English Dub Review: Monster Girl Doctor “The Collapsed Dragon”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

When Skadi faints during a ceremony and is taken to the Central Hospital, Glenn and Sapphee are concerned. But Doctor Cthulhy is her primary physcian, so they can’t even get access to her case. Cthulhy does let a few facts slip though, like how Lady Draconness is deathly ill and won’t accept treatment.

Glenn refuses to accept this, and with the help of Kunai, he goes to examine Skadi himself. He sees the tumor growing inside her, but can’t get her to agree to be treated because she’s convinced it’s rightful cause due to past transgressions in the war between dragons and humans. Glenn goes back and convinces Doctor Cthulhy to let him try a special life saving operation — but they’ll have to make sure Skadi is alright with it first.

Our Take:

As we near the end of Monster Girl Doctor, the stakes are getting higher, as is the relative importance of the patients. Instead of meeting someone new this time around, Glenn and Sapphee are after bigger prey, per se. Skadi is one of the most important political figureheads in the city, and her death could spell ruin for the continued longevity of the land.

The only problem is that she’s not only powerful, but she’s very superstitious. This case almost seems to mimic some of the real life scenarios we’ve all heard about where people refuse to receive treatment due to their personal beliefs relating to religion, science, and/or medicine. It’s a bit strange to see Lady Dracconess in such a weakened state since she’s always seemed so powerful, but I guess it gives us a chance to get to know her better.

And in Glenn’s case, a lot better. His examination centers around the giant glowing blue orb on her chest that’s threatening to take over her nervous system and bodily functions. It’s a strange and unheard of symptom of a disease Doctor Glenn knows nothing about. He goes about moving forward with his usual aplomb, which is nice to see I guess.

Doctor Cthulhy makes her biggest appearance yet in this episode, to mixed results. It’s cool that we’re finally getting to see more of the teacher who shaped Glenn and Sapphee into what they’ve become, and to view the contrast between their two styles. Glenn will stop at nothing to help a patient, while his mentor is more respectful of their wishes. But what she isn’t respectful of is Sapphee’s personal space, and the scene where she gets her tendrils everywhere is pretty disturbing and seemingly random, feeling very out of place.

The Collapsed Dragon isn’t one of the best episodes of Monster Girl Doctor. It’s not that exciting, it doesn’t have many new or interesting twists, and it doesn’t have much comedy relief going on either. But what it does do is introduce the potential for Glenn and Sapphee to have a much bigger impact on their city than previously, as well as to treat someone whose death could mean the collapse of more than just one person.