Ask John: Why Was “My Dear Marie” So Short?

Question:
I have a question reguarding the OAV “My Dear Marie.” I thought it was good, though a bit cheezy. And I was surprised when the whole thing ended before it began. Why did “My Dear Marie” end with just the first three episodes? Did the creators loose interest in the project? Or was the series not a success?

Answer:
Sakura Takeuchi’s “Boku no Marie” manga series ran from 1994 until 1997 and was collected into ten books. So on a relative scale, it wasn’t an exceptionally long manga series. But there’s certainly more material in the original manga than what was used in the 3 episode anime series. While I don’t know the exact circumstances surrounding the My Dear Marie OAV series, I suspect that it’s typical of home video anime productions of its time.

The 1980s are often called the “golden period” of anime because that decade was the peak time of the anime industry’s flexibility and diversity. During Japan’s economic boom, the anime production industry had enough money and talent to indulge in countless pet projects, experimental works, and short series. That experimental tendency spilled over into the 1990s, but began to evaporate in the 2000s. The 1980s and 90s are littered with single episode OAVs and short home video series like My Dear Marie. Many of these countless productions are now obscure and forgotten. For example, I doubt many American fans are familiar with anime OVA titles like Fandora, Bavi Stock, Shin Shyuusudama Hen, Desert Rose, Baribari no Densetsu, Carol, Dream Hunter Rem, Space Family Carlvinson, Legaicam, Starlight Scramble, Joker: Marginal City, Wolf Guy, Filena the Eternal, Business Commando Yamazaki, Samuraider, Utsu no Miko, Karula Mau, and many, many others. (On a side note, I have watched all of those examples.)

American fans often lament that short OAV series like Dragon Half and Angel Sanctuary were never continued, or weren’t longer than they are. The same circumstances that affected these titles are common to many of the OAVs produced in the 1980s and 90s. Short shows were produced because studios had the funds and opportunity to make them. Short anime adaptations of manga were created for fans of the original manga, so these productions were short because their audience was small. OAV series that became exceptionally successful, like Bubblegum Crisis, Project A-ko, and Patlabor, were continued or expanded into television series and movies. Productions which weren’t as successful, like My Dear Marie, had one or a few episodes produced before their producers moved on to new projects with new, undetermined potential.