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Steel Angel Kurumi

Vol. #3: Where Angels Fear to Tread

English Dubbed and Subbed Version 

AKA: Kôtetsu tenshi Kurumi

Version: DVD (ADV)

Approx. Rating: R (Due to 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:

Go read one of the other Steel Angel Synopsis's

The Review:

Kurumi continues to be a wonderful mix of humor and serious back story. Unfortunately, it continues to have plenty of fan-service. The cover keeps up the tradition of putting one of the major characters on the cover, nude but covered with the title. Silly.

The first of the 6 episodes on this disc, #13 continued the battle between Kurumi and the new steel angel, Karinka. Lots of fighting ensues with that idiot Nakahito not being able to do anything. I keep thinking that they focus on him for a reason, such as he becomes the uber-mystic, but no such luck. He's just a dope that stands around and sometimes gets hurt. Boring.

Karinka seems to have the ability to split herself up and fight from multiple directions at once. I'm not sure if this is some kind of built-in projection system or what, but it's pretty lame. And it's never explained. Oh well. They still use those neat stills when one of the characters gets a major whack, which is cool and it makes the impact more dramatic.

I should mention here that Kurumi tries to kiss Karinka after the battle and she almost does before Karinka wakes up and shoves her aside. Right before Kurumi tries the kissing maneuver, she was going to blow Karinka's head off. Nakahito saw black wings on Kurumi's back and he manages to stop her from killing Karinka.

The 14th episode contains Karinka's repeated attempts to find out Kurumi's "secret" source of enormous power. Kurumi and Nakahito go to an amusement park while Saki is being repaired after her battle with Karinka. This is the location where Karinka tries to learn the secret. She does this by dressing up as a "hard-working" girl and doing surveys. It's quite funny, but this is one of the foulest episodes I've seen on any anime when it comes to language content.

Karinka swears like a sailor, especially in the dub. They tone it down some for the sub, but there's still a lot there, especially so when you consider that the episode is only 15 minutes long. In the 15th episode, Karinka attempts to join the group by pretending that the kiss she didn't receive has made her better. This one also continues Karinka's quest of Kurumi's secret. Both the girls and Nakahito go to work at a restaurant and it's a pretty silly show. There's a lot of slapstick and visual humor in it. This episode also has some disturbing stuff about poking breasts and breast size which I won't go into...

Finally in episode #16, Karinka manages to kiss Nakahito. For some reason, she thinks this will not only give her power, but also the bust and bum of Kurumi. Yes, Karinka fantasies about it. Argh!

In the 17th episode, Kurumi wants to know who her master loves the most since she found out about his kissing Karinka. Nakahito never says and he is soon kidnapped again. This time he's taken to The Academy by a very strange kid that looks like he's just a hair older than Nakahito.

The last episode is mostly just the weird kid from the 17th show telling Nakahito why they should deactivate Kurumi and what the Angel Heart Mark II is. We also learn some more about those black wings.

Other than the show getting a lot more serious during the last few episodes, this disc is like all the others. Plenty of funny stuff, a heavy dose of nudity (or other sexual theme) and language and very good music.

The Good Stuff:

The Bad Stuff:

I still enjoy this show, but some times I wonder why. The story and art are great, but the violence, language, and sexuality can get to be too much. Recommended for adult audiences only.