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Review

by Maral Agnerian,

Steel Angel Kurumi (TV)

VHS fansub

Synopsis:
Steel Angel Kurumi
A shy kid named Nakahito who lives at a shrine is dared to go into the house of "Professor Evil" by his friends, only to find a girl lying in an abandoned room. He figures out that she's a robot, but is still amazed. In fact, he goes in for a closer look. Suddenly, military guys who are passing by fire a shot and the house shakes. The girl falls on top of Nakahito and kisses him. This action awakes the robot girl from her deep slumber and she now acknowledges the boy as her master and totally devotes herself to protecting him. The military wants to use the 'Steel Angels' as weapons, but their creator won't let them be used for violence. (Apparently he only makes robots for kinky sex-slave purposes...) She has super strength and speed, of course. And so the incredibly derivative story of a boy and an affectionate robot-savior starts.... Eventually, the 2nd and 3rd androids (or Angels) come into the story.
Review:
You know, when you can tell from the first 2 minutes of a show what's going to happen for the entire series, it either means you've seen too much anime, or the show sucks a$$. (Ok, so both apply here...) Anyways, that's exactly what happened with Steel Angel Kurumi--within a couple minutes I was predicting exactly what would happen, and I was right (okay, the ditzy robot girl in the mysterious lab wasn't naked, but she *was* accidentally woken up by the guy and she did immediately call him 'Master'.) This show is so derivative that you don't even need to see it, because you've seen it all many, MANY times before. Geeky, shy guy accidentally activates cute girl robot (often naked) in mysterious lab, she imprints on him, follows him home, and is soon joined by 2 cute robot sisters who turn geeky guy's life into sitcom hell. The only reason to keep all those ditzy robot chicks around would be for sex, and since we never see any evidence of these guys getting any, it's a wonder why they don't just flee in terror or bring home a bazooka one day. Who'd want to be living with three incredibly strong women who have the collective IQ of a potato..?

The animation is pretty nice, but the theme song is so sugary-cute that it'll rot your teeth, and Kurumi's hyper-kawaii speech patterns start grating on one's nerves REALLY fast. And will somebody please tell me why super-strong robot girls always have to wear dumb maid outfits? Bleh.

Steel Angel Kurumi is just another example of the genre of anime that teaches us that geeky guys with no social lives and no girlfriends can always depend on finding ditzy robot sex slaves (oops, that's PROTECTORS) to cater to their every whim. It's not really awful per se, it's just boring, stupid and we've seen it all before. If you're part of this anime's target audience (geeky guys with no social lives and no girlfriends), you might like this show. Everybody else will probably get nothing out of it. Not recommended.

ADV has acquired this show; no release date yet.
Grade:
Overall (sub) : C-
Animation : B
Art : B
Music : C

+ Nice art and animation
Dumb, derivative plot; rampant misogyny

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Production Info:
Chief Director: Naohito Takahashi
Series Composition: Naruhisa Arakawa
Screenplay: Naruhisa Arakawa
Storyboard:
Kōji Fukazawa
Kiyotaka Isako
Kiyotaka Izeki
Hitoyuki Matsui
Kazuya Murata
Minoru Senboku
Norihiko Sudo
Naohito Takahashi
Episode Director:
Kōji Fukazawa
Kazuya Murata
Norihiko Sudo
Naohito Takahashi
Music: Toshihiko Sahashi
Original Manga: Kaishaku
Character Design: Yuriko Chiba
Art Director: Hisayoshi Takahashi
Chief Animation Director: Yuriko Chiba
Animation Director:
Ryōtarō Akao
Yuriko Chiba
Toshiyuki Fujisawa
Tomoya Hiratsuka
Hideaki Matsuoka
Tadaaki Miyata
Taka Sato
Masahito Sawada
Mecha design: Takeshi Itou
Sound Director: Jun Watanabe
Cgi Director: Takaya Mizutani
Producer: Shukichi Kanda
Licensed by: ADV Films

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Steel Angel Kurumi (TV)

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