Saber Marionette J Again

Saber Marionette J Again is a six-part OVA series that takes place after episode 25 of the TV show. That is why the series title is "Program 26: Plasmatic Crisis". The producers don't bother to explain the marionettes, history of Terratoo or the plasma storms that afflict the planet so anyone new watching is sure to be confused.

Hundreds of years ago a colonization ship exploded and the six male survivors made it to an uninhabited world. The six realized they would have to create clones to populate the planet. Unfortunately they couldn't create female clones so they made female-looking androids called marionettes. Marionettes act like robots not humans. Any man who treats an android as anything other than a machine is shunned.

In time a limited number of marionettes were outfitted with a "maiden circuit" which gave them human emotions. Then they were hidden away. One day a young man named Otaru stumbled onto Lime the first of the Saber Marionettes. The mission of these special marionettes was not revealed until the end of the first TV series.

The planet Terratoo is plagued by plasma storms which make air travel and space travel pretty much impossible. That is the main threat in the OVA series. We are introduced to a new marionette named Marine who is befriended by the childlike Lime the main star of the series.

The character designs look exactly like the TV show. Computer graphics were used to make beautiful backgrounds and for visual effects. The producers went to the trouble of making different opening and closing sequences for each of the six episodes. This was a nice treat for fans of the show. You get to hear the actors for Otaru, Cherry and Bloodberry sing three different songs. One closing segment shows human actors running around dressed as our three favourite marionettes but with their faces blurred. That was great! There was a closing segment for Cherry fans and a closing segment for Bloodberry fans. If you liked the TV show you will definitely like this made-for-video series.

When I first bought this next chapter of Sbaer Marionette J at MovieStop,I have to say that is where the series gets interesting. I really liked this chapter as well as the first. It was cool to see the whole gang again,and of course the new Marionette, Marine. I liked Marine as well as Cherry,Otaru,and Lorelei. My favorite episode in this chapter is the love comedy episode, it was the most funniest episode I seen in this chapter. What this chapter really explains that people are different,and we should never judge them by their appearance. Another thing that I liked is the voice cast. It was cool that Ruby Marlowe got to play the voice of Cherry, for this chapter. So in closing,after this chapter,see the next one. It will get better.

Less sexist pandering (albeit it's still an harem show so you still have the tropes of the genre to consider) more funny jokes, more interesting and entertaining character/plot developments, better animation except for some dated CGI elements at the beginning, better voice acting including a stellar performance by Megumi Hayashibara who pushes her range emotions to the next level, it's still not 100% perfect in terms of logic of what happens on the screen but if I had to choose between the original series and this 6-episodes miniseries I'd go with the latter. A more than worthy 7,5.