Rating: 4/10*
*Personal opinions towards storyline and actors/actresses factor into the rating. Don’t take it too personal if a drama you liked/disliked has a rating you don’t agree with.
On to another drama I’ve completed watching, Bulldoctor! In one of my prior J-Drama reviews I had talked about Unnatural, a drama based around forensic pathologists uncovering mysteries around bodies with unnatural or fishy deaths. I did enjoy that drama and the slightly dark theme with the clever mysteries you get to see solved was extremely entertaining. So when I discovered there was another drama based around forensic pathologists uncovering mysteries behind bodies with unusual deaths, I knew I had to watch this.
For this review I’ll keep the spoilers out and let viewers give it a chance to see it themselves. I’ll start off by saying the drama wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t the greatest. My number one reason for saying that is due to the subpar acting from the main heroine and one of the main male forensic pathologists. The male did have an involved role, but he didn’t do enough screen time as the heroine so I didn’t start noticing him until a few episodes in. Everything from emotion conveyed through voice or through facial reactions to extremely mechanical-looking movement, it felt “fake”.
In addition, there is one relationship plot that they introduce towards the beginning and try expanding on throughout the drama that gets to be somewhat annoying. J-Dramas are known to be notoriously slow for progressing any romantic stories, but this one took the cake. I can’t believe I had to wait as long as I did to finally see one of the characters open up and reveal their true emotions. So if you’re the kind of person who’s inclined to watch dramas for its romantic aspect don’t bother. Also, another notable plot involves another important character and they hint to this unknown plot periodically throughout the drama. And when I say hint, I mean they only acknowledge that there is some sort of story behind why a character is acting a certain way except it they do a poor job in making it seem important. Without giving too much, this involves your classic threats being sent and nervous ticks a character gets when something involving them is brewing in the background. But each and every one of these occurrences remains mild and as a viewer you’ll just go “oh this again” and not give too much thought into why it’s being done since it’s just not presented in an eye-catching manner.
Overall, the drama is decent. It’s nice if you want to follow the forensic pathologist theme BUT I highly recommend watching this first and then Unnatural in order to not be disappointed. Unnatural is an extremely similar drama to Bulldoctor, except 10 times better.
Journey To Japan 