Ask John: Are There Any Serious Anime Nurses?
Question:
Is there any anime that has a main (or consistent) nurse character that’s not comedy-relief or sexual in nature?
Answer:
Ironically, upon initial instinct, one would assume that anime is filled with nurse characters. However, despite being a prominent profession, nurses actually aren’t especially common in anime, and the majority of them that do appear in anime are either comic relief characters, sex objects, or both. Further contributing to the irony, arguably anime’s most famous nurse character, the heroine of the 1995 magical girl television series Nurse Angel Ririka SOS is not actually a genuine nurse; she’s a preadolescent girl who magically transforms into a evil-busting nurse. Likewise, other prominent nurse characters in anime including Nanako Kaitai Shinsho and Nurse Witch Komugi-chan aren’t actually practicing nurses. Adult anime including Yakin Byoutou, Tokubetsu Byoutou, Rensa Byoutou, and Warau Kangofu feature plenty of nubile nurses, but they’re prominent for sexual exploitation rather than serious and realistic depiction. Highschool of the Dead’s Shizuka Marikawa and the protagonist of the 1998 Let’s Nupu-Nupu TV series are both legitimate school nurses, but both are relegated to fan-service/comic relief roles. The 1998 Doctor Chichibuyama television series features recurring nurse characters, but they’re present for comic effect.
However, I was able to recall a small handful of legitimate, nurse characters. Haruko Mitsuhashi stars in the 1991 sci-fi adventure satire movie Roujin Z. The 1998 Dokkiri Doctor television series is a slapstick comedy, but regular supporting character nurse Miyuki Koizumi is the “straight man” of the show. Hsu Ling Ling in the 1998 Steam Detectives anime television series is rarely seen doing anything medical related, but she is, technically, a practicing nurse. Yozakura Quartet’s infrequently seen supporting character V Juri F is a nurse. And while Mayumi, played in the anime by real-life model & actress Yumi Sugimoto, comes close to being fetishized as a sexual figure in the 2009 Kuchu Buranko television anime, she does actually provide a minimal degree of medical application. No doubt, there are other respectable nurse characters in anime that have simply slipped from my mind temporarily.
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In the second part of Itazura na Kiss the main character, Aihara Kotoko, becomes a nurse. It’s still a comedy but we see her studies at the university and later we see her actually doing the job.
Takano Miyo, Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. She appears more often in the second (HnNKn Kai) season; not sure I’d call her a “main character” in season one.
Mizuno Sanae from Another. Not that she has a lot of screen time in the anime, but you actually get to see her working in a hospital.
Medusa from Soul Eater acted as a legitimate nurse to infiltrate the DWMA.
If I recall correctly, Ryo Saeba’s girlfriend was a real nurse. She was unrealistically self-sacrificing, but a legitimate RN that was rarely used for comedy or as a sex object.