A new year, a new anime season – the wheel turns as ever, and we kick off Winter 2025. Double premieres have become something of a fad in anime recently (and stuff like Vinland Saga and Oshi no Ko had four). On balance it’s probably not a bad way to make a stronger case right out of the gate. But the flipside of that is that the product has to be pretty good or else you risk the audience getting bored and tuning out.

Ameku Takao no Suiri Karte was not one of the series I previewed, but a couple of LiA readers recommended it so I thought I’d check in on it at least. It does have some points in its favor. It’s based on a novel, a route which has a pretty good batting average in producing good anime. It’s a story about working adults. Apart from that I didn’t know a whole lot about it except that House seemed to get mentioned a lot when people were talking about it.

Having watched these first two episodes I can definitely see why. To be honest it plays more or less as a House ripoff (the Lupus bit suggests the author is well aware of it), except with a lolified adult in the Hugh Laurie role. The titular Dr. Ameko Takao is the head of pathology (like house) at the family hospital her grandfather founded. She’s a diagnostic genius of the highest order (like House), and has youngsters working under her (like House). She has zero social skills and pisses off everyone she works with, and treats the loyal ones like crap (like House). You get the gist.

That’s not all bad – I mean, I liked House. But this ain’t House. Not bad, mind you, but nothing special so far. I’m not that nuts for Sakura Ayane in the Takao role, though it’s obvious what they were going for. None of the orbital characters stand out much, though it’s always great to hear Hirata Hiroaki in a major role. Here he’s playing the head of the police homicide division who’s an obvious – OK, we’ll be charitable and call it an homage – to Peter Falk as Columbo. If there’s a difference with House I think it’s that the focus will be less on actual medical practice here and more on Takao being cute and abrasive solving crimes. There was only about two minutes of actual medical practice here.

As for the first case, it falls about under that same “not bad” umbrella. It involves a murdered yakuza whose blood has turned blue and whose leg appears to have been bitten off by a huge carnivore. It’s more silly than anything but there are some amusing moments along the way. I would have liked to have seen more medical stuff here but that’s just me. I could see Ameku M.D. turning into an enjoyable diversion if the cases are up to it, but nothing much in the premiere suggests there’s more here than that.