Hey guys, Josh here again. You know, when I looked through all of the shows that were available for us to offer commentary on, I knew when I saw this particular one, I wanted to take it. Not only would it be a great accompaniment to the Cells at Work!! writeup I did earlier as both shows deal with the human body, but this just seems like it would be a fun one to do. And it’s been a while since I went into a show completely blind like this with nothing but the preview trailer and a description. So what did I think of this one? Well let’s find out. I’m the Cajun Samurai and here’s my first look at Dr. Ramune – Mysterious Disease Specialist-.
Our story kicks off with a girl named Koto at the eye doctor. Baby girl is having some issues with her tears—specifically that when she cries, she cries mayonnaise. Heck, some people call that a problem—I call that an item to add to your resume. I guarantee that Subway would hire you in a heartbeat. Of course, the eye doctor thinks that Koto is cray-cray and sends her on the way. However, a chance encounter with a straight-laced, deadpan boy named Kuro has Koto at the doorstep of Dr. Ramune; a doctor who specializes in curing diseases and conditions brought on by the occult.
While trying to diagnose her condition, it’s revealed that Koto is a child actress who has the ability to cry on command. When asked to do so by Dr. Ramune, she starts crying soy sauce. Heck, I need to invite this girl to hang out with my friends when we go eat sushi. Koto explains that she’s wept many different condiments including ketchup, ponzu sauce and soup stock. However, she doesn’t know how to cry normal tears, as her mother (no doubt named Karen) told her to save her tears for when she’s acting, and thus, she doesn’t know how to express her emotions fully. Dr. Ramune comes to the rescue and gives Koto some medicinal tea, a teapot, a keychain charm and contact lenses to stop the condiments from flowing, with explicit instructions to not wear the lenses for an extended period of time to avoid side effects.
Koto goes home and her mom…could care less that her daughter went to the doctor, seeming to be more interested in her next big purchase than the health and well-being of her daughter. Koto brews a pot of tea with the teapot and, without being prompted, admits that she wants to quit working. Her mom is enraged as she clearly wants her daughter to work harder so she can buy more stuff. Geeze, Mommy Dearest much?
Meanwhile, over sukiyaki, Dr. Ramune and Kuro have been monitoring the situation through the keychain charm and the good doctor admits that it’s not the TEA that’s the cure, it’s the teapot, known as the Teapot of Loose Lips. You can probably guess what it does. One sip from the pot and you start spilling ALL the tea, so to speak. Koto really wants to go back to the way things were with her mom being caring and loving, but she feels that she’s being selfish and thus she suppresses her emotions, leaving them bottled up inside and causing stress. That stress manifests itself as condiments in her tears. Meh. I’ve heard weirder.
The next day at a photo shoot with her mother, Koto clearly appears to be out of it. She’s been suppressing her emotions so much and that plus the use of the contacts has caused her emotions to become bottled up to the point where she passes out, and her arms and legs begin turning black and necrotic. Enter our good doctor…through the window. Reminds me of Sam from Clarissa Explains it All, truth be told. Dr. Ramune determines that she needs to chug more of the tea from the teapot and spill out her emotions or else she’ll lose her arms and legs. While at first hesitant to do so, not wanting to cause trouble, Dr. Ramune convinces her to do so and Koto begins spilling ALL THE TEA; she wants to be a kid and play and eat her mom’s cooking again. This powerful confession causes all her mother’s expensive possessions to break down. After a few minutes, Koto is back to normal, but mommy dearest’s priced possessions are turned to dust. Mom is at first upset over losing all her things, but upon realizing that the cost of getting those items back would be her daughters life, she soon gets some act right and sees the error of her ways.
Fast-forward a bit, and happy ending all around. Koto and her mom are doing fine, Koto is taking a break to be a normal kid for once, and she is now crying (normal) tears of joy.
You know, this show gives me so many different vibes and it feels like several different shows smashed into one; specifically, Mob Psycho 100, xxxHolic, Mushi-Shi, and Dr. Blackjack, shows that I really like and have loads of respect for. So it should go without saying that I actually enjoyed this one. While yes, the first episode does bludgeon you upside the head with its moral (don’t be a Stage Parent), the characters do enough to keep things interesting. The goofy yet intelligent main character with a straight-man second banana is a dynamic that works and works well here. While the OP promises that we’ll get more characters into the mix, I have to admit, this premiere episode with just these few characters are
So where does that leave us with Dr. Ramune -Mysterious Disease Specialist-? If you can get past the somewhat cliché first episode, I do believe that there could be some good to be found here. The characters are funny enough to keep you coming back, and if the second episode preview is to be believed, things are going to be getting really interesting really quickly! All I have to say is this—I refuse to post screen captures from that particular episode preview. I like my job and I wanna keep it. See you on the flip side!
Dr. Ramune -Mysterious Disease Specialist- can be streamed through Crunchyroll. Read our thoughts on all the new winter anime series, in addition to comments from our other writers, on our winter 2020 anime first impression master post.
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