Dengeki Nurse Development Diary, by Minami Kasai
Translated by Geometrizer; Editing and commentary by trentsignia
| Writer's Profile | |
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Minami Kasai was a scenario writer who was credited on Cocktail Soft games from 1992 to 1994. Her brand is one of unabashed silliness and irreverance, something which comes across most clearly in her writing for Dengeki Nurse and its sequel, but she also has a sentimental side which comes across in games like Sotsugyou Shashin and Kera Kera Boshi. She is illustrated here by fellow scenario writer Nanako Haruna; Her resemblance to Ranma Saotome is just a coincidence, surely... |
| As depicted in XFER Vol. 1; Scanned by Detchibe of The Stacks. | |
October: Late one night...
I was chatting with illustrator Furumi-chan while we were doing an all-nighter.
Furumi: “Minami-san, we should make a nurse game!”
You see, Furumi-chan has a nurse fetish.
Minami: “Yeah, yeah, sure.”
And with that answer I let it pass.
October: At the office
While Furumi-chan was drawing erotic art...
Minami: “I thought about that nurse game you mentioned!”
Furumi-chan's eyes sparkled.
Minami: “I'm calling it Dengeki Nurse, what do you think?”
Furumi-chan's pupils shrunk into pinpoints...
Furumi: “W-What in the... Huh???”
Minami: “She'll be a nurse commando who fights evil with a syringe bazooka!”
Furumi: “T-That's not the kind of nurse I had in mind!”
With a grumble, Furumi-chan nonetheless said “Maybe something like this?” and came up with a rough character sketch.
| Birth of the Nurse | |
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Masato Furumi never quite got to make his mark on eroge history; At the time these conversations happened, he was working as lead artist on the scatological noir fic Starfucker, a game that was cancelled for reasons that will soon become apparent. Furumi's vision for a more straightforward "nurse" game would materialise a little over two years after this conversation, in the form of RED-ZONE game Miho. If this illustration by IDES publicity designer Schecter is any indication, this shared point of inspiration was not unremarked upon within the company. |
| "Dengeki Miho"; from PP Disk Vol. 1. | |
November: At a planning meeting
I went to the meeting with the Dengeki Nurse pitch I wrote in 30 minutes.
President Ideken (hereafter referred to as the Prez): “The hell is this?”
Minami: “Haha! Funny, isn't it?”
Prez: “There's no way something like this would ever sell!”
Minami: “Ahah, well, nurses are popular, you know...”
In the end, it looked like I had to resubmit it... (Cries)
November: At the office
The president was exhausted. And just how exhausted, you ask?
You see, normally he goes to a fashion health parlor in Takadanobaba every lunch break to get jerked off, and at night he'd hit a soapland in Kabukichi to do it two more times.
But now, he was so tired he only managed a pink salon in Sugami once every three days.
I didn't know why he was tired, of course, since I don't read the paper and only watch pro baseball news.
November: At another planning meeting
The president is exhausted as always.
He's spaced out and staring off into the distance and sighing.
I decided to seize the moment and pitched the project.
Before I knew it, Dengeki Nurse was approved.
| President's Profile | |
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President Kensuke Ide was in fact not yet a company president during November 1991, but had good reason to be tired during this period of time nonetheless. That month, the infamous Saori Incident shook the Japanese computer game industry. Kirara, the company behind the incident's namesake, was especially affected, as then-president Show Shinkai was arrested in the immediate aftermath. Ide, a production manager at the time, found Shinkai's role thrust upon him, and soon the existing game production pipeline fell under his own company by the name of IDES. A desire to not provoke further furor from the public eye was what led to proposals like Dengeki Nurse being greenlit, in a market where the relative lack of sexual content would have otherwise been a dealbreaker; The company's output would notably lack in pornographic qualities for the following year before they deemed it safe to venture back into that territory again. |
| As photographed for Dengeki Hime Vol. 2 in 1997; Scanned by Detchibe of The Stacks. | |
December: Around Christmas
I got the preliminary Nurse character designs from the graphics team. I really liked Act Mao-chan's design.
In my heart I knew, “Yes, he will be the one to draw her!”
December: Around New Year's
The president is busy with all kinds of stuff, and I would be loathe to trouble the president.
So, to lighten the president's workload, I just went ahead and assigned staff to Dengeki Nurse myself. For some reason, I picked all the nerds...
January: At the office
I had a fierce argument with Mao-chan.
Mao: “Minami-san, your ideas are way too vulgar!”
I was devasated that a young guy would say that to me...
February (It's a leap year, so there was an extra day)
Sotsugyou Shashin is all done! Now I can concentrate on Dengeki Nurse!!
Prez: “Sorry, the scenario writer for Yumeji has vanished...”
| The Disappearance of Uchimaru Takeniku |
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| There is one other scenario writer credited alongside Minami in the game's credits: Uchimaru Takeniku, who is also the game's credited director. This is the only place where it is mentioned that Minami took over the scenario writing from someone else; She otherwise appears to have conceptualized the game, as her original work credit indicates. Takeniku would eventually reappear in 1996 to write the scenario of Requiem for Fallen Angels at DISCOVERY, a company that had a couple of ex-Kirara people among their staff. |
March: At the office
Mao-chan told me the transformation illustrations were complete.
I looked at them and was shocked! There were 40 frames...
There was no way I could handle something like this... Having low blood pressure, I nearly fainted on the spot.
Mao: “Come on, this'll be fine...”
For a graphic designer, Mao-chan is highly educated.
Burdened by my own academic insecurities, I accepted the drawings.
| Artist's Profile | |
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Act Mao was instrumental in crafting the identity of Dengeki Nurse well beyond her looks; In a conversation with LOGiN Magazine (one which will come up later in this development diary), producer Hironari Tadokoro recounts that Mao was the one to suggest the "transforming nurse" concept when the initial plans for a more serious story were no longer viable to make into a game. The unabashedly geeky perspective of Mao, a devoted otaku, complements Minami's irreverent writing style well here, and together they undoubtedly form the core of the game's appeal. Mao's status as the "Doctor of Drawing" comes from an impressive academic background that Minami alludes to here; Tadokoro notes in his memoirs that the high school and national university Mao graduated from are famous and prestigious, although he stops short of actually naming them. Mao is still out there as of writing, doodling in his spare time. |
| As depicted in XFER Vol. 1; Scanned by Detchibe of The Stacks. | |
April: In the scary programming room...
I delivered the transformation images to programmer Kuni-chan.
While avoiding eye contact, I handed over the disk and made a break for it.
As I closed the door behind me, I heard Kuni-chan let out his scream...
April: At the office
With the transformation sequence complete, we moved on to the battle graphics.
As the graphic designer Suetake-kun was drawing backgrounds for the enemies...
Minami: “Huh? Weren't we gonna do the same black backgrounds for everyone?”
Suetake: “Nah, it'd be more fun if they were different.”
So the number of illustrations went up by 15...
April: Spring sure is nice...
While thinking about the battle system, I realized we had a major issue.
The enemies don't strip when you win a battle...that won't do!
So I decided to order undressing graphics.
Another 15 illustrations added...
April: Spring makes me sleepy.
I met the composer, Kanamori-san.
He's a nice young man with long blond hair. He loves prog rock, so maybe he was aiming for a Rick Wakeman look, but honestly I think he just looks like Johnny Winter.
When I told him Dengeki Nurse's theme should have a Ventures style electric guitar sound, he was like, “Ha ha ha...”
The meeting ended quickly after that, and we instead spent a while excitedly discussing Novela.
| Composer's Profile | |
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Before working on video games, Naoki Kanamori was the frontman of the Japanese progressive rock band Seraphita, for which he played guitar, keyboard, and sang lead vocals. That hair really has to be seen to be believed. While the details of how he came into the orbit of game music production company MUSE is unknown, he appears to have stuck with them for a while, with Naoki being credited on MUSE productions as late as 1997. Seraphita only ever released one studio album in 1990, Persona and Shadow. Naoki revived the band in 2007 with a different lineup, with whom he made several live performances until 2014. |
| As photographed on the cover of the 1990 album Persona and Shadow. Taken from The Metal Archives. | |
May: Transformation complete!!!
Kuni-chan presented the finished transformation sequence.
Amazing! Incredible! Moving! I was so overwhelmed I watched it all day and showed it off to everyone who wandered by.
While I was at it, I even sent it off to a magazine. Kuni-chan is a genius!
I told Kuni-chan I'd devote my body and soul to him, but he turned me down.
May: At the office
The president was delighted to see that the transformation sequence was complete.
Even though he was insisting “It won't sell!” up until now, he changed his tune quickly! As expected of the president!
Anyway, the whole company was on board to support the project. Thank goodness... Thank goodness!
June: LOGiN attacks!
LOGiN Magazine visited for an interview.
I was at home sick with a cold... If I'd known, I wouldn't have stayed at home...
Producer Tadokoro-san didn't tell anyone beforehand.
He got complaints like “I would've gotten a haircut if you told me!” and “I'd have worn nicer clothes!” and basically got yelled at by everyone.
Serves him right!!
| Writer's Profile (Wait, what?) | |
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Hironari Tadokoro was the producer in charge of the Cocktail Soft label from 1992 to 1994, where he oversaw the production of all games released under the label. He even wrote a few himself, under the penname of... Minami Kasai! Here, Tadokoro is sneakily maintaining the kayfabe of his rowdy girl persona by having "Minami" claim to be away from the office on the day the LOGiN staff visited. Tadokoro would continue to be a creative presence in the eroge space long after leaving the orbit of IDES, founding STONE HEADS and its flagship label PIL before becoming a songwriter for other companies' titles in later years. The aforementioned memoirs reflecting on his Cocktail Soft years, written shortly before his untimely passing in late 2018, are an invaluable insight into the company's inner workings that inform much of this commentary. |
| As photographed for the August 1992 issue of LOGiN; Scanned by F_T_B for Gaming Alexandria. | |
A small tip for the LOGiN editor-in-chief:
I heard that Davey Hidaka, who was supposed to interview us, got sucked into playing Dengeki Combat for over an hour instead. (Just something I heard...)
Another tip for the LOGiN editor-in-chief:
Our sales team recieved LOGiN T-shirts “for the staff that was pulling all-nighters”, but they divided them amongst themselves and not a single one reached the development team!
Next time you give out T-shirts, make sure you hand them directly to the devs!
June: At the office
I finished writing Yumeji, subbing for the missing scenario writer.
Ugh... Literature is hard... But now I can finally focus on Dengeki Nurse!
Prez: “Sotsugyou Shashin did well! I want a similar game by October, I'm sure you can do it for me at a stroke.”
Minami: “You want me to stroke it for you, out in the open!?”
(Kera Kera Boshi will be out on October 30th!)
July: Hell approaches...
I can already see the Can Can Bunny Premiere team in the depths of hell... It's supposed to ship July 30th and they're still not done.
...Seeing the misfortune of others is fun.
August: Right before hell
Producer Tadokoro declared no days off in August, and took everyone to a beer garden.
It turned out to be a beer garden where women were doing sumo!
Mao-chan and Suetake-kun watched, entranced. Then the two of them vanished into the Shinjuku night...
The next day, Matsumoto-kun, who didn't go, was sulking.
August: While the world was on Obon vacation...
Music producer Akira-san showed up with a DAT tape! The CD recording was finished!
Unable to resist, we listened immediately.
Oh, nice! It's sounding pretty good!
August: In the pits of hell
We're debugging all five episodes like crazy. It all falls on Naka-chan, the lead programmer.
Osuga: “What the-!?”
Hirama: “Nakatani-san, the graphics are all messed up!”
Hiroki: “Naka-chan, Naka-chan, what is this? What is this?”
Kobayashi: “Ahhh, I broke it again!”
Sakamoto: “This is...hopeless...”
Aihara: “......”(He's a quiet guy)
Naka-chan is totally worn out.
Nakatani: “Shut up, all of you! Make a list!”
Watching this, my stomach turned sour...
August 29th: Free me from this hell!!
And so here I am, writing this dev diary.
Mao is exhausted drawing the manual illustrations. Naka-chan is programming the eye-catch.
What else is left...?
This bonus section... The ending...
Ahh... Once Dengeki Nurse is done, we'll have to check ourselves into the hospital!
The End
PS. I had to cut a lot due to space limitations. Maybe I'll post the full version and after-party diary online.