Reading the title Monster Girl Doctor alone is kind of… awkward. Even those familiar with anime and manga raise their eyebrows towards the concept, which probably should not be as straightforward as it is. Understandable, but once you actually dive into the high-fantasy world of Doctor Glenn and Sapphee, you suddenly realize that it’s actually a healthy-ish dose (pun intended) of wholesomeness.
In fact, the richness of this relatively recent anime’s setting and characters understandably made fans clamor really hard for Monster Girl Doctor Season 2.
What happened so far in Monster Girl Doctor
Doctor Glenn Lindbeit is the newly appointed resident doctor of a local clinic in the town of Lindworm, home to the most diverse population of monsters and humans living together after the great war. He is assisted by his childhood friend Saphentite “Sapphee” Neikes, an albino Lamia, who also graduated from the same medical academy as him.
The anime for the most part follows a serial “patient of the day” format like what you would expect from a medical drama show. However, it also chronologically progresses the story to interact with other characters and the larger world of its setting. The noble centaur Tisalia, for example, introduces us to one of this world’s transportation networks. The bubbly mermaid Lulala invites us to the Merrow Waterways, and a bit of lower-class life in Lindworm. Kunai, Skadi, and Illy show that not everything is happy and mellow in this world, as incidents of malicious intent still occur even after the war between monsters and humans was long over.
Unfortunately, because of Glenn’s earnest and eager personality, he has inadvertently earned the admiration of many of his patients, much to the constant frustration and chagrin of Sapphee. Glenn is never oblivious to their advances, of course. But as a functioning member of this unique society, he needs to remain steadfast. He is a doctor after all, and new patients, big or small, are not going to wait for some random event flag to finish.
The anime adaptation runs to its climax with probably one of the most important patients Glenn has to attend to yet: Lindworm’s head council representative, and dragonkin Skadi herself. It was revealed that she has been suffering from some sort of cancer-like condition, hence the need to completely cover herself with hoods and robes.
Not only did Glenn have to contend with the severity of the condition, but he also needed to convince the long-lived, war-torn dragon guardian that she needs to be treated, that she has to survive and live longer. And so, with a good amount of trouble, Glenn and Sapphee consulted their former academy mentor, head doctor Cthulhy Squele, to assist with the procedure.
The main series then concludes on a high celebratory note, with Skadi publicly announcing to the entire town the events that transpired… as well as perhaps unveiling (both figuratively and literally) one of the “strongest” waifu contenders for Glenn just yet.
… Will Sapphee ever feel at ease with this ever-growing number of potential rivals?
What’s going on with Arvo Animation?
Monster Girl Doctor’s pilot episode aired in Japan on July 12, 2020, well into the same seasonal anime airing period of the very highly anticipated sequels Re:Zero S2 and Oregairu S3. The series ran on a single-course, 12-episode format, with its final episode concluding on September 27th that same year. This was the second anime project that Arvo Animation ever worked on, and so Yoshiaki Iwasaki remains at the helm as its director. The script was then written by Hideki Shirane, with the musical score composed by the TO-MAS team (Mito Matsui, Youhei Matsui, Masumi Itou).
Having only been founded three years prior in 2017 (relative to when Monster Girl Doctor aired) Arvo Animation was still very fresh out from adapting Bokuben last 2019. While the adaptation choice for its first project made a good impression story-wise (modern-day romcom, slice-of-life), the sakuga department was technically left with nothing to do.
This is exactly why Monster Girl Doctor immediately looked very impressive right out of the bat as the next adaptation. Normally, the excessive use of 3D models on even regular non-action scenes could make animated scenes look a bit cheap-ish. But that’s definitely not the case for Monster Girl Doctor. It actually helps maintain the superb amount of detail of the overall visuals, whether the characters are simply standing by the sidelines, sitting far away from some corner, or are the central focus on one particular shot.
As for the author, Yoshino Origuchi’s involvement in the project, he assisted in providing more technical details about his intended biological features for the monster girls. In particular, he wanted some of these easter egg-like details to show physiological consistency for the story. For example, Lulala’s eyes are shown to have the signature nictitating membranes that are universally found on many animals that require perfect visibility in changing fluid environments.
Overall, Arvo Animation and their work on Monster Girl Doctor certainly made it worth watching in the highest resolution possible, even if it doesn’t really have many high-octane action scenes often we see in anime like One Punch Man S1 and Attack on Titan S2.
What do we know about Monster Girl Doctor Season 2 so far?
After the conclusion of the final episode last year, there were no immediate announcements of a second season, unlike other fantasy shows (during the same year even) like Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear. And so far, as the year 2021 comes to its close, there are still no official announcements that have been unveiled so far. At the very least, though, there were at least two derivate works since the airing of the anime adaptation. The first is the direct manga version of the original Monster Girl Doctor series, which started serialization at least a year prior (January 2019). The second is Monster Girl Doctor 0, which predictably is a prequel series that features Glenn’s days as a medical student. The first tankoubon of the spin-off was published on February 19, 2021.
Will there be Monster Girl Doctor Season 2?
Despite having no official announcements thus far, the likelihood of a Monster Girl Doctor season 2 is actually quite considerable. While it was not as big of a Blu-ray/DVD sales hit as other series within the same season (it only ranked 12th among them), it did gather enough of a fanbase an appreciation crowd that fans of other similar monster girl franchises are now somewhat considering it a must-watch.
More importantly, there are also at least two other key factors why a season 2 is still somewhat likely-ish to be greenlit in the near future:
- Material availability – as with most light novel adaptations, Arvo Animation followed the 4-episode-1-volume adaptation format. Thus, the entire first season has only covered up to volume three so far. The original light novels are still continuing at nine volumes (ten very, very soon) today, and thus we have more than enough material for another cour.
- Animation studio portfolio – if a series generated enough buzz for an anime studio that only has a small number of projects so far, the probability that an already used IP would be chosen again becomes somewhat higher. This is even more convincing considering that Bokuben S2 was immediately greenlit right at the end of the last episode.
What are fans saying about Monster Girl Doctor Season 2?
The biggest praise from Monster Girl Doctor comes from the fact that it has the same “boring” formula of a slice-of-life series, but spread out onto a world-building setting founded in developed fantasy tropes, sprinkled with a tiny bit of ecchi here and there.
So naturally, the same expectation for a chill viewing experience goes for a season two. Fortunately, we are not yet down at the “wishing it was true” level, and online communities still love to speculate on whatever big announcement Arvo Animation has to make about the series. Again, this boils down to the fact that Bokuben Season 2 exists, even if it is still in development form. So at the moment, the hope for a season two is still very high.
When will Monster Girl Doctor Season 2 be released?
Most likely not in 2022. Based on Arvo Animation’s project portfolio, it seems that the animation studio at the moment is only working on one anime per year. 2021 is already covered by Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut (currently airing as of October 4th), and 2022 is already reserved for Bokuben S2.
At the earliest, it is possible that Monster Girl Doctor season 2 might be greenlit for 2023.
What Can We Expect In Monster Girl Doctor Season 2?
As mentioned earlier, the anime adaptation ended on volume three. Thus, a theoretical season two would most likely pick up from volume four, where even more characters would appear as Glenn’s new patients (spoiler alert: himself included). New places are slated to be introduced once again, including one particular “dead grounds” at the end of volume four.
And of course, even more Lindworm management hurdles of the now-cured Skadi.
