It’s no secret that I love Den-noh Coil (or Dennou Coil if you prefer the classic romanization of the title). One look at my user icon across the various social media I use on a regular basis would tend to make that obvious. If you know, you know. And like many of the best anime out there, the series is structured in such a way that it deftly balances both the speculative ideas it’s trying to present, as well as the plot and character moments that define its emotional core. The first half of the series is largely spent world-building, laying the groundwork for the more plot-focused second half. Because of that, the first half features a lot of characters, locations, and moods that are tied together by the use of the cyber glasses that the characters wear. And because the first half is so focused on “dabbling,” it’s no surprise that one of the episodes is a great Halloween watch!
The opening narration of most of the episodes introduces some tidbit, usually the general substance of a rumor being passed around among the children in the story. Early on through this narration we’re introduced to “miss Michiko,” an entity of unknown origin that is rumored to have something to do with the augmented reality glasses. Because the AR mapping for the glasses interface is updated on a fairly regular basis (especially once the authorities sense that there are people hacking into and manipulating it), this introduces errors into the programming that manifest as what appear to be malevolent entities, errors, or “illegals” as they’ve been dubbed. There’s speculation that Miss Michiko may be one such illegal entity, but one with enough power that, should it be harnessed, it might provide the user with access to various abilities. Or, at least that’s what the young characters believe.
In this episode, two of the opposing groups of children – the Coil Detective Agency, and Daichi’s group of junior hacker – spend the night at their school as a lock-in activity for the biology club that they’re all nominally members of. They use this opportunity to not only tell each-other spooky stories about Miss Michiko, but also to execute a test of courage within the school halls. The kicker being that each team has laid several traps throughout the corridors that are meant to attack the opposing team where it hurts – right in the cyber glasses. In the meantime, Isako is on the scene looking for a “kirabug,” one of the many mysterious objects the hackers are after and one which she hopes may provide her the power to accomplish her goal.
As the duel rages on (and the children’s teacher gets drunk off of whiskey bon-bons), Haraken suddenly finds himself having crossed over into another realm. He dials a number on the mysterious rotary phone in the glowing hallway and hears a terrifying voice on the other end. Isako comes upon his unconscious body in the teacher’s lounge as she captures a glowing blue illegal with the form of a girl with a haunting laugh, and joins with it.
It’s at this point in the series that we get some more insight into the workings of the glasses. One thing I like about Mitsuo Iso’s two series (the other being The Orbital Children) is that they manage to combine an interest in speculative technology with a sort of supernatural or spiritual aspect that gives them a certain richness that a plain old hard sci-fi series might lack. In particular, I think that material in Den-noh Coil is especially spooky. Utilizing the glasses creates a user profile for the wearer that, if desynced from that wearer’s physical body, causes them to fall unconscious (and also has implications for how the electronic infrastructure identifies them). The visualization of this process is downright spooky.
This point in the series is relatively easy to pick up on even if you haven’t watched the preceding episodes. There are, however, some scarier ones later around the episode 17-18 mark that would also be a good watch this time of year, but would require a lot more context. Honestly, though, as far as I’m concerned you can’t go wrong if you watch this series; it’s my favorite anime for a reason.
Den-noh Coil is available to watch on Netflix. However, having re-watched this episode, I’d recommend picking up the disc release from Sentai Filmworks instead as I think the translation is better/less clunky.