Saber Marionette R

So, having seen the rest of the Saber Marionette franchise, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Mediocre animation, bad jokes, cartoonish villains, a campy yet surprisingly poignant storyline and cast, and heaps of “love will save the world” sentiment. In other words, a good kids show. Boy was I *completely* wrong about that. Instead, what we have is a dark and haunting hollywoodesque thriller with superb camerawork and animation, which in addition to “love vs hate” overlays the theme of innocence vs sexual depravity. The fights are way more intense than the fights in the cousins to this OVA; unlike in ... J, J again, or J to X, each fight is a fight to the death, desperate and gripping. Due to the way the characters are animated, a simple thing like a punch to the stomach actually looks really painful, inflicted wounds are something that causes the viewer to wince. In general, I couldn't get enough of the artwork, the animation, the body movements, even the facial expressions. The way this was paced also adds a sense of urgency to the affair. There is not a wasted second in this OVA.

With all this to brag about, there is one fatal flaw to the whole affair. It is, in the big picture, utterly generic. It has nothing all that interesting to say in terms of plot. Going with my hollywood comparison, it favors style over substance. And quite frankly, that has to be the fault of the original story, those who worked on this adaption are not at fault. As far as adaptations go, I would say this adaption is a 9/10 adaption of 6/10 material. Thus, we have a high 7/10, halfway between good and great. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a mature and quality take on the Saber Marionette concept.

This part of the series actually takes place several years after the events of Saber Marionette J to X.

The three main characters in this part of the series still maintain the same names, but are completely new models. Lime is now more childish looking with brown hair; Cherry as well looks like a kid, and has red hair (she still has pretty much the same attitude though); Bloodberry looks like she's in her teens again, but has black (a.k.a. dark blue) hair and a more mature look and personality.

While I am a huge fan of the other parts of the Saber Marionette series, even I ... have to say that this one seems to be the best out of all of them. Maybe it's due to how the story is told, or maybe it's due to the fact that the animation style fits the new surroundings, which are more western.

This part of the series often gets overlooked due to how old it is, which is a real shame with how good the story is. The story itself was actually an old raido show that was broadcast in Japan many years before the J saga came along, which ended up getting animated (thus the reason for the R saga only being a few episodes long).

In the end, this saga has a different feel than the other parts of the Saber Marionette series, and may not be liked by everyone. But I suggest that you give this short OVA a shot if you find it.