Microsoft have made an Internet Explorer anime series [Video]

So Microsoft have decided to fix that by making a cartoon series where Internet Explorer - personified by a short-skirted schoolgirl - fights evil Internet robots.

Yep.

The anime (Japanese-style animation) series was launched a few hours ago, and features Inori Aizawa, a character designed to represent Internet Explorer.

You can watch the full two-minute first episode below. It's … amazing, really.

On the official Facebook page, Aizawa 'tells' us "When I was younger, I used to be a clumsy, slow and awkward girl."

"[But] I have really matured and changed over the years. I feel confident in my abilities now, and I'm eager to show you what I can do."

Subtle.

We bet that's some sort of super-mega anti-virus shield.

But here's where it gets really interesting.

On July 8, 2013, KC Komicer wrote a blog post on collateralds.com called "The Story of Aizawa Inori."

In it, he details how, after seeing someone else's artwork online of the three other popular browsers turned into people, he asked himself: 'where is Internet Explorer'?

Pic: Collateralds.com

The blog post goes on to detail concept creation, the marketing plan, why they made certain decisions, and the fact that it was all just a private project - they weren't doing it on the Microsoft dime.

Pic: Collateralds.com

In fact, the post ends with the words: "Microsoft. Call Me." Which at some point has been crossed out and replaced with a smiley face.

Someone at Microsoft obviously did make that call.

The big question is whether this is marketing genius - we're talking about it here, after all - or completely frivolous stuff from one of the world' biggest technology corporations.

But I have to confess, I can't wait to see the next one.