Brigadoon: Marin & Melan

Japanese anime television series

BRIGADOON: marin & μελαν ( BRIGADOON まりんとメラン) is a Japanese anime television series animated by Sunrise. It aired on Wowow from July 21, 2000 to February 9, 2001 and a manga adaptation by Nozomi Watase was published by Kadokawa. The story takes place in Japan in 1969 and it is about an orphan girl named Marin Asagi who befriends an alien named Melan Blue. Brigadoon was directed by Yoshitomo Yonetani and the characters were designed by Takahiro Kimura, both of whom worked on The King of Braves GaoGaiGar and Betterman. The show's setting in Yayoi, Tokyo was based on neighborhoods in which director Yonetani and art director Takashi Nakamura once lived. Color is a recurring theme in the series as well. Most if not all of the episodes have a color in the title, and nearly everyone in the cast is named after a color in one way or another. Likewise, the rainbow is an important image.

Marin Asagi is a typical junior high school girl with a loving adoptive family. Her life changes drastically when a mysterious mirage is seen in the sky above the entire Earth. The mirage is actually another world called Brigadoon. Soon, alien creatures called Monomakia descend from the formation in the sky and hunt down Marin, but she is saved by another Monomakia named Melan Blue, a flying, sword wielding, gun slinging alien who becomes her protector. Together, Marin and Melan must save the Earth and deal with family crises, school prejudice and the police, and come to an understanding of Marin's past and Melan's unexplained mission, as well as learn to trust each other.

The music for the series was composed by Yoko Ueno and Yuji Yoshino. The soundtrack CDs were released by Japanese label Victor Entertainment on two separate CDs. There was also a Single CD featuring karaoke versions of the opening and closing theme songs. All of the CDs are now out of production.

Unlike many anime titles, the manga for BRIGADOON: marin & μελαν was made to promote the anime. It was created by Nozomi Watase and based on the original concept by Hajime Yatate and Yoshitomo Yonetani. Volume 1 was first published in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten in 2000 followed by Volume 2 in 2001. Both were later translated into English by Tokyopop and printed in 2003. The main characters and the basic plot are essentially the same as in the anime, but the manga is not a completely faithful adaptation and there are some significant differences. It is also much shorter in length, being only two books with five chapters each. The English version uses some terms and names that are different from the ones used in the anime, even though both were translated by the same company.