Brigadoon 10/10

This is the best show nobody bothered to see. I suppose it's cutesy main character and comedic first episode might be the reason but past that is an excellent story and currently my second favourite anime ever. Lofty praise indeed.

Brigadoon aired in 2000-2001 and consists of 26 episodes. One thing that's always stood out about this show above all others are the episode titles. While this is a minor thing it's worth a mention that this show had some of my favourite titles of all time such as: "Under the Soda-Coloured Sky", "A Broken Umbrella and the Dark Rain", and "In the Light of Snow". The backgrounds and character designs were somewhat simple but I really liked them anyway and the backgrounds are only sub-par a couple of times. The score was amazing with a lot of Lord of the Rings style flute, some music box tracks, and quite a few choral pieces. The OP was another really great choral piece and the ED was good as well. The VA's are terrific with Melan Blue having an absolutely perfect voice for his part.

The year is 1969 and Marin Asagi is a 7th grader who was left at an old apartment building as a baby. The people of the apartment took her in and she's being cared for by an adoptive grandmother (the grandfather died a year ago). She's poor but happy, cheerful, and prone to bouts of over-imagination. She has a friend named Moe who is weak, soft-spoken, wealthy, and has an overprotective mother who doesn't approve of her daughter's friend. One day, Marin is attacked by a large flying machine that starts blasting lasers at her that arrived from a strange mirage of another world that has recently appeared overhead. She runs to the local temple and stumbles upon a small blue ampoule (bulb thingy) that contains the gun-swordsman Melan Blue.

His mission is to protect Marin from the Monomakia sent to kill her from the land of Brigadoon, the world visible above and Melan Blue's home. His reasons are not revealed at first though it is clear that he is at odds with even his own kind. As the attacks progress Marin meets a little green fellow named Lolo that appears from time to time to help her out. The worlds also seem to be interacting in a bad way since pieces of Earth seem to be "falling" into Brigadoon and vice-versa. Since Melan and his battles have caused so much damage and loss of life, Marin is ostracised and bullied at school then arrested for interrogation. Her problems get worse when she wins a trip to the World's Fair she couldn't ever afford on her own and goes with her grandmother. After a battle where many people are killed but Marin and he grandmother survive her grandmother passes away in the hotel room while Marin is having a bath. Faced with the prospect of moving into an orphanage and having just nearly being killed by an angry mother who's lost her daughter she is offered money from Moe to help her get by. Marin accuses Moe of treating her as a pet and runs off. She ends up going to Brigadoon at the request of the U.S. government on Apollo 11 in an attempt to stop the Mutual Collapse.

After fighting to the centre of Brigadoon it turns out the Marin isn't the one to stop the Mutual Collapse, Creis Marine. Melan is nearly killed by Pyon Silver (whom he's fought before) and Erin Garnet (a female gun-swordsman) and our heroes escape and eventually end up back on Earth where Melan has to leave Marin to look for the real Creis. After a sad parting Marin gets home to discover it burned down and the residents missing. She goes to her school which has become a shelter for the large numbers of people injured and rendered homeless by the Mutual Collapse but is sent away as her former classmates blame her for the world's problems. Even Moe is absent as her family has left town so at this point Marin is alone, freezing and starving. She goes to steal bread and is stopped by Makoto, an older girl who helped her get out of jail earlier. About here things take a turn for the worse.

Marin goes blind after falling out of the bath and leaves Makoto's house in search of Melan with only a new change of clothes. As she stumbles though the city she accepts some help finding a pedestrian bridge but her helper turns out to be one of the mean girls from her school and Marin is led off the edge of the bridge. Finally something goes right as a necklace she acquired in Brigadoon saves her and gives her the ability to see and transform herself into things (Such as a mouse, a moth, Melan, Erin and so on). She now rushes off to save Melan and the fight is on. After a quick victory they are attacked by Erin Garnet and battle to a draw.

Marin is now reunited with her family and friends but there is only a brief interlude before Erin attacks again. We also now start to get some action in Brigadoon where Lolo and some of his friends are attempting to prevent their world from being destroyed by a traitor in their midst. On Earth, Melan is victorious over Erin Garnet but is then smashed by the new, most powerful gun-swordsman, Kuston Brown. Melan, Erin, Pyon, and the now found Creis, Marine are taken to Brigadoon and Marin must follow to save them and the two worlds. Of course she must now face her toughest enemy yet...

I'll stop here at the end of episode 24. Why do I like this show so much? It's the music, the battles, the character designs, the premise, the story. I've always loved "end of the world" shows and this one does it better than any story I've ever seen or read with the exception of one which isn't anime. With the exception of some backgrounds I can't really point out any other flaws in this show.

Why such an exhaustive review? When it's #2 it gets the royal treatment I suppose. The plan is to review #1 as the 100th review. How many more 10/10's are in the pipe at this point since I seem to spit them out like Pez? Maybe 3 more, there's a lot of crap to review folks. As of the date of this post I have seen over 277 complete anime TV series, over 217 anime OAV series, and over 60 anime movies for a rough total of 122 days of anime. This show is my second favourite. I know my shit. Go get this show and watch it NOW!