#Brigadoon is a show with more heart than it knows what to do with#
Studio Sunrise is an anime production company with a lot of surprises up its sleeve. If you sift below their creamy surface of smash hit stone cold stunners such as the Gundam series, Cowboy Bebop and Escaflowne, you'd find that they have an entire rolodex filled with lesser-known projects that are made with almost the same level of care put into them. Shows like DT Eightron, ZOE: 2167 IDOLO, Votoms. Projects that have enough twinkles of creativity and uniqueness that you can forgive their litany of flaws. I consider Brigadoon to be another addition to this pile of Sunrise's sunken treasures.
To give a brief synopsis of the show; Set in 60's Japan, Brigadoon stars a beamingly positive young girl named Marin Asagi, who has her carefree life turned on its head after a mysterious planet-engulfing mirage appears in the skies, sending bizarre mechanical hitmen named "Monomakia" for her head. Marin comes into contact with a friendly Monomakia named Melan, a gun slingin' sword swingin' android who tasks himself with protecting Marin's life.
What makes this anime special?
It's how it takes the monster-of-the-week format and shines it in a whole new light, a light that projects a shadow of some of the more grim truths of collateral damage the Anime Battles™ can cause. Marin repeatedly suffers from the repercussions of Melan's continued efforts to keep her alive in the form of social, psychological and physical hardship.
It's how the show isn't afraid to completely shift entire genres or tones throughout the course of the series. I don't think Brigadoon boxes itself into any one genre and follows it to a tee, I think it uses rather common settings for animes as a vehicle for the story to carry itself out as naturally as it can. A hodge-podge Genre Roulette of mecha, drama, romance, comedy, slice-of-life, psychological horror. The show has it all, and they each come together to form a cohesive narrative about the troubles an innocent young girl would go through after being thrown into a world that harsher than she could imagine.
It's how the show is packed with characters that range from totally endearing, to gut-wrenchingly grim. Each character, including many side-characters go through their own arcs through the show's running time, and they have great rapport between them. There's more than enough development time for you to get a very tangible level of empathy for each of them, making their interactions with Marin all the more real.
Brigadoon is absolutely not afraid to go to some very grim places. I talked about the troubles Marin is forced to go through, but it bears repeating. You get to know Marin as a kindhearted and loving character, you see her full spectrum of emotion, and watching her experiencing hard times always comes as a shock. Some of the scenes in the show are nothing short of genuinely harrowing, and it hits closer to home because Marin comes across as such a genuine child. Scenes like those are naturally countered by the wonderful supporting cast, who adoringly treat her as a strong member of their family. Something as simple as a character giving her a hug makes me feel so happy, scenes like these are so potent. She's getting love in a cold, cruel, dumb anime world, assuring her that the dark times in her life are worth pushing through. I've honestly never felt the extremes of both ends of Happy and Sad for any one character before. Hers is a tale of human adversity and community in the midst of tragedy.
The show is a good looker. Fantastic character designs and emotive and well-directed action-packed animation make just about every frame gorgeous and fun to gawk at. The softer features of the human characters and the sharper look of the Monomakia invokes a very unique little feeling. I like the nice little touches that demonstrate the show being set in the Japan's 60's. The music is very interesting, too. Fight scenes are normally accompanied with celtic-themed vocals and woodwind, which adds a surprisingly somber touch to them. The ED is just lovely, a bouncy tune that will make you smile or tear up as you see how it's used throughout the show.
The latter half of the anime goes some wild places, full of all kinds of silly twists and turns. Problems arise at the final few episodes of the show where they unfortunately feel the need to tie up every loose end, explain everything, and use way too much Deus Ex Anime to do it. It's a real disappointment in that sense, the final episodes are a mess of plot dumps, but thankfully that doesn't necessarily sour the rest of the show. Feels like Brigadoon desperately needed another set of episodes to be able to wrap itself up at a nicer pace and finish things properly. I think the dire final episode was instrumental in killing off any chance this show had at becoming popular or fondly regarded among anime circles. Pretty heartbreaking. ~~You would probably need an iron stomach to be able to stand some of the romance stuff at the end, not sure what they were going for on that front.~~
Brigadoon deserves much better than cult status, but by its flawed and almost random nature I don't see it moving from there any time soon. Brigadoon is a deceptively simple and quirky show. If you give it the time, it'll tell you one hell of a unique story that feels like it comes from the heart, however odd or dodgy it is in places. I can't recommend this show enough if you want to watch something that'll keep you guessin', and keep you feelin'. Man am I glad this show exists.
(Oh, please make sure you listen to the Japanese dub. The English dub removes Marin's "Ah-haah!" catchphrase for some reason, it's too cute to miss.)
