Seems like there’s quite a few ways to spell this anime’s title. I’ve seen it as Deno Coil, Den-noh Coil, Dennou Coil, etc. I suppose they all get to about the same place though. The show’s a slice of life style mainly revolving around a bunch of kids but it doesn’t get as colorful and energetic as you’d need to make this show pop out. Slice of Life titles usually need to be really funny as a comedy or have some kind of really engaging storybeats to keep you in the mix. I think this one suffers from the main kids the most since you wish they were all a bit older to have some more intense plots.

The show follows a bunch of kids who live in a town that is mostly normal except for the digital aspect. See kids all wear these fancy glasses that let them see the digital world now and so they get to see all kinds of monsters and other creatures that aren’t actually around in a physical sense. Still, the old technology is getting dangerously outdated so there are cleaning robots that patrol the streets to destroy the cracks in the system. This means they will also destroy any old creature programs no matter if that animal is a trusted pet or something like that. Characters have to deal with loss, betrayal, and mysteries. There are quite a few characters running around the town after all. Can you trust the government or the kid rebels? The main character Yasako will have to find out because she really just wants to have fun over the summer.

So I would say here the main issue at its core is that the show’s cast just can’t hold up the plot. You won’t be very engaged with what’s going on for most of the adventure because there just isn’t much of a reason for you to be engaged. The kids are messing around in town but for the most part it’s not like the stakes are super high. They may get the glasses confiscated or perhaps or perhaps blasted by the robot but in most cases it doesn’t seem like this would be dangerous. There are definitely some exceptions and we do have a missing persons subplot so things are happening but the main kids aren’t part of the most interesting plots.

The show’s animation style is also not that good which doesn’t help matters. All of the color feels drained away the whole time. It looks more like a mainstream anime type movie than a full anime. The sharp colors are really needed to take this one to the next level or at least to help because it gives you something fun to look at visually. There is a decent track or two in here for the ost though so I’ll give the show props there. On a technical level it’s not really holding its own all that well.

The most brutal character in the show has to be Kyoko though. She’s Yasako’s younger sister and all of her scenes can be hard to watch. She’s young enough where she can barely talk but is always getting into constant trouble. She doesn’t understand the stakes which means that she is always getting in the way as well. The worst episode in the series is easily the one where she is spreading a virus to everyone by kissing them. That episode was cringe and also just pretty gross. Take her out of the series and it immediately gets better. Not saying it becomes a great show overnight or anything like that but it absolutely does improve quite a bit.

Isako is trying to single handily carry the series for the most part but that’s a tall order for anyone. In her plot she’s trying to find her missing brother which is a compelling plot. The darkness of the cyber world is vast and it’s difficult to have any leads with the government keeps closing up the cracks. That’s part of why she ends up being a big hacker because that’s possibly the only way to get to the truth. She quickly takes over the local gang and in general she is a very pro active character doing her best at all times. Definitely should have been the main character if you ask me a she also gives us some actual fight scenes against the robots thanks to her talismans.

Then we have Haraken whose plot is a bit similar in some ways. In this case he’s looking for a friend of his in the digital side. It’s possible that she’s dead but he figures there’s still a part of her out there. He’s not as good at hacking as Isako so it’s a tougher road for him but his aunt works with the government which does give him a foot in the door. It does mean breaking her trust though so it’s a pretty steep penalty. He’s very determined to find the friend and you get it since if there’s any chance that she is alive then he really can’t stop until he finds her. Being stuck in the shadowy digital realm on your own would be rough.

While most of the show takes place in the human world we actually do see what the digital realm looks like at times. There’s also some spooky visuals where we see the shadowy denizens of the digital realm show up to resume their kidnappings. You definitely don’t want to let them make any kind of contact with you or it could be all over. Of course if you take the glasses off then you’re usually in a better spot but sometimes ignorance is not bliss.

It is always funny when we cut back to the adults who just think that the kids are all really crazy. Without the glasses after all this probably does look like some kind of elaborate prank the whole time. The adults don’t really have time for all of that after all. They’d much rather the kids have some real hobbies and hang out outside. The whole AR tech and digital world is pretty well detailed in the world’s lore so from the adult’s perspective it’s just another tech. People work in the government and close up the holes but as far as the adults are concerned that’s really it. There’s no monsters to worry about or things like that.

At most I’d say the robots running around do seem potentially dangerous. They’re rather large so if they fall on a kid that’s game over. Also the lasers may not deal permanent damage but it still seems like it would be really disconcerting. Maybe if you don’t wear the glasses you wouldn’t notice that you’re turning pixelated but then you probably are still talking about a ton of radiation. Nothing’s perfect of course but yeah the dangers of technology are very real.

Back to the characters, Daichi starts out decently solid as the leader of the gang but once he gets humiliated by Isako he is never the same. The guy loses most of his dignity and spends a lot of the show complaining. Mix in some shipping in the show and he definitely lost his edge real quick. He beats some of the other kids but yeah he’s definitely not going to be very high at all. He might beat Grannie though. She has an organization all about completing small missions and using the digital realm but it felt like she wasn’t super helpful for the important matters. She’d get sidetracked by having to go to the hot springs and such.

Yasako may be the main character but she’s not one of the more interesting people here. She is a nice girl who wants to do the right thing but in a lot of ways that’s the extent of her character. She’s hoping to make some friends and wants to help other characters in their quest but she never really has as much of a personal stake in all of this. If she was a bit bolder and less timid that would have helped her character a whole lot. Give her a little more intensity or hacking skills at least. Since she’s not a hacker like the others she isn’t able to fight much until she at least knows how to throw the talismans.

Speaking of cyber risks, the talismans were clearly super painful to use so if the parents found out about that they would be outlawed real quick. I guess it’s like you’re overloading your brain a bit or if you believe Isako’s explanation it’s like putting a bit of your core code/soul into it. Either way that’s definitely pretty dangerous no matter how you slice it. Fumie is the tough member of the group and even she wasn’t big on that. Fumie was pretty fun for the first half but unfortunately she pretty much gets written out in the second part. It’s not like she moves away or anything but her screentime just got significantly reduced.

It’s too bad since she had a fun personality and helped to at least get Yasako to take more risks. Finally we have Tamako as one of the grownup figures here. It’s always good to have an adult to shed some reason on all of this after all. She may end up getting the company in trouble a lot and tends to lower her guard but it was still good to have a different perspective on this. You can only watch the kids mess around for so long before you need a leadership figure in there…if she really counts as one.

So there’s quite a bit going on here and a lot of characters at the ready. It’s not like the show stays aimless forever. The first half is about showing you the rules of the verse and setting up the plot points before the second half really dives into them. Typically this is a pretty good formula but the problem is that the setup still revolves around the kids and there’s only so much you can do to make that very interesting. As it stands the show was not able to pull that off at least as consistently as it would have needed to in order to make this a really solid show.

I’d like to take the concept and make it more action based. The fact that these guardian robots can shoot lasers already sets up for a nice premise about stopping them when they end up taking over. You could have a robot invasion and the heroes have to try and fight them off. Then you remove the kids as the adult step in. We don’t have to worry about any romances or kids being annoying either. The show will perhaps be less unique but I think it’s worth it to get this into the next level. There was a lot of effort put in here but I’d say it was put into the wrong places.

A slice of life is only as strong as its main cast and by the end you’re not going to love the characters. I had my favorites to be sure but put them in almost any other show and they would be fairly low tier. You need the characters to all pop out more, give them some more interesting traits or again just make them funny. From the poster at the top you can see how the cast is fairly big and yet most of the characters won’t leave much of an impression on you other than that they cause trouble a lot.

Overall, Den-noh Coil is a show that just didn’t have many draws for me. The main characters being kids definitely doesn’t really help since I need the adults and as a slice of life it wasn’t really funny enough to turn the corner either. I think you absolutely need to age the kids up for the show to really have a chance. It doesn’t make any big mistakes either, it just can be boring at times. That’s why I’d say it doesn’t quite get up to the middle level, however it’s not an awful show or anything like that. Naturally if you really enjoy shows about kids hanging out and working together then you may have a good time here. I’d just recommend picking a show with a bit more pop like Megaman NT Warrior.

Overall 4/10