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Anime DVD Review: Steel Angel Kurumi - Volume 1 - Angel on my Shoulder

Video:
Overall the show seems to have received a great transfer. There were no rainbows or artefacts that I could notice. The only real problem I thought was the aliasing, but that wasn’t in great amounts and most people would not notice it at all. Its high quality animation and it looks great.

Packaging:
The front cover has an excellent picture of a naked sleeping Kurumi with the logo covering her breasts. Wings spread out from her back and have lots of little gears on them, very attractive to the eye. The back cover looks equally look stylish with a different piece of artwork of the sleeping Kurumi and lots of information (though perhaps a little too much, especially about the dub actors). The inside covers on one side is promoting Excel Saga and Burn Up Excess and on the other shows the episode titles and the Kurumi Fortune Teller.

Menus:
After the logos pass by, the DVD begins with the Onmyou prayer being recited. You can skip past this as its quite tiresome after the first watch through. The menu starts with the picture of Kurumi from the cover in the centre with the options around her in gears. Load time betweens menus is nice and fast as the transitional animation flies off the screen quickly between menus. All content is easy to access as well.

Extras:
Packed with extras, the short episodes are made up for right here. Up first is the Conversation with the Angels extra which is a 30 minute chat with the dub actors and crew. 5 Pages of Historical notes are up next, which are quite an interesting read, furthering what I’d learnt from the Kenshin historical notes. The next extra are 9 pages about the Onmyou tradition that is used in the show, these too are a good read. Next up are the production sketches with over 35 pictures to have a gawk ate, these are followed by 6 pages of translation notes which I say are a must read – especially if you watched in Japanese. A Creditlessng is the next extra, something essential for this show, one of the most addictive themes I’ve ever heard and seen. Extended Episode Previews are the next extra, doubling the length of the previews seen at the end of the actual episodes. The Kurumi Fortune Teller is available only through DVD-ROM, you can print it out and take a look at your fortune! The final extra are the usual ADV Previews, this time trailers included are: Excel Saga, Noir, Nadesico, Samurai X – Reflection, RahXephon and Burn Up Excess.

Content:

Kurumi is an incredibly cute show set around just after the turn of the 20^th century. I had to watch twice through before being able to write this review as it was just so much fun. After a short introduction where we see Kurumi, we meet the main male of the show, a young boy called Nakahito. Nakahito is being bullied by some other kids into breaking into the house of a man called Dr. Ayanokoji. Inside the house Nakahito finds an unconscious Kurumi on the floor. The house shakes and she falls onto his lips and the power of the kiss awakens her. Now awake she suddenly believes Nakahito is her master and will do anything for him. Being attacked by Dr. Amagi from the military, Kurumi battles the army vehicles before taking Ayanokoji and Nakahito away to safety.

From there on we learn about Kurumi and that she is a Steel Angel. A robot powered by an Angel Heart and lives to serve the person that had awakened her, in this case Nakahito. While Nakahito settles into life with Kurumi back at his home with his brother, the military work hard at attempting to revive another Steel Angel found at Ayanokoji’s ruined lab. Eventually succeeding, the army send the new Steel Angel called Saki to fight and defeat Kurumi.

When Saki fights Kurumi, Kurumi doesn’t fight back because of an earlier order given by Nakahito to not be so harsh to people. Kurumi pleads with Saki to stop the violence but the angel won’t have any of it and tries her best to kill Kurumi. Eventually Saki stops dead as the military charged her with electricity to make her run and had not given her a ‘true’ awakening like Kurumi had Amagi reveals when she arrives. Kurumi decides to kiss Saki to awaken her, it works and Saki awakens, believing her master to be Kurumi who only thinks of her as her little sister.

Anime Inferno is developed and managed by: Adam Hicks, MCMXCIX - MMIII. All rights reserved.