Medical mysteries and unsolvable murders? Sign me up!
With how many hyped titles there were in the Winter 2025 anime season, it’s normal to have missed a few. Admittedly, the season had some really disappointing titles, while some shows managed to surprise people with their unexpected charm. One such series is Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective—which despite being an underdog, emerged as one of the most entertaining anime series of the season.
Based on Mikito Chinen’s light novel series, Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective tells the story of genius diagnostician Takao Ameku. Although she’s short and often mistaken for a teenager, Dr. Ameku is a woman of extreme intelligence and immense cockiness. This is all due to her brilliant skills of making impossible diagnoses, which sometimes help solve murder cases. If you’re a fan of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. House, Ron Kamonohashi, or even Maomao from The Apothecary Diaries—you will certainly love this cheeky doctor.
Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers from the anime.
Brilliant detectives such as Sherlock Holmes teach us how important it is to pay attention to the details to solve crimes. Dr. House also uses his incredible power of observation to figure out what’s wrong with patients when everyone else has given up. Dr. Ameku has a similar power. Her incredible capacity to observe patient history and her surroundings made her the head of the Department of Investigative Pathology at a very young age.
She is often seen with her assistant, Dr. Yu Takanashi—whom she calls Kotori (small bird). Unlike Ameku, Takanashi is levelheaded, and often acts as his boss’ social filter. We learn early on in the series that Takanashi joined Ameku only eight months ago after all her previous assistants left due to the extreme pressure of keeping up with the genius. There’s another young and bright-eyed first-year resident named Mai Konoike who absolutely adores Ameku and her capabilities. With this premise, we enter a story that’s not only medically sound, but also challenges the brilliant doctor at every turn.
Dr. Ameku earns her moody personality
Much like all the other genius problem solvers in the history of literature and film, Dr. Ameku makes the rules for herself. She roams around the hospital while wearing slippers. She doesn’t care about formalities with the family of the patient, and often ends up saying things that offend people. In the inaugural episode ‘Dr. Sherlock’ we see her demanding to see Takanashi when he was with a patient. But when her assistant refused to visit her, she went to him herself and diagnosed the young patient correctly in a few minutes. She also earns respect of the hospital staff by saving the life of a patient whose mother filed a complaint against Ameku.
This amazing doctor duo solves multiple cases across twelve episodes, some easier and some downright nightmare-inducing. Ameku also helps Detective Sakurai solve complicated murder cases with her brilliant deduction skills.
Throughout the series, we see some really emotional developments involving dying patients. Ameku’s breakdown about losing an 8-year-old patient who was suffering from leukaemia hits hard—as it shows how even the most powerful people are helpless in front of the looming presence of death. What makes it even more enjoyable is the high-stakes case in which both Ameku and Takanashi risk their lives for one-another—showing how deep their bond runs.
Should you watch the show?
Without going into much details about the cases and spoiling anything, I would urge everyone to watch Ameku M.D. It’s more enjoyable if you have some medical knowledge as the show is pretty accurate when it comes to medical analogies. This is mainly due to the author belonging to a family of physicians and himself being a practising internist. His knowledge about the field shines through in Ameku’s brilliant and seemingly impossible deductions. The murder victim with blue blood, the case of spontaneous human combustion, and a man drowning inside a dry locked room are some of the best stories from the series.
The only gripe I have with the show is its subpar animation. Project No. 9 (Love After World Domination, Senpai is an Otokonoko) is the studio behind the project. Although not terrible, the animation definitely felt lacking when compared to the story. Thankfully, due to a lack of immense action, it didn’t feel too out-of-place and ruined the entire experience. The amazing opening theme ‘Scope’ by Aimer and ending theme ‘will be fine’ by the Gospellers ft. Anly made the series even more enjoyable.
Unfortunately, a second season of the anime hasn’t been announced yet—though the final episode came out on 3 April. Thankfully, the series didn’t end on a cliffhanger, so you can enjoy a complete show without waiting for it to return. Overall, I would recommend this underrated gem to anybody who enjoys hard-to-solve mysteries and a flawed but brilliant female protagonist.
