English Dub Review: Monster Girl Doctor “The Centaur With a Sprain”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Doctor Glenn and Sapphee journey into the mountains to find the harpy village and learn more about them. They’re escorted by Tisalia and her two attendants, Lorna and Kay. On the way to the village, there’s a strange earthquake, and Kay sprains her ankle. Once they arrive, she’s quickly carried to rest in the guest house.

Glenn examines her, but there’s not much he can do without more medical books and supplies. While they wait for Kay to heal and return to her duty, Tisalia notices that Lorna is acting strange. Despite usually being solid and dependable, she has her head in the clouds now. When Glenn checks on her, they come up with a new method for calming her that includes a blindfold. I guess she is part horse? Kay eventually recovers, and the two attendants corner Doctor Glenn and tease him about becoming the spouse of their lady Tisalia.

Our Take:

This episode is a mixed bag for Monster Girl Doctor. Some parts of it were neat, like the overall look and feel of the harpy village and getting to spend more time with Kay and Lorna. But the plot this week was extremely thin, and some of the character stuff didn’t really work for me.

Having Glenn and Sapphee heading up the mountain to find the harpy village is a great setup for an episode, and got me interested from the beginning. Once they arrived, I thought the design of the village was great, too. The towering hills and dense trees provide a nice contrast to our usual sights in the city. However, while the location was great, the plot and the characters didn’t quite deliver on its promise.

We’ve had Tisalia and her centaur pals show up in several episodes now, so I didn’t expect them to feature so heavily in the story. I had hoped to get a lot of content focused on the harpies and their unique village, especially since Doctor Glenn didn’t get to spend much time with them last week. The episode evens hints that there’s more to explore, as the harpy girl he helped with her egg isn’t present and the others say that she doesn’t want to see him for some reason.

But instead of getting to know her more, we’re left with the centaurs. I like Kay and Lorna, so this would be fine if they got a decent storyline or the show tried something new with them. But really, not much happens aside from Kay getting hurt. Her injury causes Lorna to worry about her, which causes Tisalia to worry about her. She gets the doctor to help take her mind off things by blindfolding her and tying her up, which supposedly is something that helps with posture, but… c’mon. In the end, things get even weirder when Tisalia’s assistants try to playfully seduce the doctor into accepting her hand in marriage.

Overall, The Centaur With a Sprain felt a little two faced. It’s like this entire episode could’ve happened in the city without changing almost anything. So why tease the audience with time in the harpy village only to spend it all on a plotline involving the centaurs that doesn’t even do much. My only hope is that this is a two-parter, and there are a few indications that we might spend next week in the mountains as well. What was that weird rockslide about?