Monster Girl Doctor

Episode 12

We open on Skadi standing on the bridge in the center of town, speaking proudly with all of the people of Lindworm and not needing Kunai to do her speaking for her. There is a celebratory mood in the air, and the people are rejoicing.

Sadly, back across town Sapphentite is feeling under the weather. Glenn decides to check her over as she is beginning to talk funny, and after pulling out her fruit-roll-up of a snake tongue he finds she has a sore. Applying a touch of honey-based salve, the good doctor helps her out and gets suggestively close to her in the process.

Meanwhile, Skadi's carriage has broken down and this sparks a domino effect of meetups. Dr. Glenn comes by to help, and Skadi hits him with the triple-threat of completely non-awkward interactions by calling him big brother, glomping him, and then flashing him in broad daylight to show how she has healed. Eventually both Meme and Tisalia arrive to help as well, and Glenn ends up ina carriage pulled by Tisalia with much discussion of engagements and wedding vows. Elsewhere, Lady Gigas is helping the harpies and Arahnia is chatting up Sapphentite about what all the other monster women in town are “likely” doing to Glenn at this very moment.

As the day goes on more and more food and gifts are accrued and a grand party is held. Everyone is gathered together beneath the moon and stars, drinking wine and getting into various shenanigans, partying, and jockeying for Glenn's affections. Tisalia and Sapphentite see that Skadi is a new challenger in the battle for Glenn's heart, and after a fair bit of comedic jostling he ends up playfully crushed by a metric ton of monster women. We get one final pan over the city and narration about how this is only the beginning of the journey before the credits roll.

In some ways it feels like we've come full circle. This episode was, as I expected, rather light-hearted and a gentle end to the tension of the last few episodes. Again, my experience with these style of shows is more limited but the type of fan-service and character interactions in this episode were what I expected of the show in the beginning and never really encountered. In part that was because the vavavoom moments were more standard fare, but then so were the character beats.

Oddly enough, one of the real strengths of the show thus far was missing from this finale. I have been rather impressed with how well characterized the cast has been in prior episodes, and here it almost felt like all the ladies were being reintroduced to remind us of their shtick on the way out the door. This made them feel more shallow and one note, which is a bit of a shame.

On the other hand, Skadi got a great deal more character insight and more world-building was done through here. This line in particular was quite powerful:

“I descended to the earth and took on human form, but perhaps I hadn't actually touched the ground and truly interacted with others until now.” Good character writing with a poetic flourish, the kind of thing I did not expect from this show when I first started it but an element I have found to be very engaging. It's a shame that only Skadi got moments like this in the episode, but then I suppose most of the rest of the cast had their moments earlier in the season.

I did appreciate the cheery note and the optimism of the ending. It's a clear setup for a season two, and I'll be curious to see if we get a second season for it and how well this has been received. I for one have been consistently surprised by the series, sometimes for the worse, but quite a few times for the better. I wonder how the general fandom has responded to the show because I know for myself I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected, even if it certainly had its Moments™.

Rating:

Grant is the cohost on the Blade Licking Thieves podcast and Super Senpai Podcast.

Monster Girl Doctor is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.