Enter Lime! The Planet of Men
In space, a humongous vessel is suffering damages and malfunctions from an unknown source, losing control of near-enough every function. There's just enough control left to detach the orbital shuttle before the crew are wiped out, shooting the small craft towards the blue-green planet ahead of them.
The six men aboard the shuttle make it out safely upon arrival, though their shuttle is a wreck. They are stranded, alone, on a lifeless wasteland.
In your average high school, one bored student stares out of the window and takes notice of a mysterious girl standing by the gate. He ponders who she is...
Only for it to be a dream. Otaru Mamiya gets his butt into gear and sets out to work, selling fish on the streets of Japoness. As he's making a sale, he notices a bit of a gathering taking place by the Kasahari Apartments, and is invited to come see.
Old man Gennai is showing off his latest purchase rental - a marionette! An artificial android in the visage of a woman, Gemini comes with all the greatest features: an ear-cleaning function, pillowy-soft legs, and saying hello to people when ordered to. Otaru remarks that it's pretty cute, though he retracts this statement once everyone starts ribbing him about having a thing for robots. Remembering his job, he returns to his fish...
... and gets run down by a monstrously-sized motor-palanquin. Out of the vehicle steps Mitsurugi Hanagata: the fabulously rich, fabulously snobby, and fabulously fabulous dandy who also claims to be Otaru's best friend. Otaru's miffed that he's just lost all his wares, though Pinsuke, Hanagata's toadie, chastises him for daring to speak back to his master. Hanagata looks down on Otaru for having to - gasp - work rather than have toadies and marionettes do all the work for him, but offers to be civil and pay for all the fish.
Otaru doesn't want his charity.
Hanagata is always getting in the way of his work, and Otaru would rather settle this dispute the manly way - bridge fight! The four toadies leap at Otaru; he takes down Pinsuke by leaping in the air and slinging his clogs at him...
... while the other two he just kung-fus in the face. The archetypical big guy lunges to grab Otaru, but he just gets his hands stuck in the bridge and has his head jumped on for his troubles. Otaru lands on the side railing of the bridge, preparing to give Hanagata a full packed lunch of knuckle sandwiches...
... only for the railing to snap and dunk him in the river.
In the centre of Japoness, a stealthy figure is seen hopping across the rooftops. The Guards of the Imperial Court, Tamasaburo and Baiko observe the intruder, deducing it to be a marionette spy from Gartland, though they have no idea of what its objective is. They begin pursuing.
Otaru awakens by a grassy riverbank, and finds himself before the Japoness Pioneer Museum, which he vaguely remembers visiting as a child. The place is abandoned and run-down on the outside, overgrown with moss and greenery, though apparently the place is still functional. A video showing a huge ship is seen...
It offers a brief history of the planet, Terra II - the ship, the Mesopotamia, suffered "an accident" and stranded six male astronauts on the planet, forcing them to colonise it, with Ieyasu Tokugawa The First founding Japoness. Otaru suddenly remembers another exhibit, and hunts for it. It is a painting of a woman in a white dress: "In memory of the human female."
Suddenly, the lights dim and a strange lightshow starts taking place, before a trapdoor opens up beneath Otaru's feet, dumping him down a trippy light-chute. Now he finds himself in a strange, underground laboratory of sorts, all alone...
Or so it seems.
In the center of the chamber is a pod, hooking up to a bazillion cables, a female figure resting inside. Otaru comments that it looks almost alive, and places his hand on the glass, causing the pod to react colourfully. When the dust clears, the pod is empty...
And the girl is standing before Otaru.
"You... Who are you?"
The marionette pins Otaru to the ground and the two gaze into each others' eyes... causing yet another colourful reaction.
The girl collapses to the floor, and Otaru tries to wake her up. The girl regains consciousness, looking different than she did before... and much more chipper, too, giddily introducing herself as Lime. She asks who Otaru is, and upon introducing himself, she wraps her arms around him and immediately declares she loves him, laughing like a child.
Back in the centre of Japoness, Hanagata and his cronies are asking people if they've seen Otaru. Pinsuke is curious why his master is getting so hot and bothered over some punk kid; Hanagata claims he couldn't care less about what happened to him, but at the same time... his heart is just so darn restless! He drives off to continue the search alone.
Otaru and Lime are at the second-hand clothes store, where Lime has picked out the most ridiculous combination possible, which evidently cost Otaru everything he had. Lime asks how she looks, and Otaru, distracted, claims she looks great.
"... he said I look great."
Overjoyed, Lime skips outside but stops in front of a puddle, intrigued by this mysterious gathering of liquid on the ground. Hanagata is roaring down the street (knowing no other way to drive, presumably) and narrowly misses Lime, but she's drenched by the puddle. Hearing her scream, Otaru investigates, and is more concerned about the reckless driver, not even noticing that she's soaked...
But Lime is filled with unbridled rage - no one's gonna contradict Otaru's compliment and live! She gives chase and Hanagata tries to shake her off, though either his motor-palanquin skills are subpar, or this is one determined marionette.
On the rooftops, the Gartland marionette observes the chase, and identifies Lime specifically.
Hanagata reveals the ace up his sleeve - he wasn't driving at full speed! Putting this baby to full throttle sends him blazing through the streets at near warp speed, the fabric of the cosmos totally warping for the vehicle's sheer untamed power...
... and Lime still overtakes it. Oh.
Having lapped back to where she started, Lime waves hi to Otaru and prepares for Hanagata to catch up, letting him crash into her at full speed... only to come to a halt once she plants her boot on the grill. She flips the car on its front and totals it, and tells Hanagata why she's so miffed. Otaru urges Hanagata to apologise, though he refuses to - why should he apologise to a marionette with faulty wiring?
Meanwhile, the Imperial Court guards interrupt the spy and give it one chance to surrender, but it prefers to unleash some boob-guns instead. The two strike it down, though before it's disabled it activates its self-destruct, totalling one of the skyscrapers. The two marionette guards return to base.
Rubble rains down on the streets below, following by the top half of the building itself, prompting the crowds to run like hell. Lime stands her ground, still awaiting Hanagata's apology, despite the guy being frozen with fear. The structure collapse atop of them...
Or at least, it appears to - Lime is holding it up all by herself! Obviously when your life has just been saved, you vow revenge on the person who saved you and hightail it out of there, which is exactly what Hanagata does. Lime doesn't take this well and throws the building at him, crushing his car, just narrowly missing him.
Just as Otaru is astounded by how powerful and unusual this marionette is, Lime suddenly stalls and lets off steam; literally. She's out of energy. He carries her on his back and walks home, fascinated at how human-like she seems. He's never seen a marionette express emotions before, and he certainly hasn't heard one mumble words in her sleep: "I love you, Otaru."
No, Lime never suffers repercussions for either using city property as a projectile or for trying to kill Hanagata. Abusing Hanagata is a running gag, but it's certainly an extreme way of starting it off, don't you think?
It's not so much an animation error as just a dumb misinterpretation, but still, Otaru looks hilarious here.
heeerp
