You could call it a modern day ghost story a scifi adventure or a conspiratorial mystery. All of these labels apply equally to Dennou Coil and all arise from the combination of widespread change and personal loss that takes place in the show. Dennou Coil takes place in Daikoku City a city covered in an experimental layer of cyberspace that can be accessed through the use of augmented reality glasses. The unforeseen risks presented by this new technology soon collide with the cultural shift it creates and childish games become linked to dangerous conspiracies. The cast of Dennou Coil consists of a group of children who are all familiar with the use of the glasses. As is the case with a lot of technology in real life theyve already discovered many uses for them other than what was originally intended. Theyve built a whole culture around manipulating the cyberspace. Theyve made and accumulated their own urban legends ways to litigate and settle conflicts and even a form of currency. The urban legends stem from mysterious bugs in the cyberspace called illegals artificial creatures that can corrupt and delete the data kept online. The first ten episodes of the show are centered around exploring all the different possibilities presented by their incipient culture and how it interacts with different characters personalities. The last twelve episodes reveal the characters backgrounds and forms a plot around what brought them together and how everything theyve been through relates to the origins of Daikoku Citys urban legends. Each character has suffered some kind of personal loss and much of the show follows them learning to move on from that loss or helping others to do the same. The show draws a parallel between moving on from loss and the transition from one culture into a new one. While the show has several adult characters whose jobs involve the use of the cyberspace the show for the most part depicts a generational divide. In general the adults dont see the new technology the way the children who grew up with it do. They see it as a passing fad another distraction from reality that kids have taken up for entertainment. The transition isnt easy because people of older and newer generations struggle to discuss their problems in a way that both sides can understand. They come from different worlds. The children cant fully comprehend the stakes theyre dealing with which is dangerous the adults cant fully comprehend the ways in which the children have adapted the technology not just to entertain themselves but to deepen their relationships and broaden their horizons. As it is with the characters who cant move on from their losses theres some resistance in the whole culture to leaving the past behind and accepting the conditions of the present. However until everyone can the potential for new ways of living cant be realized. The show has tons of visual tricks to simulate the fusion of the physical and digital worlds. Virtual objects are rendered with subtle differences from the physical objects depicted around them. The creator and director of the show is a man named Mitsuo Iso who animated key sequences in Ghost in the Shell End of Evangelion and FLCL. In his other work we see characters moving in heavy unwieldy ways ways that really make us think about the task of controlling ones body in physical space. While Iso didnt animate all of Dennou Coil his emphasis on bodily struggle and control makes a good point of comparison for things we see throughout the show. The camera will often pan quickly toward something but overshoot it a little and adjust. One of my favorite pieces of character animation ever which is not by Iso is in the second half of the show where one characters whole body heaves repeatedly as they try to talk through their tears. These elements introduce into the show the concept of how difficult it can be for children to control themselves when a situation demands it. Perhaps the shows biggest weakness is that it uses a lot of its own terminology. The shows dialogue contains a lot of madeup words used to describe the virtual world and although every term is thoroughly explained theyre used so often that it becomes vital to remember what each one means to make sense of some scenes. Dennou Coil starts out as one of the more creative scifi adventures out there with sympathetic characters and cool visuals that never fall short of their purpose. It goes on to become the kind of mystery with so many facets that it seems impossible for them all to be tied off by the end but they are. If either of these things sound interesting to you you should give this one a shot.