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Crunchyroll to Stream Robot Girls Z Comedy Anime

Media service Crunchyroll announced on Monday that it will stream the Robot Girls Z anime as it airs in Japan. The series will be available for viewers in North America, South America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Scandinavia.

The anime is the latest incarnation of Toei Robot Girls, the project that turns Dynamic Planning and Toei Animation's "legendary super robots into beautiful girls!!"

The stars of the new Robot Girls Z series are Z-chan, Gre-chan, and Grenda-san. Together they (try to) defend Photon Power Town from "the enemy, the mechanical beast girls of the underground empire." The villains are led by Baron Ashura, the underground emperor "bent on world domination(?)" — or at least, town domination.

Maaya Uchida plays 14-year-old Gecchan, a reference to Go Nagai's robot franchise Getter Robo. She is extremely spoiled and blunt, and although she has lots of firepower, she is also capricious. She needs lavish praising to operate at her full potential. Her weapons of choice are her familiar Getter Tomahawk and Getter Beam. Minami Tsuda plays 20-year-old Zieg-san, a reference to Go Nagai's Kotetsu Zieg manga and anime. She is the head of a super-popular circle at dōjinshi events. She is the oldest of the robot girls and is happiest when she recounts her past exploits of valor. Her weapons are Knuckle Bomber, Spin Storm, and Mach Drill.

Honda, Minase, Aranami, Uchida, and Tsuda also form Kikai Shōjo Tai (Mechanical Girl Team), the group that performs the anime's title theme song "Robot Girls Z" heard in the video above. Robot Girls Kenkyūsho Ongaku-bu wrote the lyrics, and ARM (IOSYS) composed and arranged the music. Nippon Columbia will sell the single next year.

The television episodes will have the return of Satomi Satou as Gacky (Ga-Keen), Ayumi Tsuji as Bara-tan (Baratack), Kaori Takaoka as Gai-chan (Gaiking),  and Chiharu Kitaoka as Dandan (Danguard Ace) from the earlier Toei Robot Girls project.

Hiroshi Ikehata (original Toei Robot Girls, Ring ni Kakero 1: Sekai Taikai-hen) is directing the new anime, and Kazuho Hyodo (Tactical Roar) is in charge of the scripts. Tetsuya Kawakami (Shigofumi - Letters from the Departed, Toei Robot Girls) designed the characters.

The series premiered on January 4 on the CS broadcast satellite system's Toei Channel. Each month has a three-episode arc, starting with "fullbokko: 1 Kami ka Akuma ka!? Tōjō-hen" (Enter the God, or Devil!?).

Images © Dynamic Planning, Toei Animation © Leiji Matsumoto, Toei Animation © Robot Girls Laboratory