Shinjuku Yasen Byoin

First off you should know that "Kabukicho Shinjuku" is a red light district in Tokyo. And warning, if you haven't been exposed to the bizarre disconnect of Japanese sexual mores you may find the show cringe or ridiculous. But the more time you've spent laughing down the rabbit hole of Japanese TV on Netflix, the funnier this series will be. Lots of inside jokes that had a newbie-to-Japanese-comedy friend of mine going "Huh?! What in the heck does THAT mean?" An example: 5 minutes into Episode 4, I burst out laughing at "The only Japanese person allowed to mix English with the Okayama dialect is Fujii Kaze." (Which as fan of "Shinunoga E-Wa" Kaze, I found hilarious, but my friend just couldn't get it.) The episodes paint a choppy landscape punctuated by noodle slurping morphing into gory ER emergencies, social workers moonlighting as wicked dominatrixes, and ritual bowing concealing bigotry and backstabbing. On the flip side, here's a foodie way to describe "Shinjuku Yasen Byoin": Throw an old episode of "MASH" plus episodes of "Dr. X", "Saitama Host Club" and the entire 2024 season of "Completely Inappropriate" into an AI blender. Then press Pulse. Add a hit of wasabi powder and "Shinjuku Field Hospital" is the smoothie your bot-blender has whipped up for you. As some have mentioned, it makes no sense that the American surgeon's English is worse than Shohei Ohtani's, but OK, whatever. Details, details! LOL. Note: This is an adult comedy with some dark unfunny scenes and themes.

My first impressions of this show were positive but as time and the episodes wore on, the positivity began to wear off. I mean, there is a lot to like about a show set in Kabukicho. It is a famous nightlife spot in Tokyo and the plot of a small and quite insignificant hospital treating an assortment of accident victims, attempted suicides and the like is unique.

The main question I'd love to be answered is why on earth do the characters try to speak so much English? I know that the main character is supposed to be American/Japanese but her English pronunciation (and everyone else's in the show) is absolutely appalling. An instant improvement would have been if they had just spoken Japanese. Maybe someone out there can suggest a reason why such bad English would be okay to publish.

Anyway, the stories are fine, the acting a little over the top at times but overall it's a fun watch. Just try to tune out when their English starts!