Ryoko Yonekura. I did not know her until recently, when I started binge-watching Doctor-X on Netflix. All six seasons of it. Ryoko Yonekura plays as Japan’s (and maybe even the world’s) best surgeon, Michiko Daimon. She’s a freelance doctor who doesn’t like groups, bowing down to authorities, and lists down surgery as her hobby. As Daimon-sensei, she performs the most complicated of surgeries, with her famous tagline –

私、失敗しないので。(I never fail)

Michiko Daimon

Yes, situations can be outrageous. The other characters of the series can be too hard-headed – the way they bring up her being a freelancer as if that takes away from her god-level surgery skills. Daimon-sensei fights through a lot of hospital politics and gets used by everyone around her for their own gains, including her manager, Kanbara Akira, who collects huge amounts of money each time she performs a surgery. In Season 4, you find out that on top of paying Daimon’s debts, this is because he wants to build a hospital for Daimon so that she can freely perform all the surgery she wants. But because you don’t see this hospital (or even clinic) take shape, you end up just accepting that Kanbara is extorting Daimon and taking advantage of her. Anyway, she isn’t in it for the money. She just wants to perform surgery and help people!

Six seasons – you know the show is great when it lasts that long! Some episodes can be ridiculous and over-the-top (S3 Final Episode, I’m looking at you), but it’s part of the charm of the series. You’ll warm up to the rest of the other characters (even Director Hiruma). My other favorite characters are Hiromi Jonouchi (the anesthesiologist played by Yuki Uchida) and the cat Ben Casey. And, as a Riichi Mahjong fan, I love the mahjong scenes as it reminds me of the days when I used to play mahjong a lot with my friends!

If you reach the end of Doctor X and want to see more of Ryoko Yonekura, jump on to her other drama series on Netflix, where she now plays a lawyer who got disbarred, but is creating a law firm to continue her fight for justice! And guess what – it also has a LETTER in the title!

In this series, Ryoko plays as ex-lawyer Shoko Takanashi. Her character is very much like Daimon from Doctor-X, except that her expertise is now in the legal field. She gathers a group of interesting personas to create a legal firm unlike any other (her paralegals are a stalker, a hacker and a male host). She teaches them to search for the truth without any shortcuts, inspired by her favorite detective series. Legal V only has one season with only 9 episodes, so it’s a quick watch. Also worth noting is Shoko’s obsession for Japan’s train lines and specialty food you can get near train stations (I wanted to take notes for future trips). You will also see some familiar faces from Doctor X on this show!

Tying this up to the title, Ryoko is very effective in playing characters that rise up despite being put down by everyone else, by being calm, believing in her skills and what she can do! You cannot mess with her. And reflecting on this, while not all of us are experts, we can be good at what we do and stand up to the challenges, with Doctor X and Shoko as inspiration!

I will miss watching Ryoko Yonekura on Netflix. She has a lot more shows under her belt so I’ll be checking those out when I manage to get a hold of them. I recommend the above series, please check them out if you’re interested in Jdrama! If you’ve already seen them, let me know in the comments below what your favorite Doctor X or Legal V moments are!