Ask John: What Happened to the Nakoruru OAV?

Question:
How long is the Nakoruru OVA series going to be? How long will it take to all come out, and what background info might you know on the series, like what inspired it. Isn’t she an SNK character?

Answer:
Unfortunately, the Nakoruru anime appears to have been a victim of the same ill fortune that afflicts many anime OAVs in Japan: death by neglect.

The fighting earth maiden Nakoruru made her debut in 1993 as a fighter in SNK’s classic Samurai Spirits arcade fighting game. 1995’s Samurai Spirits 3: Zankuro Musouken introduced the now canon “Evil Nakoruru” as well as Nakoruru’s sister Rimururu. Nakoruru first appeared in anime form in the September 1994 television movie “Samurai Spirits: Hatenkou Gouma no Jou,” released in America by AD Vision under the title “Samurai Showdown: The Motion Picture.” As her popularity among Japanese fans steadily began to increase, Nakoruru became a primary character in the 1999 two episode long “Shin Samurai Spirits 2: Asura Zanmaden” OAV series, which has never been released in America. Nakoruru’s popularity in Japan may have peaked when the now defunct game production company Inter-Lets released the windows PC adventure game “Nakoruru: Ano Hito Kara no Okurimono” (Nakoruru: The Gift From That Person) in June 2001. The game was set shortly after the events of the Samurai Spirits 2 arcade game, and focused primarily on Nakoruru’s home life in her village. The game was then ported to the Dreamcast in March 2002.

Then the original PC game was adapted into an anime OAV released in Japan on May 25, 2002. The OAV featured Nakoruru’s childhood friends, her best friend Manari (who also appears to cheer on Nakoruru in Capcom’s fighting game “Capcom vs SNK 2: Millionaire Fighting 2001”), and dealt with Nakoruru’s inner conflict between her compassionate personality and her warrior’s bloodlust. Groove Corporation, the company behind the animation production, is still heavily involved in anime production including distributing upcoming titles like the Scrapped Princess TV series and Hitsuji no Uta OAV series. However, since nearly a year has passed with no word of a second Nakoruru OAV, I can only assume that lackluster sales of the first OAV have sunk any plans there may have been for a second episode.