::A Geek in Korea::

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v/ZbGdGfKW9yc&l=600&t=OEgsToPDskJ1C-rtq9D6ywo6Q7esa1CT&sk=HoKNzrsn4F-suFBmvIMFsQU&sourceid=ys[/video]
A few weeks ago, I started watching Dennou Coil. I’m not a big anime guy, but I watch a few shows over the course of the year when I hear good things about them. This came recommended, so I tracked down the first episode and was impressed enough to look into the rest of the series.

The premise is that a young girl and her little sister move to a city in the near future. The children wear special glasses that allow them to see an augmented reality that exists, and interacts, with our own. The main character has a “digital” pet that acts just like a real dog. However, if you would take the glasses off, there is nothing there at all. The children of the city are involved in tracking down lost cyber pets, hacking, and discovering “Illegals”, these strange creatures that escape from abandoned places that fall out of disuse in the city.

It’s not a Pokemon style “collect them all!” sort of thing. This is more like a group of children getting involved in a world that seems like it’s only 20 years away (The series takes place in 2026). The main characters try to earn money to buy upgrades for their glasses by doing odd jobs for their hacker grandmother. There is a giant mechanical “street sweeper” like creature that erases any hack it finds, which forces the children to run away when confronted.

It’s a very clever show. The story is very touching at parts, and other times veers into a near-future that is exciting to me. It’s not a gonzo sort of “Mecha” future, but an understated current. Not much is different except the glasses. It’s plausible enough that you care about the characters and their adventures. I’d recommend it for someone looking for an animation with high quality art, a nice science fiction story, and (so far) interesting characters. This is one of the few series I am watching before it “ends”, so I don’t know if the quality will be maintained throughout. I’m watching it as it progresses and it seems to be holding my interest. I hope it keeps up the quality.

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Tags: DennouCoil, anime, geek, ar, augmented reality