Saki Moromi was on a trip in Washington DC but while trying to throw coins into the fountain outside the White House, she almost gets questioned by the police nearby. Fortunately for her, a naked young man appears holding a gun and ends up being a distraction. Later Saki thanks him and offers her coat only to remember her passport was still in there. She tracks him down and manages to get her possessions back.

However, Saki soon learns he had a case of Amnesia. After discovering a number of passports with different identities, the young man decides to become "Akira Takizawa" and follow her back to Japan. All he knows by the female voice known as "Juis" is that he goes by the code name of "Number 9". He has a large sum of funds at his disposal and it seems anything he requests can be granted. Saki decides to follow him and help him recover his memories.

As Akira traces through the clues left behind, he learns he was behind a number of recent major incidents in Japan. He and a number of others were players known as "Selecao" in a game where only the best can survive.

Well, it certainly got off to a fun start. Watched this because of the hype and keep getting this confused with Time of Eve (another great show) somehow...

An original Anime written by Kenji Kamiyama who created the Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex series. Apparently this show was created in 2007 as a request by Noitamina, a late night Anime broadcasting block from Fuji TV, who wanted a mystery show catered towards its dominant female audience which were 70% of its viewers at the time. Most were also heavy mobile phone users so they wanted a story with phones at the centre of the plot.

Direction actually gives off a kind of Gantz vibe during the TV series with the whole forced participants in a mysterious game setup but without the gore filled action scenes. As you can guess, the show gets even more interesting once the players of Selecao ends up crossing each other's paths. The pacing's good. I think they managed a lot in such a short 11 episode series. The wrap-up for the TV series was fun but unfinished.

That said, movies were announced right after the last episode. There's a recap movie called "Air Communication" followed by a two part movie sequel, "King of Eden" and "Paradise Lost". It kicks off with a brief epilogue before time skipping 6 months. It's a good open-ended wrap-up overall and fairly thought provoking.

Kenji Kawai does a good job of the soundtrack although some remind me of his other compositions such as from Fate Stay/Night. A lot of cheery, serene tracks in the TV series but not so many in the movies. Aesthetics aren't exactly the best looking with paint stroke backgrounds and a mix of 3D models but, it's animated very lively and nothing looks out of place at a glance. A lot of the backgrounds seem to be from Yokohama such as the Ōsanbashi Pier. I think one thing that stands out is the characters look like they have black plasters on their noses. Was wondering why the Selecao symbol looks like The Laughing Man from GITS but having the same creator might explain that..

There's fairly much no fan service but mention of "Johnnies" come up a few times during the TV series. Unlike your average Anime show, it's all male nudity. Lots of butts.

Character designers didn't have a role in designing the characters in Dennou Coil but they did work on the key art so, might be why they remind me of that show. Some of the staff wrote some of the script for that show too like Yuko Miyamura which might explain some of familiar scenes.

A good mystery sci-fi show (that's bigger on the mystery side) that drip feeds bits of the puzzle and keeps you watching but keeps you guessing too. I almost watched the whole series in one evening even though I didn't intend to.

Noblesse oblige.