The show moves faster than its own premise can keep up with, cramming otaku culture satire, mecha action, and genuine emotional wreckage into 12 episodes that feel like they're arguing with themselves about what they want to be. Hosomichi's debt spiral and identity crisis land harder than they have any right to in a show that starts as a joke about censored anime. The real hook: watching a group of women who understand loss use piloting giant robots as a metaphor for reclaiming agency they never knew they had.

In 2019, a tear opens in the sky above Japan and reveals Shinkoku Nippon, a parallel world where sky and ground are inverted and militarism never ended, its era frozen as Eternal Showa. Its forces invade with towering humanoid machines called Garann and a gas known as Genmu that leaves modern weaponry useless, and they swiftly seize the government. Under their rule, manga, anime and idols appear to be censored. In the illicit shops of Akihabara, though, Hosomichi joins a band of female freedom fighters made up of pilots and otaku. The result is a mecha action comedy built on a science fiction premise.