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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rent | 7 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:679#1552] |
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(Rent-/ Watch+) Brigadoon was a series I wasn't sure what to make of it considering it doesn't entirely following a specific genre or appeal to a targeted viewer demographic. The art style, Marin's manic behavior and bizarre comedy would have one think this was a light-hearted comedy geared for children, yet the show's dabbling into some pretty dark territory with Marin's tragic past, portraying humanity at its worst in dire circumstances, the occasionally brutal violence from Monomakia and humans, Marin and other girls frequently being nude and the things Marin puts up with in both her family and her connection to the Monomakia would be things you would expect to be geared for older viewers. I found this mish-mashing to be a bit of a mixed bag throughout my watch of Brigadoon. What I did enjoy with Brigadoon was how effectively it went into its more serious elements. Marin is portrayed as a believable tragic heroine whose tragic past, current upbringing and connections to the Monomakia regularly put her at odds with classmates and others among the human populace throughout the show. She gets regularly bullied for her social status as an impoverished orphan and this worsens throughout the show as her bond with Melan Blue against the Monomakia threat leads classmates, the police and citizens to lash out at her at points thanks to personal tragedies and thinking she has something to do with the problems humanity is struggling with thanks to Brigadoon. Melan also makes for an interesting character as well as he adapts to living life on Earth and tries to maintain his loyalty and growing bond with Marin as he comes at odds with other Monomakia, a few of which being former comrades he used to coexist with before going rogue. Brigadoon is also good at keeping you hooked on its plot developments as the merging of Brigadoon and Earth leads events to worsen throughout the show. The series slowly reveals more about the world of Brigadoon, Marin's possible connections to the world and characters taking their own different routes with trying to manage the problems between both worlds. Mood whiplash happens quite frequently throughout the show as Brigadoon juggles between light-hearted moments and shocking plot twists that worsen the situation faced by Marin and other characters. The series isn't afraid to kill off major characters or put said characters in life-threatening situations stemming from the Monomakia threat. Still though, my praises for Brigadoon's serious elements still suffer from the title's more comical elements. I found the show's attempts at comedy as a breather from the more serious moments to be quite hit or miss as I much rather enjoyed the light-hearted moments of bonding Marin had with other characters over the show's comedic moments. With its comedy, the show quite often gets in the annoying habit of fooling the audience with Marin have a bizarre dream over her thoughts of any serious moments that take place throughout the show, and they are quite often a mood killer following the show's serious moments. Brigadoon's more serious elements are also not safe from criticism from me. Many of the shows' early episodes tend to follow a "monster of the day" type plot that do nothing to advance the title's plot and I did often find myself getting creeped out with the frequent occasions of seeing Marin and a couple other girls around her age being nude. The final episode of the series was quite a letdown as well, having a good amount of deus ex machina to undo any major character deaths taking place, leaving Marin's connections to Brigadoon unclear and any details concerning the major foes of the series rather vague. Visually, Brigadoon is rather average as character designs are on the simple side with details and look a bit rough with their lining with the childish-like style to many designs taking away from the seriousness of the series. Scenery is well designed having vast shots and a nice amount of detail applied to them. Animation shortcuts happen rather frequently throughout Brigadoon with speed stripes, still shots and reused frames being the norm with it. Musical tracks do their part in accompanying the show's calm, comical, serious and dramatic moments. However with exception to the anime's OP musical track "Kaze no Ao, Umi no Midori", the soundtrack to the series isn't too memorable for me. Overall, I felt Brigadoon's mixture of comical and serious moments in exploring Marin's ordeals with her everyday life and the Monomakia to be quite hit-or-miss for me. While I did enjoy much of the show's serious approach to its story, the comedic moments were too much of a mood killer for me and the final episode felt too convenient and open-ended with how it resolved its major plot elements. I suppose your mileage will vary with how well you warm to the series since it looks like Brigadoon has a cult following among anime fans. Last updated Monday, August 20 2012. Created Monday, August 20 2012. | ||||||||
| Watch | 6 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
 Jan-Chan
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[series:679#967] |
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I am going to have to bash this series far worse that it really deserves due to a personal short coming. I hate short saccharin little characters who look at a large hostile-looking monster and feel compelled to say that 'WOW, what a big horrible monster that is! I wonder if it is after me?' The main character Marin, a part from suffering from a terminal case of having to state the obvious, (and occasionally restating it, just in case you missed it,) might best be described as being very long on the innocence and naiveté, and very short on the common sense. This type of stuff is ok in the beginning of a series, but by the tenth episode, I was beginning to wonder if Marin was suffering from a chonic disorder which prevented her from getting a clue .. (sigh .very harsh, but true) My take is this series is targeted to a eight to twelve year old crowd, who are more apt to overlook being talked down to in poor dialogue. Marin (with her conversational short comings) is paired up with a large blue robotic warrior called Marlen Blue who does not like to communicate. Well, since the character Marin likes to talk a lot, you guess what kind of relationship they have. (La-dee-da-deda, let's all go skipping down the lane ...) With strange beasts and monsters dropping in with hostile intent from the planet Brigadoon that looms overhead, the two heroes are off to collect a number of strange vials or trinkets, each holding a strange monstrous ally, that will help them on their quest to save both worlds from destruction. The story line is OK, but not very original. The artwork is fair, but not very original. The monsters are fair, but not very original. The script and characters are OK, but not very original. (And I suspect that my review is OK, but not very original, but then again, I was not very inspired.) I will be honest in that I could only watch the first 10 episodes of the series before I lost all interest and popped in a different DVD. May be we can have someone younger and less cynical check out this series and perhaps post a different view. Last updated Saturday, July 15 2006. Created Tuesday, January 13 2004. | ||||||||
