A boy and his Arnval Shinki, nicknamed Ann, move to his hometown in Japan to start high school. As Ann helps unpack her master's things while he's at school, his other Shinki, Ines and Lene, help her out and discover a box labelled 'Important'. After tidying up the place, they inadvertently send a knife flying into the 'Important' box and decide to check the contents, finding a love letter inside - a love letter they promptly lose... 5-inch tall female-form robots (with skimpy outfits to match), capable of turning in an instant into little battle robots capable of flattening your apartment - and, in the case of our nameless male lead's Shinki, they're mostly suffering from a bad case of the warm fuzzies when it comes to their owner that leads to them getting all flustered over the thought of a love letter, and quite keen on the idea of cooking him a love-filled dinner. No small task when you're so small. It's all enough to push the "D'awwwwww...." meter past critical. I wasn't too sure when I started on Busou Shinki what I was going to get from it, and after the opening two episodes I'm tending to think they've focussed on the wrong aspect - the battle scenes are great, fluidly animated with great action and plenty of explosions, but it's on the I-wanna-be-your-one-and-only aspect that most of the time is spent, andto be honest I can get my fill of that from shows featuring full-sized humans. The only reasons to go for Busou Shinki in preference would be if you've a thing for miniatures or ball-joints. I know you're out there. THE GOOD: Nice battles, cute character designs, and Hina should meet anyone's tsundere needs. THE BAD: Too lovey-dovey for its own good. I admit it, I just more action. I can't say I didn't like this, but it would definitely have more potential if it had gone in a different direction than the opening episodes did. I'll keep watching for a few more and see how it goes. Busou Shinki is streamed by The Anime Network (North America) and, when they get themselves together, Anime On Demand (UK & Ireland).
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