Rejected by the quasi-governmental organisation known as the Oceanographic Agency, Maia Mizuki instead finds herself working for NEREIDS, an all female organisation which will do anything from retrieving cats to stopping criminals. With no memory of her past, her only clue being her grandfathers dying word "Daphne", Maia works her way up from having to do menial tasks to becoming a full agent of NEREIDS, while all the time her past remains a mystery...

Daphne in the Brilliant Blue: Volume Six and we are finally on the home stretch with the last four episodes of the story.

Episode 21, Whatever Happened to Baby Maia? Maia’s desire to learn about her past comes into conflict with her work with the detective agency. Distracted by thoughts of her past she fails to back up a raid on a prostitution ring, leaving Shizuka shot and in a hospital bed. Kicked out, as a burden to the other girls, where will Maia go? The show has a fleeting moment of back-story which hints at a bigger picture regarding Maia’s amnesia - it seems part of the government are worried about her starting to remember and makes references to reprogramming her, now if only there had been more of this in the beginning.

Episode 22, Terms of Endangerment. The show opens with Maia remembering more of her past including her father who mans an underwater repository for all the surviving land animal. She also remembers the rest of her family. To say any more would be to spoil the story, let’s just say that the plot is definitely heading towards the end game. We even get to discover what Daphne refers to. I’m spitting bullets as the story just keep getting better, which makes the middle section of the show a real wasted opportunity.

Episode 23, Escape from Kamchatka, and episode 24, Daphne in the Brilliant Blue, really should have been called "rescue" and "resolution", as the girls break Maia out of captivity and go looking for the truth behind her memory loss. Without spoiling it, the resolution to the show was satisfying and at the same time frustrating. These last four episodes cranked up both the action and the intrigue; you might even be forgiven for thinking you were watching a different show.

There are only two extras on the disc but, instead of the usual fluff, you get two extra episodes, Everything You Wanted to Know about the Nereids (23 min, 41 sec) and , (23 min, 42 sec). The first is a clip-like show showcasing each of the girls strengths, the second one is a comedy which follows Maia and Gloria after they swap bodies, funny but not really part of the story. Once again the show's picture is clear and clean with audio options for English and Japanese stereo, plus subtitles.

Overall the series started well dipped in the middle and finally dragged itself back for a reasonable conclusion.

7

Charles Packer