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R1 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Monday, 01 May 2006 00:00 |
 Daphne in the Brilliant Blue finally begins to go somewhere (other than holiday jaunts to Siberia), as Maia's memories finally return - but not before her confusion over who she is leads to her losing her job. Add in the first of two "bonus" OVA episodes, and you get a reasonable disc - but one that still doesn't quite feel right...
21 - Whatever Happened to Baby Maia?
Maia's preparing for the Ocean Agency entrance exams again, although there's so much running through her head that focussing's a no-hope prospect. Little does she know that the Ocean Agency has been keeping a close eye on her progress, at a very high level - and they're just as concerned and surprised at events in Siberia as she was. When her lack of focus puts the other Nereids girls in danger, though, Maia quickly finds herself out of a job and back on the streets...
22 - Terms of Endangerment
It's back to Maia's younger days. Her father was a scientist working on the preservation of land-based species back before the cities returned to the surface, and young Maia spent a lot of time with her father while he was working. They were happy days for little Maia, but her father's work had also attracted the attention of some terrorist groups. Enter Ai Mayuzumi, a bodyguard for her father, and who after a rocky start soon became Maia's close friend. Back to the present, and the memories are starting to click into place for Maia - of the time capsule she planted under a tree named Daphne, in the garden of their home. In Elpida - a city lost over 100 years previously...
OVA1 - Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Nereids (But Were Afraid to Ask)
It's Maia's fly-on-the-wall documentary all about Nereids and the services they provide - although filming doesn't go smoothly...
I'll start at the end, with a look at the first OVA episode. It's really a series of somedy shorts, showing a day in the life of Nereids & how just about every job they take on somehow manages to go wrong - nothing much in the way of story, but it's certainly fun enough to watch. Fortunately, the other two episodes on the disc make up for the lack of story.
While it's good to see the pieces of Maia's past finally begin to fit into place, there's an awful lot here that still doesn't feel quite right. Isn't is a bit suspicious that Millie and Tony just happen to look like / be related to her brother and bodyguard, who would have been killed when Elpida sank? What exactly happened to cause the disaster anyway, and why would anyone object to Maia's continued existence now? With two episodes still to go, there's a reasonable chance this will eventually be answered (and I bet the brothers, May and their submarine will be involved - they've been wanting to go to Elpida anyway...), but so much of what happens here just fits too conveniently. Something else is going on, I suspect.
I'll also admit to missing the Nereids girls, who were always the source of most of the show's comedy - and these episodes are definitely missing a little without that.
The disc ends on a good cliffhanger, though, and there's plenty of time for a decent resolution - and after having stuck with Daphne in the Brilliant Blue for this long, it better pay me back with a decent ending! This disc, though, comes out as good, but nothing special. Roll on volume 7.
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