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Steel Angel Kurumi

Vol. #1: Angel on my Shoulder

English Dubbed and Subbed Version 

AKA: Kôtetsu tenshi Kurumi

Version: DVD (ADV)

Approx. Rating: R (Due to the nudity. PG - PG-13 for language)

Length: Approx. 90 minutes (15 minutes per episode)

English Cast: Kelli Cousins (as Kurumi), Monica Rial (as Saki), Charles Rocket (as Dr. Hakase Ayanokoji, Kira Vincent-Davie (as Nakahito), Shelly Carlene-Black (as Dr.Amagi)

Synopsis:

A boy named Nakahito is forced to explore a "mad" scientist's mansion by some of his "friends." While there, he awakens a beautiful girl. He soon learns that she is actually an android of sorts named Kurumi and whoever awakens her is her master. 

This show is set in the late 1800's to early 1900's, and yet they have odd military robot-vehicles and then there's Kurumi. The army wants her and seems to want to do anything necessary to do so

The Review:

Now this is a weird show too. It begins with a bunch of middle school students wanting to go visit some mansion that they've heard of. Supposedly, this mansion has a crazy scientist that's killed his wife or something. Everyone wants to go check it out except one.

The one that doesn't want to go is some kind of mystic priest's kid named Nakahito. Anyway, the other brats force him to and they end up shoving him through a window into the mansion's basement. He tries to get out and while doing that, the army arrives and starts attacking the place. Right before the attack, Nakahito stumbles upon a girl and accidentally kisses her, thus awakening the girl. It turns out she's a robot and yes, she's dressed as a maid.

Her maker, Dr. Ayanokoji, is who the army is after. They want Ayanokoji's "Steel Angels" of which, Kurumi (the girl Nakahito kissed) is one. The army is led by Dr. Amagi, a good-looking lady that used to be a student or collaborator of Ayanokoji. Anyway, Kurumi won't listen to anyone except the person that awakened her, which means Nakahito is her master.

Now you have the premise for the first two episodes. The next 3 are about Kurumi's sister's awakening by the enemy and her fight with her, among other things.

The show itself is quite silly and can be endearing at times. Kurumi is dumb, but sweet and I really like her voice in Japanese. The English version is okay, but she sounds like a dumb blond. Also, the English dub seems to have more language than the subbed version.

Steel Angel Kurumi is unique in that all the episodes are approximately 15 minutes in length. This makes most of the endings into cliff hangers of sorts. It is quite well done for such a short amount of time to tell a story.

The Good Stuff:

The Bad Stuff:

Overall, I enjoyed this show. The preview for the episode on the next disk makes me wonder if this show will continue to be good. As it is, I thought it was good. However, it is not recommended for youngsters.