Genre: Comedy
Company: Save Our Nurse Project
Format: 6 OVA
Dates: 7/5/1999 to 3/24/2000
Nanako is a seemingly inept maid who works for the world-renowned scientist Ogami Kyoji. She also helps him in his experiments, and he is constantly training her for reasons unknown. Little does Nanako know she is the key to one of the world’s greatest experiments… and she can’t even cook a fish!
summary by Mugs
Reviewed: 03/31/2004 by
Grade: 56% 
Highs: Some comedic moments
Lows: Non-sensical plot; long segments of prolonged boredom
Well, this short OVA series has a couple things going for it, essentially all revolving around Nanako. In fact, the problem that keeps this series from being entertaining is Nanako’s lack of screen time. Put bluntly, all the jokes in this series revolve around her being placed in a strange situation and watching hilarity ensue. For example, she’s chased around by what she calls a perverted bear that keeps ripping at her clothes. Whenever Nanako isn’t on screen it’s usually Dr. Kyoji babbling with someone in a failed attempt to advance the plot.
The reason that the plot fails in this anime is because, for some reason, the creators decided to put all advancement and revelations in the final two OVAs. This does not work at all, for four episodes we see odd things happening with virtually no explanation. Then in the last two episodes there is just too much crammed in at once to expand on it well. The plot that exists could have made a nice, thought provoking (if somewhat controversial) anime if it had been properly allowed to develop.
The artwork is nice and some of the monsters have unique designs. Nanako is really stock and I couldn’t shake an unhealthy visual similarity between Kyoji and Trigun‘s Vash. Overall the characters themselves are not visually stimulating but they get the job done, and everything is smoothly animated.
All in all it’s hard to recommend this one based on its low laugh/episode ratio as well as its insufficient plot content. A real shame; this could have been a nice title had the developer taken the risk of forgetting the ecchi and concentrating on the story.
Reviewed: 03/31/2004 by
Grade: 30% 
Highs: Nanako’s one-size-too-small wardrobe?
Lows: They call that voice acting?; animation is often weak; poor execution all around
Tekken, eat your heart out. You now officially have competition.
Let’s begin with that sorry excuse for a story. It is basically a duct-taped amalgamation of six situation “comedies” (I use that term lightly) that want desperately to be related but are only so in the characters used. Add to that the embarrassment of having often less-than-television-series quality animation for a modern OVA and the recipe for disaster is already in place. Throw in a dash of monumentally brain-dead directing and choreography matched only by the worst anime has to offer. Now we’re cookin’!
Yamamoto Maria, I love you; you were great in His and Her Circumstances as Miyazawa Kano and Hand Maid May as Cyberdoll May… but you were absolutely atrocious in Amazing Nurse Nanako. You have a unique voice that lends itself well for quirky, uncannily intelligent characters, but your bimbo impersonation needs some serious work. Overly emotive describes the voice acting in this anime in the most unflattering way imaginable.
I want those three hours of my life back. What probably made this anime even worse was the fact that it looks like the crew actually was aspiring for much greater heights. I can tell Save Our Nurse Project’s heart was in the right place, but just because someone is peeling oranges doesn’t mean he’ll make orange juice.
Amazing Nurse Nanako can be downloaded legally in the United States HERE.
Anime Academy 