Mata Mata Saber Marionette J

Also called "Saber Marionette J Again", this is a follow-up to the original 25 episode TV series, this time in the form of a 6-episode OAV series. The visuals are a mix... indeed the art is nice with a lot more fluid animation than the original TV series, but there's some digital effects thrown in there that don't always look natural. Nevertheless, Otaru and his marionettes are back and they've got company. The Saber Dolls, previously the marionettes' #1 enemy, are asked to be trained under Mamiya Otaru's supervision so they could mature. But if that wasn't enough, a 7th marionette named Marine Blue appears and the series is centralized on her.

I generally thought the main storyline of this OAV series was pretty typical anime ho-hum stuff... you really don't gain much from Marine Blue's existence. But in terms of the entire SMJ universe, there are some little details that work out nicely. As mentioned before, the Saber Dolls are back and this time they're learning a lot about life through their stay with Otaru. But a lot of their interactions have an ecchi flavor to them, which turned me off. Still, one character in particular has to deal with the consequences resulting from the end of SMJ, which was probably the biggest highlight of this OAV series to me. It was not the focal point at all, however I was glad to see that this was definitely filling out some of the details of the end of SMJ. That one aspect is, for me, the only thing preventing this OAV from being a pointless filler. It's still pretty skippable though.