An anime genre that isn't present much anymore is the robot anime, I don't mean the giant robot anime, I mean the anime shows where it's about a robot that looks and acts like a human but isn't. Half the reason for these shows disappearance is that it all came down to the same thing, reluctant male with no social skills falls in love with a high powered, pretty girl robot. It flooded the 90s anime market before dying out during the new millennium era where the super elite anime dominate the market and as of writing still do. But hidden amongst the tired formula was a show that could've been great if given the right care, a series that could've saved Megaman's reputation and in turn restore faith in the genre, that series is Twin Signal.

The show begins with Professor Otoi and his Grandson Nobu building a new robot called Signal, a pretty boy robot (makes a change) with impossibly long hair built specifically for combat and to act as a big brother to Nobu, the scene ends with a sneeze as we cut to the amazing opening theme and it's amazing animation sequence. This opening deserves the award for biggest troll as we are exposed to all these amazing characters with amazing fight scenes and amazing emotional attachment that look incredible; but sadly unless you've read the manga you will not know who these characters are nor are you going to see them in this OVA.
We then start the first episode properly with Nobu fishing with some cat creature while Signal breaks rocks to train, that is until Nobu sneezes and that apparently changes Signal into a chibi version; remember the sneeze before the opening? Well according to Otoi's explanation the technology in Signal doesn't know how to properly interpret a sneeze so recognizes it as a transformation command, so we end up with a chibi version who loves chocolate and behaves like a four year old on pixie sticks.
At this point we get to the first of many immortal dub lines which deserves some award on it's own.
Chibi-Signal: Look it's the sea! It's the sea!
Nobu: That's not a sea it's a lake.
Chibi-Signal: *Thinking* I see! It's a lake full of lots of sea!
In between scenes we see some henchman try to steal a data disk, while Otoi's assistant Chris sleeps after working on her own robot.
Also we get another immortal dub line.
Police Robot: Ah it's a fine day.
Officer: How can a robot appreciate a fine day?
Police Robot: Well I feel rusty when it rains.
The rest of the episode sets up the story and plays with lots of slapstick. We are introduced to some more characters towards the end including the robot Erala played by Misty, I mean Rachel Lillis; we also find out from Otoi's son & his wife (who looks about 12 years old) that Pulse, another robot and Signal's prototype has been stolen and in another twist he equipped Pulse with lasers and two giant arm blades. It's also at this point that the villain enters the scene revealing himself to be Otoi's old rival Umenokoji and finally Signal finds Pulse and they start fighting. Episode 2 starts as Pulse and Signal end their first fight with Signal going chibi and Pulse apparently not seeing it. Pulse is very short sighted as hilariously stated in Signal & Pulse's first meeting by Flag, another robot that accompanies Pulse.
Chris then decides to send her own robot after Pulse but is then stopped by Signal because his honor as a fighter shall not be disgraced by seeing it attack Pulse while he's resting. A quick fight with Chris's robot sends it out of control and it throws Signal through a hundred trees and flying off a cliff. Meanwhile Erala after an incident with dishes which she apologizes to, gets led to the villain's castle of the promise of new dishes in which she ends up a hostage. Umenokoji who looks like Santa Claus if he were out of work and living on benefits is confused by this but still takes Erala hostage, in the meantime he's trying to work out how to decode the data disk by playing a game of Whack-a-mole.
Onto episode 3 and Signal wakes up with a destroyed arm & leg but is interrupted by Chris's robot again as round 2 begins but this time Signal's jacket & hair changes color which unleashes enough power to destroy the robot, it is then we build up to the final climax as Signal again takes on Pulse at the castle, Erala is saved not before leaving the villains with diarrhea with her cooking (Erala is a domestic robot) and then causing the place to blow up by mixing up the cables she tripped over on. Nobu gets lost looking for Signal but ends up nearly crushed by stone pillars which Signal saves him from, he's in a bad position and it looks like Pulse is about to finish him off when he decides to have his own honor and let Signal leave. The OVA ends with Pulse coming back and joining the family followed by more jokes about Pulse's eye sight.
The most pressing matter about this show's failure to get a series lies in the fact that it's too child friendly, so much so that a company like 4Kids don't need to cut anything and already has it's voice cast. The gritty scenes shown in the opening portray a much darker more ambitious project and should've been used instead. It's the same problem I have with Megaman, the shows we do get are too child friendly while the more serious stuff gets little to no recognition.
It's still a nice series with some hilarious dialogue and decent action and indicates how many good ideas the manga artists in the 90s had, but sadly a show like this will never get it's reward and will stay a bargain bin anime.
Final Verdict: Watch to give yourself some ideas on character designs to help launch your own series or if you want to see something with cheesy dialogue.