Don't Leave Me Alone Daisy

Original Title: みすてないでデイジー
Romanized: Misutenaide Deijii
Literal: Don't Abandon Me, Daisy

Plot Synopsis

Young Techno has spent his formative years hidden in a nuclear bomb shelter by his overprotective mad scientist grandfather, but after laying eyes on the pretty young Hitomi, he decides to come out of his shell, go to high school, and pursue love like a normal guy... or at least, his take on a normal guy. Poor Hitomi, however, is in for a shock, because her newfound mad scientist "boyfriend" lacks just about every basic social skill, and will do just about anything to get her affections. Throw in Yamakawa X, a rebel without a clue, Annie, a psychotic social-reformation-type-cyborg, and the class' buxom and entirely clueless young teacher, and you've got yourself a typical anime high school.

Quick Review

Rating: 0.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2006-08-21

Don't Leave Me Alone Daisy isn't a normal take on a tired premise--it's a disaster. The art is weak, the stories are truly off-the-wall but for the most part sadly uninspired, the characters are so annoying you want to strangle them (particularly Techno), the directing is uniformly weak, and the acting (Japanese only--Bandai didn't even bother to dub it) is awful. It mainly stands out for Techno's irredeemable pursuit of Hitomi, to the point that he's more a villain than a sympathetic loser. (Better yet, in a feminists' nightmare, Hitomi inevitably starts to forgive his extreme psychosis and give in to his "charms.")

The only, tiny, glimmers of interestingness buried in the mire are a few bits of extreme weirdness and the minor character Yamakawa X: A lovable loser to the core, he's "just alone because he's the cool punk type, not because he has no friends," and his ultra-traditional Nationalist mother and perfect Japanese older brother are constantly trying to kill him for tarnishing the family honor by being a nonconformist.

Anyway, despite being a seriously weird interpretation of a classic plotline, this series is obscure for a reason--in everything but a few bits of creativity (that it fails to capitalize on), Don't Leave Me Alone Daisy a fine example of anime with everything done wrong.

US DVD Review

At least the set is cheap. Similar to Haunted Junction and a few other Bandai releases, you get the whole series on one reasonably priced 2-disc set (and to make it even nicer, the case is the same size as a single disc instead of the fatter variety). There are absolutely no special features, but the episodes are well indexed, the video is a nice, clean transfer, and the stereo audio isn't bad either. Even though it's sub-only, the subtitles are still soft-coded, so you can turn them off if you feel so inclined, and the song subtitles alternate between English translation and Japanese transcription. The credits are entirely untranslated, but the full Japanese cast and main crew are included on the case insert.

Content Guide

Relatively clean, and probably fine for all but the youngest viewers. 10-up at the worst.

Violence: 1 - There's a variety of fighting, but it's never particularly serious.

Nudity: 1 - Some swimsuits and the teacher's tight-fitting outfits.

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - Light romance and a couple of mildly off-color jokes.

Language: 1 - Generally mild, though there is just a bit of profanity.

Notes and Trivia

Based on a short manga series by Noriko Nagano.

Availability

Formerly available in the US from Bandai on a subtitled-only DVD set, now out of print.

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