Sometimes 15 seconds is all it takes.
Months ago while channel surfing I caught a short trailer for an upcoming TV anime series, nothing but a short 15 sec blurb; 3 characters in a chase scene through some mundane Tokyo neighborhood. It was so short I didn’t even manage to catch the title, but the animation was jaw-dropping; unmistakably feature film quality.
Next day at work the animation folks were already talking about the same trailer I saw. It turned out our neighbour from across the street, Madhouse ( the folks who gave you Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika ), has a new work up their sleeves – Denno Coil. （電脳コイル）
Now don’t be fooled by that silly looking canine; this is a veritable showpiece. For more details check out Wiki here; I’m more intrigued by the quality of animation here so I’ll leave out the plot details. Helming the project is first time director animator Iso Mitsuo. His notable credits are too numerous to list, but if you’ve watched End of Evangelion ( below ) – the dramatic scene where Asuka battles the group of MPEs ( I still get the shivers watching this segment because its so intense ), that was Iso’s work.
Denno Coil is slated for dvd release come late September, with the limited edition featuring a 2nd Making of disc plus storyboards. For those who appreciate high quality animation, Denno is definitely one series to keep a lookout for.
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Denno Coil – A Circle Of Children Archives Art Book Review
The Denno Coil Project Art Book Review
Denno Coil galore Part II – Japanese novel + guidebook + magazine feature
Denno Coil Galore Part I – Special limited edition dvd 1
Denno Coil Blu-ray Boxset
July 7th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Time to fire up the Share/Winny engines again. This is the first instance that I got to know of this anime series. And the synopsis sounds interesting enough, with its cyberpunkish elements.
July 8th, 2007 at 2:42 am
I’m just totally amazed by the quality of animation in this series, so I’ll be following it for sure.
July 8th, 2007 at 2:47 am
Hey, I stumbled across this blog through the google blog search for Dennou Coil (I’m a hopeless fan of it), and I’m so glad I did! I’m from Singapore, and I’ve read about you in the ST before and I didn’t think I’d bump into your blog. I’m really interested in the production aspect of animation and especially in foreigners who work in the system. I really like hearing about how “neighbours” and other folks in the industry would talk about a particular anime.
Is Dennou Coil, from what you know, highly regarded by others in the industry so far? Mitsuo Iso as far as I know has a lot of clout in the industry and Madhouse went as far as to put out a public announcement on its webpage that they were searching for production runners specifically for this show, IIRC. I somehow find it rather amusing to note that so far every stage of production for that show has been done by Japanese and hasn’t even been outsourced to other Japanese production studios (with the exception of key animators who are freelance or “borrowed” for a while), despite Madhouse having a Korean affiliate Dr Movie and frequently outsourcing stuff.
Either way, I’ve already got the first DVD’s limited ed ordered – I’m dying to see the storyboards! If you don’t mind I’ll continue watching your blog because it’s very interesting.
July 8th, 2007 at 5:26 am
WoAH! thanks for the heads up!
July 8th, 2007 at 8:03 am
W – Hello and thank you for dropping by my blog, I’m glad you like what you found here, please come back often ! For starters, you seem to know alot more about Denno Coil than I do ! Do you speak Japanese/ work in the industry ? All that I know were gleaned from chats with my colleagues and stuff I read online, but reviews here in Japan have been unanimously good indeed. Besides Iso-san, the 2 animation chiefs Inoue and Honda-san are also heavyweight animators, which is another reason why the project is getting so much attention I think. By the way, just out of curiosity, where did you order the dvd from ?
fartboystinks – you are most welcome. So Paprika is going general soon huh in Singapore huh ? Nice. :]
July 8th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Thank you 🙂 I don’t work in the industry, although I do understand some Japanese and have been following Dennou Coil’s developments since it was announced some time back. You could say I’m a maniac for it…
You’re right that the two main animators are really crazily good people and the combination of them + Iso has drawn some really good talent. I actually do dream of working in the industry and coincidentally I’ve also been considering applying for the Takashimaya-NAC scholarship to go to Japan for further education (although it won’t happen at all unless I get much better)… but my gateway into learning about the production process in anime was thanks to this blog called Ben’s Anipages. That blog inspired me to learn a lot more about anime production and animators.
I’ve pre-ordered the DVD from Amazon.
July 8th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
i was very impressed by the level of animation inside too after watching the trailer…and with so little frames too! not many people can do that and it is an interesting style to follow..
July 8th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
sorry forgot to add. W, if you are interested why not apply at NTU to do animation at ADM? their animation is retty hot and you’ll learn alot from studying the different aspects of animation..maybe yo ucan get an internship over in japan using the school as a stepping stone?
July 8th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
w – Ben’s Anipages is fantastic ! I ought to read it often from now on. :] And why not try for the NAC scholarship indeed, or give Tragic comedy’s suggestion a shot ? I haven’t asked you what’s your age but I have a feeling you’re still pretty young.
tragic comedy – the animation is superb isn’t it ? My Japanese colleagues at work could recognize its Iso-san’s work just by looking at the style and movement, haha, absolutely crazy folks.
July 8th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
i’ve seen it being floated around on the net. i was gonna pass on the series due to the character designs, but you convinced me to give it a chance. so your work across the street from the american express building huh =)
July 9th, 2007 at 4:54 am
Is your office in Ogikubo too ? :]We’ve moved recently so we’re actually closer to the HP building than AMEX.
July 10th, 2007 at 3:23 am
I too saw some clips for this show. It looks rather interesting so i’m sure an english dub will make it in the US sometime soon. It has some similarities to Ghibli and Miyazaki which I like.
It is inspiring to see the Japanese continue to push their TV animation forward, way ahead of their North American counterparts not only in animation and design but in story and storytelling.
Good post.
July 10th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Denno Coil was one title that i overlooked while previewing all the Spring 2007 anime titles that was released. One of the reasons was due to the fact that this series came pretty late (month of May as opposed to the “official” starting season of March. So thinking that, oh, there musnt be anymore right now, since most of the other titles are doing their runs on TV and are in the mid series right then of their majority 24/26 episode run.
But im glad i noticed it right away, and when i watched the first episode, it was way better than expected. It almost felt like this is one sleeper hit series! Very interesting concept and characters.
July 10th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Louie -You are right, I think this series will get a fair amount of coverage in the US considering the previous Madhouse outing Paranoia Agent by Kon Satoshi was extremely well received.
Jasrie – Glad you gave this one a look, its going to be well worth your time. :]
July 10th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
I heard that Dennou Coil is highly anticipated by fans of animation production quality before the anime was broadcast. That’s why I picked up this anime and I was impressed when I watched the first episode. Too bad I can’t find any fan subbed release after episode 6.
July 17th, 2007 at 6:41 am
this anime series has such a beautiful plot, a list of provoking characters (that Isako is such a brilliant character), and high design qualities.
– you could blog some episodes {like episode 4 (such breathtaking fight scenes) for instance}
July 18th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Hi,such an honour to meet you!my name is lina .I am Chinese.?Welcome to China!
September 14th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Thank you for introducing me to this series!! I’m so hooked now