Anime 374 Bannou Bunka Neko-musume Dash

Unfortunately, I am essentially re-iterating what seems to be the popular opinion surrounding this title.

Nuku Nuku DASH is the swansong of the animated shows surrounding this cast of characters. Unlike its self-aware, wonderfully cheesy comedy predecessors, this one takes itself way too seriously despite its generic monster-of-the-week plot. I was always eager to watch another episode of the OVA or TV show, but this comparatively felt like a drag to finish. While comparing DASH to its predecessors doesn't feel fair to its own production, it heavily borrows assets from the Nuku Nuku TV show released earlier in the year which makes it easy to point ... to for reference.

Because it has a history to live up to, it falls flat by not properly adapting its characters to fit this new tone. Ryunosuke has been aged up a couple years and acts like a stereotypical bratty teenager who now has the hots for Nuku Nuku when they were simply just siblings in the other shows. In some episodes he is downright insufferable and other characters often fail to correct his behavior. He's a far cry from the straight-man that he used to be in his younger incarnations. Nuku Nuku herself no longer feels like a hyper, cat-brained androbot and lacks agency and emotions. She solely exists to be the pretty girl who Ryunosuke likes and can get mad at when he fails to convey his feelings to her like a normal person. She occasionally stops bad guys under her combat-designed facade, but she's no more than a One Punch Woman who rarely has to consider risks in her battles. Ironically enough, Nuku Nuku's transformation (basically a pair of sunglasses) is enough for everybody to immediately think she is a different person, which is a running gag throughout the TV show aired earlier in the year.

It appears the same director was behind both the TV show and DASH. Comedy was likely more of their strong-suit as a result. A more serious attempt at telling a story with these characters was and still is possible, this just felt like a half-baked attempt. If the two main stars of the show, Ryunosuke and Nuku Nuku, weren't so respectively annoying and vapid, this would probably receive a stronger recommendation. As it is, I can only recommend it to those who have a completest / OCD problem like me and wanted to see what all the Nuku Nuku multiverse had to offer. If not, there's still pleasant animation and a memorable soundtrack that heavily utilizes the Roland D-50, so that's gotta mean something to somebody (also me).

im not good at writing a true reviews, but i am good at telling you what its like, and im taking into consideration that it was made in 1998 as well as standards of today.

SHORT REVIEW. if you got time to kill and like the idea of a robotic catgirl like thing, go for it, you could do worse, but dont go out of your way to see it.

now on to the long one

first their is the story. and may be spoilers here, so stop here if you dont like them.

the story goes, girl shows up, weirdness happens that you wont understand for a ... while, than when you do you are wondering wtf? really? how? when? why? and again HOW? their are some unanswered questions, and stupid points but even for back than these were things that should have been smoothen out.

back than the animation was above what was on tv, but below the best of it time, so it got 7.

im not a good judge of sound but if there was more than 1 meow type from the kittens it would have gotten a 10

characters are interesting, and i usually disregard the end arc what happens to the characters, because they are usually handled so badly its hard to watch, generally interesting characters, but little done with them, i put that on the story fault, so characters alone get a 9

but enjoyment is slightly above baseline for what i expected, and over all was slightly better than expected.

I've talked about Nuku Nuku twice. The first time being the OVA, which was really good. The second time being the twelve episode series, which was still good stuff. This one is also by Ashi Productions, now called Production Reed, and was released the same year as the other TV series, 1998. So, does it hold up as well as the other two? Let's start Dash and see.

Story:

One day Ryuunosuke, fourteen years old, arrives at home to find his parents fighting in another room while an attractive young lady waits awkwardly. She introduces herself as Higuchi Atsuko, but prefers to be called Nuku Nuku. Due ... to family circumstances, she'll be staying with his family for a while. At roughly the same time, Ryuunosuke's mother, Akiko, is sent by Mishima Industries to find and recover an escaped weapon. Unbeknownst to her, that escaped weapon has just moved into her home. It's a good thing that cameras don't exist in this universe, otherwise Mishima might have a picture to show her and this would end in five minutes. But this is supposedly a comedy, right? So, we can excuse the narrative being a transparent excuse plot, right?

Well, that's the biggest problem with this series. It wants to be a comedy, but it also wants to tell a more serious story that deals with death and loss and has tragic moments. As such, the comedy is frequently downplayed in favour of story. Except that the story is a complete and utter mess. It's full of plot points that make no sense and the attempts at more serious scenes fall apart based on how ridiculous the underlying premise of a cat-brained android is. The premise works fine for the OVA and Nuku Nuku TV because they're over the top, zany comedies. It doesn't work when you try to be semi-serious with it. So, those moments fail, what about the comedy? I'm sorry to say it, but the comedy in this is really weak. A lot of the characters have one or two rather generic gags that they're used for. Not only that, but the comedic moments themselves frequently lack any kind of actual pay off. Take Ryuunosuke's big joke, he's an awkward teenager who has a crush and doesn't know how to handle it. He'll get into situations where he'll do something embarrassing that could potentially lead to a funny reaction, someone will catch him and then they just won't react, thereby killing any chance at an actual joke. The attempts at romance in this are just wretched. It's like they took elements from the world's blandest romantic comedy, beat them with the proverbial idiot stick, used them to fill in gaps with no care for structure or context and called it good. At best it's slightly cringe-worthy. At worst it's downright painful.

To the series' credit, there are some comedic scenes that do partially work. The stuff with the Red Riding Hood inspired character is actually pretty entertaining for the most part. I also have to give them credit for trying to do something different, even if they didn't do it remotely well.

Characters:

The characters in this are pretty bad. Ryuunosuke is an annoyance. Nuku Nuku's gone from a vivacious, high-energy and always entertaining character to an insipid one. Akiko and Kyusaku spend most of their time bickering, and not in a funny way. In a more uncomfortable and awkward way. The other parts of the franchise may not have had strong developed characters but at least they were entertaining and played off of each other well for comedic purposes. This series doesn't even have that.

Art:

The art in this one, like the other two, is really dated but, generally fine. It's a bit odd that they give Nuku Nuku green hair in this instead of her usual red, but there's nothing wrong with that change. The biggest problems are the gratuitous fan-service and the action sequences. In the other two instalments, the action sequences are lively, eye-catching and have a strong level of controlled chaos. They're pretty well done. In this series, the action sequences are slow and boring. They involve a lot of standing still and talking. Because that's what makes for a dynamic action sequence.

Sound:

To Dash's credit, they did get a strong vocal cast. Hayashibara Megumi, Kamiya Akira, Ikura Kazue and the other actors all do fine. You won't hear their best performances in this, given the material, but they're fine. The music is the strongest part of the series. The themes in particular are really good, musically.

Ho-yay:

There's a little bit. There's a scene where Nuku Nuku treats one of Akiko's wounds and the “joke” is that it looks like a yuri scene. The way the Red Riding Hood character talks about chasing her target, Nuku Nuku, sounds like she's referring to a romantic interest. Of course, neither scene ultimately goes anywhere.

Final Thoughts:

All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku Dash is a disappointment. The comedy is weak, rarely getting so much as a chuckle. The attempts at being more serious really hurt it and the romance elements are terrible. The characters are boring. The art is weak and the voice acting is just passable. So, if you want to watch a series about a cat-brained android, watch one of the others. My final rating for this one is a 3/10. It's just bad. Next week, to tie into the year I had yuri anime month in January, I'll look at Yuru Yuri San Hai.