Ahhh, series sets. Don't ya love 'em? There's nothing better than getting the entire run of a show in one fell swoop. No more waiting months to see how a cliff-hanger worked out or how an interesting plot line was resolved. Often times the show is more enjoyable that way too. Sometimes it's hard to plunk down another $20 or more for a four episode volume of a show that's only so-so, but if you don't you'll never know if it gets better. One series that falls into that category is Daphne in the Brilliant Blue. If I was buying these episodes one volume at a time, I don't know if I would have finished the show. There were a few too many filler shows and stories that didn't seem to have any point. If you keep with it however, there is a very good story buried among what appears at first glance to be a typical girls-with-guns show.

Maia is a capable young 15-year-old who desperately wants to work for the Ocean Agency, the most important government now that most of the world is covered by water. Even though she scores high on the tests, she doesn't get accepted to the elite program which leaves her in a pickle. She doesn't have anywhere to live since she's given up her apartment, assuming that she'd move into the Ocean Agency dorms, and with little money and no job, it's hard to find a place to live.

As luck would have it, down on her luck Maia gets taken hostage by a hunted criminal. It's lucky because Maia and the criminal are captured by a pair of agents of the Nereides Corporation, and the agents offer Maia a job. Nereides is a company that hires their personnel out to anyone who can afford to pay, for just about any reason. Maia gets taken in by the Kamchatka branch which also includes Rena, the de facto leader, Shizuka, the techno girl, Yu Park, a hand-to-hand expert who has just been released from prison, and Gloria, a gun-toting lunatic. For room and board, and not a lot else, young naïve Maia joins these mercenaries. Over the course of the show she not only learns something about capturing criminals, but she discovers a lot about her self too.

This program is a little different than you're average anime. It starts out with a two-part story that shows a little bit about the world and how different it is from ours, and then it turns into a typical girl-with-guns show. If I had only bought the first two DVDs, I probably would have stopped after that. The interesting aspects of the first story are totally forgotten for several episodes, and it appears that they won't be returning. Only they do. As the series goes on, it fleshes out the world that Maia lives in, showing the six cities that exist on the surface of a world-wide ocean. Something happens with Maia too. She starts to have some strange feelings and memories. As she and her friends investigate they discover much more than they ever thought they would.

The biggest problem with this series is it can't make up its mind what it wants to be. Half of the episodes are action filled slug fests and the others are dealing with Maia and her past. The two rarely meet. The stand alone episodes at the beginning of the series are enough to make most fans write the show off as mindless fluff (especially when you get a look at the girl's battle costumes; little more than a thong bikini.) They don't start revealing the plot after about the first 1/3 of the series is over and then just when you think things will kick into high gear, they have a couple more filler episodes.

It's aggravating the way it's arranged, but it isn't necessarily bad. The filler shows are enjoyable and often funny. The episode where the branch manager, a nebbish fellow who is pushed around by the buff women under his command, has his daughter visit was particularly enjoyable. He's told her that he is the star of the office, single-handedly bringing down dangerous criminals and performing heroic feats of rescue. He has to bribe the Rhea and the others to play along while his daughter is in the office. Of course things don't go as planned and the results are very comical.

The boxed set comes with all seven DVDs in their own clear keepcase with reversible covers. These seem to be identical to the original releases.

Audio:

This set comes with the original Japanese track as well as an English dub, both in stereo. I alternated between tracks for the first few episodes but then grew tired of that and watched the remainder of the show with the Japanese track. I thought the voices sounded a bit better, more natural and less like the actors were acting. The English dub was good though, and that track also was a bit more forceful in the action scenes. Both tracks had nice range and sounded clear and there was good use made of the front soundstage. Common audio defects like hiss, distortion and dropouts were missing. There are English subtitles.

Video:

The full frame image looked good, which is what I would have expected for a recently produced show like this one. The lines were tight, the colors were solid and the contrast was fine. On the digital side the disc also preformed well. There wasn't any major aliasing or macroblocking and only light posterization to mar an otherwise fine looking show.

Extras:

There aren't a lot of extras, but each DVD has something. Scattered over the seven volumes are a clean opening, clean ending, Japanese DVD cover art, an art gallery, and the original next episode previews (in Japanese w/ subtitles).

Final Thoughts:

This was a good series, but it could have been better. If they had cut out the filler episodes and made the series only half as long, it would have been much stronger. The crime-solving shows aren't bad, but they are just like all of the other 'tough chick' shows out there. Viewers may be fooled into thinking that this show is something that it isn't, but if they stick with it they'll be rewarded with a good series. Recommended.