Вселенная «Nuku Nuku»: манга и адаптации Юдзо Такады

Japanese manga by Yuzo Takada and its adaptations

All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku (万能文化猫娘) 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 story begins when genius inventor Kyusaku Natsume transplants the brain of a cat found by his son Ryunosuke on Christmas Eve, into a schoolgirl android that he created and subsequently stole from his former employer, Mishima Heavy Industries (owned by his estranged wife and Ryunosuke's mother, Akiko Natsume). The result, Nuku Nuku (also known as Atsuko Natsume), is a nekomusume or cat girl. The manga was licensed by ADV Manga and published as a single volume on August 24, 2004. Cat Girl Nuku Nuku has been adapted into two OVA series 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.

The plot generally focuses on the custody battle for Ryunosuke 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, 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". In spite of Eimi being more emotionally unstable than Nuku Nuku, both their fights end in a draw.

Ryunosuke finds a kitten in an alleyway while relieving himself. Then taking that he gets on a car with his dad, fleeing his mom's deadly aerial onslaught. While they survived that attack, the kitten got hurt. Trying to save that kitten Kyusaku apparently implants the kitten's brain in a prototype robotic framework, which after some time would appear to function as a work maid in their house. Sometime later, when Akiko again sends an attack force in the school where the feline brained bot named, ''Nuku Nuku'' studies along with her husband Kyosaku, as a teacher, in the same class. There a battle ensues, fairly quickly resulting in the defeat of the attack vehicle. Lastly it cuts to Akiko, the mom, wanting to scheme again to get back her son to stay with her.

Ryonusuke goes to a beach with his friend and nuku nuku, where, of course again, his mom, tries with subterfuge get her child back. For that she first gets the friend shimino hypnotized and brainwashed in sleep time to make her go on aboard Akiko's ship. Then use the child, to lure her son out. Nuku nuku, this time can't perform as earlier because of her lack of swimming gear, which Kyosaku, shortly after provides, and with that she reaches the boat, defeats the episodic bot and in the ensuing chaos Akiko decides to not take her son, just for this time.

After a call and tea time with nuku nuku, Akiko decides to try her hand at being a housewife and the family start living in her family mansion/estate. Although Kyosaku wants this to make her rich wife responsible for once, she changes her mind angrily after receiving a wake up call from her confidante and henchwoman, Arisa, that she's not getting what she wants from this. Following this, the usual bot v cat/furry android fight ensues which results in things going back to how they were before.

It's about a tragic bot named Eimi Yoshikawa who plots to steal nuku nuku's body to have a much desired upgrade. In the end, they fight, the whole of Tokyo gets decimated and they resolve their issues, for the time being.

The two henchwomen, arisa and kyouko, decide to sabotage nuku nuku's job at a local restaurant out of pure spite borne out of the fact that they're not financially well off anymore.

Because of a fight between Eimi Yoshikawa and Nuku nuku, a brand new highly weaponized, automated military satellite's controlling system got ruptured and it has now gone out of control. To stop it from targeting the wrong people, nuku nuku and eimi take it upon themselves to venture into space to destroy it.

It is a series that is mainly a retelling of the original OVA. This series has a more comical side to it. In this, the same characters appear with the same kind of roles and also the same kind of conclusion. An extension to that is multiple tropey school characters, who all have their own highlights.

It starts with Nuku nuku, the android cat brained robot going to school and starting classes there. While taking class, a so called ''evil corporation'' called Mishima Industries (same as before) decides to test their robotic washing machine in the school ground, which unsurprisingly goes berserk, against which nuku nuku has to defend her classmates. After saving them, the tropey classmates accept her as their own.

Nuku nuku defeats another mistakenly activated, mishima industry's failed project, before it can proceed to destroy the school.

After a neighbor's kid with a heart of gold is dropped off to Ryounusuke's house for temporary babysitting she decides to make the breakfast and lunch in Akiko's absence but ends up wasting everything. Then the family with the kid go to a fresh produce market where another demonstration of the so called "evil" mishima industries takes place, resulting in another failed project running berserk among the people present there, which nuku nuku neutralizes in the usual fashion.

In this episode Nuku nuku participates in the mishima industries arranged singing competition against her "father" Kyousaku's wishes. Kyousaku then resorts to sabotaging her daughter's performance which doesn't work and she wins. Later it's revealed that she participated in the event to earn the huge prize money for her father's underfunded research projects.

Futaba, nuku nuku's class rep & strict friend has been brainwashed to be an aggressive mishima industries product promoter through a hypnotizing effect inducing book by a bookstore keeper she deemed as a crush and nuku nuku has to stop this. After this when she's rightfully sombre about it, her friends cheer her up.

In a beach visit, Kyousaku somehow got ''captured'' and ''taken'' to an underwater base, supposedly belonging to mishima industries, which is, in actuality, a hotel to boost the company's tourism revenue and prospects. Now, it's up to nuku nuku and ryounosuke to save him from this supposed capture.

A Back to the Future like episodic plot where after fantastically going to the past nuku nuku and ryounusuke have to make sure that their parents propose to each other.

A humanoid mouse looking alien falls in love with nuku nuku's homeroom teacher and approaches him at his student chie shirakaba's private amusement park complex in order to spend a night with him.

The snobby rich girl Chie shirakaba gets angry with nuku nuku and her loyal underlings over a selfish reason. She then gets the underfunded scientist Kyousaku to make her a mecha which she would use to win against nuku nuku in school sports festival. While doing this, Akiko's underlings Arisa and Kyouko try capturing her out of suspicion that Chie being a corporate spy. Then nuku nuku and the chie's underlings protects her and the rift amidst them gets mended.

After Ryounosuke ingests a sip of the so called ''DNA changer'' because of a mix up, he turns into an alligator. With nuku nuku as his only hope, it's a race against time to revert him back to his human self.

After forgetting that Ryounosuke and others left to visit relatives in the new years', nuku nuku gets the misconception that she got abandoned, thinking she now would have to live with it. Noriko, childhood friend of Ryounosuke treats her terribly in this distressful situation.

On Valentine's Day, nuku nuku wants to gift a secret someone chcolate, but in the way gets the rich & snobby shirakaba who buys up all the chocolate from the nearby the store. But as it happens, all those were laced with mishima product enzyme which would make any consumer wanting to aggressively buy and promote mishima products. So, to stop it Akiko and her underlings come with robot to take their stuff away, an attempt which nuku nuku thwarts, but shirabaka still runs away showing her ungratefulness. So, with a single chocolate bar nuku nuku, given by Kyousaku, makes a heart shaped one and presents it to her crush, which, happens to be a cat.

Nuku Nuku and the gang somehow got to be casting members of a movie for a school festival, in honor of the soon to be graduated. This episode is full of musical numbers.

In the last episode, it all comes down to nuku nuku to save earth from a humongously giant asteroid which is about to hit earth, risking her life.

The manga is published in English by ADV Manga. It 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. The manga was licensed by ADV Manga and published as a single volume on August 24, 2004, with the name All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku.

Cat Girl Nuku Nuku has been adapted into two OVA series and one anime television series. 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.

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."