Phase OIV

The Setup: There's an emergency at Mishima Heavy Industries - in an explosion, a valuable prototype called SNK-98 has gone astray. Meanwhile, a Mishima Sky Dog fighter crashes in Nerima ward, and Nuku Nuku and Ryunosuke, on their way home from school, are first on the scene. The pilot is a skinny young girl who begs them to protect her.

After a couple of false starts, Kyusaku grasps that Eimi, as she introduces herself, is the granddaughter of his old teacher, Professor Yoshikawa. He vows to help protect her from Akiko with a new device he's designing, that can restrain any machine. Eimi seems like a nice girl, and she and Ryunosuke discuss their family problems, but things get considerably weird when Eimi persuades them to go to the public baths with her and announces to Nuku Nuku 'I want your body'!

Get that look off your face, it's not like that! *^.^* What is it like, then? It seems that Nuku Nuku is not the only android around...

My Review and Thoughts: This episode is a lot of fun, and a good start to the second half of the OAV. The bath-house scene is certainly a masterpiece of mildly pervy comedy! Eimi is a wonderful villain, three-dimensional but still wacky. Her introduction gives the series a new lease of energy.

Kyusaku is glorious in this episode, I have to say - great fun when he's been awake for four days solid. Phase OIV has my favourite Kyu Moment ever - 'Ah, sunrise!' (Sorry, you have to see that to understand it.) Yes, I know I was down on him in Phase OIII but he's won me over again. And he even seems to manage to charm Akiko a bit...

The tentative friendship between Ryunosuke and Eimi is especially sweet, and I think it's a bit of a shame that it's never followed up on, but hey, in a six-part OAV how much can you do? At one point in this episode he actually calls her, not by name, but by the Japanese term for 'big sister.' I loved that.

I don't have a lot else to say about this episode. Eimi and Nuku Nuku's interaction is always hilarious, and of course I appreciate the revelation that Nuku Nuku waxes herself. With Turtle Wax, I bet.Arisa and Kyoko have almost nothing to do in this episode, but just you wait for the next one: it's their finest hour.

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