Blessed Union
After watching the second episode, despite being slightly confusing (possibly translation issues) in places, my opinion of Dennou Coil has elevated. Imagine, if you will, that Hayao Miyazaki and Masamune Shirow had hot juicy old-man sex. The product of that copulation would be something a lot like Dennou Coil. The characters and tone are very reminiscent of Miyazaki, however instead of a Ghibli-style adventure story, we have a science fiction mystery. It’s not cyberpunk. It’s like if you took cyberpunk, and made it shoujo, without losing any of the complexity of the story. Basically, it rocks. Omega best anime of the year.com.
This prompted me to look up who was actually making it. It’s a Madhouse production, directed and originally created by Mitsuo Iso. This is the first series (I think), that Iso has directed. However, he has a history of quite bad-ass key animation, including work on such titles as FLCL, Eva, RahXephon, Perfect Blue, GitS, 0080, Porco Rosso.
I am incredibly pumped about Dennou Coil, and future-pumped at the hope of Iso making more anime after this, because the quality level here is seriously a tier above most everything else I have seen this season.
tj han said,
May 25, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Agreed. But sometimes, a great anime is not the most entertaining one. The problem with Dennou Coil is that it is a kids’ show with adult sci-fi mechanics and hence both demographics are alienated.
Seth said,
May 25, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Is it really marketed as a kids’ show? I mean, does it come on in the afternoon? Even so, I don’t see that as making it less entertaining, just potentially less financially successful.
Seth said,
May 25, 2007 at 2:45 pm
Also what is it you think is “adult” about the science fiction elements?
Ashley said,
May 25, 2007 at 4:49 pm
I don’t find it alienating at all; if anything the way the material is presented makes it appealing to any demographic. According to wikimeister, it got a pretty high-profile time slot on NHK too.
Seth said,
May 25, 2007 at 5:17 pm
What/where is wikimeister?
Ashley said,
May 25, 2007 at 6:00 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennō_Coil
It’s in the second intro paragraph.
sethjohnson said,
May 25, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Hooray for articles that cite sources:
http://www.pelleas.net/aniTOP/index.php?title=denno_coil_on_terrestrial_tv_at_prime_ti
6:30PM Saturday
Owen said,
May 26, 2007 at 2:53 pm
I wouldn’t give it that much credit for being “complex” (haven’t seen episode 02 though), it’s mostly computer terminology and symbols that litter the place. But it is quite pretty.
sethjohnson said,
May 26, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Owen, I’m not talking about the technobabble. It is using little bits of foreshadowing and unanswered questions to suggest a complex plot (granted, so did Mai Otome, and we can all see what happened there).