GM ~General Medicine~ Odore Doctor – Final Thoughts

Ah, its finally over. What happened to our collective misfits for doctors? Did Fire Goto ever achieve his dream? Read and find out

So, when the Soushin team is faced with “Restructuring”, a Japanese waseigo term for ‘lay offs’, team leader Dr. Himuro is burdened with the decision to cut one of his team members. Shallow and selfish, he first tries to bump Dr. Ushiroba for being socially inept. When Ushiroda proves himself to the team and staff, he tries to bump Dr. Urushibara for his brown-nosing ways, but he eventually comes to plate and suddenly the restructuring plot is dropped with Dr. Machiya’s sudden resignation.When Machiya cleans the skeletons of her closet out, we’re now focused on Dr. Himuro’s incompetence and Nurse Motoki’s frustration with the doctors of Soushin, especially Himuro. After the two patch up their indifference, the story focuses on Resident Doctor Komukai’s transition from resident to doctor and then we conclude with backstory coming into the forefront, the Brand New Amii and Go concert.

Himuro's story helped give Motoki some needed depth, cause, srsly he was about as important as a lamp shade.

If you’re starting to notice a pattern, its because there is one. GM falls into the standard Jdrama method of story development by dedicating nearly every episode to a secondary character’s development. Its does its job, but some character’s stories are not as engaging as others and your left going off doing something else through majority of the episode then sitting through and learning about the characters. But, the drama doesn’t try to be too episodic and carries little things through each episode, such as the hospital’s sudden spike in patients due to Himuro’s appearance on a television show. While little, its enough to keep you watching.

There is the development of Amii and Go’s revival and hospital’s administration, and various other teams, ambition to crush Soushin, but its not strong enough to be worth anything when it finally hits the forefront. Sono’s take over blows by so fast that its not even worth mentioning and really makes little impact to the characters because the situation ends up resolving itself.

All the characters are engaging but they’re your standard drama fair: The cool pretty boy, the sexy vixen, the know it all creep, the airhead dunce, the otaku, the one that has a bit too much determination, and your title character.  They’re not there for you to connect to, only to be entertained by. Yes, they all have their personal struggles, but its not enough for you to really feel for them. Its more of a, ” Wow, that sucks. Well at least they got over it. “. But, like all comedies, they’re not there for you to feel for them or connect to them. Just laugh at.

Momoko's illness forced Goto be 'be a doctor', but really, it was uneventful when i found out it was just measles.

Higashiyama’s performance is totally different from his stoic, serious, character from Hissatsu Shigotonin but without really much to compare to, I can’t really say it was mind blowing. All he did was dance, say some outrageously kyoumi yomenai things, dance, suddenly find out the disease, and save the day. The show does turn his dancing into a gag, and it is funny, but Fire Goto is basically Fire Goto: A dancing doctor. I will say his little OCD quirks were impressive to see acted out and Higashiyama did look like he had fun playing the carefree dancing doctor, so while it wasn’t an amazing performance it wasn’t a bad one either.

The same applies to the rest of the cast. They do enough for you to enjoy them but aren’t mind blowing performances. The only one who mildly impressed me was Hisashi Yoshizawa, who played Dr. Ushiroda, the socially introverted anime nerd. With his hunch, facial ticks, and expressions you really thought that this guy maybe a geek in real life — but when he breaks his glasses and switches to contacts, his whole demeanor changes and he becomes this tall, dashing, “pretty boy” that rivals Nurse Motoki. Mikako Tabe’s performance definitely lightened up as the show went on, but with me only familiar with her role in Yasuko to Kenji, I can’t really see where she improved since apparently she’s received a lot of hate for her previous roles. Ohkura was out half the time in the drama that when he came on screen majority of it was spent standing in the background, so this maybe his best role yet!

Despite its genericness, its a feel good drama and is interesting enough to keep watching even if all the ‘strange medical mysteries’ symptoms make no sense in the real world when you actually bother to google them up. It’s not a must see, nor is it something to add to a watch list, but if you’re bored its definitely something to consider. I just wished they actually focused more on the Soushin team actually practicing and preparing for this concert, especially if it was going to be the finale scene.

You and me! Ami and Go, yaey!