First Impression: Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective

Whether it’s a young child suffering from a Vitamin A overdose or an old fisherman in pain after a fishing expedition, the patients of Teniki General Hospital can rest easy knowing that if their hard-working resident doctors can’t solve their ailments, the Department of Investigative Pathology—headed up by the brilliant yet eccentric director, Dr. Takao Ameku—will be on the scene ready to fix whatever ails them. She may look like a cute little high school student, but under the hood, Dr. Ameku has abounding knowledge to diagnose and treat patients in record time! However, when a patient dies in the ER with a horrific leg injury and mysterious blue blood, our pathology physicians realize that there is a much deeper mystery to solve. Give me 13cc of medical shenanigans—STAT!

When I first went into this one, I found myself thinking “Oh, hey, this could be interesting; a medical procedural anime kinda like Dr. Blackjack back in the day.” For a while, this held my attention, but by the end of the first episode and all through the second, it just fell into the safe and comfortable “Who Dunnit?” space that loads of detective anime fall into, complete with the brilliant yet socially inept main character; the strong, yet somewhat bumbling, sidekick who understands the eccentric lead character; the police detective who can’t seem to solve the case without help; and of course, the stereotypical bad guy who would’ve gotten away with it if it wasn’t for those meddling kids doctors! That said, we don’t get that many straight medical shows in the anime world that deal with true science and not some mythical ancient mumbo jumbo (Looking at you, Dr. Ramune). This anime reminds me of the live-action medical drama show House, except instead of a crotchety guy with a cane, we have a cute female doctor who, for some reason, wears open-toed sandals while at work. As someone who works in the medical field, I can tell you right now, that it is a NO-GO. I’m gonna need baby girl to get a pair of Crocs like everyone else. I also have to give the creators props for releasing two episodes for the premiere instead of making us wait a week to find out the solution. Honestly, that worked in this show’s favor, as I probably would’ve written it off if it ended after the first episode.

So where does that leave us with Ameku M.D: Doctor Detective? Well, if you’re a fan of detective stories, then this one will be right up your alley…but don’t go into it thinking this is going to be something new. The setting may have changed, but the characters and tropes that plague most detective anime are still the same. That said, I don’t think I’m willing to write it off just yet. I’m always interested whenever an anime focuses on medicine in Japan, and the characters, stereotypical though they may be, are intriguing enough, so I might give this one another episode or two. This show has a pulse, boys and girls, but only time will tell if there will be meaningful recovery, or if it’ll eventually go flatline.

Ameku M.D: Doctor Detective can be streamed on Crunchyroll.

Josh
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2 thoughts on “First Impression: Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective”

  1. House is the only Medical Drama I’ve ever really enjoyed, because of it’s gimmick of applying Holmesian Mystery Tropes to it. So I am pretty excited to see an Anime version of that, but for now I’m gonna wait a few weeks to see if it gets Dubbed.

    Hopefully she can be to House what Conan is to Holmes.

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