Cruel Angel Theses

So the responses to yesterday�s full-frontal assault GITS-style on the blogosphere were mixed, interesting, and nothing less of what I�d expect from you guys. Among others, Mike shows his true elitist colours. Roxas made a pie-chart. DS talked about illusion of depth. JP Meyer pulled an Abyssal One, sounding a lot like Riful in the process. lolikit gave a free striptease.

In other news, Dennou Coil 08 was terribly bittersweet. It�s a very well-layered confection of light-hearted fun alternating with melancholic undertones, and the way it bounced back and forth between both in the episode only endeared me more to it. There�s something to be said for the magic in how it does so, and the way it handled the material this time was nothing short of superb.

are summer festivals like the cue for adolescent Japanese males to go gaga over their female childhood friends? because Bokurano�s Moji did this too

In this episode we learn more about Daichi, and how poor ex-boss here has nursed something like a one-sided crush for Fumie all this while. Part of me went �awww� when it came to Daichi�s clumsy interaction because, being a guy and all, I could relate very well to his awkwardness, and the shy hesitation that comes with approaching the opposite sex at that age.

It�s a tricky age in which friendships with the opposite sex are treated with apprehension. You have the guys thinking the girls have cooties, the girls thinking the guys need a shower and a bit of maturity, and stuff like that. An age where they�re just out of grade school but not yet really arrived at puberty just yet.

Enter Daichi. Torn between wanting to look cool in front of his friends (haven�t we all been there?), Isako�s orders to challenge Fumie and Yasako to a duel, and his wavering feelings at this point for his childhood friend, he�s gotten himself into quite the predicament. It�s an astute observation that nails down the essence of Dennou Coil: little kids playing with the internet, with the emphasis on the words �little kids�, for this is certainly representative of how they act and think.

Wikipedia cites the series director as saying that a major theme in the anime is that of the distance between the characters, and I think it�s brought to the surface in a natural and seamless manner through this snapshot of behaviour that allows us to groan inwardly at Daichi�s actions, having done the same once upon a time.

While it�s definitely something prevalent more often than not among those in Yasako�s age group, it still remains a very real condition that we still find ourselves in even as we grow up, and grow older. We say things we don�t mean to. We hide our feelings. We let ourselves get into situations we could�ve avoided but don�t, thanks to pride.

I’m guessing it’s the yukata that does it

Haraken isn�t impervious to this sudden realisation either. Given how their relations have been on a decidedly utilitarian, rather than personal level, the summer festival unearths another aspect to his fellow Coil Dennou Investigation Agency members, and allows him to view them as girls instead of just another group of friends.

The seemingly sexless lens with which he views Fumie and Yasako with on a day to day basis are cast off during the summer festival in a sudden display of femininity that catches him off-guard — a moment of innocence lost forever as he realises that he�ll never be able to look at his friends the same way again.

There�s a feeling of muted loss and anguish shown by him, too, as he manages, by chance, to come across the pet dog of Kanna, now Illegal-infested, only to have it blasted into oblivion by one of Satchii�s drones right after his discovery, which, ironically, was something he could have prevented if he had noticed earlier.

The scene with Haraken talking to Kanna�s mother in the school had an air of finality about it, and if it served to further underline Haraken�s conviction, it did its job quite well. You know how it is when you�re young, powerless, and feel like you can�t change anything? Although Haraken can�t bring his childhood friend back to life, he�s now empowered with the means by which to find out how she really died, and the impact of the scene didn�t go unnoticed.

Dennou Coil is going from strength to strength as the story progresses, and I�m pleased to note that despite being only eight episodes into the story, we�ve been given quite a lot to chew on. Character development has been decidedly well-rounded so far, with the important ones getting their share of screentime, and I must admit that I wasn�t expecting something as powerful as this episode, at least not so early on. Ureshii needs to hurry up with their subs�