is a series of ten two-minute shorts that were sponsored by

Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...

as a free promotion for

Yahoo! Japan is a Japanese web portal. It was the most-visited website in Japan, nearing monopolistic status. According to ''The Japan Times'', as of 2012, Yahoo! Japan had a footprint on the internet market in Japan. In terms of use as a search engine, ...

. The episodes were broadcast in 2004 and most shorts were directed by a different

Studio 4°C is a Japanese animation studio founded by Eiko Tanaka and Kōji Morimoto in 1986. The name comes from the temperature at which water is most dense. History has produced numerous feature films, OVAs, and shorts. Early film titles include ' ...

director. Plotlines were all developed by science fiction writer Shinichi Hoshi—renowned for having created more than a thousand shorts and known in Japan as the "God of Short Shorts". Because Hoshi was famous for being protective of the integrity of his works during his lifetime, the idea of releasing the series as a webcast was only proposed after Hoshi had died in the late 1990s. All ten episodes are characterized by a futuristic science-fiction setting in which an eccentric scientist with a genius for invention works to create a host of robots, each designed to help humans in a different but very particular and often counter intuitive manner. As the robots interact with their human masters and their surroundings in pre-programmed ways unanticipated problems arise and provide for a variety of comedic situations.

Episodes

Voice cast

Megumi Matsumoto is a Japanese voice actress who works for Ken Production. She is known as the voice of Kouya Marino in '' Crush Gear Turbo''. Selected filmography Television animation *'' 009-1'' – Tony *'' Beyblade G-Revolution'' – (Ep. 9) *'' Cardfigh ...

- The Doctor's Assistant and all other female characters * Toshiyuki Itakura - The Doctor and all other male voices

Reception

Reception for the series has been positive in Japan and in the West.

AnimeNation AnimeNation was an American business that included RentAnime.com, a discussion forum, anime industry news, and a column called "Ask John". It was previously a retailer of anime and manga products until 2014 and an anime licensing and distribu ...

's John Oppliger described ''Kimagure Robot'' as an "artistic and esoteric anime" and decried the lack of awareness of complex and avant-garde titles like this in American anime consumers.Oppliger, John.
Ask John: Where's All the Avant-Garde Anime?
Ask John.

. 21 July 2010. .

References

External links

Official ''Kimagure Robot'' website
* {{Studio 4°C, state=autocollapse 2004 anime OVAs Studio 4°C