Pretty Cure? Old hat. Madoka Magica? Nobody cares anymore. Princess Tutu? Art house garbage. The world of magical girl anime needs a new savior, and Microsoft has just come to the rescue.

Say hello to Inori Aizawa, Microsoft’s anime personification of Internet Explorer 11. This is a real marketing effort on behalf of Microsoft to get all those otaku who swear by Google Chrome to start using Internet Explorer again. Will it work? Well, Moetan effectively taught lazy Japanese otaku the English language so anything is possible.

Oh, and this isn’t some simple rebranding of their image. Microsoft even commissioned a short animation that happens to be the greatest thing you will see today. Note: For some reason, Microsoft has disabled embedded viewing but you can watch it by clicking on the video below.

Microsoft has gone all in with the magical girl image by even giving Aizawa her own generic magical girl backstory:

Hey everyone! My name is Inori and you can think of me as a personification of Internet Explorer.

When I was younger, I used to be a clumsy, slow and awkward girl.

However, just like the story of ugly duckling, people told me that 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.

Microsoft says that Aizawa was created by their Singapore offices in celebration of Anime Festival Asia 2013. She’s dedicated to “all anime fans worldwide.”

As part of the promotion, Microsoft will be releasing a special version of Internet Explorer that’s themed after Aizawa. It will be available at www.internetexplorertan.com, but the URL currently redirects to the Facebook page for now.

It should go live in the next few days. When it does, you know what to do.

[Image: internetexplorer/YouTube]
[h/t: Kotaku]