Kurita is not just a student at Mitsugi Middle School, he’s also a part of the school’s health committee — and he very much admires the brand-new nurse, Nijiko Momoyama. Beautiful and knowledgeable, the students see her as quite responsible, and that goes double for Kurita. But he soon learns while in the nurse’s office that she also happens to be into gacha games. Also happens to learn she’s an otaku. And while he doesn’t outright know it, we the readers learn she’s very much a fujoshi.
Basically, someone out there very much likes this nerdy nurse, and we get to read an omnibus version of it!
Thankfully *cough spoilers* it simply sticks to a student liking the nurse, as that turning into love definitely would ruin all the anime and manga references that’s packed in this one!
Do You Like the Nerdy Nurse? was a two-volume series in Japan that Yen Press put together. With that we can simply turn the page to discover just what nerd stuff Momoyama actually likes. While you can count on some romantic tension, it’s one-sided, as Momoyama just becomes flustered when either trying to hide her BL she’s reading on the job or she ends up falling prey to the gacha gods. For the most part this manga focuses on the nurse and what she does, whether that’s fangirling over Detective Conan — specifically Amuro and Kazami — or making a reference to a Takara Tomy show intended for kids.
There are very few times where we see her do her day job. As in, if you’re expecting to see her impart any health tips or take care of a scrape…well you do, but it’s not a lot of that. The most that happens is when Sports Day takes place and Momoyama and the Public Health Committee prepare for injuries. If you were counting on anything super medical, you won’t be getting it in this manga.
Instead, you’ll get references to anime, manga, and other otaku subcultures. Some are simple and you can easily figure out, others you might learn a thing or two about. There was one chapter where I suddenly got flashbacks to Bakuman, and while it probably wasn’t going for that, saying “x writes the story and x does the art!” didn’t help. Chances are depending on what works you’ve watched you may infer a reference or two from the text that wasn’t actually intended but it just felt that way.
All of this said, some of the best chapters from Do You Like the Nerdy Nurse? generally are outside of school. This manga delves deep into Momoyama’s life when not working, so we see her at home watching Soruto or her going to buy some merch, and sometimes we’ll get Kurita commenting or accidentally seeing her at an otaku store. We also get to see her take part in helping a friend who creates doujins and her cosplaying at one point, and boy was she serious about portraying one of her favorite characters right!
The art is drawn in a fanservice-y way, but for most of this omnibus, it comes across fine. That doesn’t mean we don’t get them — back to her cosplaying prep, Momoyama’s in her home trying to prep for Comiket, so she’s in her underwear for most of a chapter — but it’s not excessive. If there’s anything excessive, it’s just the number of times she’s blushing…and this extends to even her gacha rolls at a shrine as she tries to get the character she wants. (Yeah, that can be serious business! Maybe too serious…)
If you’re a fan of works that pull off pop culture references, Do You Like the Nerdy Nurse is a good addition to your bookshelf. If you’re not? Actually tough to say — it’s all chapters making references to a show or an individual passion. So if that’s not your speed you may not get too much enjoyment out of this. But the humor is effective and the chapters don’t overstay their welcome. If you’re up for checking out something new, this wouldn’t be a bad choice.