, also known as Coil – A Circle of Children; is a Japanese science fiction anime television series produced by Madhouse. The series is created, directed and written by Mitsuo Iso, it aired for 26 episodes in Japan on NHK Educational TV between May and December 2007. The story follows a group of children as they use AR glasses to unravel the mysteries of the half real, half Internet city, using a variety of illegal software tools, techniques, and virtual pets to manipulate the digital landscape.
It is a pioneering work that depicts daily life in a world dominated by AR (augmented reality) technology, in which layers created by computer networks are superimposed on the real world. It has received high praise among critics for its fusion of old-fashioned Japanese scenery and urban legends, a modern version of the Japanese folklore Kaidan, with a futuristic worldview, and for its story of children playing in an augmented reality world using a device called "Den-noh Megane" (cyber glasses), as if anticipating the subsequent emergence of smart glasses.
Den-noh Coil has won several awards, including the Grand Prize of the 29th Nihon SF Taisho Award, the Best Media of the 39th Seiun Award, both in 2008, and the Excellence Award at the 11th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2007.
Plot The year is 2026, and it has been 11 years since the "Den-noh Megane" (cyber glasses), a wearable computer in the form of glasses that uses AR technology, became widespread throughout the world. The glasses allow information from the Den-noh world to be superimposed on and manipulated in the real world. There are pets and tools that use Den-noh technology, and the telephone and Internet are used through Den-noh Megane. Children could no longer remember the time when they could see the world without looking through glasses.
Just before her last summer vacation in elementary school, Yuko Okonogi, a.k.a. Yasako, moves from Kanazawa City, the capital of the prefecture, to Daikoku City, a provincial city with an ancient capital lined with historic shrines and temples, but also equipped with the latest electronic infrastructure. There she meets another Yuko, Yuko Amasawa, also known as Isako, who has the same name and is the same age but is in contrast to her. At her new school, Yasako meets a group of children with rich personalities and experiences a series of strange events that occur in the Den-noh space. Yasako's new classmates, Fumie, Daichi, and Haraken, belong to the Children's Detective Bureau run by her grandmother, and as she investigates urban legends about dangerous beings in Den-noh space with them, she learns that one of their friends may have died because of her pursuit of that being. Most frightening of all, Yasako has lost all memory of her previous time in Daikoku City.
Characters
Nicknamed Yasako, which is another reading of 優子 meaning "gentle girl". With her sister Kyoko and her two parents, Yasako moves to the city of Daikoku to live with her grandmother, Megabā. Yasako is a sweet and passive girl who follows the lead of Fumie, who eventually initiates her into Megabā's Coil Cyber Detective Agency as its eighth member. Yasako has been to the city of Daikoku seven years ago for her grandfather's funeral. A pair of Den-noheyeglasses and the virtual pet Densuke were left to her as a memento. During her time in Daikoku, she coincidentally wandered into the Coil Domain where she befriended a young boy with the codename 4423. After Yasako returns to live in Daikoku, her hazy memories of that enigmatic friendship gradually return to haunt her. Her father Ichirō works at a Dennou technology company, Megamass, which deploys Searchmaton in Daikoku. Her birthdate is October 12, 2015.
Nicknamed Isako, which is another reading of 勇子 meaning "brave girl", Yuko Amasawa is a powerful type of hacker known as an who is able to manipulate the electronic infrastructure through sophisticated chalk patterns. Rumored to have familial ties to an AR technology company, Isako uses a Brain-Computer Interface to interact with the virtual world—a function hidden inside the hardware of AR visors and eyeglasses. Isako is, on the surface, extremely arrogant and antisocial, perceiving human relationships strictly as hierarchies of power and manipulation. Isako relentlessly chases special illegals in order to collect kirabugs. She is secretly driven to this task in the hopes of finding her brother in "the other side". Her birthdate is April 4, 2015.
She is the little sister of Yasako. She is young and childish and often gets in the way of danger. She shows a number of fixations; the most common one is the repeated use of the word "poop" when pointing at people and other items of interest (Daichi can even decode her "poop poop" language).
Fumie is the seventh member of the Coil Den-noh Detective Agency. She befriends Yasako almost immediately, and has a quick-witted, playful nature. She is an experienced hacker and an adept user of metatags, and makes use of her digital pet, Oyaji, in her investigations.
Akira is the youngest member of the Daikoku Hackers' Club. He agrees to spy on the Daikoku Hackers for his older sister, Fumie, by joining their ranks as a double agent. Akira makes use of his digital pet "Micet", which he illegally patched to unlock its video recording feature.
Nicknamed Haraken. He is the president of the Biology Club, and is the Coil Den-noh Detective Agency's fifth member. The polar opposite of Fumie, he is shy, reserved, and secretive, especially of his personal connection to Searchmaton. Haraken is personally vested in researching internet viruses and illegals on behalf of Kanna Ashihara, his childhood friend, who died by traffic accident under mysterious circumstances in the previous year. He is secretly tormented by the idea, that a part of Kanna may still exist somewhere on "the other side". He begins to have feelings for Yasako but is distracted by Kanna's Incident.
Tamako is Haraken's aunt. As a consultant for Daikoku's Den-noh space Administration, she holds authority over the programming of Searchmaton and is responsible for its highly aggressive behavior. She is especially intent on preventing Yuko Amasawa from accomplishing her mission to summon a portal to Coil Domain. However Tamako herself is well-versed in hacking and the crafting of metatags, and she often oversteps her authority in investigating the protagonists' activities. Her fervent pursuit of making augmented reality a "safe place" stems from her re-opening the portal to the other side in her early days of hacking, thus initiating the constant battle between obsolete and new space.
Daichi is the founder and leader of a group of pranksters at school called the Daikoku Hackers' Club. Hot-headed and quick to take offense, he holds an ongoing love/hate rivalry with Fumie stemming from early childhood. With the appearance of Isako, Daichi quickly finds himself defeated and cast out of his own group after challenging her. While often perceived as a troublemaker, Daichi is tagged by his awkward friend, Denpa, who holds him in high regard for befriending him in the face of school harassment. Daichi is, somewhat ironically, a constant target of Kyoko's antics. He has a crush on Fumie but she is oblivious to her feelings even though she actually cares for him.
Sanae, also known as Megabā (Specs Granny in the English dub), whose nickname stems from the Japanese words for and , is the owner of the Den-noh Candy Shop Megasi-ya. She sells software and Meta-Tags, and sometimes buys Meta-Bugs. Megabā is the primary craftsman of meta tags in Daikoku, and is an expert software programmer. She is also Yasako's grandmother, and the head of the Coil Den-noh Detective Agency. Her cunning frugality terrifies Yasako among other characters. Her deceased husband was a researcher in the early medical application of Den-noh technology. His secret legacy is slowly unveiled throughout the series.
The antagonist of the series. He is an old acquaintance of Tamako Harakawa, a colleague of Megamass, and a collaborator in Isako's quest to open the door to the "other side". His ultimate goal is to bring down Megamass, the company that stole their father's achievements and led the Nekome family to ruin. He is willing to use any means necessary to do so, even putting human lives at risk.
The younger brother of Nekome. He runs an online board about urban legends in Daikoku city under the direction of his brother. He takes a liking to Yasako and becomes split between his loyalty towards his brother and his desire to protect her. He gradually begins to question the conspiracy his brother is hatching. He has a modified pink micet named .Japanese Limited Edition DVD 8 booklet
Kanna is a childhood friend of Haraken. She was researching illegals with Haraken during the summer vacation a year ago, but after arguing and breaking up with him, she was run over by a self-driving car with a Den-noh navigation system and died.
She is a ghost of the Den-noh world that is especially feared by children among the many urban legends. There are various rumors depending on the region, such as "If you call her up and make a contract, she will grant you anything you wish," or "Children who call her up will be taken to 'the other side'."
Den-noh pets
A dog-shaped petmaton owned by Yasako. He was a gift from Yasako's grandfather, who was involved in Den-noh medicine.
Anti-illegal Den-noh object software
Searchmaton, for short, is a bot and antivirus software deployed by the Den-noh space Administration of Daikoku, whose task is to debug and maintain the virtual side of the city. Its secondary function is to seek out and disable illegal AR devices, software, and viruses, making it a menace to the characters of the series. Searchmaton, which strikes fear into the hearts of children, ironically, calls out them the cute catch phrase given by Yasako's father, who was involved in its development, with a smiley face also drawn by him. While Searchmaton can patrol the city streets freely, it is prohibited to enter private property such as houses, and other spaces such as temple grounds and schools, because they lie outside of the responsibility of the postal bureau, which has jurisdiction over Search. Searchmaton can deploy up to four spherical drones, , to aid in its task. Searchmaton 2.0 A cube-shaped Searchmaton with upgraded armament and shields, capable of running higher-level formats than Searchy. It has a base unit and six extensions like Searchy, but usually only the extensions act like Q-chan. In emergencies, the six units can combine with each other or with the base unit. It is under the jurisdiction of Megamass and the Den-noh Bureau, and is sent out only at the discretion of Megamass or at the request of the government. It can enter shrines and schools beyond the boundaries of the vertical administration, and it can even invade private property with special permission.
Themes