At fifteen Maia could not have guessed that rather than joining the Ocean Agency that fate would lead her into the direction of the Nereids organisation, a collection of scantily clad women who work as help-for-hire, dealing with anything from finding missing cats to tracking down the most ruthless killer. Although she is temperamentally unsuited for such a dangerous profession, Maia is quickly learning what her new life really means...

Daphne in the Brilliant Blue: Volume Two sees us back with the Nereids in this comedic science fiction, fan service, show. Although there appears to be some small effort at creating a thread between the shows, stopping it from degenerating into ‘crime of the week’, so far this has mostly consisted of introducing new characters. The show, for the most part, is played for good natured laughs and while there is some eroticism injected for its pubescent audience, it is for the most part subtle and not over gratuitous.

So, Volume Two holds another four episodes, numbers five through nine, whose titles are all partially taken from movies: Call me Rough Neck; In the Heat of the Night; All That Papa; and The Speeding.

Call Me Rough Neck, and the final member of Nereids is finally introduced. Yu Park is an expert in hand to hand combat, who unfortunately cares so little about the amount of collateral damage that she inflicts that her licence has been taken away from her. When she gets out of prison not all the Nereids welcome her back and soon Gloria and Yu are at each other throats and only an emergency would make the police captain reinstate her licence. Cue one extraordinary cruise ship disaster.

In the Heat of the Night: Maia is reunited with an old friend who, unlike Maia, succeeded in getting into the Ocean Agency. Maia is clearly uncomfortable about what she does for a living until her friend's car is stolen. With the chance of a reward from the insurance company the Nereids strip off for action. With such an innocuous crime to solve the episode concentrated on the relationship between Yu and Gloria as well as Maia’s increasing comfort with her employment.

All That Papa, and it’s ‘bring your kid to work’ day. The Nereids office manager is a browbeaten coward of a man who has been telling a few porkies at home, making himself out to be a James Bond character. Against their better natures, and with a lot of begging involved, the girls agree to go along with his lies - even to the point of faking an arrest. But when that goes wrong Maia, the branch manager and his daughter find themselves in real danger.

The Speeding: With all the final introductions out of the way the show settles down into a mission per episode format. In this episode the girls are called in to test a prototype hover car, which having failed the manufacturers believe that industrial espionage is afoot.

Whilst this is not a total disaster as a show, the next set of episodes will see if the writers are going to squander the continuity that has been built up. The show has yet to address its wider context. Though we know that the world is mostly under water the show has yet to move away from stories about Maia’s growing confidence to let us in on some of the back story.

The disc is the same as Volume One. The show is presented in its original 4:3 aspect ratio with English or Japanese 2.0 with English subtitles. The print is crisp and clean and appears to be devoid of any problem. The disc contains no extras.

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Charles Packer