Daphne In The Brilliant Blue: Volume 4

Introduction

There is a singular lack of justice in the world, if I have to wait over eighteen months for a series like Mushi-shi to be concluded, yet wind up zipping through Daphne In The Brilliant Blue in a fraction of the time at one volume a month. I also discovered to my chagrin last time that it's a show that you have to catch in the right frame of mind, or else it falls flat. Volume 3 definitely fell flat for me, as I watched it with a low tolerance for boobies and thongs and shallow storylines. I'm feeling a lot better now, so maybe volume 4 will tickle my teenage taste buds once more. 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. This isn't the sort of series to be savoured and cherished. Once more unto the cleavage dear friends…

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 are presented on this disc from MVM.


13. Anger's Aweigh
Those criminal siblings Chang, Wong and Lee are on the loose again, broken out of prison by their baby sister May, who happens to have a submarine at hand. It's all about the money this time, as May has a plan to plunder the riches of drowned city Elpida and live the high life thereafter. It means that her brothers have to get trained up for the mission, but that mission falls by the wayside when it turns out that Maia and the Nereids are training in the same area. Soon, the brothers want revenge, and they start by doing what they do best, kidnapping Maia, and delivering an ultimatum to her co-workers.

14. The Old Kook and the Sea
The Nereids are happy with their brand new submarine, although they are almost coming to blows over what to name it. But it soon becomes apparent that they simply can't afford to maintain it, not without getting some serious undersea work to bring in the cash. The trouble is that the Oceans Agency has got the market covered. Then Maia meets an old man who once had a tussle with a sea monster, and now wants a rematch. He's taking his health in his hands every time he dives, and his grandson is concerned about him. If he can finally defeat the Sea Devil, then he promises to retire. A little camouflage on the submarine might work, but no one has told the Nereids that the old man has more than just harpoons on his sub.


15. Die Hard, Play Hard (Part 1)
The lazy Kamchatka police refer a missing child case to the Nereids, and Maia gets her first solo mission, returning to Siberia City to locate young Kenta. She's promised support from the Siberia branch of the Nereids, but the local Branch manager, Katsuya Mori, once had a thing for Rena, and is now nursing a bruised heart. He's not willing to play ball. Meanwhile mysterious machinations are afoot in Siberia City, following the death of a Fujiyama Technology employee. So it is that when Maia boards her scheduled flight to return, she's sharing a passenger cabin with the CEO of Fujiyama technologies, whose private plane has been grounded.

16. Die Hard, Play Hard (Part 2)
Peril in the skies! Seaplanes need a flat ocean to land on, and now that terrorists have taken control of one of Kamchatka's wave cancelling towers, and a typhoon has moved in, no planes are able to land. The only one nearby is Maia's flight home, and it's essentially being held hostage until a long list of prisoners is freed. The trouble is that the airline has recently had cutbacks, no more co-pilots, while the pilot's heart condition isn't being helped by the stress of the situation. So it is that Maia ends up at the controls. But all the while, the terrorists have ulterior motives.

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

The Region 1 disc had an art gallery. We in the UK get nothing at all. Incidentally, that cover… Unsubtle isn't the word.

Conclusion

What a difference a volume makes! At the end of volume 3, I was sinking into a funk of mediocrity, underwhelmed by derivative storylines, an overabundance of clichés, and the experience was as about as interesting as calculating my tax return. For volume 4, none of that has really changed, except my level of interest. The storylines are still unoriginal to the point of inviting litigation, and the clichés still abound, but as mentioned earlier, I came to this volume with far more positive feelings toward it. That wouldn't be enough to redeem a dull series, but volume 4 also shows the advantages of an episodic series, sometimes you get a run of really good episodes. This time around there are four really good episodes, and I was into the show, entertained, laughing at the humour and invested in the character stories, as opposed to volume 3, where I felt I was on the outside looking in.


The criminal siblings that have been the comedy nemeses of the Nereids always provide good value, and they turn up again in the first episode on the disc. They also seem to add another family member with each appearance, and this time we meet the brothers' volatile younger sister, who has her head screwed on slightly straighter than her kin. She still falls afoul of their obsession with the Nereids though. Next up is a Moby Dick homage, with an old eccentric obsessed with a sea monster, and the Nereids roped in to help him fulfil his fantasies of slaying the beast.


But you can't get much more derivative than the final two part story, which as the name implies, liberally cribs from the plot of Die Hard, after sneaking in a missing child case to act as a distraction. And surprisingly, although maybe not considering we're past the halfway mark, the mysterious guy with shades appears again, and this time he speaks. It turns out that he may be one of the good guys. With Maia doing her best Ted Stryker impersonation over Macho Grande (she'll never get over Macho Grande), in an 'airliner in peril' sequence as cheesy as the Airplane movies, I couldn't help grinning at the final episode on the disc, and it builds up to a very enjoyable climax. With all this episodic television, you may be wondering about the overall plot, but it does look at the end of this volume that Maia has gotten one step closer to her dream of being in the Ocean Agency.


If there is a disappointment in this volume, it's that the other Nereids take a back seat to proceedings, with these episodes focussing more on Maia. Also, Gloria is woefully underused, pretty much turning into a joke of the week. Situation occurs, Gloria overreacts, Yu knocks Gloria out, Gloria remains unconscious for the remainder of the episode. It's a shame as she's definitely one of the more fun characters in the show.


Well Daphne, you caught me in a good mood this time round, and I fell susceptible to your aquatic charms. It also helps that you dolled yourself up this time round, made more of an effort. You've convinced me to let you ask me out on another date (I'm modern, me). Let's meet up around volume 5?