This is the episode I was waiting for and Shaft delivered. This whole Roboko arc is such a tonal whiplash and the author somehow manages to keep it hilarious. This show ranks up there with Nichijou as one of the most needlessly well animated shows, but I appreciate it so much.

They animated the cabbage so well that I thought it was real life footage! /s

Some of the references in this episode:

The scene with Roboko’s schematics

@rikka@ani.social

…is a reference to the 1972 Mazinger Z ED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYzzcOZQCMc

Note the “lego studs” background in the original has been changed to ninja stars in this reference.

The start is right at the beginning, if you skip to 1:00 in the ED you’ll see the half cutaway drawings.

They got that down to the weird shading, which is from the technique the 1970s animators used to transfer their drawings to cels using photocopying machines. Large dark areas just turned out like that on really old photocopiers.

Roboko’s powers to shoot beams from her eyes and chest is again a reference to Mazinger Z’s powers shown in the 1972 OP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyRoF689VRE&t=31s

Oddly enough Mazinger almost never uses those powers, or they’re really ineffective, otherwise the episodes would have been over with really quickly.

Some references when the screen turns all CRT/raster-ized, I am not familiar with.

I’m guessing Nichijou?

This one, I have no idea.