Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective

Episode 12

Twelve episodes with a few delays between them later, we've at last arrived at the end of this utterly exhausting anime. And all I can say is, “FINALLY.” But before I get too ahead of myself, let's talk about its finale. Well, the murderer is nobody because this was never a murder in the first place. And a twist like that might've felt more exciting if I felt any level of investment in the mystery. But after a series-long streak of this series killing its own momentum, you'll have to forgive me for not caring as much as this series so obviously wants its viewers to. Good to see the series got its visuals looking fine again though, even if it was for only a few minutes, so there's that I guess.

Overall thoughts? This is an incredibly weak mystery series, and its characters aren't interesting enough to make up for that. This anime wants so badly to be House, but fundamentally fails to understand what makes House work so well, both as a mystery series and as a drama. Importantly, it also fails to appreciate how difficult it is to pull a series like House off—let alone as well as House does. I said this at least once early on, but it bears repeating: medical mysteries have a unique genre challenge in that they have to balance the medical and the mystery. And there are ways to make things still fun to watch even when they're unbalanced (the way House generally accomplishes this is by way of its force of nature of a main character; the titular Dr. Gregory House) but squeezing all that into 20 minute episodes is no easy feat.

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: pacing was a major issue for this show—albeit more so in its first half. Still, I don't think that's the core issue from which many of the show's other issues descended. No, especially as the series draws on, it becomes increasingly obvious that the number one issue this show had was just good old fashioned poor writing.

Weeks later, and I'm still thinking about how one episode's mystery boiled down to “it's because these supposedly brilliant historians weren't wearing masks in an extremely dank area.” Like, does this even constitute a mystery? Literally anybody could've told you that. I believe one week I called that episode an insult to the audience's intelligence, and I stand by that 100%. It's a low point far lower than I've ever known any mystery series to dare going. And Ameku M.D.'s reaching these unexplored depths isn't a sign of being bold or daring—it's a symptom that something has gone seriously wrong in the writing room. And while this is the most obvious example, it's hardly the only one we see throughout the series.

When watching a medical mystery, I generally anticipate some level of unsolvability because one presumes that the solution might hinge on some piece of medical fact that I (and anyone else not in the medical field) am not privy to. And that's fine. If I'm watching a medical mystery series, I can't solve the mystery because I don't know enough about medicine, that kind of comes with the territory. But in Ameku M.D., crimes generally aren't unsolvable because they rely on medical knowledge. It's more likely to be because they rely on implausible story elements that no reasonable person would anticipate. And I don't mean that in a, “Wow, what a dramatic and unforeseen twist!” kind of way. I mean that in a, “Literally, why would anyone guess that actual children were able to grab temporary-heart-stopping medicine from cabinets that they were able to access.” kind of way. It makes this show incredibly frustrating to watch, and makes it feel pointless to even try solving the mystery on your own.

That Ameku M.D. was floundering about like this while the second season of The Apothecary Diaries—which is an excellent medical mystery series—was airing during the same season is just salt in the wound. And in case it needs to be said plainly: if Ameku M.D. has put you in the mood for a better medical mystery (ideally in anime form), it's the obvious recommendation to offer.

Aside from House, I mean.

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