English Dub Review: Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective “Dr. Sherlock”; “Blue Blood Cells and Dragon Fangs”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Dr Takao Ameku is both a doctor…AND a detective! And also really short.

OUR TAKE

We don’t do a ton of detective anime on here, despite it being a staple of this genre with stuff like Detective Conan AKA Case Closed. So, let’s fix that, since one of the new and upcoming anime this season is called Doctor Detective, a name that…well, really speaks for itself. What it DOESN’T tell you right away is that Dr Ameku, the main character, is really short and looks like a teenager…which is an odd, eyebrow raising choice if I’ve ever seen one, but let’s see where it goes. She is joined by her regular sized assistant Yu Takanashi who acts as the Watson to her Holmes, and is clearly someone who is on the lookout for medical anomalies that spark her interest, even when it interferes with police or she is discouraged by the head of the hospital she works at, where she is the director of the Department of Investigative Pathology and…(checks notes) VICE CHAIRMAN OF THE HOSPITAL? Oh, and also she has a full ass cottage built on the top of the hospital where she does some of her investigations. This little lady basically has it covered in terms of being an eccentric character, even more so than the last Japan based Sherlock anime I covered many years ago.

But you don’t need my word for it as, to my surprise as I was writing this, it turns out we got two dubbed episodes to kick off the show with. Maybe they intended to start last week and couldn’t because of the storms? Anyway, it actually works out because these first two cover one case, with her team investigating a dead blue blooded (and not in that way) Yakuza member whose leg seems to have been ripped off by some sort of creature. Sounds like a pretty wacky introduction to how weird these cases can get, but the solution and eventual reveal end up being pretty grounded…I assume, as I haven’t really looked into whether or not this substance they mention could actually turn your blood blue. But if the goal of the result is to show us how smart and clever she is, then I would say mission accomplished. Interesting that we’re starting with a two parter when this series is only going to be twelve episodes, but maybe each case will be two and we’ll get six by the end. Guess we’ll see when we go into the next one next week!