Daphne In The Brilliant Blue: Volume 2

Introduction

Two discs in rapid succession, was it something I said? I may have been an evil dictator in a past life. Okay, so I'm exaggerating a tad, but Daphne In The Brilliant Blue certainly didn't impress me with its first volume. It's all about the fan service you see, young women in their skimpies performing impossible acrobatic feats in terms of costume integrity, with a story vaguely attached to it. As we all know, sex sells, and this series is aimed at twelve and thirteen year old males who are beginning to get an inkling, but don't yet know what to do with it. It does give me a sinking feeling though, when knowing what a verdant and varied a medium anime is, that we get another series that comes with a Daily Mail headline pre-written. Still, must think positive thoughts. Maybe in this volume the story will transcend the sproing factor.

The oceans have risen, the polar caps have melted, the coasts have been inundated, and habitable land is now at a premium, but humanity is doing just fine thank you very much, and has adapted to its new circumstances with relative ease, now inhabiting the few remaining islands and floating cities. The world government now controls the remaining resources through the Ocean Agency, an elite organisation responsible for Maritime Safety and Resource Management that many aspire to. One of the aspirants is 15-year-old Maia Mizuki, a young orphan who dreams of working for the Agency, but life is never that simple, and failing the entrance exam is just one of a whole host of calamities. Destiny leads her to find a job with the Nereids, a private firm who offer all kind of services to those who are willing to pay, whether it's fighting crime or rescuing cats. Four more episodes of this 24 episode series are presented on this disc from MVM.


5. Call Me Rough Neck
Yu Park was a hardened criminal, renowned for destruction, before the Nereids caught and rehabilitated her, turning her into one of their most effective members. Then she got a little over-eager trying to catch a petty thief, and the collateral damage put 20 bystanders in hospital, including Detective Yagi of the Kamchatka police. Now that Yu has served her time and has been released from prison, Yagi is refusing to give back her permit to work with the Nereids. So while Rena works on changing Yagi's mind, timid Maia has to keep an eye on the woman who once punched one of her co-workers through the office wall.

6. In The Heat Of The Night
For the first time since failing the entrance exams, Maia is spending some free time with best friend Tsukasa, catching up on recent developments. Tsukasa is about to get a face full of Maia's new workmates when her rental car is stolen. There is a new gang operating in town targeting rental vehicles for theft, and somehow defeating the cars' top security in a fraction of the time advertised by the security firm. It's time for a stakeout of the local car parks. Rena and Shizuka find a nice spot to oversee the operation, while gun fiend Gloria and hand to hand combat specialist Yu are teamed up on the ground. But, Gloria and Yu frequently try to kill each other, so Maia is given the job of keeping the peace.


7. All That Papa
The Branch Manager has a daughter, Yukari, and he's been telling her of how he is the lynchpin of the Nereids operation, how he's the one that all the girls look up to, how his strength and bravery have saved the day on several occasions, how without him everything would fall apart. It's a bunch of whoppers basically, and now Yukari is coming into the office for a father daughter day, and the Branch Manager is on his knees begging for a little respect, and when that fails, he tries bribery. A tenuous web of lies is destined to fall apart eventually.

8. The Speeding!
The Ocean agency is looking for a new official all-purpose vehicle, and a lucrative contract is up for grabs. Two rival companies, Pegasus and Albatross are competing for it with two new designs, and the decider will be a time-trial to be conducted in a few days. But the Albatross design crashes, and the test driver Millie, Shizuka's friend, is put out of commission. With a history of suspicious incidents, a lot of the design staff has left, including the other test drivers. But Maia has a suitable licence, part of the requirements for an Ocean Agency position, and soon she is drafted in to take Millie's place. She has just five days to become a racing driver, and get over her motion sickness, but there is a mole in Albatross, and sabotage is poised to strike.

Picture

Daphne gets a 4:3 regular transfer that offers no apparent flaws or glitches. Everything is clear and sharp, colours are strong, and the image comes across without any major sign of artefacting or significant aliasing. It's your bog standard anime disc. The animation itself is pretty unspectacular. It's a mid-budget show that gets an adequate investment, and it all looks pretty average. The world design is nice and futuristic, if a little bland, and lacking in detail. The underwater sequences are the most impressive aspect of the show. Actually the brevity of the costumes makes the biggest impact, but against a very angular and birdlike aesthetic to the character designs, it's more of a clash than an enhancement.

Sound

You have a choice of DD 2.0 Stereo English and Japanese, alongside optional translated English subtitles or signs. The dialogue is clear, the music suits the show's tone, and there is a bit of separation to the sound design during the more action packed moments. The English dub is something that I don't want to hear again, with cartoonish voices playing up the comedy aspects of the show.

Extras

You get a disc, and case to put it in, and a sleeve with some nice pictures on. What more do you want? Actually the Region 1 version of this disc has the clean closing credits on it, but it's not that big a loss.

Conclusion

Well, if you're in it for the barely concealed female flesh, the jiggle and the wobble, then Daphne In The Brilliant Blue is definitely for you. The second volume merely adds to the fan service stakes with the introduction of a new Nereid, Yu Park, whose particular hanky and string arrangement offers a tantalising promise of S&M and dominatrix-ness. It may never deliver, but then shows like this are more about the adolescent fantasy than they are about the actuality. Heaven forbid that the main cast ever realise that they actually wear more clothing when they are in their underwear. If you can get past the utter nonsense of women fighting, running, jumping and generally saving the world, only after fulfilling the dress requirement of a postage stamp and a bit of twine, then you may find some deeper levels to this show. I doubt that there is much to find though. It's like walking into a local retailer, and being sold some consumer electronics by someone dressed only in a bright red codpiece. It's not of the real world.


Reality rarely plays a part in shows like this, but there comes a point where suspension of disbelief becomes an impossibility. But, and as for the previous volume, this disc is aimed outside my demographic, and if you are male and in the full bloom of your adolescence, then you're not going to be bothered by trivialities like plot, story, and character. Have pity us on older folk who have to wade through the fan service to find something more meaningful beneath. Daphne In The Brilliant Blue is at the heart of it a fairly run of the mill action show. A team of mismatched heroines complete a different mission each week, and there is a healthy leavening of daft absurd humour to keep things light and entertaining. The trouble is that the stories are so old, worn and recycled that they are getting as threadbare as the costumes. Shows like this are a dozen to the pound, and the stories are so familiar that you can quote lines before they actually happen. Believe me, that is seriously worrying if you are watching in Japanese.


The first episode on this disc completes the Nereids line-up, as brawler Yu Park gets out of prison, and the first obstacle is actually getting her reinstated onto the team. Rena uses her feminine wiles on the hapless police detective Yagi, while the real solution to the problem sees the girls in action once more. We then get an episode that shows us the dysfunctional group in all its glory, before we come to the most clichéd episode yet. The Manager has been lying about his standing in the Nereids just to make his daughter proud, and the lies are about to come tumbling down. Of course a situation will arise that will allow him to be redeemed in his daughter's eyes, but it all follows such a familiar blueprint that you may as well switch off, you know exactly what will happen. Except it's at this point I realised that I am actually enjoying this show, although not through any intention of my own. For one thing Mitsuo Iwata, who voiced Gan-chan in the Mini Goddess Adventures, voices the Manager and he has a style and delivery that is never less than entertaining. Also the story may be clichéd, but the energy and the sense of fun is really quite infectious.


By the time I come to the final episode, another familiar tale of industrial espionage, I'm really into the show, and not at all distracted by the character designs or juvenile depictions of femininity. Of course The Speeding! is the one episode where clothes remain firmly on, so it's less of an issue, but I find that there is something about Daphne In The Brilliant Blue that is inherently likeable. Even in a show like this, you can be reminded of the inherent strengths of anime. There's one scene where Maia undergoes some image training with Millie. It's basically imagining her way around the racecourse, and it really boils down to two characters standing at a window, talking with their eyes closed. And it's perhaps the strongest piece of drama in the episode. It looks like episodic television at this point, but there is a hint of an overreaching arc. Every once in a while at the end of an episode, a mysterious man in sunglasses looks ominously off camera. It will all mean something eventually, but right now the show gives you no reason to care.


If you have a high threshold for stupidity and silliness, then Daphne In The Brilliant Blue is actually enjoyable. It'll never win any awards for originality, it's still probably one of the most visually disappointing shows I've seen of late, and it's about a bunch of girls, in thongs. But it will do to pass the time, and not every show has to be the apex of the medium. Daphne is to anime as Baywatch was to US television.