Kigyou Senshi Yamazaki: Long Distance Call

TL;DR This OVA is underrated as hell watch it.

For everyone else:

Do you like Robocop? Or Total Recall? This is a funny twist on that kind of cybernetic sci trope. Once a salaryman who worked himself to death, his company offers him a once in a lifetime deal;

Upload his brain into a computer bank that remotely controls his new android body, and the company will take care of his family in return. No longer his old self, he's now...

YAMAZAKI! BUSINESS COMMANDO! RESCUING COMPANIES AND DESPERATE SALARYMEN FROM TIGHT DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULES, POOR MARKETING TACTICS, AND RIVAL BUSINESS COMMANDO CORPORATE ESPIONAGE!!

Seriously these old school OVAs are ... such a gem. The premise was so weird that I thought that it was already worth the watch. They convey Yamazaki's machine like personality so well down to his square rigid unfeeling face and glasses that reflect his eyes to the drab suit he wears. His VA acts the monotone lines with a kind of cold anger that sells him as a business machine.

The OVA does hype you up with a cool android vs android battle to help establish Yamazaki's character but it ends up making you anticipate the next one for the rest of the OVA, which takes a while. If you want a bunch of cool robot fights this isn't for you. They're animated well though, and the techniques each business commando uses is hillarious. Yamazaki's Name Card shurikens made laugh so hard but his ace in the hole made me gasp for air. The business commandos even have proper sales etiquette towards one another as they introduce themselves with their cards and a customary bow. I swear whoever thought of this idea is amazing and I wished this got turned into a full series.

For the scenes when polite killer robots aren't following proper business etiquette, Yamazaki is essentially helping a business release a new telephone product that might as well be an iPad. The development team he works with are developed enough to track a logical change from the lazy assholes they were in the beginning of the OVA to the self respecting salarymen dedicated to the company by the end without needing to focus on them so much. Its a simple change arc so thats good as Yamazaki is the focus of the OVA. Yamazaki also picks up a teen girl runaway who acts as his foil. Her emotional outbursts and tendencies to leap before she looks acts as a great contrast to Yamazaki's cold and calculating nature. Also her VA plays the role of a bratty teen rather well.

If there's one gripe I do have is that I didn't find any of the music rather memorable at all. Like whenever a song would come on, it felt like elevator music it was that boring. Also the background designs seem rather samey but since most of the settings are office interiors I didn't mind all too much.

Added points for this surreal flashback of Yamazaki's past that reminded me of Spawn TAS. Also the mechanical design of these androids are way more detailed than they needed to be and I enjoyed it. Severed arms leave behind a metric shit ton of individual fragmented parts that must've been a pain to draw by hand.

This OVA had a simple story about holding on to what you value most in life as it can be taken away from you at any moment. And since the runtime is just under 40 mins the script does not use that time to dick around. Everyone is well characterized and the climax while cliche serves its purpose as being the ultimate declaration of the creators intent.

At the time of me writing this, the OVA has a 5 point whatever. And thats weird. If this were a pilot for an anime I'd greenlight the shit out of this. A heartwarming OVA with the genre trappings of 80s scifi B movies might sound like a turn off, but I'd say it was a 40 minutes well spent.

What seems to be a wacky comedy at first, becomes deep and serious after the prologue, dealing with heavy topics such as overworking to death, family issues, abandonment and depression. I think most viewers will shed a tear or two by the end.

Even still, you really never know if this short film is taking itself seriously, because the scenes changes from telling stupid jokes to drama or boring work meetings, and straight-up sad problems. It's an interesting critique of a salary-man's life in Japan. It probably still holds true to this day.

Animation and art were decent, nothing to write about, really. Still, the few ... seconds of fight scenes were surprisingly well animated.

Pacing can be quite slow for today's standards, so I recommend watching shows from this era at 1.25 or 1.5x speed if that bothers you.