Hey there! It’s time again for another Rising Sun First Impressions for the Winter 2016 anime season. Today’s show is Nurse Witch Komugi R, so let’s Komugi-cation! (quote from the show, trust me.)

The Plot
This show revolves around Komugi Yoshida, a teenager who attends high school and does idol work on the side. Her big dream is to perform in the Tokyo Skydome, which proves to be difficult when a rabbit-like creature called Usa-P convinces her to become a Tombo-E Girl (meaning tomboy girl) to capture the Fan-C Cards that’ll turn normal objects into monsters. If she tries to back out on it, she’ll turn into a cockroach!
This narrative does not rely on any prior knowledge of the original Nurse Witch Komugi OVA*s or The SoulTaker series, and that allows the show to be followed quite well. The concept of the series is to be a mix of a idol series and a magical girl series, which accomplished quite effectively through the use of musical numbers and by having the characters act out short films in universe. It’s a show that is fun to watch thanks to its usage of comedy, magical girl tension and musical numbers. As a side note, Usa-P is… well… quirky. Let’s leave it at that.

The Aesthetics
Nurse Witch Komugi R, despite rebooting a OVA series, is a excellent series in the aesthetics department. Not only are the character designs unique and memorable, their personalities are unique with their own memorable quirks. Occasionally, the art will be used as part of the humor, such as when a cockroach is blurred for the viewer’s unneeded protection. On top of that, the voice actors, a few of which return from the OVAs, play their characters in a memorable fashion that allows you to easily tell everyone apart by voice alone. On a side note, the show’s musical numbers use CGI animation to depict the characters dancing along to their performances, and it surpasses the CGI in Resurrection ‘F’.

The Musical Numbers
This show is a magical girl anime, but it is also a idol show, so just like the recently ended Phineas and Ferb, there seems to be a musical number in every episode. These numbers are performed by the voice actors, who make great singers. Every song has the meaning of its Japanese lyrics printed on the screen as the characters are singing them. However, the numbers have their lyrics translated literally, so unless you make your own English lyrics, I advise against trying to sing along.

In Conclusion
Even if this is the first time with these characters, idol fans and magical girl anime fans will get at least a little bit of enjoyment out of Nurse Witch Komugi R on Crunchyroll. New episodes will be added every Saturday at 2:30.

*A OVA (original video animation) is a anime that releases exclusively on video. These series tend to be much shorter than their TV counterparts and can also serve as tests for shows, such as with Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie.