Monster Girl Doctor, Ep 2: Fish Gotta Swim, Girls Gotta Sing

While shopping for medical supplies, Sapphee and Glenn meet a mermaid with a beautiful singing voice.

Case 2 – “The Mermaid of the Waterways”

Hmm.

Monster Girl Doctor gave us solid world-building in Sapphee’s prologue. The medieval era fantasy setting draws reliably on the mercantile trade societies of the Hundred Years War and the Italian Renaissance era of warring city-states. I’m not surprised in the least that Lindworm, the city chosen as the model of mutual peace between humans and monsters, resembles Venice, Italy since Venice was a major port city during all those northern Italian wars. When the royalty was more concerned with fighting instead of making money, it was up to the guilds and trade merchants to negotiate trade routes and contracts. To Glenn’s family, it was no big deal to kidnap the monster girl daughter of an adversary during tough negotiations. Perhaps Japanese culture’s “it can’t be helped” attitude makes these circumstances easier to accept than modern Western tastes.

There were also hints of more drama to come in Monster Girl Doctor, as Sapphee explained to Glenn how much Lindworm had developed under the direction of a dragon lady named Scadi. Putting aside for now why Glenn doesn’t know about this rapid upheaval only 10 years after the human-monster war ended, it’s clear Sapphee is going to be the audience’s exposition device for all things monster girl related. Glenn may have gone to monster medical school, so he knows how they work from a mechanistic-biological sense, but as a human, he has huge gaps in his knowledge of their culture and politics. That’s good! We’re supposed to identify with Glenn first, empathize with his attitude of treating humans and monsters the same, but accept that we still have much to learn of them and from them.

The last thing I want to note, and it might be no big deal but Chekhov’s Gun is a concept that anime hardly ever fails to deliver on, is that Glenn had a younger female relative with him who was also sad to see Sapphee leave their household. On the official Monster Girl Doctor anime website’s character page, she’s not listed. Is this Glenn’s sister? Cousin? Is she going to show up during the season’s final dramatic arc? Is she going to be comic relief from a harem dynamics perspective when she comes to check on her older brother who ran away from the family business to become a doctor? I’m going to keep her in mind for a future episode because there’s always a reason an anime puts a girl on screen who has the same ahoge the main character does. Always.

Heh.

The opening credits show Glenn’s monster girl harem candidates. We formally met Sapphee and Tisalia. I’m curious about Memé the Cyclops girl and Arahnia the Spider Lady.

Young Sapphee meets young Glenn during the war. This is a medieval-style negotiation tactic. Sapphee was a hostage in Glenn’s house, whose family ran a large merchant trading company. Aw, Glenn thought she was pretty. Will we meet Glenn’s little sister at some point? Glenn and Sapphee didn’t meet again until they went to monster girl medical school, er, monster medical school.

Oh. Sapphee is an albino snake monster girl. Let’s meet another one! Sapphee and Glenn’s “date” is to buy purified water. The town has canals like Venice. Interesting gondola politics going on here. A merman takes over from the human gondolier. More dimorphism. The merman looks fishy, as in actual fish. The Merrow Waterways is a new part of the city for water-based monsters. Some foreshadowing about meeting city councilperson Lady Skadi, a dragon lady. Seal monster girl dressed like a California girl in bikini top and cutoffs.

Ha. Sapphee wants to go shopping to continue her “date” with Glenn. It really feels like being a tourist in Venice. Ah. Here comes the monster girl of the week plot. Singing mermaids at the Mermaid Show. Lulala is a singer busker. Glenn noticed she has a health problem. Sapphee thinks Glenn is ogling another monster girl, this time Lulala for her tan, which makes her jealous because she has pale skin. Lulala is good at plucking on Sapphee’s heartstrings. She’s a good mermaid saleslady.

Glenn wants to buy two songs, but he’ll pay for the second by giving Lulala a free medical exam. Ah. The scary monster girls talking to Lulala at the end of the last episode were just inviting her to sing in front of the Council Hall. Oh, there is something wrong with Lulala. She can’t sing for long without coughing. Glenn noticed something about her gills.

More foreshadowing. They’ll need to be careful about the strong currents near the dam. Glenn explains mermaid lungs and gills. Lulala’s gills shouldn’t be open to the air for long periods. Here comes the accidental monster girl sexy time. Glenn used lube to finger her slit. Yes, that sounds naughty. Big Sapphee pout. Lulala spends too much time out of the water. Why not soak in the canal until a customer comes by?

Ack. Emergency! Someone! Save the kid! Uh oh. Now someone saves the drowning mermaid! And now someone saves the drowning human doctor. I sense a pattern for monster girl problems. That’s a lot of saving going on here. Glenn took Lulala’s first kiss. Rescue breathing by pushing water into her instead of air. Sapphee’s tail is plenty strong. Also, another big Sapphee pout.

Happy ending for Lulala. The different designs for monster people, especially between men and women, are interesting. Aw. Lulala is shy around Glenn now.

Next time, a flesh golem lady flashes many angry looks.

Monster Girl Doctor streams on Crunchyroll.