Sara Talks Anime

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Hospitals. These are the last place for you to expect a mystery show to occur…unless you watch House, M.D. Or any other medical mystery show. I…this is just my first medical mystery show, because I didn’t expect someone to make a mystery show in a hospital, yet here we are. Is live action not your thing, but anime is? Then you may want to take a crack at Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective.

The series follows Takao Ameku, the head of the Supervisory Department of Diagnostic Pathology at a hospital in Japan. That’s what I’d like to say, but just based off of the first three episodes, it feels like this is more in Takahashi, her assistant’s, point of view instead of Takao’s. Maybe I’m off, who freaking knows…

But the department deals with cases that the other departments can’t figure out, and the series revolves around Takao taking these cases and figuring them out using her ✨big brain✨ and context clues. At the time of me writing the script for this episode, the first three episodes have aired, and these episodes cover two mysteries. I mean two big mysteries. Technically, we had two little mysteries in the first episode…but people care more about the big mysteries.

As this is a mystery show at heart, the big question you need to ask is: Does the answer to the case make sense, and was there enough evidence shown throughout the mysteries before their big reveals to naturally come to that conclusion? Without spoiling the show too much, I believe that this is the case.

The hints for the mysteries feel natural enough to fit into the world without thinking that they’re part of the mystery, but once other pieces fall into place, you realize that those small things are actually part of the case. The answers to both cases also make sense, at least in their respective contexts.

As for how easy they are to solve…well, that depends on what your background knowledge about the medical world is coming in. When it came to the little mysteries in the first episode, I didn’t pick up on the answer to one of the cases, but I managed to (albeit unconfidently) think “I think this is the answer” when an aspect about this character was brought up, due to information I had learned about their hobby because of an anime I watched last season.

With the big mysteries, again, I didn’t solve the first one before Takao’s reveal due to not being knowledgeable about the topic, but I did successfully solve the second one before the reveal due to an aspect of the thing that caused the situation to occur in the first place. I also like that the mysteries in Ameku M.D. aren’t just “whodunnit”. I haven’t watched Detective Conan recently, but with what I have watched, I wish they had a bit more regular variety when it comes to mysteries. I mean, it has murder mysteries, kidnappings…those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head, and those are all more types of “whodunnit” cases instead of “whydidit” cases.

…is “whydidit” even a term used in the mystery genre, or did I just create a random term off the top of my head just to help describe some of the mysteries in Ameku M.D. better?

Due to this being a mystery anime, I really don’t want to get into plot spoilers in this video…even though I know that this will greatly reduce the run time of the video. Instead, let me talk about the things that I am comfortable talking about in this video!

Beginning with the theme songs for the show. They’re both good, but I don’t see myself actively going out to search for full versions of the songs to add to my playlist. Sorry guys, but not every anime theme song goes straight to my playlist, especially within the realm of endings. The OSTs used in the episodes also aren’t songs that I plan on actively searching out…as is the case for most series OSTs, so this ain’t exactly new. In these first three episodes, I can’t name a single stand-out song from the series.

But you know what does stand out in a positive way? The animation, especially when Takao puts everything together in her head. I even like the editing the person who did the subtitles did for that segment. Yeah, it’s simple, and anyone could do it, but that doesn’t mean I can’t say it looks cool and fits perfectly with the scene!

And the characters. THE CHARACTERS! I freaking love Takao. I don’t care what anyone says, she is the girlboss of all time. Takahashi’s…okay, I guess. Dunno why he’s just a yes man once the case gets going, but he’s a nice contrast to the girlboss Takao. The other characters…they certainly exist. They don’t exactly stand out in my mind as much as Takao, but they have their parts to play in the plot, and that’s great.

Are you a fan of Detective Conan or SHOSHIMIN: How to become Ordinary? Then I’m confident you’ll like Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective! Are you a fan of House, M.D.? You might like it, idk, I’ve never watched House. Are you a fan of mystery in general? I’m like pretty certain you’ll like Ameku M.D. Just…please give it a watch if you haven’t already. Crunchyroll streams it, and at the time I’m writing this post, the first two episodes are available to watch to free users, with the third episode getting unlocked once you have a premium subscription…but I bet that like most other shows that Crunchyroll provides to free users, you’ll probably get the first three to four episodes before you’re forced to pay for the subscription. Genuinely, please, check out Ameku M.D. I want to talk to more people about it.