First of all, when there are stories about some genius who excels in a particular field despite conventional knowledge or assumptions, it can get rather exaggerated as the character would be held up like some superhero who is very unlikely to exist in real life. That was precisely my biggest worry when it was made known that Dr. Chocolate is actually a 10-year-old girl who can perform surgeries more skillfully than most adult doctors.
However, the story did give a proper explanation on how Dr. Chocolate came about. No doubt it was out of the norm for most children of her age, given her family background and her exposure to medical knowledge since she was much younger, it made sense that she was armed with so much knowledge. The thing though is, theory may not translate well into practice so on this part, it may not be so convincing to viewers that her practical skills could be attained through merely theory and simulation.
Secondly, the mystery surrounding Dr. Chocolate i.e. Terajima Yui (Shiroyama Noa) and Teacher i.e. Noda Tetsuya (Sakaguchi Kentaro) was revealed in no time. Most dramas would tend to drag this kind of revelation to somewhere in the middle of the story but bucking the trend turned out to be a good move since it allows the story going forward to focus more on the "who did it" and "why" after the "what", "when" and "where" had been addressed. And to have someone who is supposedly on the dark side to infiltrate into the Dr. Chocolate team means that the story should get pretty exciting as they try to find out the truth but with someone nearby to sabotage their efforts. Although the first episode did suggest something as the answer as to why Yui's parents were killed, I don't think that's the full story so it will take some time for the revelations to be out in full.
Last but not least, I was of the impression that only Teacher and Dr. Chocolate would be the ones doing the surgeries but it turned out that Teacher can't do it because he has a prosthetic arm after his injury from the explosion and fire. The Dr. Chocolate team turns out to be an interesting mix of characters and we don't even get to know their real names. Through the nicknames given by Yui which reflect their unique traits, it is actually easier to remember so many people at one go like this. It would make sense for their background stories to be revealed as we go along so that's probably when we will find out their real names.
The thing is, since they are part of Team Chocolate, it was natural that their surgical outfits were brown in colour. As seen from the picture, they could hardly be seen in the night which I guess also helps in camouflaging. One thing which also slightly bothers me is them wearing these outfits well before they reach the location where the surgery is done - any potential issues with contamination here?
The timing of Okuizumi Nagisa's phone call to Teacher was somewhat questionable too. Did she know that the team was going to operate on the person supposedly responsible for the deaths of the Terajimas? And her over zealousness in pursuing their case coupled with her eagerness to find the true identity of Dr. Chocolate - it brings up numerous questions as to who she is and how she factors in the grand scheme of things. As for the potential loveline between her and Teacher...let's just say that this story probably doesn't need a distraction in this manner. And I certainly don't wish to see another "forced and out-of-the-blue" ending where Nishino Nanase ends up as the most unexpected mastermind again like in "Anata no ban desu".
Much as I think the surgical scenes were still a bit too unbelievable, the first episode didn't spend a lot of time on this part so it was still bearable to sit through them. For now, I'll probably stay on more for the main story but the patients they treat in each episode could provide the clues to the puzzle at the end so hopefully, these cases won't be too boring.
One final note here, I just don't get the obsession that J-drama scriptwriters have with painting Singapore as some place where black market doctors can ply their trade with ease, people running amok on the streets with guns or the place where people escape to after committing a crime. Rather than use actual place names, sometimes it's better to come up with something fictitious because it can get seriously offensive at times with these weird and negative associations by people who don't know a thing. It's not amusing anymore when it happens too many times.
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