Munechika Takado - Season 1 - Main Story (Love Choice) Review
Trope: The Grouch/Hardass
Weakness: Comfort food from a local bar
For other character reviews: Voltage Men at a Glance
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Minimum Hearts for SHE & All CGs: 150
The story:
You land yourself in the hospital of your dreams, but rather than doing your residency in the orthopedic department, you end up in the “Elite” ER unit. It’s filled with enough Ikemen to cast in all your shoujo fantasies, but as beautiful as they are, their personalities are equally unique to match.
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The Characters:
Relationship status: Budding Interest
Surprisingly the MC and Takado fit well. Between his berating and her stubbornness, they drive their own character development forward. Not the most flattering in real life, but she’s able to get somewhere on perseverance alone and manages to not lose herself in the process. Naive from the start, she looks at the world through a shoujo tinted lens. Clumsy, of course, and not the best at interpersonal relationships, our bookworm MC comes to learn that love isn’t as prettily packaged as it is in fiction. When made to choose between love and work, she is self aware of her own emotional limitations and tells him such. She doesn’t shy from confrontation and is a real go getter which makes her appealing to the reader.
As for Takado, the depth that is missing from the Main Story is all in His POV. It goes into the extent of his despair and chronic depression and how he longs for death on a daily basis. He strongly believes that he will live and die with a scalpel in his hand, and his self worth is all wrapped up in his ability to save his patients. So he distances himself to get through life day to day and becomes a semi permanent occupant of the on call room. As he goes through his journey, his color blindness becomes a metaphor for his helplessness in the lives of his patients. He’s always searching for what he lost, and by the end of it, we the reader are left with a glimpse of hope that his search isn’t entirely a waste.
For those hoping to see a more developed romantic relationship, you’ll have to wait. This main story centers mostly around their professional relationship and her hate to love relationship with him as her admiration grows. The writers really try to paint him as a sympathetic unsung hero. Whether or not they succeeded in convincing you please let me know.
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Was it worth the price tag?
For me: No. (Buy His POV for 200 Coins)
I am not saying it’s bad. I have seen some really enjoy the story and find the MC relatable and realistic. She even has a 2D husband that she feels like she is cheating on when she falls in love with Takado. And her female friends even mention the games they play, so those are nice nods to the reader. The score is amazing and the music really drives home each scene. But I think all that can be enjoyed without overcoming the paywall. There are longer scenes behind the paywall, but none of them were too impactful or memorable (and I can’t tell you if I would be sad if I missed any because I just don’t remember anything that stood out.)
For me, it was too exposition heavy. The MC is a glossary for medical terms and time and time again breaks the 4th wall to tell me what she is doing. The writers tried to write a medical drama ish, but so many things were glaringly different from how a real teaching hospital operates, it grated my nerves to no end. The whole start, I had a blaring sign in my head that said “MALPRACTICE.” If it was a drinking game, I’d be blacked out. Due to this, it took me a lot longer than most stories to immerse myself in the world, and it made me drag my feet with reading it.
After I set aside glossary MC, I ended up enjoying the character interactions, and sometimes she’d make me laugh or smile. I don’t think it was worth the 15 USD I paid for it though, given I could almost get an entire paid season of something else. I don’t think it explores the depth of Takado that I would like, so I can definitely say to save your money, read it for free, then spend 2 USD and get his POV. Now that POV packs a punch.
Anyways, feel free to disagree with me. I’d love to hear your point of view.
Until next time
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