Sara Talks Anime

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Doctors. With the two Winter anime seasons that I’ve watched simulcasts during, that seems to be the running theme. Now, I’d like to spin the clock back to the Winter 2024 season, my first Winter anime season where I was watching simulcasts. Yes, the same anime season where I picked up the pile of mid known as Fluffy Paradise. Thankfully, there was another show that was actually peak fiction that I was watching and determined at the time to be peak fiction. That show was Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady with the Lamp.

Fun fact: this show is an isekai. I mean, if you’ve heard of the show before this video, you probably already knew this. If you haven’t already heard of the show before this video, then oh boy, have fun getting this around your head. So, the first life of our main character, who I will refer to as just Elise for simplicity’s sake, was a villainess who had married the crown prince and later died. Fun! In her second life, however, she gets reincarnated in our world, and she becomes a doctor to repent for what she did in her first life. That second life, however, gets cut short when a plane crashes and Elise manages to treat everyone except herself before she dies again. That’s it, roll credits.

Actually, JK! What, did you really think that a show like that would be greenlit? Hell, it wouldn’t even last 12 episodes!

…I probably should’ve swapped those, but whatever! Anyway, Elise gets isekai’d back to before she married the crown prince dude, and she now has the chance to do her life over. And this time, instead of marrying the crown prince, she decides to become a doctor in this world! So, a bet gets made between the king and Elise: if Elise becomes a successful doctor, than the engagement to the crown prince would be called off. However, if she failed, then the engagement would remain in place. So, the series follows Elise as she learns how to become a doctor. Pair that with a side of drama that I probably covered a bit too much in my writeups from when this was airing as a simulcast, and you get Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady with the Lamp.

Something I will point out is that Episode 1 actually has us get familiar with Elise’s life in the regular world before isekai-ing her back to her own. While not a lot of series do this, it makes a lot more sense to do it for this series, especially considering the circumstances that caused Elise to be on a plane. However, I think that’s both a strength and a weakness. It feels like Episodes 1 and 2 should’ve been paired together to make a double-length premiere episode…but they’re not. My only guess is that they tried to get this time slot for the first episode, but the network screwed them over in that regard. If they were one conjoined episode, then maybe it wouldn’t feel like the majority of Episode 1 isn’t important to the overall plot yet still necessary to understand how Elise got in her scenario.

But back to Elise becoming doctor, as that’s what we’re here for. She has to take a test to determine whether she can actually become a doctor or not. Which, unsurprisingly, she passes and manages to become like…an intern or apprentice or the equivalent at one of the hospitals. Patients come in that Elise gets to use her modern medical knowledge to diagnose and treat, and things go on behind the scenes because this is a world on the brink of war, if I’m reading the vibes correctly. Now, you may wonder “do we ever get the lamp as promised in the title”? And uh…kinda? We do get to see Elise with a little thing that looks like it could be a lamp even though according to what I’ve read online this isn’t the lamp that’s being referred to in the title, so…I guess it’s kinda a win for us?

I don’t know what else I can say that doesn’t completely spoil what happens for those who haven’t watched the series, so instead of focusing too much on the plot, I’ll instead pivot to talking about the characters. I enjoy all of them, and they feel like human beings…even if for me it’s hard to pinpoint the names of anyone that isn’t Elsie or Graham. Now, this doesn’t mean that the series is bad. It’s just me having poor memory.

The OST for the show is fun: especially the theme songs! The fans from my main channel probably already know that I love the opening theme way too damn much. Genuinely hope that those fans don’t absolutely hate the theme, or even just the one segment that I was commonly using in my intro. The instant that it hit my ears, the deal was sealed. But if you asked me if there was one song that I want to play at a hypothetical wedding for me that’ll literally never happen because I’m not interested in relationships like that IRL, then this show’s opening theme is the one song that I’d pick. Then whoever else is picking music would probably fuck up and pick a song like Every Breath You Take by The Police even though that is very clearly not a song intended for weddings.

…I’m getting off track. Instead, I’d like to bring up the animation. It’s not the flashiest thing in the world, but it works for the series as it’s not heavy on the action. Probably the one thing that I think is lacking on the animation scene is that the plane in the opening looks like bad CGI, but maybe that’s moreso just a “me” thing due to me thinking stuff that looks more 3D in a 2D environment just looks weird nine times out of ten. And maybe just finding 3D stuff in general weird outside of video games half the time. But for the anime fan who has only watched Demon Slayer and Jujitsu Kaisen, I think that this won’t be a show that they’d like just due to the fact that the animation doesn’t really have anything that makes it stunning to them.

So, do I recommend this show? Yes. I’m not going to be quick to recommend this show to someone who is looking for anime recommendations with no additional specifications, but not only does it earn the Sara Talks Anime! Seal of approval, I’d also highly recommend the show to those who enjoy shows involving a reformed villainess changing the past and isekai if given the opportunity.

Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady with the Lamp is streaming on Crunchyroll in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East and the Commonwealth of Independent States. I hope I labeled that last one correctly. Even with the help of Google, I’m still bad with geography.

Additional posts about Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady with the Lamp:

• Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady with the Lamp Episode 12 – “A Path”