Metal Angel Marie
Some People Find true love, Other people just build it!

Waii! I've been waiting for this one for a long time, and it's finally come!! Metal Angel Marie is a funny and romantic 3 episode OAV, with all three episodes on one video in the English version.

Now, the first thing I thought after watching this was that the three episodes did follow on, but this is more of one of those animes which each episode has a different theme, which was not what I was expecting as this is a 3 in 1 video. I was more expecting it to be 1 story split into parts like Dragon Half, but this was more three different chapters which just take place one after another, with a bit of a time gap in between each one. Metal Angel Marie is best to watch one episode at a time, rather than all at once or each one in turn with nothing in between.

Anywayz, once you've got all that, Metal Angel Marie is a great anime. I loved it. It's very cute, and very funny. All three episodes are great, the first one is definitely the best, but the second one's good if you like fighting, and the third one's good for fantasy and wierd stuff.

Episode one sees the scientist Hiroshi with a device and what appears to be a sleeping girl wired up to it. It goes through a load of sequences that reveal he's trying to actually make a girl.(Including a real funny part when he's trying to buy her some underwear.) And it also reveals he's basing her on a real life girl, Marie, who he likes but is too afraid to ask out. Eventually, Metal Marie wakes up of her own accord and meets Hiroshi. You can easily tell who is the real Marie and who is the robot because the robot has pink hair whilst the real Marie has purple and the robot Marie has a higher voice. It looks like these two are going to be in love, it gets so cute until Metal Marie goes out and bumps into the real Marie. Hiroshi shortly follows and he covers it up by foolishly saying she's his sister meaning Metal Marie and Hiroshi cannot be together now. But because Metal Marie cares so much for Hiroshi, she gets him into a date with the real Marie and helps him out. However, she tries to follow them to make sure everything's okay but everything goes out of hand, and she goes through a lot of hazards, and saves a few lives. Finally, all messed up, Metal Marie gets up to where Hiroshi and Marie are, and she starts to overheat. Hiroshi leaves his date in a rush because he feels something is wrong. On the way back, he finds an exhausted Metal Marie, in a really cute scene. This episode has some great comedy and an excellent feel.

In episode two, Hiroshi meets Hibiki Kennou, a very violent girl who falls in love with him and wants to get rid of Metal Marie because she looks like the real Marie, who Hiroshi is in love with. ...and it pretty much carries on from there, it's one of those storylines you can't say too much about. This episode has a lot of fighting and some more great comedy. This episode is quite touching at parts and shows how hard life can really be for the rough type of people in this kind of situation, it has a bit of a sad ending, with Hibiki, who is already heartbroken because Hiroshi is already dating Marie, realising that she has made a big mistake when she discovered that what she remembered from her past was wrong, and she doesn't go back, she just looks back at Hiroshi for a little while, and that's the last Hiroshi sees of her.

In episode three, Hiroshi gives Metal Marie the ability to dream, and most of the episode is in her dreams, which starts to get a bit annoying with everything changing and when you don't know if she's asleep or not. There are some really good bits referring to the other two episodes, mostly Metal Marie dreams about things that happened in the other two episodes with the characters switching places. It proves her feelings for Hiroshi and also her relationship with the real Marie, and she realises how special life really is. After all the dreams, Metal Marie doesn't know if she's awake or not,. It's one of those cute kind of endings when the character realises how much she appreciates her life and how great her friends are, she is greatful to hiroshi for creating her and at the end she goes and thanks Marie for her life(If it wasn't for Marie, Metal Marie wouldn't even exist) in the easiest way possible, by kissing her.

The dubbing's pretty effective, AD Vision are always the best at dubbing, so I was expecting this from them. The artwork's pretty good too, it has it's own little style - the characters all have a more bridgey nose and are all drawn with slightly bigger ears than usual, which makes them look more comic. The only bad thing about this is that it's such a great series that it's a shame there were only 3 episodes, making one single video, but then again, it's better to think of it as more of a single OAV than a series, kinda like Dragon Half, because it's got a nice little ending. It reminds me of Phantom Quest Corp, which had only 4 episodes (split into 2 videos) but it seemed like there should have been a lot more.

Overall, Metal Angel Marie is a great anime, and unless you don't like romance or this kind of comedy, it's really worth the money. Although it doesn't seem like much from just a quick glance, this is actually an adorable, beautifully written and presented romance story with some great comedy. I am glad to have this as part of my collection.

Rating out of 5: ****

Metal Angel Marie Screenshots
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