In Shinjuku, there's this small clinic tucked between the buildings. It is a bit shabby and unkempt, but the doctor is top-notch. This is the tale of the physician in residence, and all sorts of people around him.
Dr. Kumahige is a manga series written by Shou Fumimura (more widely known as BURONSON of Hokuto no Ken fame) and drawn by Takumi Nagayasu. It ran from 1985 to 1988 in Kodansha's Young Magazine and later compiled into 5 bound volumes.
Tropes:
- Almighty Janitor: Kumahige is a pretty remarkable doctor, able to make all the difference on something as spontaneous as a hit-and-run victim in the middle of the streets. However, rather than a high-rate hospital, he runs his own practise in a very rough town, seemingly out of choice and perhaps as a way of doing good to people who usually can't make it to a fancy hospital.
- The Atoner: Chapter 32 involves an old man who's been stealing from people to let his senile wife travel and draw paintings. He confesses to Kokubu that over the years he took out his frustrations on her, beating her and forcing her to get an abortion. Even after she got dementia he tried to strangle her, and only then did he feel horrified at his own actions upon seeing her react with unresponsive, child-like glee. It is said that nobody bothers to arrest the man because they want him to keep his wife traveling and drawing for however long she lives.
- Bittersweet Ending: The story for plenty of the chapters end wistfully, with key characters surviving to grow past its events albeit not with just a simple smile on their faces.
- Death Wail: In chapter 35, a book writer gets frustrated with how her neighbor Kumahige yells and tosses things around at night every so often. While he's helping her treat her hyperkalemia, she is told that's how he copes with the death of his patients. The chapter ends with her passing away and Kumahige screaming in rage after learning she had dedicated her last book to him.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Everyone seemed to call Dr. Kokubu with 'Kumahige' or similar other names, which is more of a description of himnote than an actual name.
- Face Death with Dignity: The few people who Kumahige are unable to save don't go with fear, but rather appreciation for what the doctor has done for them prior, or beforehand doing what they loved.
- Gentle Touch vs. Firm Hand: Dr. Saburou is definitely the Gentle Touch compared to Detective Tamiya and Dr. Kokubu. Between the latter two Kokubu is the gentle hand, almost to a Good Cop/Bad Cop dynamic.
- Love Triangle: A longstanding one between Kokubu, Shiho, and Mukai in the first chapter, but it soon ended with Mukai's death. However, Kokubu doesn't get with Shiho afterwards, too ashamed of failing to save his friend.
- Manly Tears: Of course, since this was written by the man who wrote Hokuto no Ken. Kokubu may be stoic but he's just as capable of weeping for lost friends.
- Made of Iron: Several of the patients can take a beating and survive. One in particular is the rugby player Kamiya, who was a ruffian when he's younger.
- Dented Iron: An unfortunate side effect of rough living. Kokubu himself might have this (having played rugby himself in his youth), as he was shown stricken by debilitating lower back pain a few times.
- Motivational Lie: In Chapter 34, Kumahige saved a woman and her unborn child's life when she was feared to be at risk of Death by Despair after her fiancé died in a motorcycle crash by doing this - while the man was working long and hard to provide for her university education, Kumahige still made up that he was found with good luck charms for an easy birth and for her to pass her university entrance exam in his clothes to convey that her fiancé would have wanted her to live proudly.
- Ordinary High-School Student: Kumi Ishida, who sometimes hung out at the clinic after the first chapter.
- Perpetual Poverty: Every single indication about the finances of Kumahige's clinic makes it clear that they're rarely in the black, yet he never goes completely broke.
- Sad Clown: He's jovial and carefree but Kokubu is also a man plagued with regrets and is all too knowledgeable on how harsh the world can be.
- Self-Made Man: One of Kumahige's patients is an elderly man who worked from the age of 15, eventually becoming moderately wealthy.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Practically every volume and chapter cover in the series is of the haunted protagonist vacantly staring into the horizon. It's a pretty impactful example
◊, considering the kind of attitude Kumahige has on. Considering he's a medical doctor and the loss of close friends he could have helped, it's easy to imagine he's in fact plagued by Samaritan Syndrome in his more private moments. - Wretched Hive: Shinjuku in the manga is quite a rough town. Kokubu even had to deal with numerous break-ins in the beginning of his practice before Tamiya's presence curbed them.
