Anime Review: The Apothecary Diaries
As with the manga volume previously reviewed, and the web and light novels the manga was based on, this anime is set in a country that is heavily based on ancient China. Maomao is a promising young apothecary who’s kidnapped and sold into servitude in the “rear palace”, the Emperor’s harem. Maomao is initially keeping her head down in her low-level maidservant role, but realizes what’s killing the babies of the rear palace consorts, and can’t help giving clues in hope of saving the two infants currently dying. One of them is saved, and chief eunuch Jinshi figures out Maomao’s intelligence.
Jinshi, a preternaturally attractive man, is impressed by Maomao’s skills, and also by her being completely uninterested in his looks or flirting. Maomao is made the official poison tester for Lady Gyokuyou, the mother of the Emperor’s first known surviving child. Over the course of time, she solves several other mysteries.
Eventually, the solution to one of those mysteries results in Maomao being dismissed from the rear palace, but Jinshi then hires her as his direct servant so that he can take advantage of her skills in both the rear and main palace. In this role, she solves several more mysteries, realizing that several of them are in fact connected just in time to prevent an assassination.
While this is going on, we’re introduced to the strategist Lakan, who appears to be sinister, but has different motives than you might assume, and a hidden connection to Maomao. Unwrapping his mystery brings us to the end of the first season. (A second season is now in production.)
Maomao remains a fun protagonist, smart and talented in her areas of interest, but given to bluntness and deliberately avoiding thinking about things that might be troublesome for her to investigate. She seems to be somewhere on the aromantic/asexual spectrum, with no interest in romance with either men or women, and being firm about not wanting sex. But she has difficulty refusing requests for help or mysteries that fall into her lap.
Jinshi is a good foil for her, admiring her talents, and fascinated by her disdain for him, while not always happy with her eccentricity. He has his own secrets, most of which are only hinted at in this first season. And while he generally means well, he’s enmeshed in palace politics so often has ulterior motives that can interfere with him doing the right thing.
And the supporting cast has their own quirks and secrets that contribute to the plots.
The art is also pretty gorgeous, with the elaborate court costumes, architecture, and flower motifs. Don’t worry if you’re not conversant with Chinese flower language–the important bits will be explained to someone (and thus the audience) eventually.
Note that since this isn’t precisely ancient China, the author has some anachronistic technology and plant life mixed in, but at least so far there is no verifiable supernatural phenomena.
Content note: Maomao was raised in a brothel and works in a harem–prostitution and indentured servitude is a fact of life in her society. There’s no onscreen sex, and female nudity is confined to frequent cleavage shots, but we do see one man in his underwear in a sexually suggestive but humorous scene. Most of the male characters in the first half of the season are eunuchs, and there’s some euphemistic discussion of how they got that way.
There’s murder, of course, the death of children, self-harm, bullying, suicide and mention of outright rape. The former emperor is all but stated to have been a pedophile, which is important to the background of one of the consorts.
I’m going to say that older teens can probably handle it, younger viewers should have adult guidance.
This is an interesting and well put together series. If you can handle the subject matter, highly recommended to fans of historical mysteries and medical mysteries.
