Mini Mara
Oh My Goddess! had never been made into a "true" television anime before AIC announced that it was producing an anime series in the year 2004. Before that, however, there was a series of 8-minute animated shorts that together form the anime series The Adventures of Mini-Goddess. Mini-Goddess is 46 (short!) episodes long, and each episode is a humorous, self-contained story that often parodies several other famous anime and live-action movies. Mini-Goddess is based on the premise that when Keiichi isn't home, Belldandy, Urd, and Skuld shrink themselves down to their mini forms, and play around with the rats who also inhabit the Tariki Hongan temple, especially one rat in particular, their friend Gan-chan. The Mini-Goddess anime is *loosely* based on The Adventures of Mini-Goddess comic strip, originally written and illustrated by Kosuke Fujishima.
In episode 25, Mara makes her first appearance. Pioneer translates her name as "Marla" in their English subtitles of the series, so on this page, I will use the name Marla for consistency's sake. In a two-part parody of Die Hard entitled "Chu Hard," ("chu" being the sound that rats and mice make), Marla commands a band of outlaw rats to crack open a refrigerator that Skuld has left locked within the Morisato residence. In episode 25, the first part of the story, Marla only appears as a shadowy figure giving her rats orders. In episode 26, she finally reveals herself fully when she introduces herself to Gan-chan.
"I am Marla, the Sorceress with the First Class License with no restrictions. In other words, I'm a demon! I'm the eternal rival of the goddesses. My job is to interfere with the goddesses' work. And my purpose in life is to make the goddesses suffer!"
~ Marla to Gan-chan, episode 26.
Over the course of the Mini-Goddess anime, Marla appears in episodes 25-27, 29-31, 34-36, 38-39, and 46.
Marla in the Mini-Goddess anime is a very close copy of her original manga character. She is still allergic to good-luck charms, and still dances uncontrollably when she hears rock music. She exhibits many of the same powers that she does in the manga, including the use of an offensive lightning attack, the ability to create her own servants, and the ability to sign "devil contracts" with otherwise innocent souls. In episode 38, she signs a contract with a rat named Gon, and thereafter gains the ability to control his will. Predictably, Urd eventually exposes Marla's plan, whereupon she flees, and Gon is left with no memory of what he did while under Marla's control.
Marla's ambiguous relationships with the goddesses carry over from the manga to the Mini-Goddess anime as well. Urd mentions in episode 27 that Marla was a childhood friend of the goddesses. In episode 26, the three goddesses greet Marla as if she were a long-lost friend when they see her in their kitchen (much to Marla's consternation). Belldandy even offers to share some cheesecake with Marla, but Marla angrily retorts, "I don't want your sympathy!" In episode 30, Marla helps Skuld and Urd search for a thief in the temple, but she claims that she's only doing so in order to prove her innocence in the matter.
However, there are some key differences between the manga and the Mini-Goddess anime. First, the Mini-Goddess anime is very silly and very short. This means that the anime never even begins to approach the depth of character development in the manga. Hence, the Mini-Goddess anime never gives any details about Marla's past with Urd, and never bothers to explore Marla's often conflicted reasons for tormenting the goddesses. Unlike in the manga, Marla's motivations in the Mini-Goddess anime are clear and simple, as she states them to her ninja in episode 35: "To force those despicable goddesses into fear and confusion... Their sadness and suffering are my joy!"
Second, Marla's servants are different in the Mini-Goddess anime. Marla's only servants in the Mini-Goddess anime are first a band of criminally-inclined rats, and then later her three miniature ninja. Manga characters like Senbei never make an appearance in the Mini-Goddess anime.
The "mad scientist" aspect of Marla's character in the manga is eliminated from the Mini-Goddess anime. For example, she never uses any of the nifty gadgets and magical devices that she does in the manga. Also, in the Mini-Goddess anime, Marla creates her miniature ninja by reciting a spell and summoning them from within a video game, a process that looks much more occult and magical than her manga method of incubating them in a laboratory. And unlike in the manga, Marla only creates three ninja in the Mini-Goddess anime. But the three ninja in this anime are the same as the three "main" ninja in the manga - Kodama the Illusionist, Hikari of the Glimmering Light, and Nozomi the Clairvoyant (who introduces herself while holding a clarinet).
One last interesting thing to note about Marla in the Mini-Goddess anime - she has a very "special" connection to the rat, Gan-chan! In episode 26, after she introduces herself to Gan-chan, she comments that she likes him more and more every minute because of his courage. In episode 35, Marla draws out sketches of the three goddesses and Gan-chan to show to her ninja. She draws all three of the goddesses frowning and ugly, but draws Gan-chan posing handsomely with stars glittering around his beautiful eyes. ^^;; Finally, in episode 46, Marla is (against her will) sucked into a board game of Life when Gan-chan lands on a square that demands he get married. All of a sudden, Marla is in a wedding dress, Gan-chan is in a tuxedo, and the two of them are getting married in a church. As the game proceeds, the two of them have four children, Gan-chan gets abducted by aliens, and finally Marla and Gan-chan declare bankruptcy and retire to a farm where they must work off their debts until the game is over. Marla seems confused by all of this at first, but she quickly and easily adapts to addressing Gan-chan as "darling."
