This manga is much more detailed and technical than I expected. And to be honest I often found it dull or hard to follow. Stuff like discovering and manufacturing penicillin and advances related to that was awesome and really satisfying, but things relating to very specific techniques in very specific surgeries was beyond me. Though I suppose I should note that I am just a lay person with no knowledge of medicine beyond what I learned in high school, and people with actual training and experience in the field will likely be able to get much more from it.
Beyond that, there are several overarching plot threads. The first is centered around time travel. This is heavily concentrated towards the beginning and end of the manga, but it pops up to a small degree at times throughout. Overall, I found this aspect pretty weak. Time travel in general can get pretty bizarre, but the explanation for time travel here I found especially nonsensical. I also found it strange how what Jin did in the past had so little effect on the future. For example, discovering and spreading penicillin 70 years early should have had a tremendous impact on history, but in practice the changes to history were pretty minor. As such, beyond the introduction I didn’t find much of value to this plot thread.
The second plot thread is chronicling the Bakumetsu period. The rapid changes to Japan affected everyone and Minakata is no exception. As such, a good amount of the manga is spent explaining the state of the world and how things were changing and why. However, Minakata is ultimately just a doctor. He meets and treats a lot of important people, but at the same time he isn’t directly involved in any of the historical events occurring. As such, the vast majority of this historical explanation is basically tangents and often narrated rather than actually shown. As such, it was often as dry as a history textbook. Thus, I would not say that this is all that great at portraying the major events of the Bakumetsu period.
However, that brings me to the next plot thread, or rather series of plot threads, the lives of Minakata and the various people that Minakata is involved with. Minakata treats all sorts of people, young and old, rich and poor, regardless of what faction they were in the various conflicts occurring. And there’s always some sort of story to them beyond just the treatment. In conveying these stories, the manga does a really good job of conveying what life was like in the era for various people of all types. This manga doesn’t do a good job of explaining the key events of the time, but does a great job of showing how these events personally affected different kinds of people. Thus, while it’s not all that great of a historical account, it’s pretty great historical tourism.
With that said, most of the characters in and of themselves I didn’t find all that compelling. While their place in the world was interesting, their individual stories were not. Most of the time, it never really felt like the author was trying to do anything or convey anything with these stories. I suppose that’s more realistic, but it’s also more boring. There were very few characters that were even slightly memorable, not counting historical figures. There’s also a romance involving Minakata that goes absurdly slowly and has a really lukewarm end. It also involves a love triangle that lingers far too long and ends up playing into unnecessary time travel nonsense. Due to this, the ending wasn’t really all that satisfying.
The art I didn’t really like. Though I suppose I should note that I’m not a fan of more realistic art styles for manga in general. However, I do acknowledge that such an art style worked well here. And the art relating to medical procedures especially seemed well done.
tl;dr: A manga with a strong and often deep medical focus that can get pretty dull, but that is also pretty great historical tourism.
