Saber Marionette J (セイバーマリオネットJ) is a sci-fi romantic comedy anime series that was written by Satoru Akahori and Hiroshi Negishi, and the art style was based from the artwork of Tsukasa Kotobuki. The series was first aired in Japan in 1996, it has garnered enough popularity that they produced sequel animations, a tie-in TRPG game, a PS1 video game and many others. The series gained a large following abroad mostly in the Latin America region. It has been translated into several languages including English, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Tagalog.
Introduction
In the distant future, mankind has sent colony ships to look for other habitable planets. The ship called the SS Mesopotamia ended up being marooned orbiting a planet called Terra 2 and only six men have escaped to the planet’s surface leaving behind the only surviving female frozen in stasis. The six survivors created clones and established their own city states. Since they cannot create female clones they built machines they called ‘marionettes’ to take the place of women.
Synopsis
In a city called Japoness, there is an ordinary guy named Otaru Mamiya. Like most men in Terra 2 he has a pretty average life until he accidentally woke a Marionette named Lime, unlike common marionettes, Lime seems to be different. Otaru’s neighbors thought she was defective and decided to dismantle poor Lime, but she easily threw them all out. An annoying fellow who goes by the name Hanagata always follows Otaru around and he always gets in Otaru’s nerves, right after Hanagata first met Lime, they didn’t get along very well. Otaru’s simple life became a bit more complicated when he got into trouble inside Castle Japoness, amidst the commotion he, again, accidentally awaken another strange Marionette and she introduced herself as Cherry. Things seem to go from bad to worst when Faust (the leader of Gartland) decided to attack the leader of Japoness Ieyasu, after an explosion that injured Ieyasu he ordered Otaru to awaken the third Marionette. This third marionette is not like Lime and Cherry, she has a very strong personality and she is determined to seduce Otaru and force him to marry her. Poor Otaru’s life turned topsy-turvy after meeting strange marionettes that act like real human beings and with a friend like Hanagata, who would need more problems?
Series Info
Saber Marionette J was first aired by TV Tokyo on October 1, 1996 to March 25, 1997 and ran for 25 episodes.
Episode List
See episode summary for further details.
| Number of stories | subtitle | Screenplay | Storyboard | Production | Animation director | On-air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Program: START | Enter Lime!: The Planet of Men | Makoto Sekijima | Masami Shimoda | Chiba Doutoku | October 1, 1996 | |
| Program: 02 | Marionette Girl: The Trouble Maker! | Kenichi Kanamaki | Tetsuya Watanabe | Tomoaki Kado | October 8 | |
| Program: 03 | Big Trouble in Castle Japoness | Ami Masaharu | Hechitaro Daichi | Keiichi Sugiyama | Tsutomu Suzuki | October 15 |
| Program: 04 | Cherry Panic, Great Romance Scheme!! | Uetake Sumio | Ryo Kasumura | Yasuyuki Yanase | October 22 | |
| Program: 05 | Faust’s Challenge!! | Tomobe Nobe | Takaaki Ishiyama | Yukio Nishimoto | Tomoaki Tokumon, Chiba | October 29 |
| Program: 06 | Passionate Unwelcoming! Flying Love Attack! | Makoto Sekijima | Prince Matsuzono | Osamu Sekita | Akio Kawamura | November 5 |
| Program: 07 | Getting Rich Quick is a Sour Joy | Kenichi Kanamaki | Honda | Ryuichi Kimura | Yoshiaki Tsubata Susumu Yamaguchi |
November 12 |
| Program: 08 | Love Prophecy Battle Royal!! | Uetake Sumio | Katsumi Terato | Masami Shimoda | Futoshi Higashi | November 19 |
| Program: 09 | If We All Go To Gartland Together, It Won’t be so Scary! | Ami Masaharu | Yukio Nishimoto | Satoshi Ishino | November 26 | |
| Program: 10 | Infiltration of the Dark Empire | Hasegawa Katsumi | Tetsuji Takayanagi | Takashi Ikebata | Satoshi Hata Akio Watanabe |
December 3 |
| Program: 11 | Maiden Circuits Win the Day!? | Kenichi Kanamaki | Ryo Kasumura | Satoshi Hata, Yuki Yanase |
December 10 | |
| Program: 12 | My First Kiss Tasted Like Plasma!? | Hasegawa Katsumi | Katsumi Terato | Rei Mano | Chiba Doutoku |
December 17 |
| Program: 13 | Otaru’s Big Debut!! Time for You to Shine!! | Uetake Sumio | Seiko Sayama | Zojoji Castle | December 24 | |
| Program: 14 | Welcome the New Year! The “Otaru Cup” Marionette Contest |
Kenichi Kanamaki | Katsumi Terato | Shinya Hanai | Ken Imaizumi | January 8, 1997 |
| Program: 15 | Revival of Female!? The Mystery of Lorelei | Mayor Sekishima | Hiroshi Matsuzo | Rei Mano | Chiba Doutoku | January 14 |
| Program: 16 | What’s a Living Thing? | Uetake Sumio | Katsumi Terato | Yukio Nishimoto | Shuichi Shimamura | January 21 |
| Program: 17 | Gentleness, Heartbreak, and Femininity | Kenichi Kanamaki | Kobe Mamoru | Yoshinori Odaka | Yasuyuki Yanase | January 28 |
| Program: 18 | Castle Transforms!! Rise Japonessguar!! | Hasegawa Katsumi | Kaiki Kaiki | Takashi Ikebata | Akio Watanabe Satoshi Hata |
February 4 |
| Program: 19 | Tiger: To The End of Love and Beyond !! | Ami Masaharu | Yukio Nishimoto | Makoto Koga | February 11 | |
| Program: 20 | Feelings Will not Die, Though the Heart is Far Away | Kenichi Kanamaki | Katsumi Terato | Jun Takada | Tatsuya Oka | February 18 |
| Program: 21 | The Big Barbecue Party of Light and Darkness | Seiko Sayama | Ichiro Yamada | February 25 | ||
| Program: 22 | Soaring Emotion | Katsumi Terato | Rei Mano | Yasuyuki Yanase | March 4 | |
| Program: 23 | Faust, Warped Sincerity | Ami Masaharu | Takashi Ikebata | Satoshi Hata, Makoto Koga |
March 11 | |
| Program: 24 | The Maiden’s Voyage | Kenichi Kanamaki | Kiichi Jinme | Yukio Nishimoto | Chiba Doutoku | March 18 |
| Program: 25 | End to Beginning… | Mayor Sekishima | Masami Shimoda | Shuichi Shimamura | March 25 | |
Original Japanese Broadcast Info
| Broadcast area | Broadcaster | Airtime | series | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kanto wide area | TV tokyo | Tuesday 18:00 –18:30 | TV Tokyo affiliate | Production Bureau |
| Hokkaido | TV Hokkaido | |||
| Aichi prefecture | TV Aichi | |||
| Osaka | TV Osaka | |||
| Okayama prefecture, Kagawa prefecture | TV Setouchi | |||
| Fukuoka Prefecture | TVQ Kyushu Broadcasting | |||
| Iwate Prefecture | IBC Iwate Broadcast | unknown | TBS series | |
| Yamagata Prefecture | Yamagata Broadcasting | unknown | Nippon TV affiliate | |
| Nagano Prefecture | TV shinshu | Tuesday 17:00 –17:30 | ||
| Hiroshima Prefecture | TV New Hiroshima | unknown | Fuji TV series |
Staff
- Original- Satoru Akahori
- Director- Masami Shimoda
- Series composition- Maori Sekijima
- Character Original- Tsukasa Kotobuki
- Character Design- Hidekazu Shimamura
- Art Director-Kazuo Nagai
- Color design-Shinobu Nakamura
- Cinematographer-Hidetoshi Watanabe
- Edit- Shigeru Nishiyama
- Sound Director- Hideyuki Tanaka
- Music-PAROME
- Producer-Noriko Kobayashi (TV Tokyo), Shinjiro Yokoyama
- Animation Producer-Katsunori Haruta (JUNIO)
- Animation production –JUNIO
- Production cooperation- Bandai Visual , Atsushi Sugita
- Production- TV TOKYO , Sotsu video
Theme song / insert song
Opening Theme
“Successful Mission [Ver.1]” (Episode 1-Episode 18)
“Successful Mission [Ver.2]” (Episode 19-Episode 25)
Lyrics –MEGUMI / Composition –Hidetoshi Sato / Arrangement –Toshiro Yabuki / Song –Megumi Hayashibara
Ending Theme
“I’ll be there” (Episode 1-Episode 23)
Lyrics –MEGUMI / Composition –Hidetoshi Sato / Arrangement –Keiji Soeda / Chorus Arrangement –Masami Okui / Song –Megumi Hayashibara
“16 Nights” (Episode 24)
Lyrics –Miho Matsuba / Composition / Arrangement –Masaki Iwamoto / Song –Megumi Hayashibara
“Successful Mission” (Episode 25)
Lyrics –MEGUMI / Composition –Hidetoshi Sato / Arrangement –Toshiro Yabuki / Song –Megumi Hayashibara
Insert Song
“Distant Thunder” (Episode 12)
Lyrics –Keiko Kimoto / Composition / Arrangement –Masaki Iwamoto / Song –Yuko Kawai
“Let’s make it bloom! Courageous flower” (Episode 13)
Lyrics –Keiko Kimoto / Composition / Arrangement –Masaki Iwamoto / Song –Yuka Imai
“Don’t waste your love!” (Episode 18)
Lyrics –Miho Matsuba / Composition / Arrangement –Masaki Iwamoto / Song –Teruyo Inoue
“Theme of Hope” (Episode 25)
Lyrics –Keiko Kimoto / Composition / Arrangement –Masaki Iwamoto / Song –Megumi Iwamoto
Source: SM wiki
SM Saber Site 