Mahou Shoujotai (my like, most favourite anime ever), unlike most anime, hasn’t been directed by just one person. Instead a whole bunch of people sat in the director’s seat, and each of them was responsible for his or her own episodes, which surprises me even more that the result turned out so awesome. In any case, it’s a shame but these directors weren’t involved in many other series apart from some work on key-animation for various series. There is one exception, though: Kimagure Robot. It basically consists out of ten two-minute episodes and a number of the directors were given the task to direct one or two of them. After this story, do I still need to explain why I just had to watch this after finding this out? ^^;
Now that I’ve finished watching, I know for sure: these guys are brilliant. Unlike Mahou Shoujotai, Kimagure Robot has no intention to take itself seriously and instead comes with a series of ten random comedic stories about a scientist who invents robots. Because there have been seven different directors, the stories all turn out varied, yet consistent because every director tries to give his own interpretation of the story, while paying in mind what the others have come up with. It’s the same as with Mahou Shoujotai: even though every director was responsible for a different series of episodes, you can see that they worked together very closely.
Basically, every movie turns into a spoof of some kind of television-trope, ranging from the genie in the bottle that grants you three wishes to various kinds of alien-invasions. I honestly laughed myself to tears at nearly every single one of the episodes. I especially loved the end of every episode, which basically consists out of a witty one-sentence summary of what happened inside said episode.
I’m still convinced that these guys need to direct more. Their style is fresh and engaging and definitely recommended if you’re looking for something different. It’s a shame that Kimagure Robot has no plot whatsoever, and the fact remains that you can only do so much with only two minutes per episode, but I’m glad enough that the rest turned out so well. One thing that also should be noted is that the entire short is voiced by just two voice-actors: one male and one female. They basically did all the necessary voices for the different characters.
