All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku

is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Yuzo Takada. It was serialized in Weekly Manga Action for only three issues in 1991, with the three published stories later compiled in a single volume collection in December 1997. The series begins as inventor Kyūsaku Natsume transplants the brain of a cat found by his son Ryūnosuke on Christmas Eve into a schoolgirl android that he created and subsequently stole from his former employer, Mishima Heavy Industries. As a result, Nuku Nuku is a catgirl. The manga was licensed by ADV Manga and published as a single volume on August 24, 2004.

All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku has been adapted into two OVAs and one anime television series. All three anime adaptations were also licensed in North America by ADV Films. An English language version of the OVA was released by Crusader Video in the United Kingdom on VHS featuring regional accents. Discotek Media has since received the license to the OVAs, TV series and its Dash!! spin-off.

Plot

The anime focuses on the custody battle for Ryūnosuke and the attempts by Akiko and Mishima Heavy Industries to reclaim Nuku Nuku's body, which often involves amusingly larger-than-life battles between Nuku Nuku and military hardware produced by Mishima Heavy Industries.

Two episodes also deal with a one-sided war between Nuku Nuku and another android named Eimi Yoshikawa, who suffers from an over-the-top inferiority complex and envies Nuku Nuku's more stable design. As it stands, Eimi was made after her and seeks to transfer her programming into Nuku Nuku to ditch her own body, which Akiko calls "a piece of junk".

Characters

• Atsuko "Nuku Nuku" Natsume – The protagonist and titular character, Nuku Nuku started out as a stray cat, RyÅ«nosuke. While on the run with her father KyÅ«saku, she stumbled upon KyÅ«saku's prototype android. She acts over-protective yet childish, being easily distracted by stereotypical feline things like mice, but shows a sincere desire to evolve and grow.
• RyÅ«nosuke Natsume – The son of a brilliant if absent minded scientist and the over protective CEO of Japan's number one weapon's manufacturer, RyÅ« has the ability of squeezing in a normal life and quality time with either of his parents. He loves Nuku Nuku as a sister, but is agitated when his father brushes off her blunders as 'just being a cat' when at the same time granting her the respect and responsibilities of a human being.
• KyÅ«saku Natsume – A scientist who created a prototype android with funding from his wife's company. However, with the amount of cash being dumped into the project he realized that his android would be sold off as a weapon. Having no desire to aid his wife's weapon's research he fled with his son in tow. He and his wife are not technically divorced and will still chat and bicker like any married couple when the chance arises. He created add-ons for Nuku Nuku on at least one occasion to outfit her for unique situations.
• Akiko Natsume – CEO of Japan's biggest military contractor, and an over-protective mother, Akiko aims to reclaim RyÅ«nosuke from her husband and capture Nuku Nuku. Despite her love of firepower, she loves RyÅ«nosuke and only wants to give her best for him.
• Eimi Yoshikawa – An android built in the image of the deceased granddaughter of KyÅ«saku Natsume's mentor, Eimi is emotionally, mentally, and physically unstable. Built in the image of a girl around RyÅ«'s age, Eimi's activation resulted in an explosion that killed her grandfather, leaving her legally the property of Akiko's company. She often lets her own impatience get the better things of her.
• Arisa Sono and Kyōko Ariyoshi: Akiko's two loyal henchwomen, they spearhead the attacks on Nuku Nuku and frequently suffer the consequences. Arisa is the more violent of the two and prefers to use weapons in order to get her way, something which Kyōko tries to restrain.

Media

Manga

The manga is published in English by ADV Manga as a single volume and was serialized in Weekly Manga Action. It was created by Yuzo Takada and originally contained three chapters which focused on Nuku Nuku trying to be a human after her brain was transferred into an android.

Anime

Cat Girl Nuku Nuku has been adapted into two OVAs and one anime. The first OVA adaptation, All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku, was directed by Yoshio Ishiwata and released in Japan as six individual episodes on both VHS and Laserdisc from November 1992. A subtitled version of the OVA was released by A.D. Vision on May 9, 1995. Crusader Video released the OVA in the United Kingdom featuring regional accents. A scene possibly alluding to masturbation was removed prior to release.

Spanning fourteen episodes, the full anime adaptation, All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku TV, was directed by Yoshitaka Fujimoto. It premiered in Japan on January 7, 1998, and ran until March 25, 1998. It introduces new characters and makes several changes to the manga story line. The third adaptation was a 12-episode OVA series called All Purpose Cultural Cat-Girl Nuku Nuku DASH! and also directed by Yoshitaka Fujimoto. It was released on DVD in three volumes from September 23, 1998, to December 23, 1998.

All three anime adaptations were originally licensed in North America by ADV Films. Discotek Media licensed the OVA, TV Series and its Dash!! spin-off for a single-disc SDBD release on August 28, 2018, which includes Crusader Video's dub of the OVA as an added bonus.

Reception

In his book Horror and Science Fiction Film IV, Donald C. Willis referred to All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku, Volume 1 as "miscalculated to be another Urusei Yatsura [...] thought it has its moments." The review also noted that "The exaggerated emotions are less amusing than wearing."

References

External links