Ameku MD Case 1 Review

 

Is Ameku Takao no Tsuri Karte the Anime Version of House M.D.?

The latest anime season has officially arrived, bringing with it a fresh wave of series to explore. Among the most intriguing new titles is Ameku Takao no Tsuri Karte (also known as Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective). If you are a fan of medical dramas or mystery procedurals, this show might feel strangely familiar. From its premise to its protagonist’s abrasive personality, the series draws clear inspiration from the iconic American medical drama House M.D., yet it manages to carve out its own unique identity within the anime landscape.

A Genius Doctor with a Detective’s Instinct

At the heart of Ameku M.D. is the titular character, Ameku. Much like Gregory House, Ameku is a brilliant medical professional who possesses an uncanny ability to solve complex cases that baffle everyone else. She is a young woman who operates with a high success rate, often identifying the root cause of a medical mystery long before her peers or the authorities can piece it together.

However, her genius comes with a catch: she is notoriously difficult to work with. Much like the character she is modelled after, Ameku struggles with interpersonal relationships, often alienating those around her. While she is a doctor by trade, the series leans heavily into the "detective" aspect of her role. She frequently collaborates with the police, using her specialized medical knowledge to decode crime scenes and uncover the truth behind mysterious deaths.

The "House" Connection: A Play on Words

The parallels to House M.D. go beyond just personality and profession. The show seems to lean into the comparison with a clever bit of meta-humour regarding the protagonist's living situation. Ameku resides in a house built directly on the roof of the hospital where she works. 

This "house at the hospital" setup is almost certainly a deliberate nod to the House M.D. franchise. It is a playful wink to the audience, acknowledging the inevitable comparisons that will arise. While the show features a small, young Japanese woman rather than a cynical, middle-aged American man (played by the British Hugh Laurie), the archetype remains the same: the brilliant, antisocial expert who is the only one capable of solving the "unsolvable."

Analyzing the First Case: Chekhov’s Dinosaur

The first two episodes of the series establish the show’s procedural rhythm. The premiere introduces a case involving a victim found dead with mysterious blue blood. While the initial investigation suggests an animal attack, the show employs classic narrative foreshadowing to guide the viewer toward the truth.

Early in the episode, the narrative highlights a pamphlet for a dinosaur exhibit. In storytelling, this is a classic example of "Chekhov’s Gun"—if a dinosaur exhibit is mentioned or shown early on, it is almost certainly going to be the key to solving the mystery. By the time the case reaches its conclusion, the connection between the exhibit and the crime becomes clear, showcasing how the show intends to balance medical drama with traditional detective tropes.

Why Medical Mysteries Are a Rare Breed in Anime

Medical dramas are a staple of Western television, but they are surprisingly rare in the world of anime. While there have been a few series that touch upon medical themes or use hospitals as a backdrop, few have committed to the "medical detective" subgenre with this level of focus. 

Ameku M.D. stands out because it treats the hospital as a base of operations for a broader investigative narrative. Even though the characters spend a significant amount of time outside the hospital walls working on police cases, the medical expertise remains the primary tool for resolution. It is a refreshing change of pace for viewers who are tired of the typical high school or fantasy settings that dominate the medium.

Final Thoughts on the Season’s Newest Mystery

Whether you are a die-hard fan of medical procedurals or just looking for something different this season, Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective offers a compelling blend of genres. It successfully captures the "genius detective" trope while grounding it in a medical context that feels both fresh and familiar. As the season progresses, it will be interesting to see if Ameku continues to evolve beyond her House M.D. roots or if she will fully embrace the "Mrs. House" moniker that fans are already beginning to assign her.

Key Takeaways

Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective successfully adapts the classic "brilliant but antisocial" medical genius archetype into an anime format, drawing clear inspiration from House M.D. while maintaining its own unique tone. The series distinguishes itself by blending traditional medical drama with police procedural elements, using the protagonist's specialized knowledge to solve complex crimes. Through clever narrative foreshadowing and a meta-humorous approach to its own premise, the show provides a refreshing, mystery-focused alternative to standard seasonal anime offerings.

Note: This article was made with the assistance of AI

Every First Episode in the Winter 2023 Cour

Now that the Winter 2023 cour has come to an end, what better time to discuss the anime that aired this season. This season I have watched episodes from quite a lot of anime. Of course there are some series that I haven’t been able to watch due to them not being available on a platform I use, they are the continuation of a show I haven’t seen, or they don’t seem interesting enough. I will be going through the first episodes of every anime I have watched, and will be giving my thoughts about the series from it, and anime in general this season.

So in no particular order let’s start…

‘Inu ni Nattara Suki na Hito ni Hirowareta.’, or ‘My Life as Inukai-san’s Dog’. First things first, ‘inu’ means dog, so that is quite an appropriate name. This is a bit of a strange anime. In the first episode, the protagonist has somehow become a dog and gets taken in by a classmate who believes that she has found a stray dog. Because of this, the protagonist seems to find himself in some unusual ‘situations’. This is not something that I plan on watching further.

Farming Life in Another World, is another isekai anime where after the protagonist dies, and they get to reincarnate in another world with a wish of their choice. Instead of bringing a smartphone, or getting to live a quiet life, the protagonist chooses to be able to start a farm in their new life. This anime takes some of the elements of Slime 300 to an extreme, with the protagonist gaining a magical farming tool, which gives him some OP abilities as he starts his new life and builds a farm isolated in a forest with wild animals, although it doesn’t seem like it will stay that way for long. The first episode starts off in medias res, with a lively town, and then jumps back in time to show the start of the protagonist's journey. This farming anime seems a lot better than the previous fantasy farming anime we got.

Continuing the theme of isekai we also had ‘Campfire Cooking in Another World with my Absurd Skill’. This anime also starts off in medias res with a brief cold open. After that, this anime starts off as a parody of summoning isekai, with the protagonist getting summoned to another world along with a few other people who are each heroes. The protagonist’s special ability is online shopping, which allows him to purchase items online which instantly appear in front of him. Not thinking that his ability is useful, he parts his way from the adventurers and goes on his own path. This is a unique idea for an isekai, but it seems like it will make this into a food anime.

Next is ‘Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement’. In this isekai anime, Mitsuha gains the ability to travel between earth and a fantasy world. After she finds out about this ability, Mitsuha decides to use it to manipulate the people of the kingdom and use items from earth to gain money and fulfil her capitalist dreams. She found herself in this fantasy world after being manslaughtered and falling off a cliff, ‘Reborn Rich’ style.

‘The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady’ is another isekai in this season. This anime is actually a pseudoisekai series as it doesn’t reference the world the protagonist came from and has no impact on the plot of the series. The only thing that you could argue came as a result of her reincarnating is that she creates several items that resemble things found on earth. In the anime, noble society seems to be rigid and formal, whereas she is able to be much more relaxed and casual. It isn’t clear why they chose to make it an isekai, or if it is just to capitalise on the isekai hype.

‘Chillin’ in My 30s after Getting Fired from the Demon King’s Army’ is another fantasy anime, but this time it's not an isekai. In this anime, Dariel -- the protagonist -- is fired from the demon lord’s army by the new rulers as he doesn’t possess magic. After being fired, Dariel finds himself wandering in the forest where he meets a human girl. He ends up finding out that the reason he didn’t possess magic was because he was actually a human.

‘Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte’ is another otome anime. Instead of the protagonist finding themselves in an otome world, instead the two main characters while playing a game gain the ability to communicate with the characters in the game. This is a unique take for an anime, but it doesn’t seem like a very interesting idea. The producers of the series include DMM and NetEase Games, which seems to be an interesting combination. The female main character has the same voice actress as the female main character in ‘Fruit of Evolution’.

Getting on to the second season of ‘The Fruit of Evolution’, a continuation of another unique isekai. The second season of the show continues after the first, and is set in the academy they travelled to, with Seiichi as a teacher. This season doesn’t seem to be as interesting as the first, and has a very different style to the first.

‘Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire’ is an anime where the protagonist, who was formally the king, is reincarnated in the distant future as a newly-born girl after deciding to devote his next life to becoming the strongest swordbearer. The OP theme sounds similar to some of the music from ‘Spy X Family’.

‘The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World’ is another reincarnation isekai. The protagonist died in a scene that resembles ancient Japanese folklore, and he is reincarnated as a minor noble in a European-style world. Instead of just relying on European style fantasy, this series incorporates elements of asian mythologies, which is quite unique.

‘Handyman Saitou in Another World’ is another isekai, where someone from a specific profession finds themselves in another world where they can utilise their skills. This series also starts off with a cold open showing Saitou with his party in a dungeon. The episode is made up of a series of vignettes focusing on snapshots of different characters.

Bofuri season 2 also aired this cour. It seems like a weird time to air, as the first episode takes place at christmas, which was a few weeks before the episode aired, although it did have a premiere of the episode before christmas.

There is also the second season of In/Spectre, which is more of the same as the first season. In the first episode Kotoko gives a plausible explanation for a bad mystery and then reveals that that was just a solution she had made up, and what the real cause was.

I have also watched the first episodes of several other anime series this cour, such as ‘Spy Classroom’, ‘The Tale of Outcasts’, ‘ONIMAI’, ‘The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World’, and ‘Tomo-chan Is a Girl!’, but I won’t be going into those as this video is starting to get a bit long.

Overall a lot of anime seem to have poorer animation compared to previous seasons. There have been a few unique anime this season as well.

So what did you think about the Winter 2023 season? Did you agree with my assessments, or did you think something else? Leave your thoughts down below. If you liked this video, consider liking the video, commenting down below, and subscribing so that you don’t miss any future videos.

The WebP Rant

Google announced their webP format in 2010 as an alternative to other image formats. webP, based on Google’s VP8 compression, offered much smaller image file sizes for images of similar quality, and was pushed by Google as a way to save on bandwidth and storage by using webP on websites instead of other image formats. webP would also later support animation, which meant it could also be used as an alternative to GIF animations, which were traditionally quite large in terms of their file size, whilst still being of low quality.

Many sites and services have adopted the webP format, and most people have the ability to view the images as support has been built into all major web browsers for quite some time now.

One of the companies that has adopted the use of webP images include Google themselves and YouTube.

Google uses the format on some of their sites, and allows users to upload images in the webP format to google photos. You would expect that Google, the creators of the format, and an organisation that uses the format itself would make the format compatible with more of their services. If I want to use a webP image in a Google Doc, and I drag a webP image into the doc, it will give me an error saying that it is an unsupported image type. To be able to use a webP in a Google Doc, I need to use a program such as Microsoft Paint to first convert the image before inserting it. You heard that right, even Microsoft Paint has been updated to allow you to work with webP images. If I want to copy a webP image from a website, it is even more difficult. I need to download the image first, then convert it, then upload it. This is becoming more of a problem as more websites are beginning to incorporate webP images into their sites. There is also no way to tell if an image is a webP without checking, so I don’t know whether I even need to download an image in the first place unless I try to insert the image, download it, or copy and paste the image url. Google Drawings, Google’s simple cloud image creation and editing tool has quite a lot of the features you would need to quickly mock up an image, or even make a simple YouTube thumbnail even if it isn’t a full featured photo editing program. The app however doesn’t allow you to insert webP images, and doesn’t give webP as an option to export your drawing. The program does however allow you to export a drawing as a PDF, which is a document format, but doesn’t even allow you to export Google’s own image format.

The YouTube site itself uses webP, both for thumbnails, as well as the video previews that are available when hovering over thumbnails. To save on bandwidth, YouTube has begun to encode uploaded thumbnails as webP images for supported devices. The animated previews take advantage of the ability to create animated images to allow a single image to be used as opposed to multiple to create a video preview. In one video from YouTube, they even try to convince other site owners to start using webP images for their sites. Despite the fact that YouTube uses webP images for their own thumbnails, YouTube does not allow you to upload thumbnails which are in the webP format.

Don’t get me wrong, webP images are quite good due to their relatively small file size, even if they take slightly more processing power to decode. Taking images from a camera and converting them to jpeg, PNG, GIF, and webP using ImageMagick at 80% quality, the webP image consistently has the smallest file size.

Well that’s all for this video. If you have any other problems you’ve noticed with other products, consider leaving a comment about it down below, and maybe I’ll make it into a future video.

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Which Ending Did Katarina Get (Hamefura)

Disclaimer: This article was written as a YouTube Video script, and hence may make reference to audio of visual elements not available on this page.

Before we begin, this video will contain spoilers for the isekai anime series ‘My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!’. If you are worried about spoilers and haven’t already seen the series, consider bookmarking this video and coming back once you have watched the series.

My Next Life As A villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, or Hamefura for short, will be getting a second series soon, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! X, so what better time to take a look at the first series and to discuss it. I assume the second series’ title is pronounced as /ˈɛks/ as opposed to ten, otherwise I’m not exactly sure what happened to the other eight series.

Hamefura’s plot revolves around Katarina Claes, a noble who as a child hits her head, and remembers some of her past life before she was isekai’d. In Katarina’s previous life, she was a school-age girl who enjoyed playing visual-novel-style otome games, and had reincarnated as a character from the game she was playing before in her previous life - ‘Fortune Lover’. Unlike other videogame isekai, where the reincarnated becomes the protagonist and hero of their new world, Katarina is the villainess in her new life, the main antagonist who no matter how you play gets killed, or at the very least exiled. Whilst trying to avoid any death flags, Katarina manages to make all of the game’s main characters fall in love with her,  although unbeknownst to her due to her oblivious nature.

At the end of the last episode of the first series, at her second year graduation where Maria Campbell (Fortune Lover’s protagonist) is supposed to make her decision about who she falls in love with, and ultimately Katarina’s fate, Katarina finds that nothing bad happens to her, and in her eyes without Maria falling in love with any of the game’s love interests. Katarina eventually decides that she must have gotten a secret friendship ending, again oblivious to the fact that the game’s entire cast including Maria had fallen in love with her. Of course looking at the relationships of the characters, it is easy to see the ending of the series as having harem surrounding Katarina, but as Maria is the protagonist of Fortune Lover, whichever ending the game has ended with is based on Maria’s relationship with all of the other characters. As Maria is in love with Katarina, it looks like you could definitely classify the ending as having been the ‘Katarina ending’.

Could the ending also be classified as the ‘friendship’ ending in addition to Maria liking Katarina, which is what Katarina herself suggested was the ending? The other routes in the normal version of the game would all end up with Maria being romantically involved with one of the characters in the game, and even if Maria was still friends with the other characters at the end of the game, you would still classify it based on who she ended up with as her love interest. This seems to eliminate the possibility of the ending being a friendship ending.

If you want to classify the ending as something that involves Maria’s relationship with all the other characters in the same way that the idea of the friendship ending does, what about a ‘rivals’ ending. Unlike a friendship ending which you could never normally have as an ending classification when Maria is in love with someone, you could have a rivalry ending due to the fact that Maria is competing with the other main characters to win the affection of Katarina in a love not-a-triangle-but-some-other-weird-shape-where-Katarina-has-no-idea-what’s-going-on. You are probably wondering why the Katarina ending doesn’t supersede the rivalry ending the same way it did to the friendship ending. I could just discount the idea that there could be a Katarina ending as as far as we know, Katarina is not a character that Maria can get romantically involved with in Fortune Lover, but I will not, as the world of Hamefura is not exactly like Fortune Lover, and there is nothing to stop Katarina from becoming Maria’s love interest. I will however discount the possibility of it being a Katerina ending as Katarina’s oblivious nature prevents her from being able to reciprocate Maria’s feelings. This is an issue, as in the other endings as established in Fortune Lover, the endings that see Maria with one of the other characters involve both of them coming to like each other, which is something that Katarina never does. This has left us with just the option of the series ending with a rivalry ending.

While a rivals ending is quite open ended, it seems to be the only option that could explain Maria not getting into a relationship with any of the characters, and instead having an unrequited love of Katarina, who the other characters that Maria would normally have a relationship with are also interested in.

With that, the ending of the first season of Hamefura is not a friends ending or a Katarina ending, but instead a rivalry ending. When the next series of Hamefura comes out, we will have to take a look to see if there are any more developments in the relationships between these characters.

If you enjoyed this video, consider liking the video, comment any thoughts or ideas about future videos in the comments below, and subscribe and enable notifications so that you get notified when new videos come out. I might not be posting videos very often, so if you want to watch more videos a bit like this, consider checking out my channel wIS (that's w, I, S) for videos about general pop culture, film and trivia, or my channel underlined for videos about games and gaming. With that, that’s all for this video. Thanks for watching.

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even In Another World Episode 2 Review [SPOILERS]

The episode starts off showing that the corruption in the world spreads further than corrupt imperial knight exploiting their position. After seeing that the only licensed trader is trying to rip the village off, and that based on his prices the village will not be able to survive, Masato Sanada shows his business and entrepreneurial expertise in saying to Elch that if he does't like the bad trades he doesn't need to accept them, and that he can build his own business empire and put that trader out of business in a week. Masato explains that their whole group owes their lives to the village, and that he will not stand for them being exploited due to this.

The group has been shown to have incorporated well into the village and now each have their own roles. Masato establishes his own trading company through blackmailing the mayor for a permit, and that is the main premise for this episode. Masato establishes the Amazon equivalent of their world, selling the products of villagers for a commission fee of 10% allowing others to sell their own products directly without a permit legally, whilst making more than they would have elsewhere, and allowing Masato's new business to make money without ever having to purchase any product.

In stark contrast to the first episode, this episode has no narration and now has incorporated elements of a plot and daily life in the village, similar to other good isekai series. This episode has been much of an improvement compared to the first.

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even In Another World First Impressions [SPOILERS]

Okay, so starting off with these first impressions, I have started watching the English dub version available on Crunchyroll, but plan to watch later episodes with the sub, due to the cheesy-sounding voice acting. Obviously, this review is going to contain SPOILERS!

Image From Crunchyroll

The first episode starts off with character introductions for the internationally renowned 'prodigies' that based on the relatively realistic setting of Japan on Earth seems unrealistic. There are these seven prodigies that all high highly-esteemed positions such as a politician (prime minster), surgeon, inventor, stock trader, magician (seems to be different, as it seems to be the most unrealistic in this setting of a realistic Earth), journalist, and a samurai that fights in war zones. It seems unrealistic that these high-school students would be given these jobs and responsibilities as children, particularly those that have a high risk. The introduction from the opening narrator to introduce these character and their premise of their plane flying to this magical world comes across as the type of thing that one would have seen in the original series of Pokémon.

The first of the group to wake up after the plane crash is the politician Tsukasa Mikogami who comes across as unlikable, and appears to be the main character/leader of this group. The episode immediately skips to a month later when the group have already been living amongst the village that found them, skipping the humour of a typical isekai-esque series where character try to get adjusted to their new world and vastly different way of life. The group seem to be held in high regard by this community, although to this point they have not been shown to have contributed anything or their ideas that supposedly make them 'prodigies' to this community. It is here that the group learn of a legend that a long time ago, a group of seven people came from another world and overthrew the evil ruler.

Under the guidance and leadership of Tsukasa the group aims to help 'rebuild the finances' of the community as a way of repaying their debt to the community for looking after them. Near the end of the first episode, the first conflict comes up, an evil militant group of imperial knights are abusing their power to impose a protection racket upon the town. Tsukasa steps in as a leader to reject their offer, and the leader of these knights says that it is an insult to the empire and the emperor. Just as the knights are about to assert their dominance, the samurai and the journalist (a descendant of a ninja) take out the group except for their leader.

Conclusion:
Overall the anime seems like a cheap cash grab of the isekai genre, with little substance or interesting semblance of plot.