Saber Marionette J Again Volume 1: Everyone's Happy

—by Mark L. Johnson

AnimeVillage.com seems to be ramping up again after a long break with a slew of new releases. Included is the OVA continuation of the SABER MARIONETTE J TV series, called SABER MARIONETTE J AGAIN.
For a background be sure to check out the original review in EX 3.7. As SABER MARIONETTE J AGAIN takes place in the same timeline after the TV series, some minor spoilers are inevitable below.
The three marionettes, Lime (Hayashibara Megumi), Cherry (Shiratori Yuri), and Bloodberry (Hiramatsu Akiko), are back with Otaru (Imai Yuka) yet again. To make matters more complicated, Faust (Midorikawa Hikaru) has sent his three marionettes, Tiger (Takano Urara), Luchs (Mizutani Yuuko), and Panther (Inoue Kikuko) to live under Otaru's care for training in the arts of being human, which makes for a very crowded house.
The first episode, "Everyone's Happy," reintroduces the world of Terra 2, and the country of Japoness. Life is starting to return to normal after the climax from the TV series. Lime is as foolish and forgetful as ever, Cherry continues to cook and take care of the crew, and Hanagata (Koyasu Takehiko) still is in love with Otaru. The crew also has started a restaurant, and being a hero has not stopped Otaru from doing his mix of part-time jobs. The architecture of Japoness has changed a bit from the TV series containing more modern elements, but at it's core Japoness is still based on feudal Japanese times. Along with starting to teach Tiger, Luchs and Panther anything but combat techniques, we learn more about the female human Lorelei (Amano Yuri) and how she is coping with life in Japoness.
"The Beautiful Marine - Blue" starts off with a lightning-fast thief stripping rare valuables from all over Japoness. Our protagonists get involved when a few treasures close to them are stolen without a trace. As the title suggests, this episode also introduces a new marionette also equipped with the rare "Maiden Circuit" that gives these robots emotions. Questions like who created her, and why she is so important are surely to be answered in future volumes. We also get to see later on more of the other kingdoms, including one which attempts to duplicate Washington DC.
The animation quality is in some ways better than the TV series and some ways worse. The use of computers is very apparent, and the first episode seems somehow more of a beta test than a final product. Computer scaling and warping effects are everywhere, and at times seems very disjointed from the cel work. Thankfully the quality goes up for the second episode, though I define the first episode as a casualty of computer abuse.
I personally have enjoyed the humor and action of the SABER MARIONETTE J series so far and I found these episodes fit well into the universe. The episodes are even numbered 26 & 27 in the openings themselves. It is a bit disheartening to see only 2 episodes per tape for about the same cost though. The opening and ending themes are sung by Hayashibara Megumi and Iwamoto Yuka, respectively. They fit with the previous music well, but I found the originals a bit more catchy. The voice acting easily lives up to the original series however.
Overall this tape could easily been called SABER MARIONETTE J Volume 9. As such, I would suggest to newcomers to check out the original series first before diving into these OVAs. However if you are a fan of the first series, you know what to generally expect from this continuation. Computer effects aside, the core is still the humorous action and interaction of SABER MARIONETTE J.

VHS, 54 minutes (2 episodes)
English Subtitled
catalog no: 0530
ISBN 1-58354-091-1
$24.98
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