I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I consider Denno Coil one of the best kid shows of all time.
Denno Coil is about a future where augmented reality (AR) glasses layers another world onto our own. Virtual pets, exploitable glitches and killer antivirus programs overlay onto reality. The latest fad among children is to collect metabugs, virtual bits that can be manipulated into different programs and sold at a high price. After moving to the most digitally advanced city in the world Yuko Okonoki joins a club with other kids who wear AR glasses and together they have adventures and uncover mysteries.
The first half of Denno Coil sets the stage and the second half digs deep into character work with the whole working towards creating an amazing and moving cyberpunk world which uplifts and highlights the trials and tribulations of children.
And I don’t mean anime children substituting for adults so as to express adult problems and themes to an adult audience, no. Denno Coil is thankfully, mercifully, filled with kid characters who posse traits and emotional logic to that of real children and who face problems relatable to children. It’s fantastic. Especially the way in which the series respects it’s child characters and by extension the children who make up it’s audience by sharing a range of life experiences including those of pain, loss, and fear via the show’s expertly used AR bent.
The children in Denno Coil accept and treat cyber threats, cyber pets, and mystery surrounding the technology as real - the kid network of rumor and urban legend carries weight like it always does in children’s social spheres. Remember the “Charlie Charlie Challenge” fad among kids a few years back? Its a simple game under the guise of summoning a spirit. Religious or not the excitement, fear, and hesitation of playing Charlie Charlie (or it’s original name Juego de la Lapicera) is due to the youthful treatment of reality; the legend, the rumor, the game is for all intents and purposes completely real. Saying Bloody Mary three times into a mirror. Stepping on a crack. You know the feeling.
In Dennou Coil there is an amazing scene where the kids are surrounded by “illegals” which are viruses depicted as scratchy shadowy figures. They consider taking off their glasses but in one of the most convincing story depictions of kid-logic and the power of normalized technology they know removing their glasses won’t actually make the figures to go away. They’ll just simply lose the ability to see their attackers - making the entire ordeal even more frightening. It’s real.
It’s that treatment of reality that gives the children a sense of power over the same technology that can scare them, it is why they have a command of and deeper understanding and more creative use of the AR technology than anyone else. Which, WOW! That’s just outright true!
Kids may not have anything to do with the creation of technology and primarily exist in a realm of reaction to what is available and happening yet their ownership of what technology is for and how it is used and what you can do with it is always far beyond most adults and certainly the manufacturers. Hand a toddler an ipad and prepare to be amazed.
Denno Coil is by no means a dark story looming in the backdrop of a happy children’s show. Many of the shows heavier themes permeate the series from the start and while yes as the mystery of the show builds so does the show’s more unnerving aspects - but kids need horror stories too!
Kids need safe spaces in which to experience fear and do some introspective work and consider what they’d do with the choices given. Stories are like the AR glasses of Denno Coil; they act as those realities children can lay on top of their own life and experiences in order to better understand the world around them and themselves.
One hopes that a story is the first place a child will experience pain, loss, and fear but in the cases where a story is secondary to a lived experience then hopefully the story can still reflect some truths as a form of solace. Children’s programming is often times missing what Denno Coil has made it’s prerogative: An admission that even as a child things can be scary, hurtful, and unfair but that most obstacles can be overcome by working through them with the trusted people and tools around you.
