This mystery is finally concluding! It has been so fun to keep up with this mystery, and the way it has been built up so far has been something rather interesting to watch. But the big question is, did the conclusion feel like it was up to snuff? That’s what we’re going to figure out, right here, right now. Let’s get into it.
The episode begins with the daughter of the researcher that died last episode, as she had witnessed his death first hand. While Takanashi consoles her, Takao is up in her office, researching spontaneous human combustion and how it would occur in real life. Of course, while investigating, Takanashi and Mai (the other person who can be considered a main character in this show, as she’s been helping out Takanashi) come up to where Takao is, and Takanashi is on the phone with Sakurai. After hearing that the autopsy is still ongoing, Takao ends up hanging up.
To figure out what happened, Takao needs the results of a blood sample, and it seems like there isn’t one at first…until Mai is like “oh, we actually got a blood sample, but the lab hasn’t done any testing on it”, which causes Takao to demand that the sample gets tested. And after getting the results back, Takao finally has all the pieces she needs to be able to diagnose the mystery. Her words, not mine. But with us finally seeing the cool mind palace animation, it’s clear that the case will wrap up this episode (even if the finale in the title wasn’t clear enough).
I won’t get into the specifics of who did each specific thing in this case, but even with having watched the episodes, I still feel confused about how Takao got the answer. Like, yeah, because we saw one of the counted culprits in the previous episode, we know how they’re considered a culprit. The second I can also understand, as some people simply don’t want to have a criminal record on file for them.
But the third…I can’t understand why they were in the headspace to consider what they did, even with the details. I know I’m supposed to suspend my disbelief when interacting with media, but I find it difficult to suspend it just this once.
Maybe there were things in the other episodes that I missed when I watched them, but this ending didn’t feel like it sufficiently answered the mystery. However, I’m willing to pin this on me missing details instead of it being an actual fault of the episode.
As for what we see as the sneak peek for the next episode…yeah, I’m getting the vibe that this won’t be a one-episode mystery, so I’m going to make an early call and say that my prediction for how the remaining mysteries will be split across episodes is off. (Remember, I wrote these write-ups AS THE SERIES INITALLY AIRED, so even though you already know whether or not this is accurate, I DIDN’T KNOW BACK THEN.)
But despite the conclusion being confusing in my eyes, I still enjoyed this mystery. The set-up was strong, but I think the conclusion was where it ultimately failed for me, and even then, it was only partially. While not as strong as the first mystery, I think this is still just the show being in its awkward phase, and it’ll likely get better as it goes on. While I think this is better than the second mystery, I’m not going to go as far as this is the best mystery in the show.
Am I still sticking with this show? Well, I’ve made it this far. It’d be stupid to pull out now. Or maybe I’m experiencing the early signs of Sunken Cost Fallacy. Who knows at this point. But, yeah, it’ll be interesting to see how this series progresses through everything. Can’t wait for more interactions between everyone!
Additional posts about Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective:
Sara Talks Anime 
Leave a comment