Kenichi OgataelfMaya OkamotoAi Uchikawa
The Mystery of Nonomura Hospital
Also known as: Nonomura Byouin no Hitobito
Medium: OVA
Year: 1996
Actor: Ai Uchikawa, Atsuko Tanaka, Katsuhisa Hoki, Kenichi Ogata, Kenyuu Horiuchi, Maya Okamoto, Miho Yoshida, Shinpachi Tsuji, Taeko Kawata
Keywords: elf, anime, hentai, boobs, rubbish
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Format: 2 half-hour episodes
Url: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=3380
Website category: Hentai
Review date: 19 July 2024
Nonomura Byouin no Hitobito
I watched this because I thought it was an adaptation of an ELF visual novel. I was wrong. The game's by a studio called Silky's, although ELF was one of its three publishers and they did the Windows version.
I hated it.
Our "hero" is Takumaro Kaibara, a perverted detective. His idea of amusing banter can piss off and die. "Did you get sexually aroused by the smell of my sweat?" He'll ask a girl if her boobs are real and speculate about the colour of her knickers. He flips skirts, or uses a mirror to look up them. He "accidentally" puts his hands and face into women's boobs so often that one of them learns to dodge. The character's not even plausible. He breaks his leg in a motorcycle collision and doesn't notice the pain until someone points out that his foot's back to front. He's wheelchair-bound for the rest of the story. (Good thing he's investigating a hospital.) He also runs his wheelchair into a wall while ogling a nurse.
In addition, he's stupid. On learning the murderer's identify, he goes off to confront this person alone and tell them everything he knows. He's still wheelchair-bound. He didn't think he might be in danger. Mind you, the murderer's just as unintelligent, leaving him unconscious on the floor without killing him and then leaving the room. Yes, Takumaro wakes up and saves the day. Sigh.
I loathed him. I wanted him arrested, or for preference killed.
As for the rest of the story... a hospital director has died. The police think it's suicide, but his widow objects because it'll stop her collecting on the insurance money. (She's otherwise unbothered about his death, but that's understandable since he died while shagging another woman and injecting himself with drugs.) Enter Takumaro. He wastes time semi-investigating for the best part of an hour (mostly he's sexually harassing nurses), then he has that unintelligent finale.
The hentai content is both unpleasant and implausible. The late director's last shag is icky and grimy. A woman gets blackmailed into sex acts. The director's widow likes whipping women who've been tied up and stripped. There's a near-rape, including a scalpel-near-the-groin shot that made me squirm. The only sex scene that's neither evil nor horrible is a nurse's gratitude shag at the end, which is consensual but still obnoxious because she's giving it to Takumaro and because there's a ho-ho-ho "another woman opens the door" anti-comedy punchline.
There's a demonic cat. I'll be generous and call that a red herring.
In short, no. Don't even consider it. It's possible that the visual novel is better, because I could imagine a murder mystery becoming quite a good choose-your-own-adventure. (Bizarrely, ELF published a crossover game between Nonomura and Words Worth. The mind boggles.) I must admit, though, that wrong-headed people have called Takumaro funny.