Review - Daphne in the Brilliant Blue Vol. 6 - Memories
Reviewed by Richard Brownell on 12.5.2009.
Score: 7/10
The ridiculous outfits of the nearly naked Nereids girls are back. Their weird plastic hair is back. But their humorous antics and central Maia story line are also back, which is a good thing. We left off last time with Maia getting some memory back and never quite getting close enough to a mysterious man she believes to be her older brother.
In the first episode of volume 6, Maia goes from being interested in her past and occasionally spending an episode looking into it to being unhealthily obsessed with it. She starts off failing the Ocean Agency entrance exam, not by getting too many questions wrong or getting distracted by her past and not finishing. No, she fails it by picking an option to erase all her answers, hitting yes on a confirmation screen, and then screaming about it. She then gets distracted in an actual Nereids missions and puts the other girls at risk, saying out loud that her daydreaming about her past is more important than the safety of her friends.
I'm not saying Maia shouldn't be obsessed with her past. But it seems totally out of character for her to ignore the things that are valuable to her so that she can be depressed and think about her past. The feel-good vibe of the show is missing in this early episode, though the drama resulting from her failures does work in the context of the show.
The next episode really brings it all together. We finally find out who has been tailing Maia and we find out a lot more about her past. There are also plenty of hints as to the overall goings-on of the whole planet and how all the disparate elements of Daphne fit together. Compared to many of the single episode stories from earlier in the series, these two episodes really stand out. With only one volume left after this one, things are already ramping up for the end.
Instead of a third episode of the main story being included on this disc, Geneon threw in a bonus episode. Titled Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Nereids (But Were Afraid To Ask), it's essentially an infomercial for Nereids. It tells how they can do everything from dressing as bunny girls at parties to kicking bad guys' asses. It's all pretty funny and each little story is actually loosely tied together. There's even appearances from the Wang-Chang-Lee brothers. It's a fun addition to the show and definitely has the feel-good attitude that makes Daphne enjoyable.
As Daphne begins to reach the end, more and more episodes are focusing on Maia's story. Though I enjoyed some of the stories told in one episode, the world of Daphne is intriguing and those stories don't always evoke what's good about it. So it's good when we hear about either the world itself or Maia's place in it. The show's quality does not seem to be declining as we reach towards the end, but it was never all that high to begin with.
Maia makes a lot of progress in volume 6, but there's still more to go. Things are getting complicated and dangerous for Maia and the Nereids girls. The regular story episodes of this volume end in a very exciting way and I find myself wanting to see the next disc more than any other Daphne I've reviewed.
Special Features
DVD Special Features
· Bilingual Audio (English 2.0/Japanese 2.0)
· English Subtitles (Dialogue & Screen Text)
DVD Extra
· Original TV Previews, Ep 1-12
