_Heaven's Design Team_
Fidgit: That was the Supreme Being.
Kevin: You mean God?
Fidgit: Well, we don't know Him that well. We only work for Him.
This one is available on Crunchyroll.
In the begining, God created the heavens and the earth.
He followed them with light, waters, and the land.
Then he created the many animals that would inhabit it.
Or... that was the plan.
It got too tedious, so he outsourced it.
(This is the actual cold-open voiceover!)
The opening shows the various members of the design team showcasing various animals.
Shimoda, a newly-hired angel is to be the communications liaison between the team and God. (He looks like a young salaryman, with a hint of dishevelment.)
Today, they're working on the client request: an animal to eat leaves that are very high up.
The Chief, Tsuchiya, suggests a Pegasus. Flight will let it reach.
Tsuchiya is famous for creating the horse and now bases all his designs on it.
Mizushima proposes something called a Ping-pong tree. it's telescoping trunk lets it move up and down and sticky balls capture prey.
He's completely ignored the target, which he calls innovation.
Meido likes it. She done designs for carnivorous plants before.
Unabara has come up with a long-necked deer. It's a simple design, but why not.
They submit the designs to Higuchi, the engineer, for prototyping.
She comes out, menacing, to remind Tsuchiya that she has told him before that the pegasus is not viable.
The ping-pong tree won't hold up under gravity.
So I guess it's got to be the deer.
Needs work though. The neck is so long that the heart can't get blood to the brain. It collapses immediately.
Perhaps extending the legs will help?
The crew has another person who's only interested in how the animal looks and another who only cares about how it tastes. I haven't seen their names yet though.
Anyway, the client approves, and the Giraffe is born.
Kanamori, designer of birds, is very upset about snakes that eat the bird's eggs. She's looking for some kind of defense.
A nest with a bottom entry would allow the birds in while keeping the snakes out.
(Approved: Weaver Bird.)
And then, Revenge!
(Approved: Secretary Bird.)
Unabara field-tests the anteater in the testing island in the Galapagos.
Kimura tries to make a living sausage. Unabara suggests adding defense and turns it into an armadillo.
Every so often they break the fourth wall for a guide to bizarre animals that actually exist.
God orders an animal that's "cute, but not cute"
How about a Koala? They eat poison and poop and the males have two penises. And it has a terrifying growl.
(Approved!)
Wanted: animals with cool weapons.
Tsuchiya tries to invent the Unicorn.
It gets osteoporosis from using all its calcium on the horn.
Kimura's Elk is much mor effective, due to its multiple stomachs increasing nutrition absorption.
You'd do much better if it was on a cow.
Can we get a viable unicorn?
What if the horn is hollow?
The brain uses a lot of energy, what if we make it really stupid?
Nothing works.
Unabara, finding a discarded horn from testing, attaches it to the narwhal and is instantly approved.
A rash of interest in aquatic mammals leads to all kinds of dolphins being designed.
Meido is worried about her squids, so tries to upgrade them to giant size. Unabara creates super-sized whales to retaliate!
Tsuchiya gets the seahorse approved while no one else is watching.
An attempt to make the dragon work fails, but at least they get the flying snake out of it.
The seahorse's sex gets mislabeled, but they make it work anyway.
God approves a child's scribble. The team invent the elephant to retrieve it, and the scribble becomes hallucigenia.
(The subs have changed everyone's names just to fuck with me.)
They try for the pegasus again, but this time Kanamori gets the design. She ends up making bats.
For follow-ups:
A brid that shines like a gem - the hummingbird.
A bird that makes gems - the ostrich.
A request for more striped animals get the zebra and the giant panda
The panda is accidentally crossed with the starfish leading to a swarm of duplicate pandas.
Ueda, personnel director (?) for the firm curses the pandas to deal with them and is sent to hell. (Is this a joke?)
Ueda was called away on a sudden business trip. Hell is, of course, other contractors. (Tell me about it.)
When she returns, she brings Yokota, who has design requests from Hell. He liked the multiplying pandas and would like the team's help designing zombies.
Also, he wants a mascot for Hell.
Two designs are prepared: Cerberus, based on the wolf, and a Three-headed dragon, based on the crocodile. Yokota buys both.
--
Discussions over lunch lead to the approval of the Lobster and the Sea Otter.
The team takes a vacation trip. Well, for those that aren't done it's a working vacation.
This give the opportunity for a hot springs episode, a sharknado parody and a murder mystery.
Animals accepted: flamingo, rattlesnake, California ground squirrel, hammerhead shark.
You know when it feels like you're being watched, but no one's there? Make that an animal. (Crocodile Icefish)
An attempt to decipher a child's drawing produces the tarsier.
Trying to make an animal with good hearing cycles through several awful goblins before making the owl.
Attempts to rearrange rib bone structure lead to turtles on defense and the Iberian ribbed newt on offense.
An attempt to provide courtship behaviors that make your heart throb produces the Long Tailed Manakin, the Staurois frog, and the hooded seal.
A request for an animal that tickles the maternal instinct leads Meido to create Rhizocephala. Yuck.
Kimura and Unabara compete to design the penguin. Who will win? (God: por qué no los dos?)
Shenanigans leas to the team being regressed to children and left in a jungle infested by piranha and crocodiles. They get better.
While trying to invent a messenger demon for Hell, Unabara accidentally creates the rabbit.
God wants an animal suitable for Earth and Hell, that surprises even the angels.
The team considers dusting off the Tyrannosaurus, but goes with the Superb Lyrebird, whose mimicry makes the team think God is watching over their shoulder.
A discussed of draft designs leads to the team expressing their appreciation for Shimoda.
A wild OVA appears!
Kanamori accidentally designs the Kiwi while trying to make the last bird-like bird possible.
The team get an impossible request:a creature that doesn't sink, is immune to extremes of heat an cold, requires very little water, and can stand on painful ground.
Each of them take a separate requirement and build their own creature to fulfill it.
Tsuchiya opts out: because, as they say, the Camel is a Horse that was designed by committee.
So, that's the show.
What's my takeaway?
It's fine. Light entertainment with nothing big ever really on the line. Good for a light interlude or a brief laugh.
If it sounds like a fun premise, you'll enjoy it.
It does remind me, vaguely of the edutainment cartoons that run on PBS. I wonder if it had a lot of young viewers in Japan, or if it was on at anime o'clock, so they couldn't actually watch it.
(Does broadcast time still exist?)
There's a running gag about replacing school with anime. This will fit right into the Zoology slot. Maybe watch _Cells at Work_ along with it to widen out your biology?
(This is a meme, not a real recommendation.)
Depending on your source, the characters either have their Japanese names, or are named after the planets: Venus/Mars/Saturn, etc.
I'm too lazy to confirm it, but I suspect the correspondence is direct.
Shimoda give us a classic technique of injecting a character who doesn't understand, so he can ask questions of the experts, who can explain to him, and hence, to the audience.
Don't knock the trick, they even use it in the Bible.
My opening snark ("Well, we don't know Him that well. We only work for Him.") Is from _Time Bandits_, which is almost, but not entirety, unlike this show.
I wish to register a complaint with the internet:
There are at least 20 variants of the "God has spoken" moment in this show, and the only sign of it I could find was this one:
This should be a standard reaction image by now. What are you people even doing?
Infohazard warning:
I regret to inform you that the opening song is an earworm that is still stuck in my head!
Shimoda tests a device that let's him experience animal society. The society of the Naked Mole Rat, that is. (Approved!)
A request for a regenerating animal leads to a discussion of how aging helps animal populations and the creation of the Immortal Jellyfish. (Approved!)