Note: I watched the 2013 reaired version Episode 0 Just so fun and striking. No one is doing it like Rie Matsumoto especially when paired with Yuuki Hayashi. 8.5 maybe even an 9 with all my biases. One of the mediums highest peaks of visual experimentation creativity and importantly raw fun and personality. Rie Matsumotos work never slows down in how much it tries to do and this preview OVA is far from an exception. Yuuki Hayashis incredible character designs and animation direction lead to some of the most expressive character animation in the industry incredibly fun and distinct capable of smoothness and charming choppiness and endlessly malleable to Matsumotos ridiculous compositions and aesthetic and charming in and of itself. Rie Matsumotos eye for colour Yuki Akimoto on colour design is of extreme note and has been further improved since this OVA bright and aggressive colours that pop off each other a welcome assault to the senses throughout. Merged with the character designs and animation bouncing off of both it all creates a sense of vibrancy and exaggerated fun that cannot be matched. Matsumotos compositions are also some of the best in the industry in my opinion warped in many places with lens effects at times allowing for really expressive and aesthetically pleasing shots utilising malleability of environments and character designs. She can frame shots close up to take advantage of expressive facial expressions and animations or in the distance to allow choppy distance animation to show its own kind of extreme charm. She can even do both at the same time and loves to do exactly that utilising both foreground and background in her multilayered visual approach a complementary contrast within shots. https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/64d323c2ad9aa852c52c3a4e27448ea1.mp4 Striking framing utilising the angles provided by the tower and a use of the mentioned charming animation placed at a degree of distance Matsumotos multilayered approach impactful use of both foreground and background to create scale and space and utilise the charms of both. https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/a4a1e22f1478ba12a2205ebc0aec2731.mp4 Stunning animation by Hayashi with great impact and charm and a variety of striking compositions. The car also transitions between foreground and background as a solid example of that. Matsumoto also loves to transition between the foreground and background to really utilise animes ability for charmingly stylised character expression in every sense or to create a sense of dynamism and scale. Her compositions the warped perspectives and such can be incredibly fun in the ways characters express but they can also lead to extremely considered shots with a sense of shape and also a sense of scale a powerful theatrical nature. Her sharp angular panelling here works to a similar effect and her use of CGI here her editing quirks and her match cuts as well as colour and visual stylisations such as manga onomatopoeia screens and so forth. To put it simply. Matsumotos direction complemented particularly well by Yuuki Hayashi is so unbelievably striking yet unbelievably fun funny and emotional and her ability to do all these things to balance all of this all while never not being fun is why she is one of the best directors in the medium if not the best. Her visuals are always so expressively warped or framed her storyboards so strikingly composed her multilayered approach unrivalled. Her work is just so dense yet fun and readable. Its chaotic yet controlled. Fun yet powerful. Its just really really great and I love it. An adrenaline filled burst of fun yet heart. I could go on but without spamming screenshots and sakuga clips it will all end up as white noise a barrage of praise. But thats exactly what it all deserves me just throwing my praise on this review because I am just so entertained and awed whether it makes sense or not or I can truly explain. Its just so fun and expressive so unrestrained yet measured.