There are few shows out there that have continued to come to the masses with different series based on the same concept. Tenchi did it with Tenchi Muyo, Tenchi Universe, Tenchi in Tokyo, and GXP, but that was more of a reinvention of the franchise rather than a continuation of it. Still, the comparison to the Tenchi series is a fairly decent one because that's really where Saber Marionette draws its inspiration from (or at least it feels that way).

In the mid 90s Saber Marionette was released and it covered medium such as manga and radio before it was turned into anime. Since then there have been a few incarnations of the show from a second series to a twelve episode OVA. Saber Marionette J was the original while J Again and J to X were the follow ups though they were arguably less successful than the premiere season.

At its core Saber Marionette J is a harem anime with some elements of science fiction tossed in for good measure. The series carries a jovial personality and wears its heart on its sleeve in most cases. It's a fun, innocent anime with very likable characters and a fully realized history behind the world known as Terra II. 300 years ago a space ship known as the Mesopotamia crash landed on a barren planet and the only people that survived the crash were six men. With nothing more than determination and willpower they turned what seemed like an unfortunate end into a thriving civilization.

Now, you may be wondering how six guys were able to reproduce. Through the use of technology that was still working on the ship they were able to create clones of themselves and manipulate the genome to create new men. That was the problem though; they could only create men. Without a female gene they couldn't implement the fairer sex into the population so throughout the centuries the planet grew and grew with men as the only inhabitance. Based upon the six original survivors the people of Terra II were split up into six cities across the planet. Now, how they were able to populate the planet and create six empires in the span of 300 years is beyond me, but none-the-less that's what the series works off of.

With the male only society up and running, everybody felt the need for female companionship, even if it was only artificial. Android "Marionettes" were created to serve man and look pretty, but they were merely soulless dishwashers that couldn't think for themselves. That's the way things were at least until a boy named Otaru stumbled upon a trio of Marionettes with "Maiden Circuits" installed in them. With these chips the girls are able to feel emotion and are essentially more human than human. The populous deems them defects but there is something more at work than meets the eye.

As far as the characters are concerned Otaru is your straight forward, generic sci-fi comedy lead role. He always overreacts to everything, is a little clumsy, knows how to fight, and keeps the Marionettes that love him at arm's length. He lives in Japoness and always finds it difficult to maintain a job that pays a livable wage. Throughout the show he's often going from one position to another.

As far as the Marionettes are concerned Lime, Cherry, and Bloodberry all have outstanding personalities; though they are arguably generic for this genre as well. Despite having names that resemble flavors of Coca-Cola each of them are completely different in just about every regard. Lime is child-like with a doe-eyed interpretation of the world and she finds everything fascinating. She's the type that gets distracted by shiny objects and because of that often destroys things with her powers, but is lovable all the same.

Cherry openly admits to being in love with Otaru and tries to do everything in her powers to get closer to him and please him. She even goes to the point of convincing a band of thugs to kidnap her so that Otaru will come to her rescue. Bloodberry is the complete opposite of both Lime and Cherry. She's immensely powerful and her fighting capabilities are off the chart. She's also the most forceful of the trio and spends a lot of her time trying to force herself upon Otaru. If any of these characters sound familiar to you it's because they are indeed just about as standard as you can get. Ironically that doesn't mean that Saber Marionette J loses any of its charm.

From start to finish this show is hilarious, lively, and thoroughly entertaining. Even though the characters themselves are generic to a point, the world that they live in is not. Just seeing them go through the daily motions of life provides a lot of humor, even if the plot isn't necessarily progressing forward. A lot of time is spent just goofing around in the show, while a lot of it focuses on a guy named Faust and his Hitler-like attempts to take over the world.

Faust has his own set of Maiden Circuit Marionettes known as Saber Dolls, but he treats them more like warriors than people. The two teams of Marionettes battle each other throughout the series as a few different points and everything comes to a climax as it nears the end. Both sets of characters (good and bad) evolve and really develop as the show continues. That's really where Saber Marionette J gets its strength from is the development and relationships of its characters. Well, that and the crazy, great sense of humor that it yields.

Knowing going in that there was a second series meant that the ending was a little less meaningful but it was still good in its own right. If you're looking to catch up on some older anime that you may have missed once upon a time then you may want to give this show a look. The idea behind the anime is nothing new and the characters are fairly standard, but it's entertaining enough to keep it feeling fresh for the twenty five episodes that this collection features. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the sequel series J to X.

Originally produced in 1996, Saber Marionette J is unfortunately showing its age. There is a lot of grain in the full frame image as well as some compression artifacts, aliasing, faded colors, and dirt. Some effort to clean up the transfer could have gone a long way, but as it stands the show is watchable. It's just not as fine a presentation as we have become accustomed to.

Surprisingly there are three separate Dolby Digital stereo tracks instead of two. You have the standard Japanese and English languages, but there is also a Spanish dubbing tossed into the mix which is rather unusual. For the most part the audio quality for each of these is decent though with the lack of diversity in the soundstage it almost sounds like a mono track. The audio is clear and I didn't encounter any technical goofs while watching the show.

Some trailers for other Bandai products make their way onto the set along with a "Databank" is featured on each disc which is basically a set of character profiles and screenshots. Each disc also features a music video that is themed to the Marionette that the disc represents. Compared to other "complete sets" that we see from other publishers, actually having some supplemental material in the collection was a nice change of pace.

I had a lot of fun watching Saber Marionette J. The show features a diverse cast of characters and an interesting historical backdrop despite being fairly generic in nature. This is a show from the 90s that got lost in the sea of sci-fi comedies so if you happen to have missed out you may want to go back and check it out. Bandai put together a nice collection here though I wish that the video had been cleaned up a bit and there was a 5.1 English selection, but beggars can't be choosy I guess. Recommended

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