Brigadoon: Marin to Melan (Brigadoon)

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Brigadoon Marin and Melan, MariMera

Japanese: ブリガドーンまりんとメラン

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Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 26

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jul 21, 2000 to Feb 9, 2001

Premiered: Summer 2000

Broadcast: Unknown

Producers: Bandai Visual

Licensors: Tokyopop

Studios: Sunrise

Source: Original

Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi

Theme: Mecha

Duration: 24 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 7.26¹ (scored by 3,092 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #2733²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #5320

Members: 12,400

Favorites: 132

External Links

Official Site, AnimeDB, AnimeNewsNetwork, Wikipedia

7.26

Ranked #2733Popularity #5320Members 12,400

Summer 2000TVSunrise

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Episodes: /26

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Synopsis

Marin is a typical junior high school girl with a sunny disposition and a loving adoptive family. Her life takes a drastic change when a mysterious mirage is seen in the sky above the entire earth. Killer androids called Monomakia descend to earth from the formation in the sky called Brigadoon and begin to hunt down little Marin. She discovers a blue bottle in a shrine as she seeks escape and from the bottle comes a protector, a sword carrying gun slinging alien called Melan Blue, together they must save the earth and deal with family crisis, school prejudice and the police and come to an understanding of Marins past and Melans unexplained mission, as well as learn to trust each other. Set in 1969 Japan with a colorful cast of friends and enemies.

(Source: ANN)

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Background

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Adaptation:

Brigadoon: Marin to Melan

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Blue, Melan

Main

Ootsuka, Houchuu
Japanese

Asagi, Marin

Main

Kawana, Midori
Japanese

Lolo

Main

Shintani, Mayumi
Japanese

Kisaragi, Moe

Supporting

Saitou, Ayaka
Japanese

Mano, Midori

Supporting

Yuzuki, Ryouka
Japanese

Asagi, Moto

Supporting

Aikawa, Rikako
Japanese

Tokita, Jun

Supporting

Araki, Kae
Japanese

Alo, Makota

Supporting

Midorikawa, Hikaru
Japanese

Garnet, Erin

Supporting

Araki, Kae
Japanese

Silver, Pyon

Supporting

Takada, Yuji
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Kouchiyama, Takashi

Producer

Yonetani, Yoshitomo

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Theme Song Lyrics, Planning, Original Creator

Ookuma, Akira

Sound Director

Yamada, Hirokazu

Episode Director

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Opening Theme

"Blue of Wind, Green of Sea (Kaze no Ao, Umi no Midori)" by Ikuko

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Ending Theme

"Rainbow Colored Treasure (Niji Iro no Takaramono)" by KAORI

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Reviews

Sep 21, 2009

ChillWinterheart

Recommended

Spoiler

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 kiddies, is "cliche". It causes cancer.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

Brigadoon, I am happy to report, does not suffer the cliches usually associated with certain anime categories or genres. It simply doesn't belong to any. In fact, It will quietly defy all attempts at categorization and will summarily step on your face if you attempt it.

Brigadoon Marin ...

Open

Sep 15, 2010

Maverynthia

Recommended

As others have reviewed before, this anime is very hard to categorize and it's due to that, which makes this anime shine. It's not simply a clone of another series. It's what every anime should aspire to be.

First of all, it has the human weapon as male (a rather good looking one at that) rather than female as seems to be the standard in anime, seemingly push this from an ecchi shounen aspect to a more shoujo one. Most series if they want to reverse it, either make the human weapon as some ugly robot, as some monster hybrid or some female cute monster. That's ... what attracted me to this series in the first place. I was wondering where they would go with this.

After getting hooked to Melan and wanting to see more of him, it's then that the story hits. It really doesn't pigeonhole itself into the "Proxy battle", "Mecha" affair that it seems like it's going to shove itself into. The mystery deepens when we find out that Melan is protecting Marin for a reason. You want to find out why. Toss in a magical transformation device and some romance and you really feel for the characters. It's stops being about a formulaic trope that so many anime base themselves on.

Others have mentioned the ecchi aspect, but really the way it's done in this series more or lets blends it away. Yes you see Marin's panties, but she's underage and they don't really point to it and say "HEY LOOK!" like every other ecchi and non-ecchi anime does and make it the focus of the anime. You find out that the reason you can see them in the first place, is probably because she's poor and doesn't have any money to buy new clothes. Even the scenes of nudity is for a reason and they don't parade it down the street like it's the point of the episode. People are simply nude because they have no clothes, or they can't wear them at the time.

Really over all, the story is VERY original. It doesn't have an aspect you can plop into a category. Similar to DT Eightron in that respect. The ones who came up with the story actually sat down and probably did some world building versus sit down and go "Yeah let's make another anime about a harem... with ecchi. Yeah, like those other five hundred out there." It's really want I want to start seeing in anime. More original stories that don't ruin the experience by having ecchi parts all over the place (Umi Neko and a few other mecha shows), toss in a harem aspect for no good reason (yeah, let's have a bunch of women... for no real reason. If anyone asks... we'll say it's SCIENCE!), or simply be on long string of colosseum battles (YuYu Hakusho, Shaman King, Yu-Gi-Oh, Bleach, the list goes on). It even averts the tried and troped "Let's have a guy... that controls a woman... but she's really a sword/demon/mecha/killing doll/dingo/familiar!" It really doesn't want to make me watch another master-slave relationship being played out on TV where the master is male and the slave is female. I see that in real life too much thanks.
There are anime where the master is female of course, but they add so much ecchi to it that is shoves it back into the shounen, ecchi, boin, harem category. This averts it by making the master female and a child and the slave a good looking bio-mecha type where you don't see the romance coming until the characters start to get closer to each other. It's played more realistically.

Overall this anime is good, because it doesn't try to be like every other anime out there. It makes it's own path in the world and doesn't rely on tropes and cliche out there to get it done.

Open

Jul 16, 2014

gedata

Recommended

If you were to ask me to fit Brigadoon: Marin and Melan into one dominant category, I would honestly be at a loss. This is a series that doesn’t tie itself down to any specific genre, Brigadoon instead opts to include a wide variety of elements into its grand stirring pot. You want series mech (or very mech-like) battles? Heartwarming family drama? A world endangering conspiracy? Goofy comedy? Yuri undertones? Dark psychological drama? Brigadoon brings all of these ingredients together. This type of blend will likely prove off putting to those who aren’t a fan of one or more of the aforementioned areas, an will ... probably end up too jarring for some folks to get into. Even then there can be little doubt that once the wheels of the plot start spinning, that Brigadoon is at the very least a highly imaginative title.

The storytelling of present here isn’t something that can be judged based off of the first couple of episodes. While the monster of the week format persists throughout the 1st half, there are other serious elements at play here. What sets Brigadoon’s earlier episodes apart from other proxy battle titles are the actual repercussions that come with a child summoning a monster to combat other monsters. Lives are damaged/destroyed, thus people grow fearful and act on their fear. This is where the more tragic elements come in to play as not only does Marin become a pariah in the eyes of her peers, she is also targeted by the police as well for being at the centre of all the madness she never asked for. This is a series that won’t pull it’s punches and knows how to use shock factor as a means of getting points across.

Once the 2nd half hits, Brigadoon plunges head first into its own strange mythos and slowly reveals elements, those that are both entirely new and those foreshadowed earlier on. The story picks up a greater sense of urgency as well, as its plot-twists suggest that there is more at stake than just the lives of Marin and Melan. Although there are many elements at play within the setting of Brigadoon, some of the more vital ones do not receive much attention and feel pulled out of thin air with last minute explanations during the last episode. Another somewhat annoying trait this series adopts is use of cliffhangers sometimes. Very rarely will there be a cliffhanger that isn’t resolved via disappointingly simple means. It’s these somewhat cheap tricks that put a damper on what is otherwise a rewarding experience.

The true heart of Brigadoon lies in the intriguingly handled relationship between Marin and her alien guardian Melan. It develops from protector/protected, to father/daughter, and finally to the kind of relationship that should by all accounts feel wrong. The progression of their love feels gradual and given their extreme reliance on each other, the destination feels justified. The actual ending as a result gave me what as the “feels” even though the path to that ending came about could have gone smoother, as I’ve already mentioned. The wrapping up of their character arcs as a result feels cathartic enough to bring one to tears. Helping Marin get through her hardships is her makeshift extended family. Their personalities often rely on one-note gags, but the levity they offer is welcome in the face of the looming despair hanging over the story.

Brigadoon’s aesthetic, while dated visually, evokes a feeling of uniqueness not unlike the story itself. Although the visuals are by no means amazing, the overall cartoony style gives the show its own look. The series is set in 1969 and it certainly shows since special attention is given to make the locations give off that kind of vibe. Though the fight scenes are fluid enough, still, the OST is much more remarkable. “Kaze no Ao, Umi no Midori” by Ikuko is a damn good opener with an appropriately sorrowful feel to it. The rest of the track is diverse enough to accommodate for the range of tones that series employs. My only gripe lies with the ending theme, which on its own is pretty decent, cutesy stuff. However when an episode ends with a serious cliffhanger, it only serves to damage the mood with its cheery tune. It’s better to just not watch it once the second half hits.

It’s to easy see why Brigadoon: Marin and Melan incapable of achieving any more then cult status. I believe that the quirky look may have given off the wrong message to many anime watchers as to what this series is all about. It’s a “something for everyone” sort of show to the point where it ends up being an acquired taste, if that makes any sense. Perhaps the best recommendation I can make for this series is that you should watch it if you’re the sort of person who can live with having their emotions jerked about. If so then prepare for a game of Genre Roulette the likes of which you may never see replicated to this success.

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Brigadoon: Marin to Melan

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Brigadoon: Marin to Melan

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