terra e… which tested and tore so many emotional threads of my being in a beautiful manner? Why?
The answer is necessity. In those other series, there were moments of doubt, dismay, disagreement in the aspects of presentation and delivery. DenCo tells, executes, and displays almost flawlessly a story of pure beauty; nothing was unnecessary.
Through the entire experience, the series never feels too much or too little. That is why I classify it as number one for the year. I loved it.
Ryan A
