Dennou Coil ep.01

May 12, 2007 | 11 Comments

OP Theme: 「プリズム」 (Prism) by Ikeda Ayako - AVI version (17.6MB) | PSP version (9MB)

This is a rather interesting first episode for the series. Unlike other series that have been released this Spring, there is actually a sense of originality with this one. The basic idea is quite unusual because it deals with the merge between the real world and the virtual-reality like world. It's fascinating to see how the humans react to the the half-real, half-virtual world and find the two barely recognisable because of the glasses that they wear. Despite this, there are major differences between the two world. I suspect the majority of the conflicts will arise due to elements from one part of the world crossing over to the other side of the world. The OP and ED theme themselves are great. They have this calm, relaxing feel which suits the pseudo techno/slice-of-life feel of the series.

The episode begins with two girls travelling on their own inside an electric train. When the train is about to reach their destination, Daikoku city, the older sister, Okunagi Yuuko (aka Yusako), gives her sister, Kyouko, the backpack. Kyouko naughtily throws the backpack on top of their pet dog, Densuke. The surprising thing here is that the bag intersects with Densuke's body. After a while, Densuke realises this and yelps in terror. Later on, it's clear that Densuke is actually some kind of cyber dog because the back of his body starts to phase in and out like a projection that is about to dim down. Meanwhile somewhere in the city, a girl called Amasawa Yuuko (aka Isako), is watching over from a far while a cat sits in the middle of what looks like a pentagram (it looks like a drawing of the tree of life but I could be wrong). All of a sudden, the cat hiss loudly as a black-blob substance making an appearance from beneath the street.

While the black blob throws its tail around the cat, a spherical object suddenly finds the two. The object then throws a laser projectile which destroy parts of the black blob, causing it and the virtual cat to run away. Isako tries to stop the object by throwing something which ends up becoming another pentagram upon contact with the black blob. Isako is unhappy about the sphere because it seems she was conducting an experiment with the virtual cat and the blob creature. Before she can run away to follow the cat, however, the sphere starts to move again and follows her around. In order to hide herself, Isako draws another pentagram on the ground and stands within it. When the sphere comes nearby, it can't seem to detect her presence even though she's clearly in front of the sphere. Back to Yusako, she's now sitting inside a restaurant, telling her mother that they are now in front of the Daikoku station and wonders why she's not there.

The mother apologises but tells her daughter that if she's already there she might as well go on her own since her grandmother already waits. Of interest here is that Yusako is holding a seemingly non-existent cellphone and next to her there's a holographic projection of the connection strength of her phone call. When she turns off the phone, the holographic image also goes away. Later on, Kyouko decides to run off on her own so Yusako has no choice but to look for her. She finds her sister and Densuke looking at the remains of the black blob which got toasted by the spherical object seen earlier. At first Yusako thinks it's a real object but when she removes her glasses, she realises that it's a holographic object. Because they see the black spots forming a trail, they decide to follow it. Eventually they stumble into a bigger version of the blob but Yusako is still not sure of what creature it could be and what caused its evaporation.

Because of this, Yusako asks Densuke if there is a "Help" guide embedded inside the creature. While Densuke sniffing on it, another holographic plate appears saying that "Help is not available". Yusako, however, is freaked out when the blob in question suddenly moves on its own. Kyouko starts to go after the blob, forcing Yusako to go after it as well. As the blob runs away, it starts to form its body again and now it resembles the black octopus figure that was seen earlier by Isako. Unfortunately, they seem to lose track of the creature after a corner although Densuke seems to detect its presence a few seconds later. Meanwhile, a girl called Hashimoto Fumie is excited when she spots a holographic cat sitting in between two real cats. Before Fumie can make a grab for it, however, a boy called Daichi is running after the cat, causing it to flee in fear. Fumie is unhappy about this and tells the boy that the cat is her "e-mono".

Meanwhile, Fumie ends up putting her back behind an altar inside a shrine before looking around for her sister and dog again. While looking around the corner of the neighbourhood, Fumie notices a buzzing noise nearby. She quickly makes a grab for it, thinking that the creature is Densuke. Much to her disappointment, the thing is actually the cat that Fumie wanted. True enough, Fumie suddenly becomes territorial when she sees Yusako holding her "e-mono". She even threatens Yusako to return the cat or else. Eventually Fumie realises that Yusako is not Daichi's friend so she tries to buy off the cat from Yusako. When Daichi appears, Fumie shoves some kind of business card and a pin on Yusako's hand and makes a grab for the cat before running away again. Upon looking at the business card, Fumie realises that it Fumie is a part of a group called "Dennou Tantei" (the closest translation will be "Electronic/Cyber Detectives").

Meanwhile, the big black blob seen earlier looks exhausted and tired as it drags its body across a street. The creature, however, becomes excited when it notices a static electrical distortion that appears in front of a wooden fence. Back to Yusako, she decides to use a GPS-like software to locate the whereabouts of Densuke. When she tries to get to the area, however, she ends up facing the black blob, which is now trying to force its way into the static electrical distortion. Yusako is freaked out when the blob suddenly turns violent and moves towards her. In response, Yusako hits the creature using her holographic map but she misses it and only causes more distortion near the wooden fence. All of a sudden, the distortion turns into one large black field in the wooden face with "Data is not available" written on it. The blob starts to move towards the field but before it can reach Yusako, Densuke appears and fights the blob.

The blob manages to run away into the distorted field but Densuke follows it and ends up being swallowed by the field as it evaporates. Yusako tries to create the distortion again by slamming her electronic/holographic map but only ends up destroying her map. When Kyouko arrives in the area, the two can hear Densuke's bark around the area and yet neither of them can see the dog. Meanwhile, Densuke finds himself inside an enclosed space filled with various objects which match the real world). Yusako herself is now feeling depressed and ends up having a flashback to the time when she got a present from her grandfather. That present turned out to be the glasses that she wears now. By using that glasses, she can see Densuke, who was timid and afraid of her at first. Eventually, however, the electronic/holographic dog warmed up to her. In the present, Yusako remembers the business card that Fumie gave her and decides to read it.

She then notices the back of the card states that the detectives will help looking for missing pet. A few minutes/hours ago, Yusako asks her mother to pick up Kyouko so that she can go looking for Densuke. She then runs back to the place where she lost Densuke but she still hasn't seen Fumie there. Instead, she notices the sphere-looking object and wonders if it's UFO. XD As it turns out, Fumie is hiding from the object in the corner and asks Yusako to be quiet for a while. After the object disappears in the corner, Fumie approaches Yusako and informs her that lately there's been an increase in the number of that objects, which she refers to as "Kyuu-chan". Apparently the object's actual name is Kyuutai but she calls it "Kyuu-chan". Fumie then gets straight to business, asking Yusako about this business she likes to talk about. In response, Yusako explains that her pet disappeared into the wall. Because of this, Fumie pokes around the wooden fence.

After failing to cause much distortion, Fumie comments that the space in question is old. As for payment, she wants the object that she gave to Yusako earlier. After giving back the object, Fumie asks her about the circumstances behind Densuke's disappearance so Yusako explains about the black blob, surprising Fumie in the process. Speaking of the blob, it now lies in the virtual world seemingly powerless. The creature, however, perks up when it notices sparkly coloured bits not far from it. While Fumie explains about the danger of losing in old field, Densuke can be seen walking around within it looking terrified. She adds that if Densuke stays long inside the field, his body could disappear. With that, Fumie uses a spray to create a field on a piece of metal which is placed in front of her. This causes a distortion space to appear in the metal. However, she thinks it'll be problematic if they encounter Sacchi.

Fumie describes a red, big creature but realises that Yusako never saw one or knew about it. Yusako explains that she just moved today from Kanazawa. Fumie then pulls out a cyber fishing pole and something which is important for their mission. The thing turns out to be a daikon-shaped creature. Yusako asks Fumie if it's her pet but Fumie tells her that the creature is her servant, Oyaji. Meanwhile, somewhere in the street, a Kyuu-chan is sending laser at a distorted cyber space that appears on the street. Upon doing so, a message saying "Repair is completed" appear on the space. After slapping a meta-tag on Oyaji's body, Fumie orders the poor creature to march into the open field. Much to Yusako's shock, Oyaji manages to penetrate the field and walk inside it while the fishing pole is connected to his body. Fumie thinks that the object that Yusako encountered is possibly "Illegal", a computer virus. If it infects a pet, it could be dangerous.

Speaking of the virus, it has now grown bigger because it's been eating those little coloured pebbles inside the virtual world. Outside in the real world, nothing seems to happen so Fumie decides to contact Oyaji by talking through the mike. Upon contact, she finds out that the area is larger than she originally thought. She thinks it would have been good if they are close to Densuke's area. Their conversation comes to a halt when Kyuu-chans send one of its laser again to reformat the old, corrupted cyber data. The result within the virtual world is interesting because the wall within the enclosed space becomes smaller and destroys everything that it comes into contact with. The wall also comes with "Formatting in progress" message. Hee. Because of the danger, Fumie has no choice but to pull back Oyaji. Yusako, however, asks Fumie to wait for a while because she can hear Densuke's voice coming from one of the locations.

ED Theme: 「空の欠片」(Sora no Kakera) by Ikeda Ayako - AVI version (20MB) | PSP version (10MB)

Meanwhile inside the cyber space, the virus notices Densuke running away from the formatted wall. Soon, the dog face to face with the virus and makes a loud noise which Yusako can hear. She then places the metal into an area which she thinks is closest to Densuke's location within the cyber space. Because of this, Fumie sends Oyaji back into the space to find the dog. Oyaji eventually finds Densuke inside the cyber world but the dog is now unconscious. Despite this, Oyaji takes Densuke out with him. At the same time, Kyuu-chan is approaching closer to the area and begins to reformat the virtual world nearby, causing the world to collapse. Thankfully Fumie manages to extract Oyaji and Densuke in time before the entire world is destroyed. The two girls then run away from Kyuu-chan carrying their respective pet. Unfortunately before they can go too far, they encounter another Kyuu-chan. If that's not bad enough, something appears from a wall: it's the giant Sacchi Fumie mentioned earlier.

Impression:

What can I say but this is one hell of imaginative world. From what I've seen so far, it seems there is a virtual/cyber layer placed on top of the real world. As a result, humans can interact with these cyber technologies around them easily. What I want to know is the logistic of interacting with Cyber pet. While it's easy to understand that a person can see the creature easily, wouldn't it be kind of different when it comes to sensation? I'm not sure how cyber pets can be similar to real one unless it actually feels like one. But how can something that is essentially intangible be felt by a person? Moving on to other issues, I like that there are self-activated cleaning robots to deal with corrupted data. These robots, Kyuutais or Kyuu-chans are certainly effective and indiscriminate. Their job is to reformat data and they don't care if a pet gets wiped out in the process. I can see how this troubles the children in the series.

Preview

On the other hand, a pet that is trapped inside cyber world could get infected by a virus. The end of this episode clearly suggests that Densuke might have been infected by that giant virus that attacked him in the virtual world. Because of this, pulling the dog out might not be a good idea. What I want to know is how does a virus get stronger in this world? I assume it's the same as viruses in computer in that it does so by eating other datas and expands itself to other uninfected areas. Anyway, enough with the technical discussion because I haven't talked about the animation. This is one good looking first episode. There are so much details in this episode alone that I have to rewatch it again to catch some of the elements that I didn't catch the first time around. The background image is especially lush and has that water-coloured feel to it. Overall, I think this is a promising first episode and I'm looking forward for more.

On next week's episode: Scary grandma.

© memento 2003