Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective

Episode 4

When I saw the episode title—Spontaneous Human Combustion—I got really excited. That's a fun choice, and it really easily lends itself to a series like this one. Finally, I thought, some good food. By the end, I could only think that this is easily the worst yet of the four episodes of this show that we've seen so far.

Literally, why was this episode even called "Spontaneous Human Combustion" in the first place, anyways? It has absolutely nothing to do with the mystery at hand in this episode whatsoever. What was that intro scene where it looked like that was happening? Is that going to get discussed next week instead? If so, that begs the question: then why isn't that episode called "Spontaneous Human Combustion" instead? It makes no sense.

In any case, this episode amounts to little more than a person telling Takao that ever since he and his team visited a sealed off tomb, he and another member of his team have been having medical issues. Takao checks the tomb, sees there's a fungus, and—oh, yeah, that's it. Mystery solved, we can all go home. It's a so-called mystery solving process on-par with going to your local grocery store to check and see if they still have those cookies you like so much. Oh hey, they do. Mystery solved. I'm a genius comparable to Sherlock Holmes.

To word that a bit differently, this didn't feel like a mystery that could only have been solved by Takao because she's just that smart and creative. This felt like a mystery that could've—and would've—been solved by the first person to check that tomb, which was an obvious thing to do. After all, it doesn't exactly take a medical professional to look at a dank cave and think, “Ah, now here's an environment that could make someone sick if they stick around a bit too long.” It's honestly a wonder how neither this supposedly brilliant history professor nor anyone else with him already thought of that. This all stands in contrast with shows like House, where it's very clear that the other doctors couldn't and wouldn't be able to solve the mysteries without the involvement of the demonstrably smarter, bolder, and more creative Dr. House.

It's one thing when a show like House is episodic; a singular episode of House, after all, is about 45 minutes. When does Dr. House ever get the diagnosis and treatment correct right off the bat? There's always some back-and-forth, and usually some manner of breaking into the patient's home, and a failed diagnosis or treatment somewhere along the way. But Ameku M.D., if it also wants to be completely episodic, only has half the time to do all that. That's simply too much to do in not enough time, so it doesn't do any of that—after all, how can it? Which means we not only get anti-climactic resolutions, but also, a quick and completely unsatisfying mystery-solving process that you can't bask in.

None of this is helped by the fact that once again, this week we have another mystery that doesn't feel very mysterious—in fact, I'd go so far as to say it's just plain not mysterious, full stop. The millisecond we saw what the tomb looked like, it was so obviously going to be a fungus or mold of some kind. I can't feel proud of myself for being right so quickly because it's just way too apparent. There's no fun to be had in mystery-solving here. So far, this is the number one criticism I have for this show (that there's still time to fix!). It would be so much better off expanding its mysteries to at least being two episodes long. The first one was like that, but the last two were just singular episodes, and as mysteries, they've both been pathetic. Granted, that alone won't make the mysteries themselves better, but it would at least give them the precious resource of time to actually do something and go somewhere with their mysteries, rather than making them solvable in one-step.

I don't envy those working on this anime from a writing or structural standpoint. The issue all medical mysteries face is that being too inside-baseball risks alienating laypeople, but also not getting into those medical jargon-y weeds enough risks making the mysteries boring, obvious, and devoid of any flavor. A better protagonist might help people look past this anime's shortcomings, but Takao's simply not it thus far (I talked about this more in last week's review, and I don't have anything new to add to this point; suffice to say, she's not unlikable in the intentional sort of way Dr. House is. She's just annoying, and these bland mysteries don't even make her seem all that smart either). And this is to say nothing of how this anime has to do all this, and the second season of The Apothecary Diaries—which is a better medical mystery series in every conceivable way—is airing during the exact same season. Threading this needle is a tall order, and so far, this anime just doesn't seem up for the task.

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