It's often assumed that the first detective in literature was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes who made his debut in 1887, but that was some 46 years after Auguste Dupin made his one-off debut in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". Both would have dramatic influence on the genre for years to come, with Dame Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot following in the same design for a brilliant detective with a practical associate who serves as our way into the main story. These names also were made famous in television, as Columbo and Quincy achieved fame in the 1970s with those like Jessica Fletcher of "Murder, She Wrote" coming soon after, with the manga/anime genre adding Conan Edogawa later as names like Horatio Caine, Gil Grissom, and even Dr. Gregory House bringing us up to the present day. I therefore find it nice that there is an effort to add to that legacy still today, Rian Johnson's Benoit Blanc of "Knives Out" fame and now to the subject of this review, Mikito Chinen's Dr. Ameku Takao.
You can see all the influence I just detailed in this character, but not just in the detective genre but also the medical mysteries as well. She is a diagnostician like the aforementioned Dr. House, but appears to be somewhat more eccentric and possibly on the spectrum like a Dr. Park Si-on or his American counterpart Shaun Murphy of "The Good Doctor" fame. Like many before her, she has a side-kick in Dr. Takanashi who lacks her brilliance but makes up for it with his calm rationale and at times bodyguard duties. He's likable enough, but he's there to allow us as the viewer to get into the mysteries that drop out of the sky from mystery illnesses to murder. I should mention that neither of these characters have any police jurisdiction, so we have the regular police detectives on hand, too with the stick-in-the-mud Detective Naruse and the more affable Detective Sakurai. The latter was made in the spitting image of Detective Columbo as played by the incomparable Peter Falk, even adopting the same mannerisms and trademark brown raincoat. I'm glad the show made a nod to it's predecessors with such an obvious homage, it does no good to act like this is a new concept.
But how does it in the meat of the matter? The mystery. Well, I can say that to those who are versed in detective books like myself, the twists will not come as too much of a surprise at times. The way things are framed in many whodunnits like this make it so obvious that one of the suspects couldn't possibly be the culprit but then when the reveal comes, surprise- it was them all long! Where the show does get me at times is with the medical jargon. Now, I've seen more than my fair share of medical dramas so a few of these obscure diagnoses I am versed in only in the fact they're common tropes. Dr. Takao will bring these up in true murder mystery fashion, having a eureka moment with fanfare and a ritual drawing in the air with her finger before announcing she's made her diagnosis. Not too dissimilar from that "eureka" close-up Dr. House gets. She then gets everyone together and breaks down the mystery for a "One Truth Prevails!" moment.
The formula is repeated constantly throughout the mystery genre, so I'm not going to hit it too hard for being rather old hat. Is the medical science accurate? I can't say so, but it's not far from the truth in my experience. The most unrealistic thing about Dr. Takao is she lives on the roof of the hospital in a little cottage that looks like it was airdropped from the countryside. And as someone who's worked in a hospital before, I can tell you doctors don't roam the halls in open-toed slides talking to patients who might secrete any number of fluids in the blink of an eye. But, it adds to her childlike appearance and stereotypical eccentricity as an ace detective. So, you're probably wondering by now- do I like the show? Well... I don't not like it.
It's a basic mystery show. It succeeds in having a brilliant, quirky, but likable character at the heart of it and mysteries that aren't the most difficult to solve but certainly get one's attention. It's a nice addition to the genre and this is a show I can see going on for years to come. The art-style and presentation is good, with attention to detail when it comes to the medical talk. I would argue about sub vs. Dub, but this is a series that will have a lot of dialogue heavy scenes and technobabble explanations so my advice is for you to stick with whatever language you're comfortable with as the performances are decent on both English and Japanese. I can't really rave about the opening theme, "SCOPE" by Aimer, it's very stock for an anime opener, but I appreciate the ending theme of "Will Be Fine" by The Gospellers being a duet which speaks well as to the duet teamwork of Drs. Takao and Takanashi often leading to the resolution.
Overall, I give this series a solid 5/10. The multi-part episodes make for good viewing but the one-off episodes are just too brief to be enjoyed in 20 minutes. I look forward to another season as even though I'm not impressed, I did enjoy the little brain workout trying to solve things myself. If you like the mystery genre, you should like this, too. Cheers!
