Reviews for Saber Marionette J

Man~ it sure is good to re-watch some old anime sometimes, too much 720p-1080p is bad for your health (hehe). Specially if its Sci-fi, Comedy and Romance... well the action is not bad either. Story: The story revolves around Otaru Mamiya and his three Marionettes named Lime, Cherry and Bloodberry, but they are not just an ordinary ordinary marionettes, they have a system called "Maiden Circuit" that act like the source of their emotion thats why they can laugh and cry. A futuristic setting in a planet named Terra - II in the country of Japones where there are no female and all male are born fromcloning. Female was replaced by Female machine called Marionettes. Thus begin their wacky adventure under one roof. The gags are old but still funny specially when the punchline is hanagata. The story is not always about humor, there is drama also, its the main point of the story on how the three marionette grows emotionally thru happiness and hardship. The anime's story is slow pace but not boring so you will have time to enjoy how the it will develop.

Character:

Meet Otaru a normal boy who live a normal life, kind and hard working . One day he accidentally activated a Marionette named Lime. Lime a marionette with a cute and childish personality, always eat and play around and loves Otaru a lot. She's my favorite marionette because whenever she's around the surrounding become cheerful. Next is Cherry the second marionette Otaru awakened. She always give a maiden aura, in cuteness i think its in par with Lime. She loves to cook and more importantly loves to daydream about his master Otaru.The third was Bloodberry, she's a how should i say it... a muscle woman? Well she's not as cute as the first two but she emits an older woman aura, she has the biggest breast among the three and loves to seduce Otaru. For side character, let see, hmm... Hanagata hes a loser so lets forgot about him (Hanagata: What did you just say?) just joking, he always introduce himself as Otaru's bestfriend, a pesky character who appears anywhere near Otaru.

Art:

Otaru, his design is quite simple, passable for a normal character.For the character design of the three marionettes, Lime, since she loves to move around designing loose costume fits nicely with her character. Cherry, she's loves doing housework so the cutely designed pink kimono si looks good in her. Bloodberry with the blood on her red suits her best, well only her hair is red, she got the most daring design because of her nicely proportioned body and big-sister like character.

Sound:

The Opening song is good, you will like it the more you listened to it. Same goes for the Ending song, with a great visualization it will make you listened to the song as well. For The Seiyuu's, I really like the japanese voice for Lime, Megumi Hayashibara. It match perfectly with Limes personality, cute and playful. I dont like the english dub, it gives a kind of feeling that its not Lime-like. Same goes with Cherry, i like her polite voice. When u talk about Bloodberry, that means Power, power in the voice but with a sweetness of an older women and the seiyuu deliver it nicely.

Enjoyment:

After many years of not seeing this anime (10 years +) it give me a nostalgic feeling and with that i enjoy it a lot. I laughed in the funny scenes and got teary in those touching moment. I couldn't ask for more... :D

if u read some weird grammar, its my bad haha, ore ningen da mono~

I heard about this anime way back when I was in high school, but I was never able to check it out until about a week ago. And well, I must say I don't regret watching this anime. I really enjoyed it. Story: A boy named Otaru Mamiya awakens three marionettes called Lime, Cherry, and Blood Berry, who are all different from other marionettes on Terra 2. What makes them different from all the other female robots/androids? Well, Lime, Cherry, and Bloodberry have this thing called a Maiden Circuit, which acts like their heart. And that means they get to experience emotions. Basically, this story is aboutOtaru's daily life with the three mechanical girls and of course throw in a plot about an evil ruler from a German-inspired country/kingdom that wants to conquer Japaness (Otaru's Japanese inspired homeland) with his own Marionettes with Maiden Circuits, and you got one hell of a story.

Of course, all the episodes had me hooked. I enjoyed watching the crazy antics of Otaru's marionettes as they fought for his affections (Tenchi Muyo style might I add) all the while of learning about the daily lives of humans. The first half of the season is mostly about Otaru adjusting to life with the girls, with him teaching them about various human experiences such as life and death, and the second half of the series delves more into the reason for Lime, Cherry, and Bloodberry all having Maiden Circuits and why there are only men on Terra 2, oh and the war against the German-inspired country of Gartland.

At first glance, this might seem like another sci fi-ish harem that's trying to be like Evangelion and Tenchi Muyo but honestly, it's not. It's not as goofy and lighthearted as TM but at the same time it doesn't try to be all that serious like Neon Genesis Evangelion, but the similarities are still there. Each episode, believe it or not, carried the story on, adding onto the characters and their own little arcs. This series wasn't afraid to slow down and make you cry over something as trivial as Lime's pet squirrel dying (Ugh, yes there was an episode where Lime learned first hand about death...) or learning about the past of the antagonist, Lord Faust. There's also plenty of action scenes as well.

Art:

I'll admit that the art style of the characters all looked a little weird to me at first but I quickly got used to it. Everything looked great, even albeit a bit dated. The character designs really showed off the personality of all the characters, from the intimidating Lord Faust to the cute adorable Cherry. The action sequences were really fluid and the characters were really well done and expressive. And the scenery. There was a lot of pretty scenery.

Sound:

So, I watched the English dub and not the Japanese dub, and well, eh, I will say that the English Dub isn't bad, I mean it's not the best out there. But I liked it. I especially liked Lime's VA. But all of the actors brought life to their characters and the music, the opening theme got stuck in my head while I watched this. The ending song was pretty catchy. All the sounds overall were pretty good, from the cracks of plasma lightning(?) being heard in the sky, to the cute squeaks of the weird Ponta creatures in the forest, and the punches and kicks that Lime, Cherry, and Bloodberry dealt out when protecting Otaru.

Characters:

Ah yes, I will say that while the story did feel a bit awkward, the characters are really what makes Saber Marionette J shine. We have the serious yet kindhearted Otaru Mamiya, the cheerful and childish Lime, the soft-spoken and modest Cherry, and the tough badass yet flirty Bloodberry. There are other characters but I don't really wanna spoil anything. All I gotta say is that I loved these characters, especially Lime, she was really adorable and I actually cried whenever Lime cried. All the characters all added something to the overall plot of this anime. From Lime learning about life and death to Bloodberry being conflicted over possibly liking another character who was similar to Otaru.

Enjoyment;

I had a lot of fun watching this series though I will admit that there were a few episodes that were sad but they didn't evoke any emotions out of me at all, except for the one about Lime and her pet squirrel and possibly another one that I'm not gonna say anything about. Let's just say I was hooked on this series until the end.

Overall:

Overall, I'd say give this series a watch because while it seems like it's trying to be another Tenchi Muyo or another Neon Genesis Evangelion, it isn't. Saber Marionette J has the perfect balance of romance, drama, action, and sci fi.

Saber Marionette J can be described as a Sci-Fi-Harem-Comedy that is basically light-hearted with a bit of action thrown in. The story is about Otaru, three female androids called Marionettes, and there struggles to cope in a world without actual women. It came to be this way because of an accident on a colonization ship that left six men alive on the surface, and they use genetics to populate the planet of Terra II. The direct clones of the six survivors rule the six nations that exist on the planet, Otaru being from Japoness which looks like feudal Japan. Otaru tries to grow the personality ofthe three Marionettes throughout the series while having to deal with Gartland's (Germany during World War II) ruler Faust and his own set of three Marionettes. The story is alright if you don't have a problem with small details that could be considered giant plot holes with a lot of thought.

The art is dated even for a show from 12 years ago. The marionettes look vibrant, but completely out of place. The backgrounds of the other nations seemed to have been picked because they are easier to depict. Action scenes look merely average. It's not horrific, but it would be hard to call it good.

Characters are a much stronger point. Otaru is not your typical male harem lead. The marionettes show diversity in character as the series progress from one-dimensional to something more.

Overall, Saber Marionette J is a solid, if not spectacular, series. It sets the table well for the OVA and second series that followed, though a conclusion could have been provided in this series if they really would have wanted it.

If you're looking for a fun oldie full of comedy, action, romance, and sci-fi, then this might be the series for you, especially if you aren't too picky about the quality. I found this series by pressing the “random anime series” button on a website, and honestly I'm glad I did. The premise of the series is that sometime in the future, a group of 6 explorers made an emergency crash onto the Planet of Terra. There was the inconvenient problem that they landed without any females. Rather than wither off on this distant planet, the six decided to make clones of themselves, and thusrepopulated the planet, but without females. The compensation for the lack of females is the development of female-appearing robots called marionettes, who can function like a human, but can't experience feelings of their own, except, that is, for a few special marionettes whom our intrepid protagonist discovers, leading to ever more grand adventures until the fate of the planet is at stake.

A few complaints with this show are that it has a very obvious plot, most of the jokes aren't funny, an irritating worm put in for comic relief really degrades this series, and a lot of the story is patronizing. I think this series is made especially for kids. The OP & ED are quite catchy, the animation is bad by today's standards, and the characters are a bit flat. It's still good clean fun though, worth watching with popcorn and friends.

Man you gotta stick with this until the end. It's a harem definitely for the most part, but even if that's not your thing, the ending is a straight 10/10 and worth waiting for

I only discovered this series when I saw a video of it's opening on YouTube. Pretty glad I did and had the opening song stuck on my head ever since. Story: The anime revolve around a typical hardworking guy named Otaru Mamiya and his harem of three marionettes (robot girls) each named Lime, Cherry, and Bloodberry who have time and time again have to save their nation of Japones from being crushed by an enemy nation led by a war monger who wanted to unite all of planet Terra 2 named Faust who also have his own harem of marionettes Tiger, Luchs, and Panther. Thestory is pretty straight forward and easy to keep up with all things considered. Despite being predictable as everyone says, it keeps you entertained long enough to keep you watching until the end.

Art:

The art style is pretty dated and inconsistent at times but it didn't stop me from enjoying the anime. It mainly has all the good parts of a mid 90s like making the characters distinct and expressive with one small flaw being the characters sometimes drawn very slim.

Sound:

Both the Japanese and English VAs made their voices fit their respective characters however I have give to the Japanese VAs for being more into the character. The opening and ending songs are great to listen to and can linger on your mind even after the end. The sounds fits perfectly well with what they were going for like the plasma storms, water splashes, and vehicle engines.

Characters:

The characters starts of pretty typical as a 90s anime goes. Though you can see them grow and develop each episode whenever they aren't quarreling with each other. The anime mainly focused on Otaru and his marionettes issues but still have time to focus on Faust and his own marionettes having to makeup for their repetitive loses. There are some room for other characters to develop like Hanagata who starts off as a condescending brat to a loyal and less bratty friend of Otaru's that becomes tolerable later on.

Enjoyment:

This anime make sure you're entertained until the end. Not a single episode was boring to watch but also slowly builds up the world of the anime bit by bit like the current state of things while being vague enough to not give you the full picture as it only shows glimpses of both Japones and Gartland.

Imagine yourself being a man (if you aren't) and living in a planet full of other dudes... i mean ... NO REAL WOMAN !!!! This would sond like a gay anime, but it is not !!! Because of this premise it is rather natural that men end up coupling with others... i mean... other men. So the anime starts with Otaru (the protagonist) finding himself not interested at all in other men, and get interested in human female androids. But these are merely machines , that has no "heart" and only serves his master at his command. The show then develops in one of the most famousthemes around the clock *** ROBOT WITH FEELINGS *** , as Otaru ends up with not only one female android that has feelings, but with three at the sametime, with different personalities and an inexplicable love for otaru... thus they all start to live together and the girls fighting with each other to see which one will gain otaru's love, attention and marriage.

But otaru is much of a wuss to pick any of them or get laid anyway.... at least he's man enough to dump any guys with "strange" intentions towards him...

With a slight harem plot like that otaru still manages to be some kind of (weak?) fighter and becoming a hero for the famous story of saving the world from destruction and etc...

Saber Marionette J is an excelent comedy and i bet all of you who are man would like to be on otaru's skin, with three girls upon you pushing you towards the sides and all, BUT you would have to contain yourself and be impartial or a foursome would rather result in a change of category to HENTAI. (See what happened to Golden Boy, for instance)

Ah, the infamous. Back when this came out, it started so many flame wars, that it might have gotten outlawed in some countries. You either hated it, and slagged it mercilessly. Or loved it, and praised it beyond all other animes. As in all things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The art work is kind of different. It turned many people off but I thought it was at least a little imaginative. The animation was about average for the era. Meaning it could look really good one second, then like complete shit the next. The story and the characters are, well, odd. Thisisn't meant to be taken seriously, but sometimes it seems to be weird just for weirdness' sake. The VAs could be over the top. But that was the trope for this genre back in the day. I am sure the director was just following his directions from the money guys.

I found it entertaining enough. I'd probably have rated it a low end 8. But if I was grading it today, I really couldn't see fit to give it much better than 68/100 for a D+. If you loved it, it might be worth a rewatch for nostalgia's sake. But it's not the type of series that will have aged well, and I'd think a modern audience would be more liable to see the cracks in it. I'd say don't be a puppet though. Make up your own mind after giving it a try, if the premise sounds interesting.