Volumes: 14+/31+ (Ongoing) (Read: 1-12) (Digital eBooks only)
Seinen
Genre: Doctors and Nurses
Summary: Dr. Kounodori, whose name translates to Dr. Stork, has a secret. He’s actually the famous concert pianist known as “Baby”, a mysterious figure who no one knows why sometimes his concerts end early. In truth, he’s an on-call Obstetrician for the local hospital. The story follows him as he treats his patients through many different issues, from a requested abortion, a mother who smokes, a woman who’s baby has anencephaly, premature babies, twins, a woman who doesn’t want a C-section and many more.
This won the Kodansha Manga Award for the General Category in 2016.
Review: Sometimes there are comics that don’t really manage to cross the cultural barriers between East and West well, and sadly this is one of them. In particular, Dr. Stork works at a Christian Hospital in Japan as an Obstetrician and the comic is heavily pro-life. It’s honestly kind of funny in a way, because the mangaka was careful to write Dr. Stork as a moderate middle of the road doctor, at least, by Japanese standards anyway. But by western standards he’s just slightly short of “Abortion is Murder” and says things like “No Mother was ever happy to have an abortion” and “Abortion gives Mothers PTSD” and tries to guilt his patients into keeping their unwanted babies.
This comic has an difficult readership problem. Even abortion aside, from any modern feminist angle this manga is a total nightmare. For example, one short story revolves around a pregnant teenager, and she tries to get an abortion. But apparently in Japan, an underage abortion requires her parent’s permission, plus the boyfriend/father’s permission plus the boyfriend’s parent’s permission as well! If any of them refuse a teenager can be forced to carry a child. That was gross enough, but there’s also a later story where a woman requests her surgery to try and save her uterus if possible. And the male doctors are against it because it would put her at 6% risk of death. Meanwhile the woman doctor on the team is the only one who is in favor of trying to save it. And this is only through volume 2! This comic would quickly alienate most potential female readers, as it’s preachy, lecturing and judgmental, leaving only the minority of Seinen readers who somehow want to read about a doctor who only delivers babies.
Secondly, this manga also made an odd decision to make Dr. Stork more or less an ordinary doctor. There are a few other manga in English about doctors and the most popular, Dr. Black Jack, is about a miracle worker/genius doctor. Which I totally get, because reading stories about heroes and incredible surgeries and etc. is fun and entertaining. In comparison, Dr. Stork does have genius talent… at piano. Which only strikes me as weird every time I think about it.
As to how the manga actually feels to read, well, it's alright. All the other things I mentioned earlier aside, it's above average, and it's clear the mangaka did a lot of research. But it's honestly not a very enjoyable read, as the vast majority of it is about possible complications during pregnancy and childbirth. For a medical drama I felt like as a whole, there's too much tension and not enough emotional pay off. A lot of the stories also end abruptly and I started to feel like the characters were just there to illustrate whatever the chosen storyline was about. There were a few short stories that I liked though, like one about a girl juvenile delinquent who decides becoming a midwife is her calling. And another one about the importance of getting the Rubella vaccine. And a longer story about a half-hearted resident whose life changes after he saves a pregnant woman and her baby when she has a heart attack.
More horrifying facts that I learned from this manga:
- Health Insurance in Japan doesn't cover pregnancy or childbirth costs.
- The MMR vaccine in Japan isn't standard and not covered by insurance. It costs $90!
- Conceiving through Egg donation isn't allowed in Japan for most women, but conceiving through Sperm donation is allowed.
- Those who give up children to orphanages can refuse to give up parental rights forever, keeping the child from being adopted ever. And less than 10% of healthy children in Japan get adopted. Unhealthy ones never get adopted.
Age Rating: Older Teen: Not that graphic but does discuss things like STDs, and of course stillborn babies, miscarriages, postpartum depression, etc.
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