Characters

In "Saber Marionette J", we see Otaru finding the marionettes for the first time.
The marionettes are very selfish (and somewhat dumb) at the beginning. Let's see the initial behavior of the marionettes:

Limesteals people's breakfasts to feed Otaru, causing him a lot of trouble. After Cherry appears and goes out with Otaru to help him work, Lime just gets bored like a kid.

Cherrysets up a trap to make Otaru rescue her from some bandits (and kiss her), but this gets him in trouble when real bandits appear.

Bloodberry's behavior is just as immature. She grabs Otaru to a lonely mountain, planning to live together with him. And she gets him in more trouble when she awakes the ponta-monster, a Godzilla-like creature.

But with time, the marionettes start developing emotions. In one of the later episodes we see Lime adopting a little squirrel and taking care of it. Later she finds out that to let the squirrel live, she needs to let it go. This episode is sweet and full of tears :~)

Then the marionettes start showing respect for other people's emotions, when they enter a house in flames to save Lorelei's portrait, with a great sentimental value for the Shogun.

And of course, for the action-lovers, there's the good ol' drama of the struggle between Good (Otaru) and Evil (Faust). Otaru's marionettes have their 3 evil counterparts: Against Lime, Tiger. Against Cherry, Luchs (or Lynx). Against Bloodberry, Panther.

The episodes get more emotional as the end of the series approaches. Here we see also the relationship that Tiger had with Lord Faust (curiously, we see Tiger attached to Faust just in the same way that Lime is attached to Otaru. And both Lime and Tiger are the marionettes with the "innocence" attribute on their circuits. This helps us see that many times evil people are induced towards evil by external factors. I like the series' point of view that evil guys are still people with feelings, instead of simple villains that have to be killed to get to a happy ending (ugh).

Later, Lime finds out that not all loves are answered, and has to face the fact that having a heart does not bring happiness at all times. This crushes her, and makes her take a very foolish decision which affects Otaru very deeply. In this particular episode, Lime meets Lorelei in a dream (well, more or less).

And so they grow up, and their personalities start to develop more and more deeply, until they reach the point of maturity needed to rescue Lorelei. But i won't tell you the ending of the story ;)

"Saber Marionette J Again"(or J2) is not a series in itself - it's an OVA (Original Video Animation) consisting of 6 episodes. Here, Faust (the evil guy from the J series), now a good person, sends his marionettes Panther and Luchs with Otaru so they can grow up just as the others did. He also sends Tiger's circuit (which was broken, i won't tell you why) to Lorelei so she can repair it and recover Tiger.

Meanwhile a new marionette appears: Marine, which is not part of a 3-marionette set but was manufactured as a single unit (this means she has 3 maiden circuits instead of one). The plot centers on Marine and the secrets behind her construction, including evil american (pardon me, NeoTexan) plots.

Here the marionettes have their maiden circuits mature at 100%, but they have to deal with new emotions (puberty). For example, Lime gets shy at Otaru, and blushes whenever he looks at her. Lime fans will like J-again because Otaru kisses Lime (accidentally) in one of the scenes. This may have implied the author's intention of making Otaru and Lime get together, but this won't happen - at least, not in J Again.

"Saber Marionette J to X" is, in my humble opinion, the best of the 3 series, because we have 25 (well, 26) episodes where we can see the 3 marionettes fully developed (emotionally, i mean). Lime is even cuter and sweeter - Cherry is, well, i didn't see much change in her. And Bloodberry is more emotional and charming.

There are 3 episodes dedicated to each one of the marionettes:
In episode 6, Bloodberry falls in love with a guy in the circus named Akashi. (I didn't quite like the ending of this episode, so i wrote a ficticious sequel entitled "In search of true love".
In episode 7, Lime meets a fairy (and only she can see her).
And in episode 8, Cherry adopts a baby and names him "Kotaru", in Otaru's honor.
Bloodberry's love appears later in the series, and she has to choose (in a way) between Akashi and Otaru.

Still, at the end of the series, the question is asked again: Who will you marry, Otaru? Who is your girlfriend? And the answer is...
i won't tell! ^_^

Now, why are the series named with Letters? J stands for "Japoness", Otaru's hometown, and X stands for Xi'an, the place where the second part of the plot develops. Also, X is the female chromosome - in the ending of the series, we see women being restored to the world. Does this mean that the marionettes become human? You better watch the series, 'cause i won't tell either! :D

You can find these series in Locomotion channel . If your cable company doesn't have this channel, you can still buy the DVD's directly from Bandai/Animevillage.

I hope this info awakens your interest on these wonderful series.
God bless!