When was the last time you sat down to watch a YouTube video by a real estate company? We’re going to assume never, because who even knew that real estate companies had YouTube accounts?

Japan’s Mitsui Real Estate Residential, however, not only has a YouTube account, but their recently posted video is becoming wildly popular. The company managed to combine their housing expertise with the fail-safe giant robot genre to create a short animated series about apartment buildings that transform into giant robots!

▼ Chou Kidou Gaiku: Kashiwa-no-Ha – “Chapter 1: The Gate Tower

The year is 2018. A young family is starting their new life together and are looking to move into a condo. They visit a model room in Kashiwa City, Chiba, and immediately fall in love with the place.

It has a nice interior, an open kitchen, a beautiful view, and is close to the train station.

▼ This is starting to sound like a commercial…

▼ The father, who is narrating, talks about the great neighborhood and community. He’s decided this is what he wants.

▼ But there’s something he didn’t know about his dream home…

▼ The buildings of Park City Kashiwa-no-Ha Campus, like The Gate Tower, which the family was about to move into, transform into giant robots! Yikes!

Kashiwa-no-Ha will have a total of three chapters, all beautifully created by the production staff of Tsukumo, a film nominated for an Academy Award in Short Animation.

Of course, being sponsored by Mitsui Real Estate, these apartment buildings actually (or will soon) exist. The whole production, in the end, is just a series of commercials for the company’s properties.

We wonder if these ads will bring people to them in stampedes, or turn people off because they don’t quite want to take that chance that their building may actually be a robot.

▼ Oh well, there goes my new TV set. I hope the cat’s all right…

Which brings us to the other big question on everyone’s minds: What happens to the people (and stuff) inside?! At a press release, Mitsui announced that the buildings can only transform if all of the residents are synchronizing their thoughts, therefore avoiding any surprise transformations, but we’re not so sure about how that will work out. I guess we’ll just have to wait and found out in chapters two and three! Stay tuned!

Source: YouTube/Mitsui Fudosan Residential Minna no Sumai, IT Media, Kashiwa-no-ha Robot

Screenshots: YouTube/Mitsui Fudosan Residential Minna no Sumai