Cyborg Kuro-chan (partially found Malaysian English dub of anime series; early 2000s)

A still from the anime.

Status: Partially Found

Cyborg Kuro-chan (サイボーグクロちゃん) is a Japanese multimedia franchise created by Naoki Yokouchi. The series is about a pet cat named Kuro, who is kidnapped and turned into a cyborg by the evil Dr. Go, intending to use him for world domination. It began as a children's manga series, but soon received an anime adaptation. It was animated by Studio Bogey, and aired from October 2nd, 1999, to January 6th, 2001 on TV Tokyo in Japan.

In 2004, an English dub of the series began to air in parts of Southeast Asia on the channel Animax Asia, making it one of the first shows to debut on the network. Unfortunately, most Animax Asia dubs are incredibly rare, as it's uncommon for the channel to release their dubs onto streaming services or home video. However, VCDs (Video CDs) of the Cyborg Kuro-chan English dub have surfaced online as early as April of 2003, predating the Animax Asia dub by nearly a year. 14 out of the 65 episodes were released onto VCD format. Out of those 14 episodes, 10 have fully surfaced, making the Cyborg Kuro-chan English dub partially found.

History

The exact premiere date of the dub is unknown. Animax Asia began to advertise the English dub on January 25th, 2004,^[1] just weeks after their channel launched in Southeast Asia.^[2] One could assume that the English dub of Cyborg Kuro-chan was one of their debut shows, but this is currently just speculation. It's believed that all 65 episodes were dubbed into English. ^[3]

Episodes

The table below contains information about the 14 English dubbed Cyborg Kuro-chan episodes released onto VCD format. All episodes from 15-65 are considered completely lost.

#	English Title	Description	Availability
1	"Powerful Cyborg Cat is Born"	"Kuro the cat is fed by an old couple (Grand-ba & Grand-ma), Kuro takes care of his home very well and the housebreaking never happened. Dr. Goal wants to transform Kuro into a powerful robot cat, which he is fully under his control. When Kuro found himself to be transformed into a cyborg cat and is able to speak, he refused to follow Dr. Goal's instructions and rushes back to get married to his lover Puhrry. At the same time, Micoon is created by Dr. Goal to catch Kuro."^[4]	Partially Found
2	"Robot Cats"	"Micoon promised to catch Kuro and wanted to show proof that he is the strongest cyborg cat in the world. Micoon has set a trap to kidnap Kuro's Grand-ba & Grand-ma. Kuro has no choice but to take part in the competition. Of course, robot cats are not a threat to Kuro but Micoon, the final antagonist."^[4]	Lost
3	"Inferno Highway"	"Micoon possesses a powerful weapon after his transformation, he can transmute himself into everything he wants. They immediately kidnap the old couple again. A terrible racing and battling started between Micoon and Kuro at the Highway. Finally, Micoon was flunked. In fact, Kuro does win in ruin."^[5]	Found
4	"Robot Giant Sam & Little Sam"	"In order to beat Kuro, Dr. Goal invented Giant Sam and Little Sam. However, Dr. Goal has locked himself into the Giant Sam and the boom was activated accidentally. Micoon managed to delay the explosion of the activated boom for 24 hours, but he failed to save Dr. Goal from danger. Finally, under the cooperation between Micoon and Kuro, the robot crisis has been resolved.^[5] "	Found
5	"Micoon's Puppy Love"	"Micoon is found to be in a gloomy state recently. Micoon told Kuro that he was saved by a female dog named Lily and has fallen in love with Lily. Since Lily is considered as Micoon's first love, Kuro decides to help Micoon. Everything goes smoothly under Kuro's plans until Dr. Goal has invented a Machine Dog for Micoon, who causes problems for them at last."^[6]	Found
6	"Abduction"	"A high stranger appeared in Kuro's house one day and informed Kuro that Micoon had been kidnapped at Atlanta. Coincidentally, Gran-ba and Grand-ma are going to Atlanta for their honeymoon. Kuro shelters himself in luggage to protect Gran-ba and Grand-ma. They met the high stranger, who was under the control of an alien. Kuro managed to save Micoon and destroy the alien."^[6]	Found
7	"The Biggest Ghost - Buster Graming History"	"Romeo felt bored and decided to use Dr. Goal, Grand-ba and Grand-ma's life as a threat to force Kuro and Micoon to play a game with him. In order to complete the game, Kuro and Micoon must press the button within 2 hours."^[7]	Found
8	"Icon Competition Between Kuro and Micoon"	"Kuro decided to join the tracking tour with Suzuki and schoolboys. Kuro has never known that he will meet Micoon. In the bus, Micoon seems to be an icon and popular to all schoolboys. Kuro felt jealous about this."^[7]	Found
9	"Legend of the Hill Behind the School"	"Kuro, Micoon, Dr. Goal, Romeo and kids decided to visit Mr. Suzuki. In the house of Suzuki, they found a map inherited by Suzuki's family and believed it was a rich place full of jewelry. All of the guys believe in the legend."^[8]	Found
10	"Traps"	"They have well-equipped and begin their journey for treasure hunting. The first problem arose when they are faced with a dangerous and broken hanging bridge. They finally found the place with traps and snares. Could they overcome it?"^[8]	Found
11	"The Genius"	"Kuro found another creature whose look-alike appeared on the TV and hijacked a battleship. It was unbelievable to Kuro as a genius kid planned this. In order to correct him, Kuro has done the best to stop him, even though he incurred a serious injury. The kid finally feels touched about of Kuro's sincerity."^[9]	Found
12	"Monster Micoon"	"Monster has the power to occupy a human's body. Micoon has offered himself to be the victim to exchange Dr. Goal's body, who was hurt by a monster. Monster Micoon then has a battle with Kuro, with the assistance of Dr. Goal and Kuro, Monster has been beaten and kept in a capsule ware."^[9]	Found
13	"Battle in Prison"	"A genius kid has discovered a lonely lion in the zoo and decided to free the lion to the forest. Although with the assistance of Kuro and Micoon, the lonely lion had finally been killed. Dr. Goal had transformed the lion into a robot lion and forces the lion to stay forever with the genius kid."^[10]	Lost
14	"The Genius's Experiment"	"Dr. Goal agrees to be the master of the genius kid. The problem arose when the rat has been escaped from the experiment and rats are everywhere in the city, which caused terrors."^[10]	Lost

Availability

14 episodes of the English dub were released onto VCD format by Speedy Video. Listings for these episodes can be found as far back as April of 2003.^[11] Episodes 2, 13, and 14 currently remain lost. A few clips of Episode 1 have surfaced online, and can be found on below on the Internet Archive. It's believed that a clip of Episode 2 was online at one point, but has since been deleted. As episodes 15-65 never received any sort of home video format, they'll be much harder to track down.

Lost Media Wiki forum user "arthurjameshasoline" (formerly Multi3463 on YouTube) has uploaded the raw VCD DAT files & scans of the discs containing episodes 3-10. Scans for the disc containing episodes 11 & 12 are present, as well.^[12] In October 4th, 2019, "arthurjameshasoline" would update the thread with links for episodes 11-12, with help provided by Luke Davidson. Currently, all available episodes, including promos, can be found on the Internet Archive by the user "Davo Domain".