Tongari Boushi no Memole: Marielle no Housekibako

This OVA is a compilation of a few episodes of the "Tongari Boushi no Memole" TV series, along with a 5-minute original short done by the art director and animation director. By the way, there is also a 15-minute "Tongari Boushi no Memole" compilation movie, but that doesn't appear to be in MAL's database.

Anyway, as this is a compilation, scenes from mainly 4 episodes are stitched together, with the character Marielle narrating to smooth over the scene transitions. Some of the scene transitions appear choppy and the plot can be hard to follow if you aren't familiar with the series already. For example, there was ... a character who got introduced in one scene, and in the next scene he's shown as being friends with Marielle, Memoru and the rest. It was a bit too jarring and sudden. Due to this, it would probably be best to treat this as a recap instead of as a standalone movie.

I managed to figure out most of what was going on despite having never seen the TV series, but it was a bit hard to follow, and there was no linearly progressing plot. It really did just feel like the highlights of 4 episodes put together, and didn't have much of an ending (or really a beginning or middle, for that matter). It was just a series of misadventures centered on Marielle and Memoru.

As for the characters, Marielle is a sickly rich girl who lives in the middle of nowhere. She has a mean governess who has something against owls, and there are a couple of other workers who live in the house. Memoru is an alien who looks like a little gnome or fairy. She and her friends' spaceship crashed on Earth, and I guess they must have given up on returning to their home planet, because they made themselves a little village and talk with the local wildlife and everything. Marielle eventually gets well enough to go to a boarding school, where most of her classmates are stuck-up bullies, but she does meet a guy she likes named Oscar, who becomes her friend and (apparently at some point) befriends the aliens. There isn't much character development, and it's hard to sympathize with any of the characters, probably because we just don't get to know them very well.

The character design is all right for the aliens, but the humans either look generic or sullen-eyed. Marielle looks depressed a lot of the time. One of her "friends" has ridiculously long poofy hair. Animation is OK; nothing particularly positive or negative stands out about it. Same for the music/soundtrack. The high-pitched voices of some of the characters can be a little grating.

After the credits, there is an original 5-minute animation about Memole done by some of the people who worked on Angel's Egg. It's a bit trippy/dreamy, there's very little dialogue and there's no plot to it. It's kind of interesting as an art piece, but it's not really worth watching this whole OVA just for that.

All in all, while this is somewhat watchable, I would recommend skipping it unless you are familiar with the TV series. It doesn't work well as a standalone OVA and, other than the animation at the end, it doesn't have any particular unique or redeeming qualities that would merit watching it otherwise.