"The show initially focused on a young student, Maia, who is studying for her entrance exams for the last bastion of government, the elite Ocean Agency. Unlike here in the USA, the best and brightest in Japan have long been involved in public service as it honors their family and elevates their social status accordingly. The Ocean Agency is the last true governmental body left in a world gone wild so it makes sense that the intelligent, thoughtful, and highly capable Maia serve in the agency as she is shown to be head and shoulders above her peers in every way. Needless to say, sometimes life throws us a curve or two and young Maia soon finds herself unemployed, homeless, and without a friend in the world (perhaps a mystery that the series will delve into later on; at least I hope so) after failing the exam. Through a quirk in fate, Maia stumbles into a shoot out between some hot looking futuristic detective/bounty hunters/mercenaries (later known as employees of the Nereides Corporation, a nebbish gal named Shizuka and a cold hearted capitalist named Gloria) and a thug on the run. Before long, she ends up working with the two, even though her lack of real world experience hampers her initial efforts at assisting them, often as either bait for their sting operations or to serve as a buffer between the members of the group that don't get along."

Okay, as much as I liked the first volume of the show, what about the sophomore edition you ask? Well, if anything, the pacing picked up and the action took over more now that Maia's background had been established. Her coworkers were still somewhat of a mystery but with the edition of yet another hired gun, the impressive Yu Park (hand to hand combat, small weapons expert), the team was rolling right along. The back cover put it like this: "Nereides' sexy female agents will take on any job for the right price, no matter how dangerous or demanding. Yu Park, a deadly martial arts expert, returns to Nereides. She has been serving time for causing injuries to more than 20 bystanders just for trying to capture a petty thief. She is the close range combat specialist of the team, and rumored to be as dangerous barehanded than Gloria with machineguns. Until her private investigator license is reissued, she is put under house arrest, and Maia is ordered to watch over her… But can Maia keep Yu under control by herself?!"

The episodes this time were 5) Call Me Rough Neck, 6) In The Heat Of The Night, 7) All That Papa, and 8) The Speeding. Each managed to showcase some aspect of the characters or setting, with Yu the focus of Call Me Rough Neck, establishing her credentials, All That Papa, showing how lame the branch manager is to his daughter (admittedly, it was a hilarious episode though), and the obviously major history between Yu and Gloria getting some mileage in The Speeding with Maia's past catching up to her in an interesting manner too. In all, none of the episodes were filler since they were enjoyable and gave glimpses into the characters, providing the kind of development fans like to see. I give credit to the writing for taking some stereotypical characters and breathing more life into them than I originally suspected would be the case and the other aspects were not lacking either. I still think it earned a rating of Recommended though since there were no significant extras and only four episodes but I came very close to rating it higher since the concept proved to hold its own nicely through the entire second volume (there was no sophomore slump in this one folks).

Picture: Daphne in the Brilliant Blue 2 was presented in the same 1.33:1 ratio full frame color it was shot in for Japanese television a year ago. The colors, with some of the most subtle shading I've seen in a recent anime, were very nice to look at and the anime style itself managed to showcase some of the best Japan has to offer these days. The animation approach itself appeared almost as though it were done in the traditional fashion with painted cels but upon closer look I came to think it was greatly assisted by computer assistance (which is not all bad, contrary to what you may have heard).

Sound: The audio was presented with a choice of the original Japanese or an English dub, both in 2.0 Dolby Digital. The music and special effects had the most separation and dynamic range (for each track) and my belief was the original vocals scored somewhat more points for the naturalness of the voice acting. The English dub track won out in terms of the mix as the bass was deeper and the treble somewhat sharper so take some time to acquaint yourself with each track if you want to hear the relative merits of each.

Extras: The only extras included were some trailers, a clean opening, a double sided DVD cover, and a paper insert that unfolded into a small poster. I would have really appreciated the insert to have more details about the city, the characters, or even a timeline of the events leading to this futuristic place or at least to the main agencies playing a role here but perhaps that can come later.

Final Thoughts: Daphne in the Brilliant Blue 2: Reunion has not completely lived up to all the potential the concept has yet the combination of interesting characters, amusing situations, and decent writing all elevated the volume above the usual pack yet again. Yes, there were some "buddy bonding" type of scenes that could've been worked on more (reminding me very much of the first season of Saiyuki), but the light hearted exploits of the gals from the Nereides Corporation, be it Yena, Gloria, Maia, Yu, or the under utilized Shizuka, all managed to draw regular laughs from me but keep my brain engaged at the big picture it offered. Fans of socialistic forms of government will appreciate how botched some of the jobs get (attempting to disprove the reality of efficient private enterprise as mentioned previously) just as those of you who like watching barely dressed anime gals prance around in band aid sized uniforms will have something to like. In all though, Daphne in the Brilliant Blue 2: Reunion continued to offer some great fun for fans of all types!

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVDTalk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003 and Best Of Anime 2004 article or regular column Anime Talk