Nurse Witch Komugi is a fascinating anime. It exists as a parody of the magical girl genre as a whole, but also a parody of an entirely different anime, SoulTaker, which embodies an entirely different tone. The SoulTaker production committee is actually responsible for the production of this anime, and even brought over the same dub actors to maintain consistency. Furthermore, Nurse Witch Komugi maintains this irreverent, highly referential personality throughout the show that is highly peculiar and specific to the time in which it was made, that being the early 2000s. It references everything from other anime like Fistof the North Star and Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-Chan, to more unexpected things like South Park and early 2Chan memes. This eccentric personality is something I love about the anime, but the show itself sometimes ends up feeling like an excuse to make these references, leading it to become narratively unmoored. I'm not saying it needs to be some dramatic masterpiece, but I would prefer if it didn't just devolve into nonsense. Beginning with the story, as I said earlier, I love its sense of humor and the clever references scattered throughout, especially its callbacks to 2000s otaku culture and the early internet. It captures that atmosphere earnestly and honestly, which on its own is worthy of praise. Indeed, much of its score rests on the fact that I am a huge sucker for 2000s otaku culture, so the fact that this anime is so referential while being so self-aware carries a lot of weight. The story itself, however, is pretty rudimentary, and often trips over itself trying to make clever references, which ends up being a problem for the pacing and coherence of the story.
The art is great, in that fun, nostalgic 2000s style, complete with all the garish trappings of magical girl anime, and a shockingly strong command of character design, which on its own elevates the art to the strongest aspect of Nurse Witch Komugi. They're all so visually complex yet exceptionally distinct, loaded with tiny details and design elements that bring them to life, even for the more mundane characters throughout. If I had to describe the colorful, energetic art in a single word, I'd describe it as electric. It stands strong even today, and it's because of random screenshots that I decided to watch it in the first place.
The sound is good, with a fun soundtrack and voice work that matches the high energy of the show. It all works towards creating this rich atmosphere that perfectly captures 2000s weeb culture, especially in the context of an early, still-developing internet culture.
The characters are very strong, especially for something like this, and drive the story along by their sheer energy. My favorites are Komugi, who is simultaneously the archetypal magical girl and the perfect subversion of the trope, and her arch nemesis, Koyori, who matches her absurdity as the perfect embodiment of and foil to the melodramatic villain archetype. As for the specials and sequels, the special episode is a bit messy and loaded with music videos, but the second episode of the sequel OVA, Nurse Witch Komugi Z, is the anime's strongest showing by far. It boasts a maverick visual identity, a fluidity of animation, and a sense of narrative purpose on display that is better here than anywhere else in the show. Indeed, if the entire anime was this caliber, then it would enjoy a much higher score. From what I understand, the newer series, Nurse Witch Komugi R, is completely different and almost entirely devoid of what made the original OVAs special. Overall, Nurse Witch Komugi is a fun, interesting little piece, and while I enjoyed it, most of the enjoyment here comes from the art and the references, so if that's not enough for you, then there's little else to be had.
