Den-Noh Coil: Complete Collection

The success of the virtual-reality game Pokemon GO adds depth to this award-winning but oft-opaque 2007 Japanese TV series, which feels disquietingly ahead of its time. In near-future Japan, Daikoku City looks drab but is actually rich with digitally projected "e-spaces" that are full of software-based constructs and control panels that are visible and accessible to users of special glasses. Only late in the narrative do viewers learn that primarily it is children's minds that can access the synthetic parallel universe. And so it’s a playground for young Yasako and her elementary-school cohorts, some of whom are involved in Yasako’s tech-savvy granny’s "cyber detective agency" that helps find lost digital pets and solve other enigmas. But a deeper, darker side to the technology concerns urban legends of dangerous off-limits e-spaces, unauthorized AI life-forms (aka "illegals"), corporate crime, a phantom hacker named Michiko with a Slender Man-like reputation, and even rumors that humans (or their souls) can be imprisoned in online limbo. Ultimately a desperate struggle ensues to try to liberate missing victims. Even with a mid-episode-cycle recap, this is denser and more confusing than The Matrix, but the visuals by renowned anime studio Madhouse coupled with the series’ high reputation make it a winner, overall. Compiling all 26 episodes in a dual-language Blu-ray edition, rated TV-14, this is recommended. (C. Cassady)