First Impressions – Nurse Witch Komugi-chan R
Time for a love injection! …No seriously, it’s time for your meds.
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Once upon a time, there was an anime called SoulTaker that happened to have a character named Komugi in it. Komugi then got several spin-offs series where she was a magical idol (think Prisma Illya from the Fate/ series). Now those spin-offs are getting a revival/reboot/remake/rewhatever. I’m not sure why anyone thought an unremarkable gag show was worthy of resuscitating, but here we are anyways! |
I saw a little bit of the other Komugi spin-offs, and they were full of obnoxiously horrid gags and a nonexistent plot. Komugi bounced around from idol gigs (all of which she screwed up royally) to killing monsters at the drop of a hat, with no coherent thread to tie it all together. It just wasn’t all that great. Nurse Witch Komugi-chan R seeks to use the exact same formula as the original, which makes me even more confused why they felt so inclined to use Komugi again if they weren’t going to add some new flare to it. Despite the lack of changes to the base formula, this revival does have the decency to try and improve on the areas the original was weak in.
We start off seeing Komugi in her different spheres of life. She lives in the medical clinic her family owns, so she has some rudimentary first aid knowledge. She’s also an idol trying to balance her school work with the ultimate goal of performing her own mega concert in Tokyo Dome. All is good and well until she stumbles across a cute mascot and is coerced into becoming a magical girl. It’s incredibly paint-by-the-numbers, but after seeing the original, I’m just relieved there’s a functional storyline to follow.
I’m struggling to say what’s unique about this show because there really isn’t any graspable concept or quirk that makes this stand out. In fact, it’s remarkable in that it’s so unremarkable. It seems almost like one of those parody animes they show characters within an anime watching. At this point, my honest-to-God best guess for why they brought this series back was to cash in on the idol craze that’s going on. If that failed, they might catch some Precure fans with the promise of magical girls.
Komugi-chan gets minus points for originality (who’d have thought that was even possible…) but in all fairness, it does earn some of my praise for being amusing. The concert scene at the beginning was a great way to start the show with some flouncy idol fanservice. From there, the magical girl aspect took centre stage and it brought some good gags along with it. In fact, it’s probably the only comedy with actual jokes that worked for me this season (I detected absolutely zero jokes in Dagashi Kashi, in comparison). The horrendous names for the magical girl attacks and such was a nice self-aware nod, which gives me some hope that this show won’t rely on stock anime jokes completely. The original liked to take a few knowing jabs at otaku culture, but those jokes were few and far in between the monotony. Here, the jokes are all much better.
On a side note, I like that her manager is more like a hyped up boxing coach with the way he psyches her up for everything in the most macho way possible. The ending scene with him filling in for her as a school girl in the movie (and no one noticing) was adorable. More of him, please!
Komugi-chan is a simplistic, run-of-the-mill show that mixes idol life with magical girl life. It works fairly well as a comedy, and even the calmer moments where Komugi is just running about work well because she has such a varied lifestyle. There’s just so much for her to do that her everyday life is kind of cool compared to the usual student her age. There are some little glimmers of jokes that show that the show has some self-awareness at how typical it is of its genre, so I can only hope it amps up the parody jokes and finds a niche. This was a fun little first episode to watch, and I’m surprised I actually ended up liking it. I’m quite pleased with myself for not just glossing over this one, because I think I’ll continue watching Komugi’s adventures for a while. Let’s Komugication!
If she keeps training, she’ll be a Doctor Witch
About Overcooled
A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
You meant, it time to check your temperature. Note what is Komugi’s always present magical suteki. And where it should be located in order to take a proper core temperature. 😛
I prefer the old Mugimaru. Perverted. Ecchi. Sukebe. Hentai. Magical Pet.
*dons Dejiko’s Nurse outfit*
Now, it’s time to check temperature-nyo~~ *nikoniko*