The doctor is in – Rather than giving in to random internet outrage, Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective light novel author Mikito Chinen has pushed back against a particularly puritanical critic who tried to cancel a blood drive collaboration between the series’ anime adaptation and the Japanese Red Cross due to their particular distaste of the male-appealing “moe” art style used in its campaign posters.
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Deemed the ‘House M.D. of anime’ by fans, the Project No.9-animated Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective is an adaptation of the light novel series of the same name, as written by the aforementioned Chinn and illustrated by Noizi Ito, and follows the exploits of Tenikai General Hospital director of investigative pathology Dr. Takao Ameku (CV: Ayane Sakura – Aira Shiratori in Dandadan) as she puts her love of mystery and medical knowledge to work diagnosing the various medical curiosities that come through the facility.
Given its setting and subject matter, it comes as no surprise that the anime adaptation was tapped to provide a friendly and appealing face to a new blood drive campaign currently being hosted by the Japanese Red Cross Society.
As part of this campaign, Project No.9 produced a promotional poster featuring the series’ titular protagonist in a slightly-tight-fitting nurses uniform striking a cute pose while holding a medical syringe and medical chart.
While most who saw the poster found themselves either enjoying the artwork or feeling indifferent to it, Twitter user @woooboys not only found themselves unhappy with Dr. Akemu’s ‘sexualized’ appearance, but also went so far as to try and launch a full-on cancel campaign against the entire collaboration.
As machine translated by DeepL, on January 16th, the unhappy user retweeted an image of the poster and declared, “Actual medical personnel should complain about this.”
“The composition of the outfit, where the hair is not tied up, the handling of the syringe is perceived as fashion, and the cloth clinging to the crotch, a staple of otaku moe art,” they criticized. “Aren’t these the kind of composition and outfits that the Red Cross blood donors would not approve in the first place?”
Unwilling to let such pearl-clutching go unaddressed, Mikoto Chinen – who in addition to be an author is also a practicing doctor specializing in internal medicine – took to his own Twitter account the next day to personally address the critic’s complaints.
“I am a medical professional (doctor) and the original author of this anime,” wrote Chinen. “This poster shows Takao, a doctor, in a ‘nurse costume,’ not an actual medical worker. And if more people donate blood because of this poster, more people will be saved by the blood products made from it.”
“It’s a cute and great poster.” he concluded in a follow-up tweet. “Everyone, the Tokyo Red Cross Society and the anime [Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective] are currently running a collaboration campaign. If you can, please donate blood. Blood donations save the lives of many patients every day.”
Surprisingly, as many readers may recall, this is not the first time a blood drive-related art collaboration between the Japanese Red Cross and a currently-airing anime series has drawn the ire of such puritanical wokescolds.
In 2020, the founder of the Japanese cultural news site Unseen Japan, Jay Allen, sparked a brief moral crusade against a Red Cross poster featuring the busty namesake of Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! as he felt the “oversexualized” artwork contributed to a countrywide culture of “rampant sexism”.
However, his attempt to whip up a firestorm against the poster would end up proving completely ineffective, as not only did no one listen to his disingenuous complaints – the popular Japanese talk show Sôkai jôhô variety Sukkiri!! even outright mocked his arguments live on air – but the popularity of the collaboration led to an extension of the blood drive and the opening of additional donation centers.
