Nobody remembers Z-Mind, but that's exactly what makes it work, four girls juggling convenience store shifts and giant robot combat with the same exhausted energy. The show treats world-saving like a second job that pays nothing, which is funnier and more human than any mecha that pretends the stakes are everything. This is 1999 doing what it does best: mixing genres until something genuinely weird emerges, refusing to choose between comedy and action because why would it.

Ayame, Sumire, Renge and Satsuki are given the job of protecting the Earth from a powerful new enemy. To do it, the four girls must learn to operate Z-Mind, an experimental mobile armor. They also have to keep up with their part-time jobs and hold on to ordinary lives while the forces of evil try to conquer the planet. The six-episode OVA from 1999 is a throwback mecha action story built around its four heroines.