The 2013 edition of Anime Festival Asia has an unusual contributor: Microsoft Singapore, which celebrated the event by creating a two-minute advert for itself. The video has gained over 2 million views since its debut last week.
The cartoon personifies Internet Explorer as Inori Aizawa, an anime girl who lives in the terrifying post-apocalyptic wasteland that is the Internet. When confronted by evil virus-robots she transforms into an all-action magical girl in the tradition of Sailor Moon.
Her superpowers include an antivirus shield, all-seeing browser windows and, erm, rocket boots, which represent the browser’s incredible speed, or something. The short ends with Inori successfully fending off her foes (the biggest of which is red and suspiciously fox-like) with a barrage of lasers, leaving nothing but a gaping crater in the surrounding Internet.
