The Daichis Earth's Defense Family Vol-2: Debt-Doomed (2001)
Animation Production: Bandai Visual/Group TAC
Released by: Geneon Entertainment
Running Time: 125 Minutes
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

A rather overlooked series that seems to have gotten lost among the myriad of releases presently hitting the U.S. anime market, The Daichis Earth’s Defense Family is an extremely entertaining series about a dysfunctional family that needs to overcome its problems if it’s to save the Earth from invading alien forces. Seeing as to how both mom and dad almost got a divorce in episode one and how the kids don’t get along with their parent or each other that well this coming together for the future of Earth may be a lot harder than anyone can imagine.

With volume two I was hoping for more background information on the organization providing the Daichis with their advanced weapons as well as more data on the aliens that are attacking the planet. Let’s see if any of those was addressed.

Story

"The Daichis are broke! To compensate for their lack of teamwork, the family members have been relying upon upgrades to their battle suits and weaponry to defeat the aliens. Now, despite getting paid 9.8 Million Yen ($98,000) per victory, their upgrades have cost them 129.3 Million Yen ($1.293 Million)!! Under the mother's forceful guidance, the family redoubles their efforts to work as a team to drive off the alien threat as well as their debt!" -- DVD Box

Review

The second volume in Geneon’s release of The Daichis Earth Defense Family features episodes six through nine in the series, which include:

Episode 6: Warrior’s Rest
The Daichis are struggling thanks to all their late afternoon training. They can barely stay awake whether at work, school or a photo shoot, but this is not the time to rest! A new alien attack force is quickly approaching! Now if only Seiko would return from her date with another man…Will the Daichis family survive this situation and pull through to save the Earth!?

Episode 7: The Guy in the Rain
Dai is struggling with his emotions as he remembers the cosmic creature he gave birth to back in episode three. However the family needs him to best the mysterious floating manufacturing plant that’s traveling over Russia. Will the advise from a mysterious man help Dai realize what he needs to do in time to save his family from the alien invaders?

Episode 8: The Cute Invaders
The Pokemarus, cute creatures being sold as the latest toy craze, are really alien invaders in disguise! Will Mamoru be able to show everyone the true nature of these cute little toys or will he himself fall prey to their innocent and quite friendly charm?

Episode 9: The Day Love Destroys Earth
Is Nozomi a woman without love in her heart? This may turn out to be an advantage for her as a giant heart appears atop Tokyo Tower and wreaks havoc all across the world by taking advantage of people’s hearts. Nozomi may be our only hope for survival!

With the first five episodes the show went about establishing the Daichis as a certifiably dysfunctional family with little if any hopes of fixing its problems until an unexpected space phenomenon takes place and brings them together as Earth’s Defense Family, the only force strong enough to protect the planet from alien invaders. Now, if only they could reconcile their differences and overcome those challenges that are tearing them apart. Perhaps this new role they’ve been given will help them get there and make things better than they ever were before. With this dynamic well established in those early episodes the writers decided to use the stories featured in this DVD to get more up close and personal with each member of the family.

We start with episode six, "Warrior’s Rest", which focuses on the two female members of the family. The dual focus of the story has us exploring Seiko’s confused emotions as she accepts an invitation to dinner by one her co-workers and the emotional struggle of Nozomi, who feels like she is the only member of the family taking their training seriously despite making large sacrifices like missing out on a music concert by her favorite band. The two stories are developed individually and by the end of the episode come together as the girls join the rest of the family when they are most needed. The ending does leave some questions about Seiko’s true feelings unanswered however..

Episode seven “The Guy in the Rain” is an interesting tale that has us follow Dai as he thinks about his alien pet/child that he had to give up at the end of episode four. He feels bad for having abandoned him and eventually begins to question his past actions. It’s not until a strange fisherman helps him think things through that our young hero comes to realize the true meaning of his situation and the past. This was an interesting episode in that it showed a side of Dai we seldom seem much of, since so much emphasis is put in his “in your face” attitude and high confidence.

Episode eight was the most light hearted of the ones collected here and certainly was the most fun of them. The basic premise revolves around a pokemon-like toy that is the latest craze all over Japan. As it turns out these are highly advanced machines developed by the aliens currently attacking the Earth, their true purpose clouded in mystery. The character we follow in this story is Mamoru, who at first is frustrated by the success of these strange toys (he was developing something similar for his company, but the Pokemaru made it to the market first), but then slowly is won over by one of the diminutive toys, which he originally intended to pry open and back-engineer. This was particularly interesting because it was the first time we see Mamoru being a parent and enjoying it, even if it’s to an alien toy. The episode also further suggested a possible match up between him and Dai’s teacher, a point that was made in the previous episode. Wonder where their headed with that one.

Episode nine was solid, although it was my least favorite of these. Nozomi takes the center stage here as she becomes the object of affection for two young men in her school. Seeing her react to this situation and the way she deals with it brought out some new aspects of her character, but nothing too major. The last five minutes of the episode also have her take the lead against the alien invaders as the rest of the family is put out of commission. This made for a nice change of pace and made a stronger character of her (so far she’s been more of a whiner).

Production quality was similar to that of the previous episodes. The frantic pace during action sequences continues here and in some instances is surpassed, but use of canned key sequences is more frequent too. The frame rate is smooth and visual effects are used mostly for attacks and transformation scenes. The color palette remains bright with lots of pastel colors being put to good use.

The music soundtrack continued to be upbeat and kept the show’s energy up by matching what plays on the screen perfectly. I really like a couple of the more laid back tropical California surfing-style pieces and the opening theme, which kicks off the show in a super powered up way with a fast and furious song! The more relaxed ending theme song is the perfect stop after each energy-exploding episode. On the voice acting side I loved the entire cast on both tracks, they do an amazing job.

On the DVD front this is a basic release with a small number of extras contained in the disc. These include a collection of TV commercials that originally aired on Japanese TV to promote the series and previews for other Geneon anime releases. There is also a small insert inside the box with more info on the release dates for the Daichis’ series. The video and audio transfers for this one were perfectly carried out with no noticeable issues. Subtitles were easy to read and well timed.

Final Thoughts

I loved the first Daichis Earth Defense Family DVD and I continue to enjoy the show with volume two. Lots of little hints are dropped here about the true purpose of the alien benefactors of the Earth, but nothing is really elaborated on so I’m looking forward to seeing how it all unravels in the third and final volume of this series.

Very recommended for all anime fans, especially sci-fi enthusiasts. There are enough gadgets and aliens here to satisfy even the most hardcore of sci-fi anime fans!

Jeffrey Couto