With a premise similar to shoujo anime (young girl meets a mysterious companion with special powers) and a female protagonist, Brigadoon might seem similar to magical girl anime during the first episodes. This is soon proven wrong, due the unusual post war setting and its high stakes, the protagonist Marin needing robot Melan´s power and abilities to protect her city and loved ones from an apparent alien invasion.
The relationship between Marin and Melan is the show´s biggest strength. Marin, a naive young girl and Melan, a fully sentient machine with a serious yet caring personality rapidly establish a beautiful bond that transcend friendship, immersing themselves in the multiple battles and challenges brought by their foes, this being the main point that makes Brigadoon stand out from any other series.
The juxtaposition between the optimistic and innocent personality of Marin and the gruesome battles fought by Melan, often with extremely tragic consequences, is extremely jarring. The show´s tone can be almost bizarre, changing abruptly from the naive Marin attempts at humor to terribly violent fights with death tolls and destruction, the next episode returning to the usual playful tone. Due to her struggles during the series, Marin grows as a character alongside Melan, who progressively learns about human emotions in order to understand Marin´s struggles.
Regarding the overall quality of the show, Brigadoon is decently animated, its visual standout being the mechanical design of Melan Blue and other mecha present later in the series, battles between mecha being the best animated scenes as expected from studio Sunrise. The moe character design for the humans and creatures is forgettable yet does an effective job at presenting the setting as cutesy and cozy in contrast to the struggles faced by the characters.
Brigadoon can only be regarded as a wild ride, an unpredictable series to first time viewers, being a (not so smooth) blend of genres: humor, mahou shoujo, mecha, tragedy, romance... all mixed in a truly weird series. I would only recommend Brigadoon to viewers with an open mind, do not expect a traditional mecha from this anime.
