A story about a lesbian android – isn’t *that* original?

Pure Marionation is an exceptionally cute story brought to us by our friends at Dengeki Comics and Mediaworks, your source for irritatingly cute and lolified yuri. Dengeki didn’t used to be so grossly cute – they did Battle Atheletes once upon a time when, apparently, men wanted to look at women, not children, kissing. Gah.

In any case, Pure Marionation is an older manga about Anon, an android, who is sent to school to “test” her AI. She is charged with making friends, and fitting in. As usual, her creators have given her everything she needs to survive, except all the basic information that a fifteen-year old girl might potentially have. So, when asked for her birthday, or blood type, Anon is completely unable to answer. Well, duh.

Anon promptly begins making friends by being adorable, lovable, sweet, kind, generous and affectionate, which just goes to prove that this is a fiction. If a kid like her showed up at *my* high school, she would have been dead meat in mere days. Her first friend, and most likely eventual love interest, is Miamo, a “cool” girl, insofar as this series has them. By the end of volume 1, Miamo learns about Anon’s special circumstances and vows to cover for her, making the promise to the only adult woman in the entire series, Anon’s creator, Madoka. Madoka is quite enamored of her creation, but I’m not really sure what this “test” would prove about Anon. Am I just being a hard ass? Probably.

There doesn’t seem to be any plot complication in this series, and the only antagonist thaws when Anon’s computer brain helps the two of them win a contest together. (There’s a teeny-weeny little jealousy between rival girl and Anon, but only because rival girl thinks that Anon is trying to steal her onee-sama. Quite unreasonably…I’m sure that, in her innocence, Anon doesn’t even know what stealing someone’s affections *is.*)

Each chapter has mild conflict like, erm, Anon overloads in the tub, and what *is* her birthday…? But don’t expect anything angsty here, this is fluffy cuteness in its purest form, with lots of bathing for ballast.

Will Anon and Miamo get together? I am sure that they do, but I imagine that it’s in a Shinobuden happy hugs all around way, rather than a passionate grand-scale Stellvia kind of way. Did I like it? No older woman, no eyepatches, no weapons,…it was okay. ;-)

Ratings:
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Art – 6
Service – 9
Yuri – 4

Overall – 6

Did I mention that this series is by the artist of Kokoro Library? Obviously, another guy obsessed with cute, happy girls who bathe alot. I always wonder if any of these guys ever get laid by real women…