Bannou Bunka Neko-Musume DASH! (1998) — Story, Release Date, Rating

Synopsis:

Set in a near-future Maneki City, the narrative centers on the Natsume family's unexpected integration of Nuku-Nuku, a young woman with amnesia who adopts the persona of Atsuko Higuchi. Her quiet presence brings a comforting domesticity to the household, particularly for Ryunosuke, a 14-year-old boy who appreciates her culinary skills and gentle nature. However, this newfound peace is disrupted by a growing wave of unsettling events plaguing the city. Strange malfunctions in experimental technology, erratic military aircraft activity, and localized areas of devastation appear with alarming frequency. Each incident is linked to sightings of Atsuko, hinting at a deeper connection between Nuku-Nuku’s past and Maneki City's troubling present. The series explores themes of identity, memory, and the potential consequences of advanced technology within a backdrop of mounting mystery.

Streaming Platforms:

Crunchyroll

Episodes:

Episode 1: The Happiness Came with the Spring Breeze
Episode 2: Midnight Cats
Episode 3: The Distance In-between the Two - Close and Far
Episode 4: Akiko's Melancholy
Episode 5: Nuku Nuku's Date
... and 7 more episodes

Characters:

Higuchi, Atsuko (Main) - Voice Actors: Hayashibara, Megumi, Keith, Allison
Natsume, Akiko (Main) - Voice Actors: Manison, Kelly, Shimazu, Saeko
Natsume, Kyusaku (Main) - Voice Actors: Kamiya, Akira, Klimko, Andrew
Natsume, Ryuunosuke (Main) - Voice Actors: Vincent-Davis, Kira, Ikura, Kazue, Kelley, Matt
Ariyoshi, Kyouko (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Hiramatsu, Akiko, Grant, Tiffany
Ishiyama, Momoko (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Amano, Yuri, Christian, Luci
Ishiyama, Noriko (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Nishimura, Chinami, Todoroff, Jennifer
Izumishikibu, Chouko (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Neya, Michiko, Rial, Monica
Mishima, Juuzou (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Narita, Ken, Mignogna, Vic
Ozaki (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Suzuki, Takuma, Patton, Chris
Shimazaki (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Nagano, Kouichi, Kahng, HK
Sono, Arisa (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Hisakawa, Aya, Coker, Kaytha
Tsubouchi (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Sasanuma, Akira, Opella, Eric
Yawaza, Mai (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Sugawara, Sachiko, Nguyen, Kim-Ly
Yuuko (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Watanabe, Kumiko, Martinez, Cynthia

Staff:

Moriyama, Atsushi (Producer)
Fujimoto, Yoshitaka (Director, Storyboard)
Watanabe, Jun (Sound Director)
Hanyuu, Naoyasu (Episode Director, Storyboard)
Yoshida, Shunji (Episode Director)
Houjou, Chinatsu (Script)
Murayama, Kiyoshi (Script)
Hayashibara, Megumi (Theme Song Performance)
Kishimoto, Seiji (Chief Animation Director, Animation Director, Character Design)
Ledford, John (Executive Producer)
Miyamae, Mitsuharu (Art Director)
Nakano, Michiaki (Color Design)
Ogawa, Hiroshi (Mechanical Design)
Taguma, Jun (Editing)
Takada, Yuuzo (Original Creator)

Reviews:

User L-sama (Score: 6/10):
Released as a sister project to the Nuku Nuku TV series, Nuku Nuku DASH! is a totally different take on the Nuku Nuku story in comparison to the TV series as well as the OVA that came before it. Unfortunately, it seems as though too many things were changed, as this anime ends up being the weakest of the three. DASH! still keeps one thing in common with its predecessors: comedy. Several moments made me chuckle (many of them focusing around Ryunosuke's pining over Nuku Nuku), but overall, the comedy that Nuku Nuku fans know and love just isn’t there. This is mainly because Nuku Nukuisn’t her normal, bubbly self. In DASH!, she’s much more soft spoken (not to mention sporting a totally different hair color) and with the exception of one episode, shows none of the cat-like traits that made her so funny before. Even Megumi Hayashibara's performance as Nuku Nuku is lacking. Most of the comedy from before is replaced with attempts at drama in DASH!, which fall well short of their intended targets. Fan service levels are also alarmingly high by Nuku Nuku standards, especially after watching the TV series. After the first five episodes alone, I almost decided not to finish the series due to the barrage of breasts that did nothing for an already shallow plot.nnThe action here gets boost in terms of frequency. However, it quickly falls under the “Villain of the Week” routine as each episode becomes very predictable: Someone tries to capture Nuku Nuku, the city gets threatened, Nuku Nuku transforms and attacks, the end. A good deal of these action sequences, as well as Nuku Nuku’s transformation sequence, are made of reused animation cycles that reminded me of such anime as Sailor Moon. There were several occastions that the plot could've been developed further after one of these fights, but nothing came of them, leaving me rather disappointed. The overall poor animation for this OVA does nothing to help out at all; even at its best, it pails in comparison to its older 1992 sibling.nnIn spite of all of this, the second part of this series, starting at episode 8, begins to show some promise. A main villain appears with real motives other than capturing Nuku Nuku, and some answers finally make themselves known in Nuku Nuku’s past. Though the plot devices are rather clichéd, it is still a welcome change to the former. Everything begins to gain steam, seemingly headed for a monumental final clash between Nuku Nuku and the evil forces of Mishima Industries only to turn into one of the biggest cop-outs I’ve ever seen.nnFans of the first OVA and the TV series should steer clear away from this, as virtually nothing is the same outside of character names. For anyone else, this series might be good for a weekend rental at best. Perhaps I set my hopes too high. Perhaps I expected too much from this anime. Regardless, DASH! is still a disappointment and an ill-fitting final…
User ktulu007 (Score: 3/10):
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. Dueto 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?nnWell, 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. nnTo 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.…
User alidan (Score: 6/10):
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 awhile, 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.nnback than the animation was above what was on tv, but below the best of it time, so it got 7. nnim not a good judge of sound but if there was more than 1 meow type from the kittens it would have gotten a 10nncharacters 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 9nnbut enjoyment is slightly above baseline for what i expected, and over all was slightly better than expected.
... and 2 more reviews

Genres: Action, Comedy, Ecchi, Romance, Sci-Fi
Studios: Ashi Productions
Producers: Movic
Licensors: ADV Films, Discotek Media
Rating: 6.29 / 10
Rank: #8507
Popularity: #8134
Users Listed: 6,754
Users Scored: 2,610
NSFW: No
Last Updated: 06/08/2018
Aired: September 23, 1998 – December 23, 1998 (Summer)
Type: ova
Source: manga
Age Rating: R
Episodes: 12

Bannou Bunka Neko-Musume DASH!

Synopsis:

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