Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Monster girls are awesome and in the mid to late 2010s the anime industry went on a monster girl binge. It started with Monster Musume and managed to hit its peak with Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon. After that it started to die down which is shame because a lot of monster girl animes were fun to watch and featured some good character designs. One of the monster animes to get noticed was Monster Musume no Oisha-san. Better known by it’s English title: Monster Girl Doctor, this was a series that managed to combine wholesomeness with ecchi situations and medical knowledge. The series is a light novel written by Yoshino Origuchi from 2016-2022. In 2020 an anime based off the series was greenlighted and produced by Arvo Animation. A relatively small studio who is best known for co-producing We Never Learn. It was the studio’s first solo project and they were determined to make it a hit. How did it go? Keep reading to find out. This is Monster Girl Doctor.
Opening and Ending Theme
Alright the opening is “Campanella Hibiku Sora de” by Arcane Project. Good song overall. The melody is nice and really makes this song for me and others.
The ending is “Yasahisa no Namae” by Aina Suzuki. This is song with another good melody. It sounds like something you would hear to bring the day to a close as you walk home from work.
Episodes 1-4
The anime starts by talking about a war that took place between humans and monsters. The war lasted for a hundred years until both sides became too exhausted and even forgot why they were fighting in the first place (the stupidity of war). Both sides laid down their weapons and peace set in with both humans and monsters living in harmony. We then cut to a city where we meet our main character Glenn voiced by Shun’ichi Toki. A young doctor who specializes in treating monsters (particularly of the female variety). He runs a small clinic with his assistant Saphentite a lamia voiced by Saori Ōnishi (Aiz from DanMachi) who went to the same school as him and might have a crush on him. After treating his last patient, he receives a letter asking him to conduct physicals for the combatants at the arena. While there he meets a centaur named Tisalia an heiress who is leader of the third and fourth rank combatants and interested in finding a husband that suits her. She quickly takes an interest in Glenn, but Saphentite keeps her away. After they finish all the physicals and prepare to leave, Glenn gets approached by Tisalia’s two attendants Kay and Lorna who are worried about Tisalia. We find out that she’s lost 10 matches in a row and her attendants are worried if she’s not feeling well (trust me that centaur is one healthy horse). While Glenn didn’t find any physical aliments he decides to review her medical records as well as go see Tisalia perform in the arena where he figures out what’s wrong with her, it’s her hooves. Her hooves haven’t been shod and as a result is throwing off her balance. She needs to have her hooves trimmed and get horseshoes which is something she doesn’t want as she doesn’t like the pain and her hooves are sensitive (oh then this is going to be a lot of fun). Glenn, Saphentite, and some cyclops (minus half a point for not making them Ippon-Dataras) trim Tisalia’s hooves and give her some horseshoes (scene here: https://youtu.be/dx6I5eSC6ME?si=MBQidxCMlXBzg-2_). This change works as Tisalia is back on a winning streak and it’s all thanks to Glenn.
Episode 2 starts off with the anime showing us how Glenn and Saphentite met. Saphentite was bought to Glenn’s house as part of a culture exchange program but in truth she was a hostage. Both of their families ran trading companies and were trying to secretly open up a trade route with each other. Saphentite was sent as a hostage to make sure her family wouldn’t betray Glenn’s family. Despite the circumstances Glenn and Saphentite developed a friendship with each other (one could say she was hoping Glenn could wash her eggs). A year passed and the war ended as well as the trading deal going through meaning there was no longer any reason for Saphentite to be held hostage and she was returned to her family. Years later the two would meet up again in medical school and open up a clinic together. Returning to the present day, Glenn and Saphentite are shopping in the waterway district where they come across a mermaid named Lulala who offers to sing for them (just don’t sing Part of Your World unless you want to get sued). Lulala sings a really good song until she starts to cough and Glenn examines her where he discovers inflammation not only in her throat but in her gills as well which are dry. Glenn’s diagnosis is that Lulala has been spending too much time on land and not in the water everyday but she says she has to do this to earn money. Her dad swarm off leaving her, her mom and siblings penniless and as the oldest daughter she feels it’s her duty to take care of them no matter what (very noble of you, but you must take of yourself before you take care of others). As they continue to talk they see a boy drowning and Lulala saves the boy. However, in her rush to save the boy she forgot to switch from lung breathing to gill breathing and this resulted in her lungs filling up with water. She saves the boy but starts to drown as well, so Glenn dives in to save her where he kisses her to clear the channel inside Lulala so water can get through and she can switch from her lungs to her gills. This works and Lulala starts to breathe again. They get fished out by Saphentite (scene here: https://youtu.be/WyG_OLaIABo?si=crImmEgi6tteKRYd) and Glenn gives Lulala some moisturizer and cough drops to cure the inflammation in her throat and gills. A few days later and Lulala is feeling fine, singing well, and embarrassed around Glenn because of the kiss.
In episode 3 Glenn receives a visit for Skadi a dragonfolk who also serves as the city’s council representative. She is the most powerful person in the city and thanks to her leadership the city was able to prosper within a short time as well as see good relationships between humans and monsters. She needs Glenn’s help in reattaching the arm of her bodyguard Kunai, a golem/Frankenstein-ish monster who lost her arm while fighting against bandits last night. The arm got lost in the scuffle, so Glenn has to find the arm first. However, Kunai doesn’t want Glenn’s help as she hates doctors (not in the way a kid hates them, but in a way gamers hate The Last of Us Part 2). It was a doctor who turned her into this monstrosity of creation, so why should she trust another one? Kunai takes her leave deciding to look for the arm herself, but she gets attacked by one of the bandits from last night and loses her leg. Glenn heads out to look for Kunai where he finds her leg and with the help of Lulala, finds her arm as well (does recycling exist in this world?). Glenn then finds Kunai and reattaches her limbs to make them better. The arm was easy but the leg gives off a number of sexual thoughts in the brain (scene here: https://youtu.be/o4XU37NH8xY?si=LVreZQsYaUukZMke). Once Glenn is finished, Kunai thanks him and changes her opinion about doctors (or just Glenn). We end the episode with Glenn returning to his clinic where Saphentite reveals she’s pregnant (she lying).
Episode 4 is an action-packed episode. It starts with Saphentite revealing that she’s not pregnant (called it. (Mira): Not to mention snakes don’t get pregnant, they lay eggs) but she does have an unfertilized egg with her which Glenn believes came from a harpy. As the two talk, the slave traders that Kunai was chasing after last episode attack the clinic because they believe Glenn is working with her (not yet). Glenn and Saphentite manage to escape out into the street (scene here: https://youtu.be/O6-ozx0U8aE?si=hsmHb7fNW_DvyR9H) where they run into Kunai who explains that the egg they have is an unfertilized harpy egg (and it’ll make one hell of an omelet). It turns out the traders have captured some harpies and are forcing them to lay eggs that they can sell on the black market. Kunai explains that her, Skadi, and the town guard are planning to raid the hideout of the traders and save the harpies and unfortunately can’t spare any guards to protect them, so Glenn and Saphentite will have to join them on the raid (sure, let’s bring the civilians with us on a raid where the traders will obviously have weapons. I’m sure nothing bad will happen). The hideout of the traders is along the waterways so they sail there with Lulala as their guide (the more civilians the better. How did Skadi win office again?). Along the way they get attacked by archers but get saved by Tisalia and her attendants (you stay away from her man). They arrive at the hideout of the traders where Glenn, Saphentite, and Skadi head inside while Kunai takes on the leader where she’s able to beat him with some assistance from Lulala. Meanwhile, Glenn and the others find the harpies where one of them is in pain due to not being able to ovulate an egg which is stuck. Glenn performs an emergency operation trying to help guide the egg out and get her to relax all while Saphentite and Skadi protect him from the traders. During the fight we learn two things about Saphentite that she’s been keeping secret (well one of them since the other one was obvious). First off, she’s in love with Glenn (like I said, obvious) and second, she was trained in the arts of assassination. Originally, Saphentite was sent to Glenn’s house to assassinate them should the deals not go as planned (makes sense. You really think a lamia would be sent as a hostage and not be trained to defend herself?). Thankfully the deal went through and everything ended peacefully between the families with Glenn and Saphentite meeting back up again years later. Saphentite gets stabbed with a poisonous knife and passes out (scene here: https://youtu.be/96QsyVb9ppc?si=Ctsk-egR5yLtqqg6) only to wake up sometime later in a bed where Glenn explains that all the traders have been captured, the harpy laid her egg safely, and Saphentite isn’t in any danger as lamias are immune to most poisons and the poison just instead paralyzed her body. Glenn also reveals that he knew she was ordered to kill him and his family when she came to live with them. In fact, members of Glenn’s family had the same idea to assassinate her. They poisoned her food and Glenn was the one who nursed her back to health which served as his motivation to become a doctor. After hearing all of this, Saphentite goes into heat mode and tries to force herself on Glenn (must lamias always be so forceful?) but the poison is still in her system, so she doesn’t get far and falls asleep again.
Episodes 5-8
In episode 5 Glenn and Saphentite are heading to the harpy village to do check-ups with Tisalia and her attendants escorting them. During their travel to the village a rockslide occurs and Kay gets a sprained ankle. This forces her on the sidelines leaving only Lorna to attend to Tisalia where she feels lost without Kay by her side and begins to doubt herself. Glenn gets asked by Tisalia to help out Lorna and his solution is putting a blindfold on her and tying her up bondage style (I couldn’t make this up even if the Jack Bros. told me to). Not only does this work but we discover Lorna’s fetish in the process (man, this anime is like the middle ground between Monster Musume and Interview with Monster Girls. It’s wholesome for the most part but not afraid to embrace the perverted nature of its setting). As if that wasn’t enough to get some people off, we end the episode with Kay and Lorna making a move on Glenn saying that once he marries Tisalia he’ll be allowed to have some fun with them as well if he desires (kinky creatures those centaurs).
Episode 6 focuses on Illy the harpy that Glenn helped lay an egg in episode 4. Ever since Glenn arrived at the village, Illy has been avoiding him and refusing to get a check up (well you did see her lay an egg so. . .). Luckily, Illy has asked to meet Tisalia and this presents an opportunity for Glenn to finally check up on her. We see that Illy has been molting quite a bit and has been unable to fly which has her worried (scene here: https://youtu.be/jCRYioQiW3A?si=UyIL3f84qhFgUF38). Glenn examines her where he finds nothing wrong with her and Illy finds that unacceptable (https://youtu.be/D3SEeJ8nt7I) and runs out of her cabin (hmm~, rich innocent centaur, yandere lamia, tsundere Frankenstein, deredere mermaid, and now a hot-headed rebellious harpy. I’ll give Glenn this, his harem has personality). Tisalia finds Illy where Illy expresses her desire to be a gladiator and fight in the arena, but Tisalia has some reservations so the two have a duel. Tisalia easily defeats Illy where she figures out that Illy never really wanted to be gladiator, she was just looking for an excuse to leave her village. Illy is a free-spirited person, she desires to find a place where she belongs and with her flying gone it looks like she’ll never find that place where she belongs. Glenn decides to re-examine Illy only this time he takes a look at her molted feathers and finally figures out what’s going on with her, she’s getting her adult wings, and not just any adult wings but the wings of a phoenix as she has phoenix blood within her. A few days past and Illy’s phoenix wings come in and is she’s able to fly once again.
In episode 7 we’re still in the harpy village where the female residents keep getting covered in sticky white stuff (https://youtu.be/vtjU3e0IYgc. . .sticky). Glenn says it’s just silk from an Arachne, but the residents are scared and in distress, so he goes to look for her (we all know it’s a woman) and hopefully find out what the problem is. Glenn and Saphentite find the Arachne whose name is Arahina (she will supply our ara ara for the anime) a friend of Saphentite who is a designer and actually made Saphentite’s clothes. She heard through the grapevine that Illy is a phoenix and wants to see her feathers in order to get inspiration. She soon turns her attention to Glenn as she’s interested in him, not in a romantic sense, but more playful sense. This leads to a fight between her and Tisalia who confesses her feelings for Glenn and Saphentite comes in to stop the fight accidently knocking out Glenn. Later that night, a drunk Saphentite confesses her feelings for Glenn (wow, two confessions in one day. The good doctor knows how to take care of business) and while Glenn doesn’t have a response to her feelings or the feelings of Tisalia, he knows that Saphentite is the only person he wants to share a drink with. Their talk soon gets interrupted by a tremor as a giant is making its way toward the village and they have no idea why.
Episode 8 opens up with the village panicking on what to do until Tisalia takes command and calms everyone down. She instructs those who can fly to fly to the city and those can’t fly to get in the carriage or walk down the mountain (and if anybody here is from Attack on Titan and their name is Levi or Mikasa, get to slaying). In a rather courageous moment Tisalia, sneaks away deciding to go and face the giant herself to get everyone enough time to get to safety (that’s pretty cool of her. She knows she can’t beat a giant but she can at least slow it down). Glenn and Saphentite catch on to her plan and find her where they go with her as Glenn wants to try diplomacy before violence (just like a normal doctor). They find the giant whose name is Dione and she’s quite kind. We find out that all she wanted to do was see Glenn as she has a cold (for 10 years). In fact, she took her time reaching the village making sure she didn’t crush any animals along the way. So, Glenn brings her back to the village to examine her, gives her some medicine and the harpies gather materials for Arahina to make new clothes for her (and cut her hair while you’re at it). After that, Glenn and the others return to the city where Glenn goes on somewhat of a dinner date with Tisalia (and Saphentite acting as the chaperone). The episode ends with Glenn getting ready for his next patient, Skadi, who just fainted while on stage.
Episodes 9-12
In episode 9, we pick up where episode 8 left off. Skadi has fainted and has been rushed off for medical care. In the afternoon, Glenn and Saphentite go to check up on her where they see her primary doctor is Cthulhy, the mentor of Glenn and Saphentite (it was only a matter of time before somebody sexualized the work of H.P Lovecraft. I’m surprised it took this long) and has a fetish for young boys (scene here: https://youtu.be/gXTjdm4N9tY?si=l4NHAHSBdLON_h9N. Woah, hey, I’m not into men tentacle rape lady. I’m not into tentacle rape at all actually. (Corbin): Your loss. You don’t know what you’re missing). Cthulhy reveals that Skadi has an extremely rare illness that in time will cause her heart to fail if not treated, but here’s the kicker, Skadi doesn’t want to get better. Kunai, however, not accepting this and wanting to repay Skadi for all she’s done asks Glenn to examine her which he agrees to do. Kunai sneaks Glenn into Skadi’s room at night where we see she has a cute face and voice and agrees to let Glenn examine her out of respect for Kunai (scene here: https://youtu.be/2IrCDwlW2kI?si=Et2x83Ge7hR6cw12). It turns out that Skadi has a tumor (the size of a heart) that is slowly taking over the veins in her body. Skadi doesn’t want to be healed as she believes dragons don’t belong in this world. In this world, the dragons came down from their realm and became affected by the world’s miasma which changed them into the dragons we see in myths and fantasies. Skadi believes that this is her punishment for entering a realm she had no right to enter in the first place. Glenn believes they can save her after examining and goes to Cthulhy to get her help for the operation, however she won’t do it unless Skadi absolutely agrees to the procedure which Glenn says she will after he gets done convincing her. With Cthulhy onboard, she says she’ll need an extra pair of hands to help her during the operation. It doesn’t have to be someone with medical knowledge, just someone who can match the hand movements of Cthulhy and Glenn has the perfect candidate for the job, Arahina. It takes a little convincing, but Arahina agrees to help out. All that’s left now is Glenn convincing Skadi to go through with the operation.
Nothing much really happens in episode 10. We take a side trip in the Skadi arc and instead focus on Meme, a cyclops with low self-esteem. Glenn goes to the cyclops in the hopes that they could craft the surgical tools strong enough to pierce Skadi’s dragon scales. In an effort to boost Meme’s self-esteem, the chief puts her in charge of crafting the needles where she has a rough time making them small and durable enough to pierce scales. She finally has an idea of inspiration only to pass out and get examined by Glenn who says she passed out from motion sickness as she was staring at a wheel for far too long and got dizzy. In the end, Meme manages to create the durable needles for the operation (and solidifies herself as being one of the top girls in the anime because of her shy nature).
Not much happens in episode 11. In the first half, Saphentite and Tisalia help Arahina realize that she’s in love with Glenn (scene here: https://youtu.be/ew_g_OxV944?si=bGCGODOioXfpOGPK, well if Glenn goes with Arahina their love making will be adventurous and unpredictable). In the second half of the episode, Glenn manages to convince Skadi to go through with the operation. We get a cute scene between them where Glenn carries her bridal style and tells her that she still has a lot to live for such as food, clothing, and falling in love (scene here: https://youtu.be/4lW5PYINfcs?si=4kR_WCvRFQfe7hn9, look at him, trying to add a dragon to his harem). In the final minutes of the anime, the operation begins where as Glenn is going to remove the tumor, Skadi’s body goes into auto defense mode and builds up fire in the chest area.
In the final episode we start off with Skadi revealing herself to the city and letting everyone know her surgery was a success (they skipped over it? That’s a shame, I really wanted to see how they removed that tumor and closed her up safely). Nothing much really happens for the rest of the episode. We see Skadi act all lovey-dovey around Glenn, even going as far as calling him big brother (just when you think she couldn’t get any cuter. Scene here: https://youtu.be/RgrQ-lO6emg?si=9OZPW5-sjyhY5Kle). He receives food and wine from all the residents in the city, so they have a small party and we get the promise of a second season (scene here: https://youtu.be/VCT4HYdqSao?si=JihwlOLPv8kcsNWp).
Final Thoughts
If I had to describe this anime in one word it would be: wholesome. There’s really nothing major or all that threatening going on. It tells a simple story about a doctor and the various patients he comes across in his journey. It doesn’t try to be anything big, it can be generic and cliché at times, but it doesn’t try to be anything more than what it promises. One thing I do like about Glenn is that he’s not dense. He knows that some of the girls have feelings for him and acknowledges them, but he’s a guy who’s focusing on his goals of being a doctor and establishing himself. He kind of has that millennial mindset. Focus on your goals first and show that you can take care of yourself before falling in love and caring for others.
I have to admit, I do find it ironic that a lot of the girls are the same species as the ones from Daily Life with Monster Girls, but they’re not carbon copies and have their own personalities. Saphentite is easily jealous and eccentric, Tisalia is innocent and protective, Arahina is a little yandere, and Skadi is more deredere and sisterly in her relationship with Glenn. Surprisingly, Lulala, Meme, Kunai and Illy really aren’t in the race for Glenn’s heart and just consider him a friend and someone they can trust. I like it and it shows that not every relationship Glenn has is romantic, it can be platonic and that’s okay. My favorite girl so far is Skadi. I really did like her design and her personality is cute especially at the end where she’s acting all clinging with Glenn and wants him all to herself just like a normal dragon.
The animation isn’t anything to brag about. We get a few good designs here and there. Like I said, Skadi’s design was good and did a good job blending the CGI in with the 2D models. The comedy was pretty predictable in this anime. The music does fit the anime as it sounds very fantasy-like, but doesn’t really stand out.
Final Score
The final score for Monster Girl Doctor is a 5.5/10. If you like monster girls and want to see a wholesome anime that’s not too ecchi or slice of life, check this anime out. It’s not the best but it’s not the worst either. It’s pretty much the middle ground between Interview with Monster Girls and Daily Life with Monster Girls. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.