History Manga / TeamMedicalDragon

''Team Medical Dragon'' has been serialized in Big Comic Superior from 2002 to 2011, amassing 25 volumes overall. It received the 50th Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga in 2005. The story uses a cast of characters and focuses on many problems prevalent in medical care, such as human error, anticancer agent treatment, hospital infections, and a troubled health care system.

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: The heroes are all quite good-looking, especially Asada, Katou, Miki and Ijyuuin. And the "good" doctors who still cares about the patients' well-being rather than politics (such as Fujiyoshi and Nakada) are still drawn nicely even if they aren't exactly {{Bishonen}}. Meanwhile, the sleazy doctors, such as Kihara, Noguchi, and Sofue [[{{Gonk}} might as well be monkeys wearing human clothes]].

* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler: For Kihara, after his mother gets badly injured in a car accident, and the only one that can save her is Asada, and he's busy in the Batista]].

* AntiRoleModel: Asada describes himself as such.

* TheStarscream: Kirishima is the professor candidate that Noguchi brought in to Meishin and was banking on to make Katou fall from grace. Then, [[spoiler:when stronger candidates begin to make appearance, Kirishima all but forces Noguchi to retire earlier than planned.]]

* LikeASonToMe: Since Katou used to date Noguchi's son, Noguchi sees her as something like a daughter. Although he fights her when she keeps on going against his orders, [[spoiler:they manage to reconcile after Katou saved Noguchi's life by operating on her after Kunitachi's procedure failed. He gives her his support for the Elections and offers her (in a roundabout way) some advice and encouragement about how she should manage her professorship.]]

* NotSoDifferent: Asada with surgery and Noguchi with boardroom politics. They can both be pretty Machiavellian when it comes to achieving their goals. [[spoiler: The kicker is that both of them acknowledge it and become besties over dinner.]]

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Professor Noguchi is easily the most despicable character in the series, being the worst embodiment of the [[AmbitionIsEvil ambitious]] CorruptCorporateExecutive among Meishin's higher ups. However, he does have a genuinely loving relationship with his wife, and this ends up redeeming him when [[spoiler:Noguchi eventually gives up on his ambitions and retires to enjoy the remaining days of his life together with his Sakie]].

* EvenEvilHasLovedOne: Professor Noguchi is easily the most despicable character in the series, being the worst embodiment of the [[AmbitionIsEvil ambitious]] CorruptCorporateExecutive among Meishin's higher ups. However, he does have a genuinely loving relationship with his wife, and this ends up redeeming him when [[spoiler:Noguchi eventually gives up on his ambitions and retires to enjoy the remaining days of his life together with his Sakie]].

%%* TrueCompanions : The Batista team, occasionally called "[[GratuitousEnglish Team Medical Dragon]]".----

* CorruptCorporateExecutive : One of the main themes of the show is how Japanese university medicine is caught in a stranglehold relationship with pharmaceuticals companies and medical device manufacturers.

%%* TheRival: Miki's brother

* GoodDocBadDoc: The main conflict driving the plot of the story is the confrontation between those medical professionals who want to keep the corrupt system the same and value their own advancement and salaries over patient's lives and those willing to risk their careers in order to help patients ethically.
%%* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Completely adverted with Ijuuin.

%%* TrueCompanions : The Batista team, occasionally called "[[GratuitousEnglish Team Medical Dragon]]".
----

* ShaggyDogStory: In one arc, Ijyuuin braved through [[spoiler:the storm and traffic in order to collect some blood tranfusion packs for a VIP patient he's (partially) in charge of, even getting severely injured when he gets into an accident on his way back to the hospita.]] Unfortunately, the patient dies before Ijyuuin could get back to him. [[SubvertedTrope In a more uplifting note, however]], [[spoiler:the blood that Ijyuuin brought saved another patient, whom Dr. Nakada was treating]], meaning all that effort wasn't a complete waste, after all.

The hard place, for Kato, is her rival and sometime-lover Dr. Kirishima Gunji. Unbeknownst to Kato, Kirishima is working on the same procedure -- and going about it in a far less ethical manner.

* FreudianExcuse: Kirishima is all but unredeemable now, but when he was a toddler [[spoiler:his mother threw herself to her death from a roof right in front of him]].
%%* TheFettered: A few of the characters, especially Asada.

* ShootTheShaggyDog: In one arc, Ijyuuin braved through [[spoiler:the storm and traffic in order to collect some blood tranfusion packs for a VIP patient he's (partially) in charge of, even getting severely injured when he gets into an accident on his way back to the hospita.]] Unfortunately, the patient dies before Ijyuuin could get back to him. [[SubvertedTrope In a more uplifting note, however]], [[spoiler:the blood that Ijyuuin brought saved another patient, whom Dr. Nakada was treating]], meaning all that effort wasn't a complete waste, after all.

* EvilFormerFriend: Turns out that in the past, Kirishima and Asada were really good friends.

* PatientOfTheWeek : There are three Batista cases, but Asada et al get night shift emergencies every once in a while. The Batista cases are pretty much forgotten as soon as their operations are over. Each of Asada's team gets their own [=POtW=]: Ijuuin takes charge of a terminal lung cancer patient being abused for drug trials, Kato must decide whether to take on the hospital's former head nurse as a Batista case, Arase has to save the life of the bartender at his usual joint, and Fujiyoshi is a twofer, being himself the PatientOfTheWeek and having a daughter with a heart condition.

* TheStarscream: Kirishima is the professor candidate that Noguchi brought in to Meishin and was banking on to make Katou fall from grace. Then, [[spoiler:when stronger candidates begin to make appearance, Kirishima all but forces Noguchi to retire earlier than planned.]]

* FaceDeathWithDignity: Explored with a terminal lung cancer PatientOfTheWeek.

* NotSoDifferent: Asada with surgery and Noguchi with boardroom politics. They can both be pretty Machiavellian when it comes to achieving their goals. [[spoiler: The kicker is that both of them acknowledge it and become besties over dinner. ]]

keep up with the care needed for such patient.

* DeathByIrony: Real World case; In the first arc the characters deal with a situation involving medical complications where people can die, though "the surgery was successful". Akira Nagai died from complications resulting from liver cancer.

* DirtyCoward: Dr. Kihara.

* DoggedNiceGuy: Ijyuuin
* DrJerk : Several. Kato is a [[DefrostingIceQueen borderline case]].
* DrowningMySorrows : Arase extricates exorbitant amounts of money for his services only to literally piss it all away on alcohol [[spoiler:to drown his guilt over being involved in a drug trial that resulted in numerous patient deaths]].

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: [[spoiler: Why Kirishima hates Asada]].

* TheBeautifulElite: Kitou.
* BeleagueredAssistant: Ijyuuin to everyone more senior to him.
* BigDamnHero: [[spoiler: Asada, specially when it comes to saving Kihara's mom]].
* BoringButPractical: [[spoiler: Kirishima's style of surgery.]]
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Asada. He was fired earlier because of his {{Jerkass}} nature, but was hired by Katou because of his skill.
** Dr. Arase is a drunk and abuses anaesthetics, but his uncanny ability to monitor and maintain a patient's condition and knock out anyone precisely by the count of seven give him UltimateJobSecurity.
* CharacterDevelopment : Everyone except Asada and Noguchi get liberal helpings.
* TheChessMaster: Noguchi, Katou, Kitou [[spoiler: and Asada, who manipulates Kitou into helping Katou in taking down Noguchi]].

** Could be said that Asada's skill is this as a whole. His skills are too superior that other departments cant catch up. One such case was a patient he had saved in ER later died when transferred to a different dept, as they couldn't keep up with the care needed for such patient.

* FaceHeelTurn : Faked handily by [[spoiler:Ijuuin]] to secure a reliable line of information from Kirishima on the hospital's dicey political situation long enough for the Batista team to execute the third procedure.
* FreudianExcuse : Kirishima is all but unredeemable now, but when he was a toddler [[spoiler:his mother threw herself to her death from a roof right in front of him]].
* TheFettered: A few of the characters, especially Asada.
* GentleGiant: Fujiyoshi in the manga.
* GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity : The characters spend the entire series working under the looming threat of being fired or exiled to branch hospitals even as they perform successful surgeries, save lives, and expose dangerous negligence and malpractice.
* TheGlassesComeOff : Ijuuin quietly pulls this on Kirishima in the second to last episode.
* {{Gonk}}: A visual cue, inserted to let you know who to root for.

* HardWorkHardlyWorks : Completely adverted with Ijuuin.
* HardWorkMontage : Done to show the team practicing for their third, highly unusual Batista case.
* HeadTurningBeauty: Miki. It even gave her trouble in her BackStory, [[{{Squick}} with her brother]].
* HeroWithBadPublicity: Asada, although he deserves the reputation. Arase as well.
* HiddenDepths : Arase's {{backstory}} reveals the reason for his drinking and drug abuse.
* HonorBeforeReason: Asada and Miki ''flaunt'' this. Fujiyoshi is more low-key, but he lives this way as well. Ijyuuin almost had it beaten out of him, but at the end of the day he can't help but be this.
** During the professors' meeting to discuss the election reformation, Kitou, who presented the draft, intended to sit everything out, as he had no obligation or interest in actually passing the draft. Then Noguchi tried to make him look like a fool, and Kitou ''was having none of that.''
* HospitalHottie: Miki and Dr. Kato.
* InformedAttribute : The Batista procedure is described as defying even the exquisite skills of only the topmost genius surgeons, but the actual surgeries end quickly and experience only peripheral complications.
* TheIntern : Ijuuin is "the intern", but rather than being bright, naive, and ambitious, he's paralyzed by the terrible atmosphere of the hospital's ruthless politics and plagued by doubt in his own skills.

* {{Jerkass}}: Every major character except for Ijyuuin and Miki.
* JerkassHasAPoint: [[spoiler: Kirishima denounces Asada's style as too flashy and cutting edge, and other surgeons have tried to some of those techniques with disastrous consequences. Kirishima instead advocates for safe and proven methods that any surgical team can do.]]
** [[spoiler: Of course, Asada also has a point. He gets the worst cases, specially the Batistas or when he's in ER duty, which often require "unorthodox" procedures, at least in the eyes of his peers at the Meishin hospital]].

** Also, Asada himself.
* MoodLighting : Noguchi's office. Averted in the operating room, which is suitably brightly lit.
* NotSoDifferent : Asada with surgery and Noguchi with boardroom politics. They can both be pretty Machiavellian when it comes to achieving their goals. [[spoiler: The kicker is that both of them acknowledge it and become besties over dinner. ]]

* OneOfOurOwn : Fujiyoshi and his daughter have congenital heart defects. At first, Fujiyoshi refuses to let Asada operate on his daughter because he considers it medically unnecessary. Naturally, [[spoiler:it's Fujiyoshi himself rather than his daughter who collapses on a sidewalk and must be operated on by Asada and Ijuuin]].

* TheRival: Miki's brother
* RuleOfDrama : The actual Batista procedure is more of a stop-gap to keep a patient alive until a suitable heart transplant can be found. In the series, the procedure is talked about as a miraculous substitute.
** ScienceMarchesOn : Not only did it march on, it marched on ''before'' the series was made. The Batista procedure became popular in the mid-1990s but was discovered to be less than effective in 2000. The series was made in 2004.
** In the manga, however, it is explained that Batista is indeed treated as merely a stop-gap procedure while a suitable heart-donor is found.
* TakeThat: Massively, on the Japanese medical system as a whole.

* TheStarscream: [[spoiler: Kirishima to Noguchi]]
* TookALevelInBadass: Ijyuuin, at least when it comes to being a surgeon.
* TropeTelegraphing : Some of the foreshadowing, such as the exposition in Fujiyoshi's episode in the limelight, is a little obvious.
* TrueCompanions : The Batista team, occasionally called "[[GratuitousEnglish Team Medical Dragon]]".