Kia Asamiya, until this year, hasn't really been very well-known in the American anime fandom circles. This year, with Viz publishing Steam Detectives in Animerica Extra and Silent Möbius seperately, ADV releasing Nadesico, and CPM Manga printing the Nadesico manga, the veteran manga-ka has developed quite a large following within a short period of time. And deservedly so! Asamiya is wonderfully diverse in his storytelling abilities... and Compiler is a great chance to show his whimsical side.

Compiler and Assembler are from... uh... the computer world (?) and upon coming into the 3-D world, the two end up sharing a house with two brothers who somehow hold some key to... well... Okay, so none of this is really explained-- it's not important. The result is, Compiler and Assembler are living with these two guys, Assembler is having an on/off flirting affair with high school-aged Toshi while Compiler is too cold to admit that she really does have a thing for mega-playboy office worker Nachi.

In the first episode, coupon-hording Nachi decides the gang should all go on a road trip to Osaka. Apparently, they don't have much there but really great restaurants, but after being poisoned by Assembler's cooking, the thought of gorging himself stupid seems pretty appealing. But while they're all on the biggest eating binge this side of Fushigi Yuugi, the powers that be are sending two robot agents, who have previously failed (and have since been recycled into busty female models) to destroy Compiler and Assembler. What ensues is total chaos, and involves large city mascots and statues going at it, destroying Osaka in the process. So much for Nachi's coupons...

The second episode is far more melancholy... Compiler's going through one of those moods after being irritated beyond belief by Nachi's perverted behavior... but when the peace of the household is interrupted by a young girl who Nachi asked to move in with him (while in a drunken stuper, of course), she REALLY loses it.

While sometimes over-the-top, Matt Greenfield's directorial style is right at home here. The first episode is blisteringly slapstick, and the twisted, absurd, and hillarious English rewrite is among the best ever written. Even the comparitively tame second episode is funny, thanks mostly to the ad-libbed dialogue on the TV in the background... (listen to it with headphones!)

Compiler is one of the best things to come out of Japan in recent memory. What a fun series! What a fun dub!!