Heh ... just spotted news of this one over on Kaiju Shakedown, where it's got Grady Hendrix ready stab hot pokers into his vial organs and take the rest of humanity down with him. The cause of his despair? A new, fifty one episode television series about to air in Japan featuring such A-list directors as Takeshi Miike, Shusuke Kaneko and Mamoru Oshii. Which you would think would be a cause for celebration, really, but Hendrix is despondent because the whole thing is a glaring piece of extended product placement, really nothing more than a fifty one episode ad for a new cellphone due to release the same day as the first episode.

Titled Cell Phone Detectives it is, surprisingly enough, a detective series following a squad of cops charged with tracking digital network related criminals. This being a family show they are, of course, helped out by a teenaged kid with a sentient, transforming cellphone. Which just happens to be the new model being rolled out simultaneously with the show. Yes, a phone is the hero of the show.

And you know what? I think this could actually be fun. I mean, there's no way Miike, Oshii, Kaneko et al aren't aware of how silly the whole thing is and I don't imagine for a minute that they're not going to have a good time with it. Plus, I grew up in the era when the vast majority of Saturday morning cartoons were blatant product placements / extended advertisements and while most of them were crap some of them were pretty damn good. It all comes down to the skills of the people involved and this has some good people.