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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Watch | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:134#1552] |
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My Dear Marie is yet another example of 90s anime OAVs being put together just to get viewers into buying the title's manga source material. And judging from what I seen of the series, it doesn't seem like one I would have interest in even tackling its manga source for as it has the typical elements of a romantic comedy with the hapless loser having a means to create the ideal girl to be his companion, a few girls having some form of affection for him and fan service/ innuendo tossed in for good measure. It's nowhere as horrible as the mindless ecchi/ otaku pandering slimefest I've seen from some titles recently as the content for My Dear Marie is quite tame in comparison, but the series is way too cookie-cutter to hook my interest as I've seen its cliches done enough in similar titles I've seen at one time or another in the past.
Last updated Sunday, January 08 2012. Created Sunday, January 08 2012. | ||||||||
| Rent | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 7 |
 AstroNerdBoy
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[series:134#436] |
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After finishing the 3rd episode, it was clear to me that there was much more story to tell, but sadly we'll never see it unless we read the manga. The incomplete feel of the series was its main weakness. The premise of the series is an old one with Hiroshi being in love with Marie-san, but since he's a geek/nice guy, he can't do anything and builds an andoid copy of her instead. Yeah, there are countless series with the nerdy, nice guy who gets the great android babe somehow. I have a weakness for this genre though, so I don't get tired of it. It does show Hiroshi working on Marie as part of maintanence, which doesn't happen often in the android-babe series. However, sometimes I wondered if this work done is just to have an excuse to have Marie naked. As is also common with this kind of series, Hiroshi suddenly finds luck with other women, in this case, Hibiki. She's a ganster type, and her whole attempts to blackmail Hiroshi to sleep with her were interesting. Had this gone on, having her in the mix would have been interesting. Hiroshi loves Marie-san, creates Marie as a substitute, but then deals with another girl being in love with him. I think that would have been fun to explore, but sadly, no further episodes were created. The final episode dealing with Marie's dream software was really good as we get to explore Marie's thoughts, desires, and fears in her dreams. The dreams are done in a very dream-like manner, which is a first that I've seen. Usually, dreams are shown like reality, but Marie's dreams feel like a dream with things flowing, yet changing. Just a really good job. Bottom line: had this gone on further, I may have rated it higher. As it is, I enjoyed the series. If you like the android-babe genre, you should enjoy this as well.Last updated Wednesday, October 20 2004. Created Wednesday, October 20 2004. | ||||||||
| Buy |
 Forbin
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[series:134#1573] | ||||||
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The original picture didn't do the anime justice, so I updated it :) Though I didn't know it would drop the old picture. :( This is a story about a man, his machine, and his love. Boy loves girl, girl loves boy, so boy builds a robot that looks just like girl. Heh. After first it just looked like something the Detective Conan staff did earlier..then as I watched 1 and 2 I go, this is a good rent, after 3 I was like this is a BUY. Too bad it was just an OVA. No more episodes for me :( I loved the Blade Runner/PKD Reference, and why does Tanaka drive a LEFT-HAND drive car? Note : I added Ecchi and Harem as this does have those elements. Last updated Tuesday, December 07 2004. Created Saturday, October 09 2004. | ||||||||
| Buy |
 Stretch
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[series:134#628] | ||||||
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Well, I think my select group of truly favorite anime series has a new member. Why hadn't I heard of this one before? I saw a promo for it on another tape, and checked it out at an anime website which summarizes many reviews* and assigns each one a red, yellow, or green light (corresponding to how enthusiastic the critic was). When I saw four reviews, each one with a green light, I knew I had found a winner. My Dear Marie flies right into the story, explaining much of it's basic premise almost before the opening credits are finished. That was a good idea, since with only three episodes it doesn't have much time to spare. I was a bit surprised at how risque it got at times, but overall the feeling I'm left with is one of sweetness and agreeable humor. The final episode, judging from other reviews, seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it type. In it Mr. Karigari installs software in Marie to enable her to dream, which I thought was especially clever--best of all was the scene from one of her dreams which was essentially a parody of a naughty scene from the previous episode! It certainly didn't hurt that Karigari kind of reminded me of myself. Perhaps My Dear Marie could have been better, but there was nothing at all seriously wrong with it--except that they didn't make enough episodes! My favorite line: "'Thing'? you mean my thing?" *Meta Anime Review Project (BETA) 10/03 #75 Last updated Wednesday, February 06 2008. Created Saturday, October 04 2003. | ||||||||
| Rent | 7 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 6 |
 Midnighter
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[series:134#94] | |
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One of my favorite things about My Dear Marie is the character designs. They're actually unique. In a medium in which, let's face it, much of the art is similar, it's nice to see a differant look. Storywise, Marie is fair to good, with some heartfelt moments. Unfortunately these moments are too few and far between, often ditched in favor of cheap humor and exploitive scenes. I would have enjoyed it more if there had been more time for character development. The introduction of Hibiki (uh...I hope that's her name...) was tedious and unneccesary except as a plot device to get the females out of their clothes and to have a fight scene. The third episode, however, is first rate. In the episode, Marie is given dream software, and the entire episode is almost trance-like in its portrayal of her dreams. The animation is rather nice, I liked the use of colors. The backgrounds were nicely detailed and textured, I quite enjoyed them. Good Japanese voice acting for Marie, though none of the others really stood out. The best part is that Marie is truly likeable, and in many ways more 'human' than the human characters. The dream episode demonstrated this well, as it showed her innocent joy at something we take for granted. There were some genuinely cool ideas presented, like Marie's robot body overheating and the need for maintainance, which is usually neglected in android characters. Overall, this could have been a truly great series, and frankly I'm disappointed that the creative team didn't do more with it. Still, it's funny, and rather sweet. Dfinately worth checking out. 11-9-01 Last updated Friday, November 09 2001. Created Friday, November 09 2001. | ||||||||
| Rent |
 Jenn-chan
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[series:134#31] | ||||||
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"Plug her in and she'll turn you on" is the slogan on the box. Can we say "mis-leading"? And no, I did NOT buy the tape just because it said that. I knew this wasn't hentai before I bought the tape so there :P Anyway, this OVA was way too short. They should of made it 15 episodes, not 3. It started out with a cute romance plot: Geek likes girl, geek feels he can't have girl, geek makes android clone of girl who starts to have feelings for him. I use the term "geek" loosely because I found Hiroshi to be a very endearing character. He's what Takeo-kun (from Mahou Tsukai Tai) SHOULD have been. I have a few gripes about the show itself, first being the relationship between Mari (the original) and Marie (the clone). When Mari sees Marie for the first time, everyone's a little taken back by the fact that they look exacty alike. Hiroshi passes her off as his sister and then suddenly everything's ok. Uhhh....you'd think Mari would be a little weirded out by the fact that his sister looks exactly like her, but I guess not. The needless fanservice got on my nerves at certain parts. When Marie's circuts blew out in her neck, I guess Hiroshi HAD to pull down her pants as well to fix it.....I think NOT. The 3rd episode got a little trippy. It was suppose to be Marie having a dream, but I think it was more of an acid trip. And the ending....oh boy. Where THAT character interaction came from I'll never know. Overall, you start with a light romantic comedy, and you end with a weird, slightly ecchi muck. Not bad, but nothing special by any means. Last updated Tuesday, April 25 2000. Created Tuesday, April 25 2000. | ||||||||
| Rent | 7 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 8 |
 Bryan
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[series:134#14] |
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I cannot figure out why so many people think anime in nothing but porn and, well, Speed Racer. My video collection is 75% anime and I bet it has fewer naughty bits than 90% of the collections in contiguous United States (I really can't speak for Alaska or Hawaii:) So, naturally, ADV markets this thing as some kind of den of perversion. Heck, MDM looks like the Waltons compared to some episodes of Friends (hehe, I wonder if they cll it Tomodachi in Japan?). That said, there is a fair amount of casual nudity in the show, but nothing of an echii-ish nature as MDM is really just a good-hearted, light romantic comedy. This is a 3 part OAV, and that is its biggest problem. There is no time to get to know any of the characters. Of course, the main character is "born" in the first episode, so there is something of an out there. I love shows like this, something so utterly implausible that you look for a way to make it work. Perhaps in the not to distant future in a slightly different reality there will be a sort of "common sense" library that you could download of the net and image into a home version of a neural net. Lets say 500 or 600 GIG -- not too big really. Throw in some rich parents who buy you all the toys you need and voila! you've got a newly born sentient being. See, not that hard. Ok, where was I. Oh yes, we get only a very brief introduction to the characters. Some only get a few minutes of screen time. One big part of every anime is character design. Part of what makes the medium what it is the art. And I, for one, just didn't like Sakura Takeuchi's character designs. The long faces and huge ears just are not my style. Frame rates were good, and the colors were quite vibrant -- what you'd hope to get in an OAV. The backgrounds could have used some punching up, but this isn't Miyazaki so I shouldn't be surprised. The direction in this show, that of Tomomi Mochizuki, was really interesting -- more so than in most. For example, early on there is a scene where Hiroshi animates a series of images of (the carbon based) Marie he has gathered from a hidden camera. This was a really interesting scene, unlike any I've seen before. The other directorial aspect I noticed was the use of flash-backs. The first ep has a 10 minute flashback and the second ep has a 20 minute flashback. I mean this has got to be one of the longest flashbacks in the history of the medium. Nothing really wrong with that, though it sort of disengages you from the characters a little. The second OAV also had a neat fight sequence which ended almost before it began. Too bad, it really looked good for about 30 seconds. And the final episode, wow, a series of dream sequences that really did look dream-like. I was quite impressed with that, though this seemed like something that belonged in 26 part TV series rather than what should have been devoted to 1/3 of the series. There was no opening song, though the closing song "Hello, Strange Days" was pretty good, despite an inane English chorus. The song was done by Yuko Miyamura, who was also the voice of the silicon based Marie. I really like her acting. Last updated Friday, December 17 1999. Created Friday, December 17 1999. | ||||||||
