Dennō Coil

"According to an old folk saying, normally, people are supposed to know what path they should pursue. But despite this, they tend to lose sight of the most important path."

Status

Anime: complete. (26 episodes, subbed.)

Thoughts

Dennō Coil has a deceptively simple setup, with an "augmented reality" where special glasses reveal a virtual world overlaid on the real one, and thanks to various glitches and such, a bit of a hacker culture evolves among the children of the city where the story takes place.

But don't let that fool you - the show may have children as the primary cast, but it is a show very reminiscent of Hayao Miyazaki's works - extremely worth watching for people of all ages, especially since the children display charming, yet realistic motivations - most notably with Yuko "Isako" Amasawa, who is one of the best-developed "hacker" characters I have ever seen in all of media. And speaking of Mr. Miyazaki, Dennō Coil earns bonus points for having a predominantly female cast - without stereotyping them, and without marginalizing men to the point of ridiculousness.