An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Month: November 2022

Adventures in Glass – Den-noh Coil Spoiler Review

Den-noh Coil (or Dennou Coil; it’s been inconsistently romanized over the years) is a science fiction (one might even call it cyberpunk) show that features a future deeply influenced by augmented reality technology. It’s a dive into a multi-layered blend of digital and physical realities where our young heroes attempt to work out for themselves what’s real to them and what’s worth saving. If that sounds familiar, don’t worry; the similar pitch to last week’s Fractale review is accurate, but the differences between the shows are more vast than the gulfs between stars, so I don’t expect to mention Fractale again this week.

Instead, Den-noh coil is a kind of show that I have to admit is right up my alley, with similar tone and content to Noein, KagePro, and too many 80’s movies and imitators thereof to count. I have a soft spot for works that take younger characters out on an adventure, because when they’re done well they really capture the feeling of a world that’s big and mysterious and full of wonder. I’ll try to not let this particular weakness get too much in the way of giving the show a properly fair review.

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Fractured Tale – Fractale Spoiler Review

Fractale is a science fiction show that takes place in a future Earth dominated by Augmented Reality technology. It’s a dive into a multi-layered blend of digital and physical realities where our young heroes attempt to work out for themselves what’s real to them and what’s worth saving.

At the risk of starting where I usually end, I’ll summarize some of my feelings. Fractale is a show that almost works. It stands on the cusp of greatness in a lot of ways, but it can never quite measure up to its awesome ambitions. It aspires to be grand and fantastical, combining visionary science fiction with the deeply mythic feeling of the hero’s journey through a strange world. It attempts to be both intensely human and operatic, both philosophical and visceral… but in its pursuit of being all things to all people, it’s a show that can come apart at the seams and doesn’t reach any of its goals, much less all of them.

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Majority Report – Psycho-Pass (Season 1) Spoiler Review

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before – in the not-to-distant future, the government has implemented some new system that has largely eliminated crime, but –

I’m just going to assume most readers would have stopped me by then. As near-future science fiction stories go, the “safe” dystopia is about as classical as they come. Usually, there’s some horrible dark underbelly that’s actually the focus of the story and is the reason for the veneer of peace that people in the setting usually accept. It can be just starting or it can be moderately established, but the general tenor is the same: humanity (at least the portion of it the story is concerned with) traded liberty for security. Generally, we’re supposed to believe that it’s somewhere between a bad deal and an overwhelmingly horrific one.

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