Nurse Witch Komugi-chan Magikarte

I'm going to make this short because there's no need to be long-winded about such an unserious anime. Also, no, I have not seen the anime this is based off of, Soultaker. I'm basing this review on Nurse Witch alone, since Soultaker is not required viewing to watch Nurse Witch.

The show is a parody of the magical girl genre, particularly that of the early moé boom. There are references to many other anime and live action dramas (Evangelion, Macross, Anime Tenchou, Sailor Suit and Machine Gun, etc.) throughout. If you find referential humor funny, especially otaku-media references, you'll probably enjoy Nurse Witch.

The character designs ... are by Akio Watanabe (Poyoyon♥Rock) of Monogatari Series fame. His art style is iconic and on full display here. Nurse Witch is a must watch for fans of Poyoyon♥Rock's work. The art/animation quality is inconsistent but above-average for an OVA.

The director is Yasuhiro Takemoto, someone who would go on to have a leading-role in some of Kyoto Animation's best anime. One of those would be Lucky Star, a referential anime which appears to have taken some inspiration from Nurse Witch (especially with the Anime Tenchou references).

The VA cast is equally amazing and surprising for an anime of this quality. The standouts for me are Ikue Ootani (Koyori), Haruko Momoi (Komugi), and Yukari Tamura (Asuka). These VAs are known more for their other roles, such as Yukari Tamura's later performance as Rika Furude in Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, but they bring that power to Nurse Witch. The VA for Komugi, Haruko Momoi, is a famous otaku of Akihabara, and she fits her role perfectly. As a matter of fact, she often cosplayed as Komugi in live performances with her music group, Under 17, in the early 2000s. Haruko practically embodies the character of Komugi. The voice acting is definitely an out-performance of the expectations for an anime of this type.

You may notice that I've said a lot of good for an anime I've only rated a 6. That's because I really can't justify anything higher. Nurse Witch is self-evidently an unserious work. It's also a niche work, and that niche is otaku culture. If this is one of the first 10 anime you watch (and I mean full series, not just individual seasons or the completed count on MAL), you will not get or like this show. That's my perspective on it, at least. If you've been around the block and can enjoy some odd-ball anime, give this a try. Otherwise, I would recommend watching some more well-regarded referential anime first, such as Lucky Star, Steins;Gate, or other anime of that kind.

The picture should be a dead giveaway of what you're getting yourself into: bunny ears, nurse outfits, and lots of pink. It's fanservice and jokes, their was never any depth intended, and anyone taking this show seriously is a fool.

Nurse Witch Komugi is a parody-laden romp laced with sight gags, slapstick and sheer randomness. And like Excel Saga it works pretty well. References to other anime are frequent and often hilarious, and Komugi makes an over-excitable but likeable lead character. The series is pretty much made up of stand-alone stories, with Komugi having to face a different problem in each episode, which ... usually start with her doing a job for her modelling agency before everything goes wrong and she has to change into Nurse Witch Komugi. It may be a bit formulaic if it was done over a long series but over the six episodes, it stays entertaining without becoming too predictable.

It's hard to analyze the story of Nurse Witch Komugi when there is no story to speak of. Boob jokes and fan service pepper this show like Naruto headbands at Anime Expo.
This is a show that's neither plot-driven nor character-driven, but exists only as eye candy and comedy.

The artwork is higher end quality, but not original. Even Mugimaru, the obligatory cute animal mascot, looks like a reject from the Di Gi Charat cast. The real work that goes into the visuals is in rendering the cosplay outfits with detail, and cosplay is inherently not original, so thats kind of the point.
On the bright side the artwork is the crisp, high-contrast color scheme, despite being a touch on the simple and kiddy end of the spectrum (think again back to di gi charat). The animation is decent on the number of frames vs motion, it moves smooth enough to give a flowing feeling and it actually pulls off the exaggerated, comedic action quite well, unlike some anime where actions are stiff and walking is like watching a sticky pad flip art.

Overall, this show is worth watching if you enjoy things like popotan, puni puni poemi, excel saga, and sailor victory, but if you took a look at the dvd cover art and had any expectation of an anime with any depth, you entirely missed the point here.

Well, here’s the thing about this anime right here. This is a spinoff OVA to their sister series SoulTaker and yet I’m going in without watching the original series. From what I heard about the show, people absolutely hated it, mostly because they found the character Komugi was so annoying in SoulTaker, a whole OVA series that revolves around her would spell anger into a lot of fans, non-fans and even anime reviewers, especially a certain wolf/angel-based reviewer I know. *wink wink*.


Ungrar, the King of Viruses, has escaped from his prison cell in Vaccine World. Maya, the Goddess of Vaccine World sends Mugimaru down ... to Earth to find a human to accept the powers of Vaccine World and become the Magical Nurse. He finds the best (and the only willing) person for the job when he meets Komugi Nakahara.



“Komugi is a playful, lazy, and easily distracted (typical) teenager whose dream is to become a cosplay idol and balancing her career with the Kiri-Pro Promotion Company and her new job battling Ungrar's loyal henchman and the Magical Maid Koyori.” – That’s what part of the plot synopsis said when I read it on ANN, I swear.


Well, Komugi is all those things but sometimes she gets very cringe worthy to deal with and it’s not just her. I really can’t stand the constant bickering between Komugi and Megumi, who mostly tease each other’s breast size and they do it every time and it gets real old real fast……in other words, I can’t just both of these girls. Then came Koyori, who is Komugi’s friend that works as a model and cosplayer and yet she’s also her rival when it comes to them being magical girls. But how does she turn into that? She loses consciousness………yeah. There is also Runa, a child star who also works for Kiri Pro with Komugi and also teases her about her being flat-chested but yet she seems to be the one that annoys her the least but not a favorite of mine.


Matter of fact, nobody on this show is a favorite character of mine. There are either too bland or too annoying to give a shit about. I’m sure some of the characters from the original series have more character than they do here. They scream, yell too much, overact, and try to overexcite one too many times.



Now for the animation department, Tatsunoko Pro, being the original animation company for SoulTaker but in here, they are around with the help of Kyoto Animation……yes, that Kyoto Animation and for what it is, the animation is fine with what it is and there is some hiccups especially in some of the magical girl and fight sequences in between the series, thankfully it lasted 5 episodes or 6 if you count episode 2.5 or the other OVAs that I didn’t know of.




The music does have that very cutesy J-Popish sound that many people know and the music is about as bland as the rest of the series. The first time I listened to these songs I just wanted to skip the whole music sequence together and for you either liked these songs, then all the power to you. As for the English dub, some of the original SoulTaker cast from The Ocean Group/Geneon dub does appear in here, although NWK was distributed by ADV Films but yet it was such a chore to go through. The voice actress for Komugi, Jocelyne Loewen, is really grating on the ears and feels like her motivation in the script is to annoy you. Luci Christian does play the role of Mugi-maru and yet it’s sad to see her doing this part considering she really is a great voice-actress and they got her sounding like Webby from Ducktales smoking up menthols.




FINAL VERDICT: As it all comes down to this, this OVA is really so damn annoying but it’s nothing to rage about and the simple fact that it’s too dull to rage this series. It’s something nobody really wanted or needed but either way you watched it and regret it but not really care for it.