English Cast: Maggie Blue O'Hara (as Lime), Brad Swaile (as Otaru), Don Brown (as Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa), Emily Brown (as Lorelei), Paul Dobson (as Lord Faust), Erin Fitzgerald (as Cherry & Luchs)

Japanese Cast: Megumi Hayashibara (as Lime), Yuka Imai (as Otaru Mamiya), Yuri Shiratori (as Cherry), Akiko Hiramatsu (as Bloodberry), Yuko Mizutani (as Luchs)

Synopsis:

Otaru Mamiya lives on a planet entirely made up of men. It seems that mankind was looking to move to other planets when their spaceship had some problems and only 6 men escaped. They landed on on a planet dubbed Terra II. It was  decided that the only way to survive was by cloning themselves and using genetic recombination to make unique people.

Their party created robots in the likeness of the human female and called them "Marionettes." This is a tale about 6 Marionettes that have Maiden Circuits. Most of the show is focused on only three of them.

The Review:

I wasn't sure if I'd like this show when I got it, but it turned out to be one of my all-time favorites. As with any anime, there are flaws, but if they're good enough, one can overlook them. 

As stated above, Otaru is who we focus on. He's the protagonist. He finds a special Marionette in the very first episode (of which there are 25) named Lime. Unlike normal marionettes, Lime has a personality. She laughs, gets angry, and basically acts like a human rather than an automaton. Most of the people in the country (or town, depending on how you look at it) of Japoness (where Otaru lives) thinks Lime is a broken Marionette. The show almost seems to be a commentary on prejudice to me, especially the way this subject is treated.

Before long, Otaru is pulled into something he (and we the viewers) don't really understand. The Shogun wants Otaru to do stuff and it takes quite a bit of time for us to learn the importance of it all. In the meantime, Otaru awakens two more Marionettes, Cherry and Bloodberry. Whereas Lime is very happy and affectionate, Cherry is reserved (kind of like Ayeka in Tenchi Muyo), and Bloodberry often flaunts herself (similar to Ryoko in Tenchi). I found Lime to have the most personality in the show, and while I disliked Bloodberry at first because she was rather disgusting in her mannerisms and dress, she ended up being pretty cool. Cherry is ok, but her character is almost always rather bland. However, she has some very funny moments when she's day dreaming.

I should mention one other guy right here and his name is Mitsurugi Hanagata. First he's Otaru's enemy and then he suddenly falls in love with Otaru. Fortunately, everyone dislikes the moron and he is constantly getting the smack laid on to him, which makes for some amusing slapstick. He's there for comic entertainment only and is basically a throw-away character, although I think I would miss it if he suddenly disappeared and wasn't getting hit all the time.

The antagonist of this story is an evil guy named Faust. He is the ruler of Gartlant and he wants to destroy the Shogun and Japoness. I am still unsure as to why he wants to do this. Anyway, he also has 3 marionettes with maiden circuits. These circuits make the marionettes intensely loyal to their master and gives them a personality. Their names are Tiger, Panther, and Luchs (I don't know why the last one doesn't get a cat name). They are there to create havoc throughout the show and for another purpose that I really can't discuss without ruining the show.

My favorite scenes in the show revolve around Lime laughing and just enjoying life. She is so rambunctious that it's hard not to have a good time watching her. There are also enjoyable scenes with the other two marionettes, with their stupid fantasies or their fights over Otaru. There are also good ones with that idiot Hanagata as well. And there's an old geezer that's pretty amusing.

The whole point of the show is to help the marionettes grow more human-like. Thus, there are a lot of emotional scenes in the show too, which I actually liked to some degree. Just having humor can get old. The girls learn what death is, what a machine is, what life is all about. They learn about love and all that that complicated subject entails and it just makes the show more interesting. Sometimes the monologues go on a little too long, though.

One major problem I saw in the show was where there were various scenes where someone was going to get hurt or killed and the antagonist would just stand there waiting until something happened to stop or distract him or her. It's like the writers weren't sure how they wanted to save the hero (or heroine) and just let the animators put in extra frames of animation...it doesn't raise the tension level, it just annoys. Fortunately, this doesn't happen often.

The only other problem I see in this show is that Lime, Cherry, and Bloodberry are shown to be spectacularly strong at first, and then later on they can't seem to do diddly. What's up with that!?!

The overarching plot of the show is to get the three good marionettes to develop as far as possible so that they can be combined to make a real woman, so to speak. I won't say any more about that, as you really need to see the show and telling any more spoils too much.

I watched this show all the way through in English and then watched the 1st two episodes in Japanese. The English version is well dubbed. The sub is also good. I liked the sound of both version's casts. The sub uses that bleh-yellow color for the text most of the time, but it's pretty easy to read and I kept up with it 95%+ of the time.

The Good Stuff:

The Bad Stuff:

I really enjoyed this show. The emotional segments got to me more than I'd like to admit. The show was funny and touching and the plot was good enough to keep you popping in DVD after DVD to find out what happens next. 

As usual, I recommend a preview before showing to children. Get it if you like Megumi Hayashibura, Tenchi Muyo, or any other good anime comedy.