Denno Coil 24

The Kids Cast Their Glasses Away
"According to Amasawa Yuko, the path of feelings that connects people is thin and breaks easily."

It's the aftermath of the Isako incident and Yasako wakes up at the hospital to find that her glasses have been confiscated. While her mother goes to call the doctor, Tamako tells her that Megamass has hidden what really happened to Isako and Yasako from the public. All the adults think that Isako and Yasako fell from the stairs while playing with their glasses. Tamako also tells her that the memorial for Densuke has arrived.

Later, Yasako talks with Fumie over the phone, who is at her home at the time looking after Kyoko. Their conversation is cut short because Kyoko starts throwing things around the house, crying for Densuke. Fumie's mother also arrives to confiscate her glasses and bring her home. All the parents are confiscating the children's glasses, to the kids' great dismay.

Back in the hospital, Yasako wonders why she doesn't feel anything, like it was all just a dream. She realizes that Densuke is dead since the memorial arrived. Tamako tells her that her mother should be finished filling up the forms for her release and mentions that Mega-baa also came to hospital, but not really to see Yasako but to have her back treated.

Down at hotel lobby, Tamako listens to a public announcement about yet another compulsory reformatting conducted by Megamass. Nekome arrives just then and Tamako asks him if he knows where Isako's body is being kept. Nekome denies having any knowledge. He explains that since the supervisor is out of town, he is only acting as a supervisor temporarily. Tamako jokingly thumps him on the back for being so reliable and to think that he only used to be Tamako's lackey back when they were kids collecting kirabugs. Nekome leaves a little while later, without knowing that Tamako has secretly placed a tracker on him.

Yasako and her mother arrive home and the two have a talk. Yasako's mother admits that she doesn't really know Yasako's friends and that she also doesn't use the glasses very often so she's never seen Densuke. But she relates her own experience about losing her pet once, how she arrived at the conclusion that if owners did not want to see their pets die, then it's also possible that pets don't want to see their owners die, so that's why pets die first because humans, whose bodies are bigger, can take the pain better.

But she's talking about a real pet and not a cyberpet like Densuke. Nevertheless, she urges Yasako to come back, to believe in only the real things, the things that are warm and soft and hurt a little because those are the things that make her alive.

Meanwhile, Tamako, after furtively following Nekome around the hospital, finds a room that was not there before: 4423. An old man is visiting and who else is inside but Isako?

The old man explains to Tamako that after Isako and Nobuhiko's parents died, the two of them were inseparable. However, just before the siblings were sent to their uncle (the old man) to live with him, they got into a car accident. Both Isako and Nobuhiko were treated by Dr. Okonogi (Yasako's grandfather) using the Imago-based cybercure, but only Isako regained consciousness but without any recollection of the accident.

Tamako asks where Nobuhiko's body is, but the old man says that he is under contract with Megamass. The only thing he could tell her is the number 22. At that moment, the old man's wife arrives and shoo-es Tamako away.

Fumie and Yasako are hanging out together where Yasako tells Fumie that she might have been right in not getting attached to her cyberpet. However, just then, Yasako hears a dog barking. Thinking it to be Densuke, she runs towards a park where she finds a lady walking her dog. Yasako erupts into tears, finally realizing that Densuke is dead.

That night, Yasako thinks more deeply about what her mother, Tamako and even Isako said. That only the things she can touch are real and those that she can't touch aren't real.

If that is true, then this pain she feels is not real and that actually she isn't sad at all. But this only confuses her because if the pain isn't real, then how come she feels it?

Meanwhile, at the Harakawa residence, Tamako is in Haraken's room when she gets a call from someone. This person seems to have some information related to the last location of Obsolete Space, a place called Loophole Nexus. Tamako doesn't notice that Haraken is listening to the conversation.

The next morning, Yasako's mother notices Yasako's glasses missing and a note from Yasako, apologizing for her act. At the Harakawa residence as well, Tamako wakes up to find Haraken's note, telling her that he borrowed her glasses.

At school, all the other kids are talking about Yasako and Haraken being missing from class. The former Hackers Club members are insinuating that it might be a love tryst. When Fumie rises to defend Yasako, they bully her, saying that they're not afraid of her anymore now she doesn't have glasses.

Daichi arrives just then and proceeds to kick their butts, warning them never to bully the other kids again. Then, as Daichi basks in his triumph, one of his classmates points out that his fly is open.

Meanwhile, Yasako arrives in Kanazawa and is leaving a message to a certain 'Mayumi.' Yasako seems to know the girl as apparently this girl used to bully her but Yasako says that now she knows that Mayumi wasn't really bullying her that time. She also tells her that she knows about the Loophole Nexus. But before Yasako could finish her message, that girl arrives.

COMMENTS:

That was really a beautiful conversation between Yasako and her mother. In some ways, her mother is right: the real things are only those that you can touch. A mother's hug, for instance. A real pet. But there is something wrong with that statement because it doesn't necessarily mean that the things that you can't touch aren't real as well. In certain instances, it is the things that you can't touch that are more real than anything you can hold in your hands. I think Yasako's mother knows this but because she is a mother, she wants to protect Yasako from this kind of pain.

I think that she could have made herself clearer by just telling Yasako that even though she feels that pain now, it's just a little part, and there are other things out there that are also real and existing and if she only allows it, could help make the pain easier.

Still, what the series showed was a realistic conversation between mother and daughter. You can really feel the mother trying to reach out but her words just barely touch the surface. Yasako can hear her and in some ways understand her, but she's too far away. Even when they're hugging, she's still too far away.

So anyway, who the hell is Mayumi? I'm sure I have no idea who she is.

More Screencaps from "Denno Coil" Episode 24