Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre Marionettes
Review: On reading reviews of SABRE MARIONETTE J, it sounded like
something I might find to my taste. I tend to like really
silly, slapstick anime like CAT GIRL NUKU NUKE or DRAGON HALF,
and I thought SABRE MARIONETTE J (SMJ) might fit the bill.The premise was a group of spacefarers, all male, ended up
being stranded on a deserted planet. They cloned themselves
to propagate, but for some reason they couldn't engineer
females -- come on, folks, males have XY chromosomes, females
have XX chromosomes, how hard can that be? But I digress ... Anyway, to introduce females to the society they built
femme robots named "marionettes" as servants and bodyguards --
any use of them for, uh, other purposes is carefully ignored
in the story. The marionettes don't have much in the way of
personality, that technology being lost ... The premise of this story is that, generations later, a
young guy named Otaru, a martial-arts student trying to
make his way in the world, stumbles in succession onto
three marionettes who do have personalities -- named
Lime, Cherry, and Bloodberry -- who move in with him. The end result is that we get yet another anime series
involving "somewhat befuddled young guy" surrounded by "crazy
females with bitter rivalries" -- think TENCHI MUYO or OH
MY GODDESS. Other elements in the story involve Otaru's
swishy neighbor Hanagata, who has the hots for him (think
lots of more or less heavy-handed gay jokes, and he always
gets hit over the head), and the military rivalry between
Otaru's country, a classical Japan clone named Japoness, and
its neighbor, a Nazi Germany clone named Gartlant. I got through the first series on autopilot, as little of
the humor reached me -- and I suspect habits of political
correctness instilled from working in big bureaucracies may
have soaked into my head, since I found the basically
harmless gay jokes on Hanagata distinctly uncomfortable. There were a few minor things I found entertaining -- I
was amused with the marionette warriors from Gartlant, for
example, who managed to wear Nazi uniforms and still be
scantily clad, and some of the pop theme music was fun --
but otherwise SMJ made no impression on me. The production
values were mediocre, the scripting was unimpressive, and
I'd basically seen it all before in different forms. Admittedly, I tend to be fussy about the anime I like, but
I still have to judge this series as mediocre in every
respect. If you like run-of-the-mill anime, you might like
this, but don't expect anything special from it.
Rating: 
Summary: Sabers Rule!!!!
Review: Saber Marionette is definetely one of the best anime out there, if not the best. Loveable Lime, Cherry, and Bloodberry really bring out anime, not to mention Otaru! Anyway, to anyone, I really recommend you buy this fantastic anime! I love you Otaru!
Rating: 
Summary: WARNING: CONTAINS GLITCHES
Review: Saber Marionette is one of my favorite anime series but there are enough minor glitches on this collection to drive fans nuts. This is why I rated this disc 1-star and not 4. I've exchanged SMJ several times and tried it on numerous DVD players including Sony, Go Video, PS2 and Panasonic with the same results. The biggest bug is on the second disc on this collection. Accessing the set up menu to change language tracks will automatically stop the disc. This is a really annoying glitch since activation of the subtitles via the remote doesn't work on all DVD players. The second noticable glitch effects both discs. The gap between chapters produces louder than normal disc accessing sounds from your player. Bug number three, you may experience "disc error" when you view extras and trailers, however, this only happens once in a while. All problems were also reported by others on bulliten boards so I believe it's more than a single bad batch. So if you can live with such an obviously defective disc, by all mean buy it because SMJ is a lot of fun. Otherwise wait until Bandai addresses this problem.
Rating: 
Summary: Otaru I, um, like you...
Review: Saber Marionette J expounds on the slightly uncomfortable premise that a stranded colonist crew populates a planet with male clones that have emotionless female robots for companions. From here it is a fairly lighthearted story of a boy who finds 3 Marionettes who can feel emotions. These 9 TV episodes serve to introduce the world and characters. Though the episodes feel childish, I find myself laughing out loud more often than expected. The DVD menus borrow effectively from the shows visuals but the audio transitions feature a grating "modem dial" that was old the first time I heard it, and the menus are overly cumbersome. The English dub is well done for the style of the show; the Japanese track only outshines it in a couple of places. Though I don't speak a lick, the Spanish language track is very classy. The extra music video and couple of character bios are nice but nothing special. The DVD is presented almost like a miniature box set, obviously intended to go with the other two sets, and is split up only so you don't need to drop all the cash at once. I give the disk a 3. For fans of the show, the value outweighs the minor issues. Others may want to check out the series before committing to purchase 9 episodes.
Rating:
Summary: The first DVD Collection of my favorite anime series
Review: Saber Marionette J was originally transmitted in 1996 in Japan. In the Saber Marionette "universe" there are the original series Saber Marionette J (25 episodes), Saber Marionette J Again (1997, 6-episode direct-to-video release) and Saber Marionette J to X (1998, 26 episodes). This first DVD contains the first 9 episodes... the beginning of it all. This is by far the best anime series I've had the pleasure of watching. All my family has already watched all of Saber Marionette (all the way up to J to X), even my 45-year-old mom, my brother and my sister, and have enjoyed it greatly. It has no nudity and very little violence. (And violence is not an integral part of the story, anyway.) The DVD has the original Japanese language, plus English and Spanish audio tracks. I've watched the episodes in Japanese (English subtitled), English AND Spanish. If you understand Spanish you are in for a great surprise, as the Spanish dub is one of the best dubs I've ever heard. It's totally cool. As an extra, you get a musical video of one of the main characters in Saber Marionette. I've watched it more than 20 times already. First watch all 9 episodes, then go have a look at the musical video. (Highly recommended: turn on the subtitles for the video, you'll know what the opening song says, and you'll see that it fits the video perfectly.) The more episodes of Saber Marionette you get to watch, the more you'll enjoy the video. The image quality is very good. The second DVD may present a problem with some players, where you will not be able to enter the Setup screen to change language/subtitles. The default is English audio... anyway, you can use the DVD remote or controls to change it manually while the disc plays. (My DVD player had no problems at all, but one of my friend's did.) To sum it all up: Highly recommended. And if you like J, you still have J Again and J to X to look forward to, all highly recommended also.
Rating:
Summary: The first DVD Collection of my favorite anime series
Review: Saber Marionette J was originally transmitted in 1996 in Japan. In the Saber Marionette "universe" there are the original series Saber Marionette J (25 episodes), Saber Marionette J Again (1997, 6-episode direct-to-video release) and Saber Marionette J to X (1998, 26 episodes). This first DVD contains the first 9 episodes... the beginning of it all. This is by far the best anime series I've had the pleasure of watching. All my family has already watched all of Saber Marionette (all the way up to J to X), even my 45-year-old mom, my brother and my sister, and have enjoyed it greatly. It has no nudity and very little violence. (And violence is not an integral part of the story, anyway.) The DVD has the original Japanese language, plus English and Spanish audio tracks. I've watched the episodes in Japanese (English subtitled), English AND Spanish. If you understand Spanish you are in for a great surprise, as the Spanish dub is one of the best dubs I've ever heard. It's totally cool. As an extra, you get a musical video of one of the main characters in Saber Marionette. I've watched it more than 20 times already. First watch all 9 episodes, then go have a look at the musical video. (Highly recommended: turn on the subtitles for the video, you'll know what the opening song says, and you'll see that it fits the video perfectly.) The more episodes of Saber Marionette you get to watch, the more you'll enjoy the video. The image quality is very good. The second DVD may present a problem with some players, where you will not be able to enter the Setup screen to change language/subtitles. The default is English audio... anyway, you can use the DVD remote or controls to change it manually while the disc plays. (My DVD player had no problems at all, but one of my friend's did.) To sum it all up: Highly recommended. And if you like J, you still have J Again and J to X to look forward to, all highly recommended also.
Rating:
Summary: It's happened Slayers has been equaled if not surpassed...
Review: Saber Marionette J. I heard it had Megumi in it. I heard it was popular. I heard it had comedy in it. So I purchased it. I expected it to be about a 3 or 4 star series but I was surprised. When I inserted the DVD I quickly started the first episode not expecting much. As I suspected the first half of the first ep. was bad and boring (99% of Anime starts this way). Then it picked up. And god did it ever pick up. Midway through the third episode I knew what had happened. Time had been distorted, I had remained in one position for an uncomfortably long period of time and I was laughing quite a lot. All of the indications of a good series. Just how good? Well...I will say that for the first time in a long while I have finally met a series with all the wit, comedy, and plot of Slayers. The big question was it equal to or has it surpassed Slayers? I'm not sure of the answer yet...but after I see the next DVD and the rest of the eps. I will have the answer. Right now I beleive that it can and may quite easily surpass Slayers for my all-time favorite series.
Rating:
Summary: SMJ highly recommended
Review: This is a great anime for those who are fans of romantic comedies like Fushigi Yuugi and Oh! My Goddess. Although the anime is appealling to a younger set, the plotline is complex enough to satisfy older audiences and wonderfully thorough in tying up loose ends. The characters are easy to get into and grow attached to. Again, I would highly recommend this to any fan of light hearted, comedic anime. It's one that you can watch over and over again.
Rating:
Summary: A Fantastic Series
Review: This is a story about a world with only men. The only thing they have even close to a female is a robot-doll, called a marionette. The unlucky boy, Otaru, who does not have the financial values to own one, stumbles upon his own marionettes, Lime, Cherry, and Bloodberry. This series has it's comedy and drammatical effects. While Lime, the childish marionette is cute running around making us laugh, there is still the moments where the story comes into play and causes a major effect dramatically. I'd recommend getting this whole series, it was one of my favorite so far.
Rating:
Summary: An Anime for everyone
Review: This is probably one of the best animes I have ever had the pleasure of watching. The characters are very well developed, and there is plenty of action, and comedy. Not to mention surprises. If you are a big fan of shows like Tenchi Muyo, then you will LOVE this series.
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