Review: Amazing Nurse Nanako (2000)

Meet Nanako. Nurse Nanako. She is currently assigned to the military base hospital, Ogami General Hospital, where she is in charge of cleaning, cooking and looking after the various doctors’ needs.

The medical staff of Ogami Hospital includes the likes of an old witch by the name of Dr Comaneci and a Chinese Acupuncture Expert, Dr Kuron. There’s also the local martial arts expert, Ueda Genki. Head of the Hospital, and Nanako’s guardian and trainer, the mysterious Dr Kyouji Ogami.

But just who or what exactly is Nanako? Although her mind appears child-like, her body doesn’t appear to be human at all. And all Ogami does is seem to put her through more and more physical testing and training. Just what secrets is she hiding?

All the while, Dr. Ogami is being closely watched over by powerful forces in the military and the Church, both with their own mysterious goals – after all, the mysterious General and the Archbishop Cross have their own sinister designs for the life of Nanako and Dr. Ogami.

In other words, just what is the secret behind the so-called Third Helix?

Amazing Nurse Nanako is a six part sci-fi action comedy anime OVA released back in 2000, directed by Hiroshi Negishi with production courtesy of Radix, Pioneer LDC and Genco.

This is one of those silly little short OVA series that delivers on a few laughs and just a little bit of a story, while also throwing in a fair amount of fanservice here and there as well. It isn’t badly written mind you, but Nurse Nanako never really becomes a serious watch. It tries to mix comedy with serious drama, but just never really seems able to take root.

The characters are quite fun though. The naive but voluptuous Nanako, the slave-master Ogami, the chinese wannabe Kuron, the stoic martial artist Genki, and the short little witch Comaneci are all delightfully designed and depicted. Every character is quite fun to watch and adopt their own personalities early on in the show.

The animation for the OVA is pretty stylized, but still pretty good. A lot of use of exaggerated expressions is made to pull off the humour of the series. Also, Nanako seems to bounce in just about everything she does, so in other words a lot of attention has been paid to her womanly curves – in other words a pretty girl indeed.

The voice acting is spot on, with even Nanako’s irritating voice winning you over eventually. The music doesn’t stand out, but it does complement the action perfectly.

Overall, this is a nice little bit of eye-candy and good for a few laughs, but just don’t expect to much of it in terms of seriousness or longevity. Still, at only six episodes long, it is an enjoyable little OVA to pick up on if you have a little bit of time on your hands.