My favorite anime: Yaeji’s journey from Nurse Angel Ririka SOS to Nichijou

polygon.com:

My Favorite Anime is a column dedicated to collecting the stories of the biggest celebrity anime fans in the world, charting a path from their earliest introductions to Japanese animation to the series and films they love today with two questions: What was your first favorite anime, and what’s your favorite anime now?

Polygon caught up with Yaeji, the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and producer and a lifelong anime fan. Her debut album, With a Hammer, peaked at No. 13 on Billboard’s World Albums chart last April and was named The Guardian’s No. 7 album of 2023.

Based on the original manga written by Yasushi Akimoto and illustrated by manga author Koi Ikeno, 1995’s Nurse Angel Ririka SOS is a magical girl fantasy anime following Ririka Moriya, a bubbly fourth grader who is gifted a magical nurse cap on her 10th birthday that allows her to transform into a superpowered guardian known as the Nurse Angel.

On the surface, Nurse Angel Ririka SOS appears fairly conventional in its similarities to other foundational magical girl stories, like Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura. Ririka is tasked with fighting the malevolent schemes of an alien terrorist organization known as Dark Joker, which is hellbent on tarnishing the world through mass pollution. It’s only later that Nurse Angel Ririka SOS begins to show its full hand, exploring the emotional turmoil of a young child grappling with her role as a foot soldier in an extraterrestrial war and forced to make hard decisions, often with no favorable outcome. Unfortunately, as of this writing, Nurse Angel Ririka SOS is unavailable to stream or purchase in North America, though enterprising readers might be able to track down clips of the series on YouTube.

While Yaeji’s first favorite anime may be a title that’s flown under the radar of contemporary anime fans, her current favorite anime is one of the most celebrated anime of the 2010s. Based on Keiichi Arawi’s manga series, Nichijou is a surreal slice-of-life comedy that