Copyright © Noriko Nagano, ASCII/Project Daisy

These first four episodes of DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE DAISY are truly one of the odder anime videos that have passed my desk. This is a twelve episode TV series, apparently based on a manga by Nagano Noriko, and I had never heard of it before AnimeVillage.com decided to release it on an unsuspecting English audience. And I was truly unprepared for the style of humor and situations DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE DAISY would present.
In close to a present-day Japan setting, Reijiro Techno is a boy who lives in a nuclear bunker due to his grandfather's belief the world will be soon destroyed, surrounded by impossible "mad-scientist" equipment. However, when a female student from Techno's school happens by a video camera in his yard, Techno feels emotions he's never felt before. As such, he names this unknown girl "Daisy" and decides to make her his (whatever that might mean).
"Daisy" is actually Hitomi Matsuzawa, an average cute Japanese girl who only knows Techno as a weird science guy who keeps to himself. This soon changes, as Techno uses strange gadgets to lure her into a self-rehearsed scene. Little does Techno realize that Hitomi will not blindly fall in love with him as he had imagined.
Later episodes have Techno manipulate a field trip to create a perfect situation to get Hitomi alone to himself, and also kidnap Hitomi from her home to his "empty" house where guests keep arriving.
Other characters are just as disturbed. We have Yamakawa X, a loner with no friends who constantly tries to be cool and aloof, while failing miserably in all cases. His mother accepts him as useless, and his successful brother wants him to die honorably in order to not shame the family. Ironically, Techno feels him to be a rival for "Daisy," and as such makes his life even more of a living hell with various devious gadgets from proximity electric shockers to growth rays and friendly spiders.
There's also a homeroom teacher that makes Mihoshi of TENCHI MUYO fame look like a genius, a strange powerhouse girl who comes from nowhere and saves Hitomi from the worst of Techno's plots, Techno's recluse grandfather and even a "cute" cruise missile named Mimi-chan who is Techno's best friend.
Consisting of attempts at platonic love, DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE DAISY is a tame show. The animation is of average TV quality, and does its job in telling the story. The opening and ending songs are somewhat catchy but not of any special note.
From what I have seen so far of DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE DAISY, I found MY DEAR MARIE to be a much more enjoyable show with a similar premise. MY DEAR MARIE has a protagonist I could relate to, and characters I cared more about. With DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE DAISY, on the other hand, I had look around to make sure nobody else was around to see I was viewing this. It isn't risqué by any anime sense, but the disturbing callousness of Techno and his stalking tendencies rubbed me the wrong way.
Overall, I really do not know what kind of feeling one should have after watching DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE DAISY. Instead of rooting for Techno's quest to make Hitomi his, I eventually came to the conclusion that a viewer should feel for Hitomi and turn a curious eye to what strange and awful situation Techno would put her in next. If you can set yourself into this mindset, DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE DAISY might be worth a rental. But for my own personal opinion of entertainment, there is enough other anime I would rather see first.

Released in North America by AnimeVillage.com
VHS, 48 minutes / 2 episodes per volume
Subtitled
Vol 1. 1300 - ISBN 1-58354-245-0
Vol 2. 1301 - ISBN 1-58354-246-9
$24.98
Available now in the U.S.A.
Where to buy