My Dear Marie

Summary: >

Hiroshi is a nerdy mad scientist attending college. While not athletic, he's a tennis club member due to his crush on a girl named Marie. When Hiroshi creates an android, he makes her identical in appearance to Marie; only differing in hair color. Due to odd misunderstanding, Hiroshi ends up calling the android Marie as well.

Hiroshi hides his android's identity by claiming it's his sister. Then he discovers human Marie has an interest in him as well. Robot Marie struggles with her identity as she was modeled after another girl. Robot Marie strives to help Hiroshi and Human Marie get together, but finds she's becoming more attached to him herself.

Thoughts: >

My Dear Marie is the usual comedy / romance / robot girl anime, but I've always had a sweet spot for due to overwhelming charm and even some insightful ideas other robot girl shows lack. Being a 90s anime has a lot to do with this. Later robot girl anime became more about the fan service than the sci-fi android factor.

It's fun as a comedy piece, and interesting as a romance. What makes this better than average is how things relate to robot Marie. Hiroshi acts as her inventor and a bit like a father towards her, but mostly adapts the role of brother. This creates a dilemma for robot Marie who has emotions, and is unsure of her feelings towards him. She wants Hiroshi to be happy, and works hard to get him together with Human Marie.. which might be the opposite of what she wants to happen. There's an added dimension in being modeled after another girl. When a girl learns the truth about Robot Marie she asks an interesting question: Why settle for not being the original. Why not take him for yourself?

It's tragic then, that there's only three episodes. There is so much potential for this one, but it sits incomplete and unfulfilling that way. It's too bad My Dear Marie got sidelined like a speed bump in the road of anime history, because it's quite good. However even incomplete as it is, I highly recommend it. Maybe my rating is stretching it, but even years later My Dear Marie remains one of my favorite anime titles.

Screen Caps: >