Review - Daphne in the Brilliant Blue Vol. 4 - Revenge
Reviewed by Richard Brownell on 9.28.2009.
Score: 7/10
The last volume of Daphne in the Brilliant Blue brought some much needed information about the world of the show and the main character, Maia. Unfortunately, this volume does not continue directly in line with that thread and instead feels a bit more like filler material. It's very much episodic, but that doesn't necessarily mean all of these episodes are going the wrong direction.
The first episode of volume 4, though it deviates from the previous volume, contains a welcome return of past villains. Wong, Chang, and Lee were put in jail many episodes ago after getting captured by the Nereides girls and this episode opens with their sister, May, busting them out. They've got an amazing new submarine and plans to raid the sunken city of Elpida for long-lost treasure. The return of the brothers is welcome as they have a comical relationship with each other that is perhaps even more enjoyable than the relationships of the Nereides girls. And their stupidity is what picks this story up as they find Maia during a training run and decide to ditch their sister's plan in favor of getting revenge on Nereides. This episode is pretty funny, but it's hampered by seeing more of Maia's uselessness and it feels a little bit like an excuse just to get a giant sub in the show for Nereides to steal.
The second episode is the weakest of the bunch. It's called The Old Kook and the Sea. Despite the name's reference to Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, it's more of an homage to Moby Dick. The Nereides girls are looking for jobs to use their hot new submarine and the only work they are able to find is from the grandson of a crazy old sailor. The old kook came across a huge creature in deep waters in the past and has never been able to prove that it exists. Nereides' job is to disguise their sub as the creature so that he'll have his proof and be none the wiser that it was his grandson's sneaky idea. Unfortunately, this episode reeks of filler. It's not exciting, does nothing to further the plot and Maia still seems generally useless-- and not in a funny way.
The last two episodes are the highlight and savior of this volume. It starts with Maia getting a job to do all on her own. Since the completion of this job requires her to not be totally useless, I already had high hopes at this point that this two-parter wouldn't be mediocre. Her job is to find a wealthy boy who used his ample allowance to run away to Siberia City. Maia has to go there and find this boy with no help from her Nereides group. On top of that, the Nereides branch in Siberia City has a beef with her branch and gives her misinformation to lead her off the trail. The whole situation gets even more complicated as the overall story of this two-parter picks up. A terrorist organization is hijacking the towers that protect cities and planes by keeping the ocean's wave activity to a minimum. There's a lot of intrigue here as the terrorist's identities and motives are unclear. And the story culminates with all of the Nereides girls' being required in various ways to help stop the bad guys.
Once again, the thing I'm most put off by in this show is the outfits. They're so ridiculous and despite that the girls are well drawn, I don't really find the outfits sexy. They're basically naked and after however many hours of the show, it's tired and unexciting. But I can't fault the animators for trying. I'm sure the younger male crowd vehemently disagrees with my assessment. And the show isn't declining in animation quality as far as I can tell.
The area where Daphne shines the most is actually its attitude. It's not a depressing sci-fi show. Despite that the Earth is nearly destroyed and only a handful of cities exist floating around the world, it doesn't beat you over the head with depressing thoughts. On the contrary, the useless main character Maia is bubbly and naive. And the whole show has a cheerful atmosphere. It may have some cliches and get bogged down with some boring sections, but it's definitely got its fair share of fun to watch episodes.
Special Features
DVD Special Features
· Bilingual Audio (English 2.0/Japanese 2.0)
· English Subtitles (Dialogue & Screen Text)
DVD Extra
· Art Gallery
