Common Name: Brigadoon
Alternate Names: Brigadoon: Marin and Melan
Score: 8/10, 5/5
Length: 26 episodes
Genre: Action, Comedy, Romance, Sci-fi, Mech
Warnings: Ecchi and Underage characters
Summary: Junior high student Marin Asagi has never lived an easy life. She has no biological family to speak of, but is cared for well enough by the ragtag tenants of the place she calls home. Due to this, money is always a problem for her, and leads to teasing from her fellow classmates. Bad goes to worse though when her very life is put in danger. Androids originating from a strange mirage in the sky are not out to get her. Young Marin is not alone though. A knight in blue armor who bears some resemblance to the alien androids has vowed to keep Marin safe from this new threat.
Review: One of the first anime I ever reviewed, in the barest sense of the word, that has a special place in my heart, no matter how strange a title it is. Everyone has some show that they watched while growing up. For most people my age, they got a taste of anime with Pokemon, Digimon, and Yu-Gi-Oh! a few years later. While these WB Kids titles were certainly a big part of my life, I think I'm correct in recalling that this is one of the first shows I watched on my own (which is probably for the best) thanks to a contract Anime Network had with Comcast's On Demand.
This reminiscent fondness does not mean I hold the anime in any kind of high regard though. Saying the show has flaws doesn't even begin to express it's problems. From that little I recall of it today: the voice acting was tolerable at best, there were an overabundance of gag characters, and the episodes were formulaic for the most part. And the worst part of all, this is one of those animes.
This was supposed to be the spa episode.
While not as creepy or offensive as title like Kodomo no Jikan or other titles like it. This show has a trend of making inappropriate jokes or showing some skin to spice up the story. Marin has her clothes torn up or blown off or simply forgotten so often you could probably make a mean drinking game out of it. In spite of all these flaws, and the risk of ending up on some government watch list, Brigadoon actually has a lot to offer.
While the show is filled with tons of gags, ecchi, and plainly easy humor, there's actually a bit of depth to the show. The characters actually get pretty real at points. The show is harsh to Marin and anyone who associates with due to proximity alone. Even the bland for the sake of being enigmatic character of Melan Blue, Marin's knight in shiny armor with weird tentacle hands, has moments where he is flawed and the show is all the better for it.
While the show's plot is a long shot from being anything great, it does ultimately lead somewhere with characters and developments that make the ride worth it in spite of the pot holes along the way. Throughout the show, the action and drama escalates in such a way that keeps it all engaging if not interesting. From there comes an attachment and investment in the characters which only grows as romance that brings the show home takes root.
That totally not creepy romance. <3
For all it's faults, Brigadoon is a sweet, action-packed story with memorable characters that told the story it wanted and finished on a high note. I wouldn't vocally recommend it for reasons that should be obvious by now, but I would say it's worth a shot if you can stand it.