Daphne In The Brilliant Blue – Volume 2: Reunion (Animé TV)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Episodes: C+

 

 

The melodrama overkill and bad comedy continue to foil the Animé series Daphne In The Brilliant Blue, now on its second DVD release with four more episodes.  Volume Two: Reunion continues to claim it is an exciting show about a sexy young woman who wants to go into action as an elite all-woman Ocean Agency fighting team, but you can forget it other wise.  The shows this time are:

 

5) Call Me Rough Neck

6) In The Heat Of The Night

7) All That Papa

8) The Speeding

 

 

The titles might get more serious, but the show does not follow, even with the introduction of the reckless Yu Park.  She is a “deadly martial arts expert” who hurts bystanders trying to get her job done.  Too bad this has little point, the show itself once again was never obscene or vulgar, but the nudity or suggestion thereof is all over the place.  It is a matter of taste, but it could have still had a convincing action subplot at least.  Animé can be sometimes thought of in this country as the most commercial successful cult in the DVD industry, but some shows lend themselves to cult status beyond that and Daphne In The Brilliant Blue could be one of those.  So far, we don’t see how that is going to happen after more of the same.

 

The full frame 1.33 x 1 image once again is not bad for a recent production and if it had had more action, a 16 X 9 anamorphic production would have been more called for.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo in either Japanese or English is limited in any kind of surround information, again because this is not the action show it could have or should have been.  Extras are even weaker, with three previews for other Geneon DVDs and the closing credits without text.  Will this ever pick up?  We’ll see.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo