Dancougar Nova 4

And so again, I watched last week (yes, I am behind) the fourth episode of Dancougar Nova. The title looks promising: Akai Dancougar (The red Dancougar), which implies that there is another Dancougar around, although the opening animation already hinted at that.

The episode starts with Kurara being a target for assassination (she has made several enemies in the police), but then the focus shifts to the Dragon’s Hive where all the pilots are present (almost equal screen time for everyone even in this episode).

[]({{ site.url }}/images/2007/03/novaiv_1.png)

Ruriruri does her best to fulfill her role as counsellor, and as a matter of fact she talks with Kurara, and we get a flashback of why she decided to enter in the police (the usual childhood drama, I’d say).

[]({{ site.url }}/images/2007/03/novaiv_3.png)

While the team is still pondering over what they did in the previous episode (they left immediately after balancing the battle, earning angry shouts from a group of children), the alarm sounds and they’re dispatched somewhere again to aid the weak and level the battle. In this episode they support guys with ridicolous battle armor:

[]({{ site.url }}/images/2007/03/novaiv_2.png)

Aoi has a flashback of the children in the previous episode and launches off earlier than expected, however her teammates react quickly enough as well. The Dancougar forms almost immediately and basically shows off weapons (Danku Ho again), then for no apparent reason Aoi forgets that the Dancougar needs a “cooldown” period before using other weapons and tries to summon the _Danku Ken _against the usual enemy Genocidron. As it doesn’t work, Kurara suggests to fight physically till the energy returns.

The Dancougar then kicks the enemy’s behind easily, Aoi uses the Danku Ken, but as she’s about to deliver the final blow, another Dancougar comes and kicks the sword away:

[]({{ site.url }}/images/2007/03/novaiv_4.png)

The episode ends after that. Judging from the previews, it seems that the next one will be focused on Kurara, and that (obviously) the confrontation will be postponed. Nevertheless, the series remains interesting (though I hope the staff plays their cards correctly). What I can’t stand, for heaven’s sake, is the animation quality. It’s not as bad as episode three, but drops significantly after half of the episode, and we see a deformed Dancougar move around.  The credits show that part of the animation was made probably by a Chinese studio.

What a shame. I really don’t want this series to follow the path of Gravion… we’ll have to see the DVDs and the next episodes to find out for sure.