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Shokotan's Nuigurumaa Z Film Trailer Streamed (Updated)

The Movie Collection film news website began streaming a trailer on Friday for Nuigurumaa Z, the first film with idol and actress Shōko Nakagawa (Shokotan) in a lead role.

In the tokusatsu (special-effects) comedy, Nakagawa plays Yumeko Aikawa a.k.a. "Dame-ko" (no-good-girl), a girl in lolita fashion who transforms into Nuigurumaa when she combines with a pink teddy bear (nuigurumi no kuma). She fights with the villain Takeshi, who plans to take over the world using zombies. The film has 109 zombies on the set — the most on any Japanese film.

The trailer previews a collaboration insert song and the "Nuigurumaa Z" collaborative theme song between Nakagawa and Tokusatsu.

The film was announced in April and is based on "Tatakae! Nuigurumaa" ("Fight! Nuigurumaa!"), a tune performed by Kenji Ōtsuki's band Tokusatsu. Noburu Iguchi, the director known for such genre films as Sukeban Boy, Cat Eyed Boy, The Machine Girl, RoboGeisha, Karate-Robo Zaborgar, Tomie: Unlimited, and Dead Sushi, is helming the project. (Nakagawa previously drew the Nōko no Koi manga based on a concept by Iguchi.) Kazuya Tsurumaki (Evangelion films) and Shigeto Koyama (Evangelion films, Heroman) designed the titular heroine character.

Rina Takeda plays Takeshi's psychic subordinate Kill Billy and Dame-ko's alter-ego Nuigurumaa. She also starred in Iguchi's previous horror comedy work Dead Sushi, which resulted in her Best Comedy Actress win at the Fantastic Fest in Texas. Sadao Abe will voice the teddy bear.

The film is set to premiere on January 25, 2014.

Update: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web is currently streaming a 13-minute video from a stage greeting event featuring Nakagawa and Takeda in costume, and director Iguchi.