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Toei's Robot Girls Z TV Anime Shorts to Premiere in January

Toei Robot Girls, the project that turns Dynamic Planning and Toei Animation's robots into beautiful girls, is relaunching as a series of television anime shorts next January. The stars of the new Robot Girls Z series will be Z-chan (a girl reimagining of Mazinger Z), Gre-chan (Great Mazinger), and Grenda-san (UFO Robo Grendizer).

Together the trio form Robot Girls Z (a.k.a. Team Z), a unit assigned to promote the future energy source Photon Energy and eliminate enemies who seek Photon Energy for themselves. (Photon Energy comes from Go Nagai's original Mazinger Z manga and anime.) Usually, the team operates from Nerima Ward Oizumi Academy's Photon Energy District in Tokyo.

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 cast includes Mariko Honda as Z-chan, Inori Minase as Gre-chan, Kazusa Aranami as Grenda-san, Aya Hisakawa as Ashura, Yukiko Morishita as Garada K7, Nao Tōyama as Daburasu M2, Kaori Takaoka as Gai-chan (Gaiking),  Satomi Satou as Gacky (Ga-Keen),  Ayumi Tsuji as Bara-tan (Baratack), and Chiharu Kitaoka as Dandan (Danguard Ace). 

The nine 10-minute shorts will have the dual themes of slice-of-life gag humor and violence. The Toei Channel will run the shorts this January, after the "episode 0" starts streaming on the official home page, Niconico, and YouTube.

The earlier Toei Robot Girls project eventually spawned a pilot film in 2011. The project had launched two years earlier to promote the various works in Toei's anime catalog.

Thanks to Liam for the news tip

[Via Yaraon!]