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All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku Dash!

Mode-One (Volume #1)

English Dubbed Version

Released: 2003

Version: DVD (ADV)

Approx. Rating: PG-13 (brief nudity, profanity)

Length: Approx. 100 minutes

Japanese Cast: Megumi Hayashibara (as Nuku Nuku), Kazue Ikura (as Ryunoksuke), Akira Kamiya (as Kyusaku Natsume), Saeko Shimizu (as Akiko Natsume), Akiko Matsudaira (as Arisa Sono)

Nuku Nuku Dash! is the 3rd series of the Nuku Nuku series. The first one was a set of 6 OAVs, and the 2nd was a terrible TV show of 26 episodes. Recently, ADV released this third series (which I've heard labeled OAVs as well) in the USA. While I didn't find it as awful as did T.H.E.M. Anime, I don't think it was that great either.

The story is that Nuku Nuku is some kind of robot/android that escaped Mishima Industries and has almost no memory (none of which is explained on this DVD). Her real name is "Atsuko Higuchi" and is 19 years old. Ryunosuke Natsume sees Nuku Nuku rescue a cat and falls in love with her. I guess he falls in love with every big-chested girl he comes across, otherwise how would this make any sense?

For some reason (also unexplained), Nuku Nuku ends up at Ryunosuke's house and his father, Kyusaku, knows she's a robot (again, who knows why he knows this!?). One more point: Kyusaku not only knows she's a robot, but he knows how to get her to obey him so he can work on her in his "mad scientist" lab. It should be noted right now that Ryunosuke is now 14 rather than 10 years old or less like in the other two series. This means that he has puberty problems. Basically, every episode contain multiple dreams of him with Nuku Nuku. He's a pervert and he makes me sick. I think all of them show him basically humping his pillow as he chants Nuku's name. Gah!

Akiko, Ryunosuke's mom, isn't as over-the-top mad as she was in the original OAVs. She's just an angry girl that's pretty wimpy and works a lot for Mishima Industries. She is (of course) assigned to track down the escaped android and she has no idea Nuku Nuku is it. You see, whenever Nuku Nuku has to do battle with Mishima's toys, she goes into "Tactical Mode," a recycled sequence in every episode where some red and white clothing envelopes her and makes her breasts go "boing!" Also before the "transformation" she hears a voice telling her to protect innocents and then she has her own little "I'm created to do such-and-such" mantra that she does after or before changing. Argh! It's obnoxious.

Arisa and Kyoko (the two nutty girls from the OAVs that used to work for and admire Akiko) finally show up in the 4th episode. Unfortunately, they're even lamer than in the OAVs as Kyoko is constantly blowing herself and Arisa up.

Here's a run down of how each episode plays out: Ryunosuke gets red in the face for most of the show as he looks / dreams / or falls into Nuku Nuku's chest. Nuku Nuku gets more cat-like with each episode, although she goes all blank-eyed when it's time to fight. The fights usually come in the 2nd half of the episode and they typically end faster than it took Nuku Nuku to transform. For example, Nuku Nuku goes up against a big robotic Mishima helicopter. What does she do to destroy it? She scratches it and it explodes! What is going on here!?!

The Good Stuff:

The Bad Stuff:

While there are some almost heart-warming sequences in this show, for the most part it's a blasé piece of anime that doesn't continue the coolness of the OAVs. On the upside, it seems to be better written than the Nuku Nuku TV series. I only recommend this to hardcore Nuku Nuku fans and people that like lots of stock footage.

OVERALL SCORE: 1/2 (not a terrible cartoon, but not one that I'll want to see a lot of)