Like I imagine a lot of these lower budget independent projects turn out, I think this would have been better pitched as a proof of concept than it is as a more complete work. As a proof of concept, there'd be a huge amount that should convince someone to put some more budget into it. There are definitely some strong concepts in there, a pair of protagonists I'd like to learn more about, strong vocal performances (always easier to make the standout with a lower-budget piece), and a really, really nice hero mecha design. Unfortunately, it suffers from its budget and runtime. It crams alot of story into a 30 minute film, which means not only is it incredibly fast paced, but also doesn't really explain anything. You sort of pick some of it up, perhaps more than you'd expect even, but I can't really tell you what the story was past the broadest of shapes. The animation is also fairly poor, not unreasonable for an independent piece, but that doesn't actually make it better - although the mecha battles, not limited by having to give some approximation of human movement, manage to be a lot stronger than those human scenes.

If, like Mecha-Ude releasing next year, this short and its sequels picked up enough traction for a bigger studio to bite, I'd be thrilled. With a proper budget, the story you can get your head around is strong enough that I definitely think a fully produced version would be pretty incredible. But this isn't that version, and if it's to be seen as anything other than a proof of concept, those ideas aren't quite enough to make this stand on its own merits.