Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective

Episode 6

Content Warning: Domestic violence

This series wants to join the ranks of other legendary detective shows like House and Columbo so badly, but here we are at the halfway point, and I just don't think this show understands how the sausage gets made. Sure, it understands that giving the audience a series of mysteries to solve alongside a charismatic protagonist is the key, but it doesn't seem to understand how to create either of those things. And testament to that is this week's episode, which attempts to show how the mysteries in the last few episodes were all connected.

“A coincidental string of other murders and murder attempts buried yours” just feels like such an unlikely, and unsatisfactory by extension of that answer. Furthermore, frankly, I don't like the framing of domestic abuse in this episode. A response to domestic violence is only treated as a motive for murder, rather than self-defense—anything you could argue might be an attempt to portray the daughter as a victim is so shallow and quick, you could blink and miss it. If this series was going to utilize a topic like domestic violence, more research should've been done to ensure that it was being handled more respectfully.

And part of why this happens could be because, as usual, the pacing is a mess. Time that should've been spent unpacking the presence and framing of domestic violence in this episode is instead largely spent having Takao explain the confusing timeline of events, because it's just so convoluted that the episode can't help but spend so long talking about it. I see what this series was going for with this mystery: it was trying to split one big mystery up into three smaller mysteries. But it's just not making it work. By trying to break up one big mystery into three smaller ones, this anime seems to forget that even three smaller mysteries are three entire mysteries. There's still a number of important questions that've been left completely unanswered. For example: why did the guy in charge of the tomb want to keep people out of the tomb badly enough to kill? And is that meant to be the curse of Ashiya Doman, or is that something else entirely?

I just don't get why this series is so allergic to giving itself some time to breathe. I promise, Ameku M.D., the audience won't get bored and leave if you need—god forbid—more than 20 minutes to make it through an entire mystery. Well, actually, they might if the series just isn't good at making well-composed, gripping mysteries—which, frankly, seems to be the case so far. This series just doesn't seem to grasp that a key appeal of the mystery genre is letting the audience bask in the mystery solving process. By nature, it's not the kind of thing that should be rushed. Yet in spite of this, Ameku M.D. seems intent on speedrunning everything.

And then, of course, there's the bike. Dear lord, is there a bike. We've seen this anime go for some unrealistic story beats, but I don't know that any of them hold a candle (which, for Dr. Takao's sake, I hope is unlit) to “I'll save everyone from this burning building by charging in on a motorcycle, which I will then leave in the middle of the flame-drowned floor.” That bike is full of GAS. It's a FIRE. DR. TAKAO. YOU FOOL. YOU ABSOLUTE BUFFOON. WHAT ARE YOU DOING. FORGET SAVING EVERYONE, YOU'VE SIGNED THEIR—AND YOUR OWN—DEATH WARRANT.

As a closing note, I watched an episode of the dub. While I applaud Crunchyroll for giving lesser known voice actors a chance, the direction makes it hard for me to enjoy the dub as much as the sub (well, if I can be said to be “enjoying” this series at all, but whatever). More specifically: Dr. Takao is generally the one who we hear talking the most. Arguably the only unique quality that Dr. Takao has is her extremely youthful appearance. In Japanese, she has a youthful sounding voice to match that. But Jaclyn Thomas, who voices Dr. Takao in English, is using a more mature voice for her. I think I can understand what Thomas and voice director Jeremy Inman were going for here—a fun contrast between a youthful appearance, and a mature voice. And in a different series that might've worked better, but for a character as obnoxious as Dr. Takao, it just feels jarring. Still, this mismatch aside, Thomas is nonetheless delivering a solid performance, and I'd love to hear her either in a different role, or under better direction.

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