Assemble Insert
Assemble Insert (アッセンブル・インサート, Assenburu Insāto?) is a 1985 manga series by Masami Yuki (best known for his manga and anime series Mobile Police Patlabor). The main character is a young would-be idol singer and high school student, Maron Namikaze, who has superhuman strength. She battles a mecha organization, Demon Seed, which has been terrorizing Tokyo. The manga was adapted into a 2 episode anime OVA in 1989. The series is a parody of Japanese pop culture.
Three CDs were released: a single on September 20, 1989, an image soundtrack on October 25, 1989, and a concert CD March 5, 1990.
Plot
In near-future Tokyo, a group called the Demon Seed has been antagonizing the city with its thefts and giant robotic Power Suits. After various failed attempts against the Demon Seed, the Special Operations Anti-Demon Seed Team (five men in a downtown office) begins to look for an idol to pilot a robotic suit against the Demon Seed. A talent show is held, and after a particularly dull line-up of contestants, the extremely strong Maron Namikaze is discovered. She is fitted with a metal costume and sent to take the Demon Seed down, all the while having an idol singer career forced upon her.
Characters
- Maron Namikaze: The 13 year-old protagonist. She is very timid and nervous, but has been gifted with immense natural strength. Maron is trained to become a J-Pop idol and becomes popular enough to be entered for the Newcomer's Award in the music awards. For the American DVD release, Maron was claimed to be a high school senior, even in the subtitles.
- Chief Hattori: The leader of the Special Operations team, later Maron's manager and coach. He wrote and submitted the Idol Project plans when he was drunk, and later to his chagrin, it was approved. Hattori was slightly modelled after Masami Yuki's editor at the time.
- Dr. Ryouhei Shimokobe: The dwarf-sized researcher whom created Maron's costume. Before he knew the idol was a girl, he created a Patlabor-esque robot, which he later gave to the Demon Seed. He is very arrogant and proud of his work, soon becoming disgusted when Maron is converted into a singer instead of a fighter.
- Professor Kyozaburo Demon: The leader of the Demon Seed. Very confident with his work, he believes the group can spend as much money as they want, thinking they can get more at any time. However, he runs out of money to fix the Power Suits after Maron's first interference, and takes the Demon Seed into hiding for a few months.
- Kagiri Sonoba: An idol singer known for her provocative costumes. She gets into a one-sided rivalry with Maron after both girls turn out to be competing for the Newcomer's Award.
Trivia
- The two actresses in the vitamin drink parody commercials are "Assemble Insert" voice actresses Hiroko Kasahara (Maron's voice actress) and Maria Kawamura (Kagiri's voice actress).
- In 1989, two live concerts were held in Tokyo and Osaka called "Maron-Chan Concert Ohirome" featuring the vocals of Hiroko Kasahara, Maron's voice actress. The concert was done to promote the anime. A CD recording of the concert was released on March 25, 1990, with a final track featuring fans talking to Kasahara.
- The "Kougaman" anime segment at the beginning of OVA 1 is a parody of sentai (super team) anime. The characters used are from Masami Yuuki's Kyūkyoku Chōjin R series, with the character R Tanaka reappearing twice in the rest of the series. In turn, Chief Hattori originally appeared in the first volume of Kyūkyoku Chōjin R as a detective who was hunting down R, because of rumours that R was actually a weapon of mass destruction.
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