Ranked #1735

Brigadoon

Most anime series can be neatly categorized into some kind of cliche-ridden group or another: magical girls, mecha, sports, slice of life, ecchi. "Magical girl" series, for example, will always have prepubescent girls with colorful wands, long transformation sequences and brains the size of a Chinese dumpling. That, my dear children, is "cliche", and it causes cancer.

Brigadoon, I am happy to report, isn't like most anime, and as such does not suffer the same cliches. In fact, it will quietly defy any and all attempts at categorization and will summarily step on your face if you attempt it.

Brigadoon Marin to Melan's story revolves around Marin Asagi and a giant humanoid monomakia, Melan Blue. In an understated nutshell, they must work together to save both earth and Brigadoon from destruction. Combining fantasy, sci-fi, action, comedy and drama, it's a happy mix of everything every anime genre has to offer, all packed into 26 episodes.

First, be cautioned that Brigadoon requires an open mind. Most people find it unsettling that it romantically pairs a 13-year old heroine with a much older-looking hero, and decides to not even give the series a chance. This is a sad mistake. There is no pedophilia here. The most intimate thing that ever happened between Marin and Melan in the entire series was a goddamn kiss, and half the time Melan didn't know what a kiss was to begin with.

It DOES have fanservice, but the pantyshots were mostly for humor. It saddens me how many potential fans this series has lost because some people described it as pedophilic. Pedophilia has very serious and highly criminal undertones; It would be wise to Google the word up before slapping the label on this or any other series.

Second, be cautioned that Brigadoon's story, unlike Sailormoon's, is not something you can appreciate by watching the first 5 episodes and then jumping to the last episode. Despite all the action and the blood and the killing, Brigadoon is, deep down, a love story, brilliant and intricately built over a span of 26 episodes. Marin and Melan's kiss on episode 26 requires the past 25 episodes to explain; save my keyboard the trouble and just watch all of it.

Now that we've got that out of the way, on to the review:

STORY: 8/10. Brigadoon's first few episodes makes it look like your run-of-the-mill, monster-of-the-day anime. Thankfully, it changes its mind and the pace picks up after two or three episodes. When it finally does, Marin's brattiness stops and Melan's slam-bang kick-assery begins.

Even though Melan's present actions are heavily fueled by events from the past, the series manages to avoid too much flashbacks by letting Lolo narrate Brigadoon's backstory little by little. However, there are still some confusing points in the series and even as a fan, I found it hard to follow especially at the last few episodes. A more prominent flaw, however, is the series' deus ex machina ending. It's very abrupt, a little too convenient, and leaves so many unanswered questions that I can't help but wonder if the makers originally had a sequel in mind. Explaining the motives of the Hensu-chi alone should take more episodes, considering that this is not the first time Brigadoon and earth almost ended because of the Hensu-chi.

ART: 7/10. The fighting sequels were superb, showing tense, high-speed action with no repeated cells to make a one-minute fight last five minutes. The character designs for the monomakias were excellent, most notably Melan and Kushatohn. Most people dislike Marin's character design however; She's supposed to be 13 but she looks everything under 9. And her feet. I'm pretty sure something's wrong with them... But that isn't what bothers me. What DOES bother me is how the animation decides to screw up at the worst possible moments. There were a few bad sequences in the Submaton Color episode, and it irritates me to no end that Melan's first smile in the entire series was drawn by a retard. I actually have to cover half of the freaking monitor with my hands to make Melan look normal! [Thankfully, Melan smiles radiantly in another scene in the same episode.]

SOUND: 9/10. Brigadoon's soundtrack is an enjoyable combination of classic, Celtic-themed acapella singing, balanced by bouncy instrumentals and the fun closing theme. The acapella rendition of the opening song, "Kaze no Ao, Umi no Midori" is simple, powerful, and heart-wrenching. This provides strong contrast to the catchy ending theme, "Nijiiro no Takaramono", sung by the actress who voices Marin herself.

DUBBING: As for the English dubbing, I command you to forget it exists and watch the subbed version instead. They made small, but numerous, changes in the character's lines [e.g. Marin never says "Ahaaa~" in the English dub, even though it's her trademark expression in the series]. Some dialogues were so drastically changed that I felt like I was watching a different version of Brigadoon, like a parody dub.

But more importantly, it's not worth missing out on Melan's Japanese voice. It's powerful, solid, with a metallic twinge which constantly reminds you that Melan is a huge bulk of steel and alien flesh you shouldn't mess with. Unless he's talking to Marin, he's ALWAYS unimpressed. It fits his alien, character unquestionably. I... it's just... perfect. There are no other words to describe it.

On the other hand there are a lot of words, some offensive, that can describe the English dubbing. Tony Oliver's voice is decent enough, but for a killing machine like Melan its too low and too soft, like a whisper that's JUST barely audible, like a commentator for a golf show. I don't know, but it kinda ruins the moment When Melan gets into a huge fight involving guns and swords and his voice suddenly reminds me of golf commentators.

And Marin. Let me see... it sounds like a fully grown woman trying to sound like a cute 13-year-old, the kind you hear when you dream of little girls holding bloody knives to kill you and you wake up in the middle of the night screaming. I hate it with all my heart.

CHARACTER: 9/10. With more than a dozen characters and only 26 episodes, Brigadoon manages to provide enough 'camera time' for most of them. Not enough time for character development, but enough for the viewer to develop empathy towards them. [e.g. there's Uncle Onando, who never says anything and just keeps throwing peace signs whenever he's onscreen. But I like him, and I don't know why].

ENJOYMENT: 10/10. I've watched the series over three times already, and although I am aware of the series' flaws, it has not stopped me from enjoying it. It's a pretty obscure anime and it's a pity people have not enjoyed it simply because they don't know the series exists. Highly recommended. read more

The series starts off really well- but slowly goes downhill from there. It starts off as a school story with action mixed in, and then slowly turns to pure action. But that's not the bad part. The action was alright. However, around episode 15, the series went from having a plot, to complete and utter nonsense. The plot becomes incoherant at this point, and the only thing that would save this series would be the sweet tale of friendship between Marin and Melan- if the series itself wouldn't have become borderline pedophilic at this point.(Just trust me on this- it does. >_<;.)
Avoid this at all costs- the anime, anyway. If you're interested in the plot, read the manga. It's the same thing, only without the pedophilic parts, and with a coherant plot. read more