Hikari to Mizu no Daphne

Daphne in the Brilliant Blue is really a hidden treasure amongst anime. This series was a pure enjoyment, from beginning to end. So on to the review...

Story! Like the title suggests everything in this anime revolves around the sea. In (not so) distant future people are living in mega-hi-tech cities that resurfaced from the ocean floor when Earth recuperated from pollution and could once more sustain life on the surface. In one of this cities live our main protagonist Maia Mizuki who has a case of amnesia and as story unfolds begins a quest for discovering her past. She and her female friends trough series ... of adventures finally come to the conclusion of the main plot which also as of near everything in the series has to do with the sea. It's not by any means revolutionary plot but it grows on you and is spiced with great humor and funny situations like those deja vu gags that always make you smile!

Characters! Main characters are females, the part of the organisation called "The Nereids" (nymphs of the sea from Greek mythology-name suits them well indeed) which are somewhat rather stereotypical in characterization but all for the better! E. g. Maia is a sweet and nice girl next door type who doesn't really enjoy bullets flying over hear, on the other hand Gloria is that Revy type: shoot first and ask questions later type and also case of pathological materialist... It is that different characters of our female heroines and their contrasts that produce those great comedy moments and plot twists! Maybe it's overdone sometimes but it's never like that it becomes a nuisance!

Art! I could easily call it an eye candy! Everything is done very well with fluid animations and what's easily a "trademark" of the series are beautiful paysages: palms, vast skylines, cities, sunsets and of course brilliant sea and its depths! It gives that nice Seychelles/Balearic touch to it! I must make notice of outfits that our heroins wear which are rather hmmm "provocative" showing curves and are in my opinion to please more a male audience:) Also there are nice little details throughout the series which sometimes serve as a tribute. Gloria is e. g. wielding a PSG1 sniper rifle and a SOCOM gun which is tribute to MGS I believe-really nice to see those and other well implemented remarks and details! And in the end the whole title of the series is symbolical and has connection to the plot (meaning of Daphne).

Music/Sound! Koh Otani! Need I say more! Those who are acquainted and love his work shouldn't miss this one! Beautiful soundtrack all round with truly excellent main theme! This has my highest recommendations!


Conclusion/Enjoyment! Daphne in the Brilliant blue was a great show! Beautiful presentation, funny moments, emotive and climatic ending, nice details, exceptional music score... It's a shame, I could say, that this one is still not uncovered by many because it has has to offer so much!

ps: There are two Bonus episodes which are hilarious and if you liked the series be sure not to miss them also!


Thank you for reading!

If there ever was a case of not judging a book by its cover, it would be this anmie. what looks on the outside as just a mere "fan service ' T@A with guns affair" in truth something much more substantial and meaningful.There is a depth to this anmie ,( you wouldn't normally associate with this type of anmie and) that makes for a satisfying watch both intellectually and emotionally as well.

Story- Quite well developed , with many twists and turns and coming ... to a proper conclusion.I also love how the side characters would pop up later in a place or time , that was consistent with the plot. The sign of really well organized and thoughtful writing.

Art- OK let me start of by saying , I like ecchi and fan service( a lot) as much as any guy , but I think they went slightly over board there , with the uniforms.That's only a minor complaint on an otherwise pretty impressive art work. The cites were well designed as were the vessels.the scenery was also great.

Sound. just heard the subbed version but it was spot on as were all the sound effects.

characters-- I cant give spoilers , but if could ,I would wax lyrically in trenchant detail how each character is developed and expounded upon.How the layers are stripped and what we though was just a 2d character , really have more depth and background , that we thought.

Its very easy to pass them off as the ditz , clumsy girl , silent killer type but this anmie shows that all is not as it seems, which by anmies end , makes you look at them in a different light.I would be very surprised if you didn't have any empathy for our heroine/s by the end of episode 24

Enjoyment- 100% yes. lots of action , pretty girls , decent story , twists and turns , humor , slap stick and otherwise as well.A few teary eyed moments too

slight spoiler - I personally loved that episode with Yu and the baby , which reminded me of Washu Hakubi in Tenchi Muyo. same feeling .Both quite touching in their own ways.

The title will make sense by the anmies end.

Im going to cut to the chase on this review.

THIS DOESNT EVEN HAVE AN ECCHI TAG ON IT! look and see know where does it say that. That is what i want to say to every, just because there in little to nothing doesnt mean ecchi. there and no boobs flying around, or bouncing as they are fighting. AND That is what people think when they see the art work on this site.

yes i would say this is a diamond in the rough. And I know why it is. Just from looking at the art that is attached to this you will see women barely ... clothed and say Oh its gonna be some stupid ecchi show with very little story well. In fact

The story is decent not the best, it starts to pick up towards the end however the beginning sets the entire ending up to be a good one. Just to say i did enjoy this great character developments along every episode the twists and turns of the main protagonist. the last 4-5 episodes are very good and yeah it might have been a little predictable but its okay, it was a heartwarming story that just made me feel good after seeing all the episodes.

The art was fair i thought nothing great just about as average as you could get so if you are big into how it looks this isnt for you, its got an old school feel to it so if you like bebop, GTO style art then you might want to check this out.

Sound was another meh not great not bad just luke warm i thought, not really much to say. The op was good the Ed was not, but sound is not a big deal breaker for me but for some this might be the deal breaker.

characters, what to say about them..... Great, honestly the character were lovable, violent, strong, weak, you basically had every type of character you could have thought of in this anime. yeah they are wearing almost nothing during there mission's but i enjoyed it, i mean it wasnt like there boobs were bouncing around or anything like that.

my enjoyment was about a 7 give or take some decimal points depending how far along the anime was. when i sat back and added everything up my overall score would be a 7 this should get more looks than what it has the score well lets say it sould be about a 7.5 not in the 6's i would almost guarantee people didnt even finish this and just gave it a 2 or 3 just because they can starch at it and say "it was a crappy fanservice show" when in fact it wasnt.

IF you like police work, bounty hunter types of anime mixed in with some nice female characters, and a pretty decent story with some funny situations you should check this out.

Speaking of the opening theme song sequence, I might as well talk about it right now to get it out of the way. It is a very standard J-Pop song with an aqua-style bubbly underwater tone and it is listenable for a while and I didn’t have the need to skip over the opening song and the ending theme has more of a softer tone that does go along with the show’s more serious episodes but kind of distract it from its’ comedic episodes and the show does often focus on the comedic elements in the first half but delve into the main storyline in ... the second half.

The plot starts off In the future, water has covered much of the Earth due to the effects of global warming, leaving the human race to live on neighboring floating cities.



The orphaned Maia Mizuki, 15, just graduated from middle school and has already applied for employment in the elite Ocean Agency, part of the futuristic world government. Only the best, most intelligent, and physically fit students are eligible for admission. She was set to become one of the few people but unfortunately it all falls apart as she fails her entrance exams despite her high grades.

Okay, I always wonder why do anime like this got to have the main character failing an entrance exam. I feel like I seen this situation one too many times and that does gets a little old there.





Oh yeah, it gets worse. She also gets evicted from her house, pick-pocketed and taken hostage (which is one of the running gags of the show) and eventually she is saved by an unorthodox help-for-hire organization called Nereids and ended up joining them, taking jobs from capturing wanted criminals to chasing stray cats.



Here’s a little info on the rest of the Nereids crew:



Rena Honjo (the one in Red) is the de facto leader of the Kamchatka branch of Nereids. She is capable and elegant when doing her business and uses her sharp instincts to know the weaknesses of other people and she also seduces others for manipulation, weapon use and sometimes sex. However, she does come off cold at some times and one of the running gags involving her are deducting pay from salaries under the slightest pretext.



Shizuka Hayama (the one with purple hair, glasses & busty physique) is the smart mechanic of the group who has a friendly and casual personality among the crew and is very trusting towards people (albeit on a later episode, she needs to know when not to trust anybody) and she has a very voracious appetite for food, as in the girl can eat and damn, she can eat. The flaw about her is that she can’t aim or shoot worth an s**t.



Gloria (the blonde one) is the loud, spontaneous, tomboyish, and reckless trigger-happy marksman and weapons specialist. She often clashes with Rena all because of deserting her on a past mission and occasionally bothers her about her pay although it has something to do with her being greedy with money, as in, if one coin dropped on the floor, she’ll get to it in a flash.



Yu Park (the blue-haired one) is the silent, brooding, nihlistic, and a loner who specializes in being a strong fighter and hand-to-hand combat specialist, especially since most of the time I don’t feel worried for her since we all know she’s going to kick some ass. The best thing about her and Gloria being paired up on assignments is the fact that their pairing as boke and tsukkomi to each other is actually hilarious in my eyes.

Other side characters include Tsutomu Hanaoka, the branch manager of Nereids but he is more of a pushover to the girls and especially towards his daughter; Tsukasa Takagi, Maia’s best friend who got accepted into the Ocean Agency despite having average grades and promises them both they would work with each other; Millie, Shizuka (and later Maia’s) friend, who’s a skilled race car driver inspired by her great-grandmother Ai Mayuzumi and of course, the Wong-Chang-Lee brothers with their sister May, which they are the only recurring criminals on the show who usually take Maia as hostage and their goal is to find the treasure of Elpida, which is the part of the subplot that happens midway that concerns Maia’s journey to retrieve a time capsule to find about her past.



Now I got two questions about this series and the first one being:

Why this show is called Daphne in the Brilliant Blue?

The word, "Daphne", Greek for "Laurel tree", in the title refers to Maia's grandfather last words. "Brilliant Blue" refers to the fact that this is a world covered by water with almost no land. The world consists of vast oceans, a few islands, and floating cities.

Okay, and also this question:

What the hell is with those outfits they’re wearing?

It looks like they’re nothing at all, especially from Rena & Shizuka and maybe Yu to an extent. Gloria’s choice wardrobe is well, not risqué, but still skimpy and Maia’s outfit……well, what do you say when a 15-year-old dress like this during her mission?

But, seriously, it isn’t much of a problem because the show doesn’t always ogle at them dress like that nor does it get too in-your-face about them being dress like that. Its fan service but its tolerable and sometimes subtle fan service, which is actually sexier than just shoving it front and center and speaking of fan service, guess who did the animation for this series?


Oh, hello, J.C. Staff, I haven’t heard you since a month ago and so far, this animation………is slightly better than their usual shtick of anime. It is very vibrant and bright with some fight scenes looking decently animated even from the opening sequence, although the second ending sequence does better in the animation than the first since it’s mostly a zoom-out picture of what I assume is Maia’s in the ocean floating.


As for the voice acting of the English dub (yes, I watch the dub of this), it is an okay dub by veteran voice actresses Wendee Lee, Michelle Ruff, Megan Hollingshead & Erika Weinstein. Carrie Savage was decent but the whole “cute/shy girl voice” does get a bit irritating and that is mostly Savage’s bread and butter in her earlier gigs. She’s still an okay voice actress but that shtick can wear out. Don’t believe me? Try watching the dub of another show she did by the same exact animation company that was distributed by a former anime distributing company.

Also, there is only 24 episodes in the series and 2 bonus episodes on DVD release, which the episodes is mostly the comedic ones that have nothing to do with the plot.

FINAL VERDICT: At times, this is a fairly good show with some decent comedic moments happening in between them with a subplot that doesn’t go underway until the near end of the series’ run. Characters are fairly decent and likable with some human-like and medium flaws and I did laugh at the funny moments throughout this. The fan service isn’t distracting or irritating but I did notice some and honestly, it didn’t stick out. But would I recommend this to you? Well, for those who want something that isn’t an ecchi-fest but still has a few fan service moments, this is it for you.

This series is like finding out the hot cheerleader is also a pre-med student!

Well, maybe not exactly, but my point is: this is more than just eye-candy. I started watching Daphne as a mindless action/comedy. To my shock and pleasant surprise, what started off as light fair (big guns + big tits), ended up being a smart, well thought out story with a lot of heart, depth, and enough plot-twists to keep you engaged all the way till the end.

It does start out a bit slow and the "uniforms" are obviously over the top (which is why I couldn't give ... it an overall 9/10) but i found myself actually laughing out loud which made me wanna come back for more.

From the beginning, there's a slight tone of despair (or maybe "abandonment" is a better word) but is quickly bypassed with campy humor and the aforementioned "uniforms" paraded about. Almost every main character has their own introductory episode and the series is set up fairly episodic with no real thread.

But when the tone turns more serious as the lead character's history becomes the main story arc, the series truly starts to gain real traction. Never leaving the humor too far behind, the emotional development, interesting plot-twists and smart writing won me over. What was also a nice surprise was that characters and events that seemed to have little importance in the beginning become major elements during the 3rd act. So it's worth watching the whole thing through.

It's silly, smart, campy, action packed, and character driven. By the end, you'll fall in love with the ladies of Nereids.

Oh, and the music perfectly captures the playful atmosphere and emotional highs & lows. A rating of 10 for the soundtrack.

I know my rating for this show is high, especially compared to Eden of the East or Ergo Proxy and any of the other sci fi shows I've seen. For me it came down to the characters and how they interacted with each other. They made the show for me and enjoyment is always the most important part of any for of entertainment. The outfits are ridiculous, the story is almost non existent and there are many higher quality shows out there. If you give it a chance, however, this show may surprise you. Just don't expect it to change the way you feel about ... sci fi.

Чёрная лагуна уровня /b/.

Five absolutely crazy half-naked girls running around, shooting stuff and kicking asses.
Parallel-universe world, which comes out in the middle of the series.
And boy, do I love corporate espionage/evil goverment ideas.

Also surprisingly decent plot, which is progressing for about 6 episodes out of 24 though, but it is still nice to have an actual story in crazy girls anime. And not any story - a good one. Onii-chan's history really got me there.