Kusuriya no Hitorigoto

I have mixed feelings about this anime because it both provides a refreshing concept and is extremely boring at the same time. I liked the characters and the episodic medical mysteries were fun (sometimes predictable and sometimes not), but there wasn't much of an overarching plot. The little bit of plot we did get didn't have any consequences at all. There was an 'important' plot twist toward the end but the main character didn't even seem to care about it at all. Our main character also seems to miss a very obvious second plot twist the whole show even though she's portrayed as a lowkey genius. Her deductive abilities are fantastic except when it's time for her to be oblivious. That got annoying but I guess it added to the suspense as well. This was a good time waster, but I'm not sure if I'll remember more than Maomao's name by the time the second season comes out. Don't expect a whole lot from this one, but not the worst thing ever. The animation is beautiful though.

This anime was a hard one to rate, as the romance was enjoyable, but for a "mystery/drama," it is lacking. It read more like a romance or even a slight ecchi with the many sexual undertones and innuendos (alongside fanservice) that lead to misunderstandings in Maomao and Jinshi's growing romantic relationship. The mystery was quick, and the process was weak. It ran on sudden revelations and logical jumps, and the female lead was a jack of all trades with no real reasoning behind it. The author focused far too much on Jinshi and Maomao's relationship and neglected suspense and drama outside of comedic moments, and even the "suspenseful" moments were weak and quickly fell into another romcom trope. If this had been a romance, the weak plot outside the male and female leads could be excused, but it is disappointing when viewed as a mystery or drama. It is an amusing watch but lacks any substance besides romance. This was an empty watch and incredibly forgettable.

The anime starts promisingly, but the lack of conflict and character depth discourages the viewer from continuing to watch. At first the story seems original, but as the episodes go by, a predictable formula becomes apparent. Furthermore, the author dumbs down the secondary characters, making them one-dimensional, and at the same time exaggerates Maomao's genius, making the plot hardly believable. In the end, I gave up on watching the next seasons of this anime. The only positive point is the quality of the anime's art; it's very beautiful! But what good is beauty if there's no substance? If you're easily satisfied and don't value your free time much, you'll probably enjoy this anime.

Not to be dramatic, but I would DIE for XiaoMao. I'd die protecting her and let her use my corpse for her little experiments. Usually, I would write a review from a general perspective; critiquing the art style, storytelling or the adaptation from manga to anime. I would consider whether the information presented in the anime is sufficient and engaging to reel newcomers to its original manga or novel. Yada yada all that boring stuff. Unbiased. But... My apologies, but I am incapable of writing a general review as my current state is an emotional whirlwind-torn between the bitter sweet sadness of it ending and the overwhelming joy that the characters have left imprinted on my heart. Not often I find an anime where I would immediately decide that "this is the story that I'm going to follow for the rest of my life". This anime has brought joy into my life. I will forever be grateful for the author and will continue to support them for as long as the anime/manga's lifetime. Dear Hyuuga Natsu, Arigatou Gozaimasu. This is a personal review. As someone who admires the richness of olden eras, particularly the opulent and culturally rich epochs of asian history. I would want nothing more than to enjoy watching anime that offers these types of genre. Not all is worth my attention, but this one did. Without spoilers nor context, this is all I'm writing. My expressed admiration. I love you MaoMao. "Would you recommend this?" I'm required to choose this. So I'll just choose Recommended. If you have similar taste as mine, people who enjoy learning about historical times; asian cuisine and medicine, comedy, mystery, drama, romance; then sure go for it. If this is way out of your original scope of taste in anime, it may not be for you. If you're not picky and enjoys anime of many sorts genre, sure this one's not bad. Either way, have a nice day~

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing particularly poor about this show. It's watchable. All positive reviews will go on about the visuals and sound - I find the visuals to be par for course for the amount of hype this show got; the music is good. But there's nothing it does that makes it outstanding to me. The plot is just lacking in substance. There very rarely feels like anything is at stake. Every mystery is solved by bs. There are very few interesting characters, and I wish our main girl were one of them, but she's not. Jinshi is far more complex by the end of the story, and that's even with the show spoiling a plot point about him that it hopes you'll forget. Actually, that's how I would describe the central failure of the show. It spoils itself. There is no suspense, and any twists and turns are given away before they happen.

Imagine a show released on the same season as Sousou no Frieren and just as acclaimed. Fall 2023 anime slate was stacked, and this show and Frieren were the two twin jewels of that batch. Probably because it had something different to offer and did it very well. Kusuriya no Hitorigoto or The Apothecary Diaries is so good but it's so hard to pin down everything good that's going for it, but I'll try to list a few things why this series has become one of my favorites. I hope it will also help you decide if this show is for you. 1. It scratches that Sherlock Holmes itch that I can't seem to get, even from anime that features Holmes in them. Maomao, like Conan Doyle's detective, is into pharmacology (or chemistry), and has almost no interest for other fields of common sense. Both are astute observers, and excellent in the art of disguise. However, without elaborating further, Maomao has the better backstory and a more interesting personality. 2. This anime is a period piece set in the Inner Palace of the Emperor's harem of a China pastiche. It looks like China, smells like China, and even has a broken economy like it, based on surplus of silver it probably received from trading from the West which has access to the silver mines of the Americas, but it is not China. Still, it is certainly an interesting setting and period for me. 3. The mysteries and puzzles are well conceived and original. It's a joy to see one presented and solved in an episode. I hope that's enough to spark an interest for you to try this show. The production values are high, and it has an amazing story to go with it.

I can't help but feel disappointed now that I finished the first season of Apothecary Diaries, it lacks in many areas in which it was said to excel in, to be clear; I came in with 0 expectations but it's true the abundance of positivity from people in anime circles may have set a high bar as well as the current 8.8+ median score which is nothing to scoff at. Looking at the genre tags you'll see it's a Drama and Mystery and immediately this is where I start having issues with what is presented To begin with, the mystery. The mystery parts of Apothecary Diaries boils down to Maomao's episodic adventures where she, a poor apothecary girl somehow manages to solve cases with her striking intellect, that she just happens to know every piece of knowledge regarding to every detail in whatever monster of the week mystery she's dealing with, everything is handed to her on a silver platter and there is virtually no friction between her and the mystery, she just solves everything, no questions asked, moving on. Now I know all of that sounds condescending as hell from my end but that's purely because it's just unbelievable and lazy, why can this random girl come to all these conclusions? The show just typically says something to the effect of "Maomao was once curious about X thing so she knows Y answer, or X thing has to do with Y part of an Apothecary's job so she just knows", gee why aren't all detectives just pharmacists then, that totally makes sense. Maomao's self insert levels of intelligence aside, it's absurd how convenient everything is for her, everyone just listens to her and she always has all the pieces exactly where she needs them to solve the mystery, never does she get directly challenged in a way that puts her in a losing situation, things always need to go her way. Half the driving force behind the mysteries are also typically just "accidents", when the antagonistic force of a mystery is just a random spineless character who made a mistake with no actual ill intent, it loses tension very quickly. Not to say that accidents can't make good plot points, it just feels unfulfilling in Apothecary Diaries given the setting of Ancient China, in the emperors palace, which should be no stranger to malice and drama. This leads to my next point, the "Drama" of Apothecary Diaries, which is literally just a high school romcom with a historical Chinese coat of paint. It doesn't really do much with it's setting past the surface level. There's a lot to dive into here and if I would we'd be dwelling on this for longer than need be, sticking to the broad strokes though. Nothing builds up on itself, the texture present in other acclaimed Drama/Mystery shows remains concealed, in favor of it's episodic slice of life nature. Character's are very one dimensional and have straightforward goals, most of them are also just butterfly's that do no harm, the rare character that is "bad" is that way purely for the sake of the plot and nothing else, just so Maomao can somehow save the day once more, it's really annoying how bland it all is, opposing viewers might argue it's simple in nature by design but in all honesty. Bland is the only way you can describe it. Simplicity is when you tell a story using clear and direct methods, Apothecary Diaries does this true but that still doesn't mean the writing is magically good, in this case the story just loses all depths even though in all likelihood, it would benefit from some, especially for some of the more major characters like the emperors concubines. A quick side tangent needs to be written about Jinshi, the secondary lead and Maomao's love interest, this character is positioned as major with great influence and power over the events of the plot, in reality he's just a one dimensional character that exists to pander to Maomao, glimpses relating to his seemingly complicated past exist and it's framed as a mystery but you can probably guess what it's gonna be from a mile away, even if they don't actually show anything substantial across the entire 24 episode season (guess you'll have to watch more dear reader) Production wise, the soundtrack is good, Kevin Penkin once again delivers with a great assortment of Chinese folk tracks. In contrast, the visuals leave more to be desired. A few scenes are striking and leave a moderate amount of impact and emotion but overall it remains consistently average. They barely use atmospheric story telling to their advantage even though this is literally Ancient China, a gold mine for that sort of thing. though it should be noted that the color choices are acceptable. It has a nice warm look that you can't really go wrong with, lines up nicely with the color diversity present within the cast. Character motions though range from average to dizzying, there is barely any action scenes in the show to begin with so there isn't really any need to over emphasize on this point but there are times when a lot of movement is going on and the camera decides to turn into a panoramic seesaw from hell, an artistic choice by the directors maybe but it didn't lead to good results, just very awkward shots where backgrounds feel like green screens and character motions feeling stiffer as a result. Voice Acting is good as you'd come to expect, the great Yuuki Aoi is the voice of Maomao and she is perfect for the role, as much as I dislike Maomao's position in the plot I quite liked her during the slower, more comedy centric scenes as she was fun to tag along with, strengthen further by the voice acting. Overall it wasn't bad as much as it was just disappointing, it doesn't live up to the monumental praise bestowed upon it by the masses but it still holds up as your average enjoyable slice of life show with unfortunately weaker than desirable writing. I have no will to watch the second season as this is enough Apothecary Diaries for one life time. Maybe it will do things better? I won't be finding out for myself.

Premise: I had read the synopsis of The Apothecary Diaries about a year and a half ago and found it interesting and intriguing, so I decided that I would watch it sooner or later. Fast-forward to August 16 of this year, when I finally started watching it. I knew about its reputation, but despite that, I started it without any expectations, hype, or anything like that. The story was never interesting to me, except in very rare cases, and it only moved me slightly once, although there were a few moments that made me smile. It felt predictable and unengaging, and there were also times when I found it boring, with many things that felt familiar, obvious, and cliché. I never found the mysteries interesting, and I managed to solve some of them before Maomao's actual solution. I didn't like it when the anime completely changes the characters' appearance for comedic gags, because it ruined the various moments. I found several revelations highly predictable because they are heavily overused in works across different media. Maomao is the character who stands out the most in the anime, although I never really formed a connection with her. She is also by far the smartest character and solves everything herself, even the simplest things, making the other characters seem stupid and unable to think through or solve even the simplest things. Jinshi is the classic beautiful character who has every girl falling at his feet except Maomao, who can't stand him and whom he consequently falls in love with. I wouldn't know what to say about the other characters; I didn't find them interesting. Generally speaking, I didn't care much about the characters and didn't form a connection with them, except for Maomao, who was the only one I found slightly more interesting. I didn't like the opening or the ending. In general, I didn't like the music; at most, I didn't mind the music used in the preview for the next episode, which sounded like generic traditional Chinese music. I didn't find the artistic side particularly impressive, and in some places I really didn't like the CGI, which made everything look worse, as did the contrast between the characters and the backgrounds at times. I have to say that it was a real shame to have had this kind of experience, because the synopsis made it seem like an interesting anime. I understand why people appreciate it, but in my case, it didn't engage me, it didn't impress me, and it didn't interest me. Maybe the fact that I have completed almost a thousand works across different media also played a role. Maybe it was the fact that I like detective stories, mysteries, and similar things. Maybe it was something else. Over more than twenty-six years, many works across different media have entertained me, moved me, amazed me, engaged me, fascinated me, and more. The Apothecary Diaries, however, is not one of them. As an overall score based on my experience, I gave it a 3/10.

*Like trinkets that boast beauty when sat, yet lose sheen in movement* ~~ Thorns within the garden, poison in a meal. Conspiracy ornaments the canvas with the shadowy sensation of unease; the cryptic air of mystery lurks with shapeless daggers that form in any opportune space. Incentivizing caution, detective dramas engage through suspense. *The Apothecary Diaries* replaces tension with the superficial satisfaction of an easy guarantee, and brutely attaches/acknowledges a grand web of conspiracies not with an arachnidian aesthete's gossamer but with glue--conspicuous, not artistically seamless--such that floriography is extracted off of its essence in holding a world through the veil of subtle language. It's a largely missed opportunity, and now shock value hinges on grand reveals, but at the very least the show retains floral elegance and spectacles through involving more women into the plot. Like the food taster that Maomao is, she herself is the roadblock to anything going rock bottom when she can put her cunning paws onto any incident. She puts poison on her plate and poison is magnetized to her plate to make conflict go constantly through her first. Maomao is the question, the antidote, the answer. Although she has inherited the natural geniuses of Fenshen and Lakan, was raised by the erudite Luomen, and although ひとりごと (Hitorigoto) from the Japanese title translates to "Soliloquy" for how apt it is for Maomao to soliloquy herself out of any problem, it's still a bit absurd how Maomao absorbs all manner of essential work and manages to do a better job than anyone else in the kingdom. It gives an impression that the Emperor's staff are a bunch of incompetents, influences a wondering of how the palace could have even functioned without Maomao, which is a detriment to worldbuilding. *The Apothecary Diaries* also falls behind when it comes to visuals. Beautiful as still paintings, yet rather flat and quite dull in motion, there is not much animating feel to it, almost bordering awkward on some occasions. Jewels must shine in movement, too. The environment might be rich in detail but it's insufficient in appeal. I'd point out the fact that the final frame of the first opening (sick song btw) is the same as the poster used. I don't know which order came first, but I could smell laziness in it. That was the first time I've encountered that sort of scenario. The surface entertainment *The Apothecary Diaries* brings makes for an understandably engaged audience; it's palatable--people love cool characters that can do pretty much anything, many points added when they dabble on deductive work or are commoners that can make a name within (or put to shame) royalty. The narrative is interesting and is able to hook you into wanting to know more. There just is a lot to be polished when it comes to how it fundamentally behaves and then how it creates and follows its trails.

One of the best female protagonists in any anime, she is similar than Freiren, both are strong and very smart beautiful women, there are not a lot of main leads like these two and in the same year 2023-2024 we have both that are excellent This show has a lot of complex characters and its true the episodes can feel episodic, its not that bad because everyone in the show it's somehow connected to each other, the storylines are powerful and some are tragic and that makes the journey very enjoyable, there is not a villain villain here, there are just bad and good people, there are some nasty personality's here overall a great anime 9/10.

Hiya. I'd just like to make the reader aware of an UNCUT and EXTENDED version of this review on my blog. It features content TOO HOT for MAL's review section! Shameless self-promotion over; the review commences. Hypothetical: a buddy of mine asks me while we're hanging out one day, "Hey man, I've been thinking of sitting down and watching The Apothecary Diaries, legally, of course, on my new Crunchyroll Fan account. It's only $9.99 a month! I love the inevitable media monopoly some soulless corporation's bound to have in due time! Anyway, should I watch it?" In the timeline where I don't immediately beat him to death with my bare hands, I tell him to assume that every negative thing he's heard about the show is true, and like even more gnarly than he thinks. Damn this shit is stupid. Maomao's not just called a "Mary Sue" arbitrarily, or by hack contrarians or "ragebaiters" or whatever bullshit or even at all dishonestly, really. Her flaws aren't really flaws at all; they're superficial, mostly self-imposed, and practically never *actually* hinder her. She'll deduce instantly the path, age, and home address of the fly that pooped on her ol' majesty stupidpowderface's blueberry pie and see to it that he's brought to justice. She'll shame him so bad that he'll commit suicide- Sui-fly-de, if you will. You won't? Oh, I'm sorry... They're bogus mysteries, and the solutions found to them are far-fetched to say the least. Maomao's otherwise flat characterization, marked by sardonicism, minus the wit required to make that endearing, is like an audio-visual crop dust; it lacks weight and burns my eyes. I dunno, maybe you're supposed to approach it more like a howcatchem more than a whodunit, where Maomao's success is assured and how she *gets* there is what's interesting, but man... Maomao's no goddamn Columbo. Romance? How about I can't experience joy, or boredom, the same way ever again because of this show- it's chemically rewired my brain and I feel the darkness encroaching. No, the romance here sucks. Their relationship, at least through the first season, basically doesn't change. It's a dynamic so inane that it's a miracle it escaped the author's brain, and that they still lacked the sense to not throw out the obvious trash they were littering the manuscript with. Like any good 24 episode season, you really feel *every* second slowly trudge by. You really feel the weight, like beer settling poorly in an otherwise empty stomach. I'd actually compare it to what I've felt at the worst times in my many depressions. Hyperbole aside, the pacing, cinematography, animation, and everything else that matters really does all combine to make for an exceptionally boring watch. Uncompelling writing-wise, visually, everything- bleh! Anyway, you should watch it. Most people seem to enjoy it, and those same folk must think me insane for not. "You've GYATT to use your own understanding," or whatever Kant said. Enjoy, or don't. Thanks for reading :)

I find that the second cour kind of gets lost along the way and it became less interesting to me. I think the biggest problem the show has is that I don't like its two main characters. Jinshi is... fine, but occasionally, he gave me "Shoujo Main Love Interest Who Likes to Force Himself on the MC" vibes. He gave me a slight ick that I couldn't really shake off. But maybe it would've been fine if I liked Maomao more. She can be lowkey insufferable at times because she's a Gremlin who Really Likes Poison and Isn't Like Other Girls. Her poison obsession was grating and her Gremlin Moments were cliche, tired, and didn't make me want to see more of her. When she's being an apothecary detective or working in court politics, it can get interesting, but if she tries to go for humor or romance, it doesn't stick. And that's REALLY the problem with Apothecary Diaries. It CAN be a good show when it wants to be but it will meander around going off on sidequests that I don't give a shit about. I liked this show the most when it was a Monster of the Week puzzle for Maomao to solve or when it was about the 4 Heavenly Kings or whatever the Consorts are actually called. Maomao's birth father? Sorry dude, don't give a shit. They kinda spend way too much time on him and he seems really devious but he just ends up being a victim of Melodrama. They set up this sort of political conspiracy through supposedly unrelated cases and I guess that's clever but it leads to more Jinshi and Maomao drama and I don't like those 2 characters so I don't care. They "fire" Maomao just so they can bring her in as Jinshi's assistant and that's honestly when the show kind of lost me. It felt like a pointless diversion made by cheap drama to force a romance that I don't like and take her away from characters that I DO like. I'd rather see what Lihaku and Pairin were doing, to be honest. If I stopped this after E12, it would've gotten, idk, like an 8, but the second cour only catches sparks of what made the first cour good to me. It's at best forgettable and at worst actively drags the show down. Like... it's not the worst show you can watch but I didn't like the main characters, the most antagonistic force in the show, and I only suspect that it's going to go deeper into the weeds rather than pull back and works on what it was doing well. It starts off with an apothecary acting as a sort of episodic detective while navigating the pitfalls of the 4 Consorts and it ends by spending too much time on a character that isn't really worth all the trouble, dicking around doing random shit. They spend like half an episode on growing "blue roses" because some guy just demands they be grown and so she supposedly grows them and... yup, you sure made me sit there and watch that for like 10 minutes. I guess if I'm being generous, it leads into the "withered rose" analogy that comes into play a couple episodes later but most of the moments in the second cour felt unearned, boring, or both.

I want to like this anime more than I do. And I want to recommend it. But I can't. It's not bad. Actually, I would say it's solidly in the better half of all the anime I've watched. But after reading the light novel, I can't in good conscience recommend watching it, since I think it does a disservice to the source material. The reason? It focuses way too much on the romance (a minor subplot in the LN), missing the important nuances and completely changing the tone of the story. And while it is a fun watch visually, it really hurts to see the story presented in such a generic manner when there's actually a lot of depth to the story that was thrown out during the adaptation process, and those nuances are a large part of the reason why the series is good

The Apothecary Diaries centers around Maomao, an apothecary in ye old timey China that got sold off to the imperial court and now uses her knowledge to solve medical (and other) mysteries. TL'DR = I'll be honest and say during the first half of the season I was charmed by Maomao's gremlin vibe. It was nice to have a heroine that depends on her talents and brains... then... yeah the author couldn't help themselves and it dipped way to much in bad troupes and poor writing that it started to take away from the show. CHARACTERS (Main) = 7/10 Maomao starts as an interesting little gremlin, she's plain but has a good head on her shoulders. Unfortunately that doesn't last as she turns into mary sue before mid season, they even did the "remove glasses and she's a hot girl" thing... She honestly started out as a 9/10 but ended up a 5/10 so taking the average. Her future boyfriend is a sexy lamp. I love the interactions between them but really that's all he is. CHARACTERS (side) = 4/10 One word, Classism. The side characters are seen as either above Maomao, which means she needs to endear herself to them so they'd elevate her status. Or they are below her in which case they are to be intimidated into "fearing her" because obviously people who are scared never retaliate or harbor resentment. It's a very childish view that paints anyone of high enough status as practically saintly while the servants/advisers must be the ones at fault. PLOT / STORYLINE = 2/10 it's divided into two parts. One where Maomao is bought and sold to the palace and now works it off in the women's court where they discover her talents. The second half is where Maomao is bought, sold and now works it off in the court where they re-discover her talent. Yeaaaaaaaaaaah they did it twice. They keep repeating the same beats in both halves as well from Maomao being bullied and her white knight coming to the rescue to him being super duper ultra sexy rich and refined but Maomao not noticing... because Shoujo. The mysteries are episodic in nature and rather simple. They fall into crater sized plot holes however because someone in that time period wouldn't know the solution, only someone from this one would. ART / SOUND = 8/10 Artwork and sound are nice, the animation budget for this one was probably generous. It also effortlessly went from bishoujo style to slapstick animation to match the mood which is why a lot of the jokes landed for me. PLOTHOLES / ISSUES = Negative 5/10 I don't usually include this section but I had to in this case. Maomao is supposed to be studying medicine, we never see her study or show any interest in acquiring knowledge be it through books or training under someone. Her one and only interest is hoarding ingredients. In one episode she claims to have a cure for Syphilis, the very next episode she is drooling over OX Bezear. You can't have it both ways, she either believes in medicine or is into alternative medical nonsense! Syphilis can NOW be cured because we have penicillin. Back in ye old china the cure was to feed them mercury so they can hurry up and die rather than embarrass the family. Ox Bezear is what happens when you find an undigested lump of hair and other organic products in a cow's stomach solidified by the digestive fluids. It was used in alternative medicine as a cure all. You can see why the two aren't meshing. Another one is that ye old whitening powered contains lead, a piece of trivia most in the modern day know but back then was common practice right up to the late 18th century. The only reason Maomao would know this is "plot". Actually, lets place this everywhere in the series because there is no investigations or search of answers. It's just that Maomao has an isekaied soul or something and her answer to everything is "trust me bro!". FUN FACTOR = 8/10 I rag on the show but that's because I was having fun with it. I like Maomao and her interaction with mister sexy lamp. I like the setting and the sense of humor the show has. hell I liked it enough to overlook the horrible writing when it came to actual medical history! I just think it missed the mark by falling into shoujo traps like having Maomao do the (hot girl when glasses removed) thing and focusing so much on the side character's status.

It is a bit inconsistent with how they deliver the mystery to you (the audience member). You won’t always have the tools to solve the mystery or the laid out foundation. Other times it’s really spoonfed to you. Most of the time however it is great and if you rewind you’ll find you missed important details. There isn’t a real overarching plot throughout the show and there’s a pretty big lack of urgency/threat for the main character even tho they have been painting a bullseye on their back. It feels more like a villain of the week show. If that’s the type of show you like then this show is for you! If not then that’s also fine.

Apothecary Diaries is a a unique blend of mystery, intrigue, and historical fiction set against the backdrop of an ancient imperial court politics. This anime offers a captivating glimpse into a world of intrigue and power, with a clever and resourceful heroine who consistently defies expectations. The biggest standout of this anime is the protagonist, Maomao. Maomao is, in the simplest terms a unique blend of Gregory House and Sherlock Holmes - but a female protagonist done right. She is downright a complex character that doesn't always adhere to social norms or expectations. She often acts based on her own judgments and insights, even if it means going against the grain or employing unorthodox methods. Yet, she acts with the wisdom of not overstepping the boundaries of imperial hierarchy norms and knows when to choose her actions or words carefully. Breaking the recent norms of Hollywood's overemphasis of strong female lead that is all too perfect - She is neither a damsel in distress nor a traditional heroine; instead, she navigates a male-dominated world with cunning and strategy, often outsmarting those using her strengths at her disposal. This anime on a surface level is series of mysteries or challenge that Maomao has to overcome. Without giving too much away, it is subtly contributing to the larger purpose or narrative. This is in my opinion, what makes Apothecary Diaries an underrated anime as it slowly builds up the story with complex interwoven incidences and plots that serves a a bigger purpose - and many wrongly dismissing it as yet another slice of life anime with mysteries that doesn't have a overarching purpose. The animation is beautiful with the right choice of color palette to compliment the setting, and not forgetting the unique beat of the OPs and mellow renderings of the ED (which is one of my fav ED tracks of 2023 season) . I highly recommend this anime if you welcome the setting of historical fiction with loads of mysteries & puzzles and realistic strong female protagonist. Personally, I would rate this anime an easy top 5 best anime of 2023 .

This anime is like one of those isekais where the protagonist uses things he knows from modern day Japan to help the kingdom or get super rich, except it's set in imperial China and stars a female lead, which is very unique for anime nowadays. I really like the imperial China setting and the fact the MC is an apothecary helps ground it in reality. The artstyle and animation is also very beautiful, with the VAs being spot on. The writing makes it feel like it's not one of those "MC solves all the problems" anime even though it is. Also some parts, like the 2 frames showing Maomao's disdain for her father when Jinshi asks if she wanted to meet him were small things that just added on to the anime. Sure some things like her having to solve murders were a bit unrealistic, but they tried to tie it back to her being an apothecary as much as they could, so I do appreciate that. Overall a really good anime.

World-Building 8/10 I love the setting for this anime. Chinese Imperial Court life has always fascinated me, so when I saw this anime I knew I had to give it a watch. The visual designs do it justice and the different hierarchies within the forbidden city are well established. Tone and Emotional Depth 3/10 Here’s the problem with this anime, it feels like a slice of life and the characters act like they are at some kind of preppy girl school. Enslaved women and emasculated men are portrayed in a way that completely glamorizes and glosses over the reality of their situation. It’s so bad that it veers on historical whitewashing. Characters: 5/10 Interesting designs, can’t say they aren’t original, but they suffer because of the issues mentioned above. Jinshi could have been an opportunity to make a layered and nuanced portrayal of a eunuch, but instead we get a Shoujo love interest with a pretty face and minimal depth. Maomao reacts so nonchalantly to her situation and everything that happens that it seriously makes it impossible for me to care about her. Story: 4/10: Some interesting plots that expand the world but basically just a lot of the same thing repeating itself. Somebodies been poisoned (again) and guess who can fix it? In comes Maomao with her boyish voice, she happens to know the cure to everything. Pretty ladies hate her and she’s bailed out by beautiful man with no balls.

i have a lot of mixed feelings about this show, so this is going to be a long one. I really like maomao as a character, as well as the setting and the basic premise of the show. HOWEVER, I feel like the show doesn't utilise what they have as well as they could. i don't really mind that the story take a more of slice of life tone, but at times it feels like it lacks any direction. maomao is just wandering through various random scenarios for no rhyme or reason. I wish there was some bigger goal that she was clearly striving towards. (as in, maybe she wants to make a lot of money for her dad, or needs to pay off a big debt). those themes are vaguely mentioned but don't really matter, which makes me wonder why she's doing all of this anw. on that note... why is she doing all of this anw? I get that she's really smart, but she's basically called by just about anyone to play mini sherlock Holmes every time ANY kind of issue strikes up. she's just a random servant after all. why would literally everyone and their mom keep asking for her help? and how does she seemingly always just magically know the answer to everything? I can excuse it when it's a medical related issue, since that's her thing, but sometimes she's just solving random puzzles and mysteries. people will ask her "what do you think happened?", and maomao will proceed to just give out the explanation of EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED IN DETAIL, only to shrug at the end and go "well idk, that's just my opinion". half the time we genuinely just don't know how she came to these insane conclusions. I don't like the detective narrative to begin with, but the way it's handled doesn't even make for a good detective story half the time. the detective stories also really drag the pacing of the show imo. Just as things are starting to get interesting, we're forced to watch maomao solve the mystery of random npc bickering brothers or something. it took me a really long time to finish the show because at times it felt SO boring. it felt like just a bunch of disjointed stories, that had like a 30% chance of actually being interesting. which is a shame because, like I said, the base premise of the story is really interesting. I just wish it was utilised better. I wish it was more coherent, that all the stories led towards something bigger. another minor complaint, but I didn't like how the show had an overly comedic tone in the beginning. it felt like it wasn't as prominent in the later episodes. but in the first few, there would always be some comedic music playing in the background while all the characters are screeching and turning into chibis. again, that's fine if it's your thing, but it just felt like wasted potential. it was like I was watching a sitcom set in ancient China. overall, the show did have a lot of good moments. I did enjoy watching it for the most part. I'm giving it a bit of a lower rating for now, because I think there's a lot of room for improvement. I'll be updating my review after I watch season 2

Apothecary Diaries is an anime that isn't perfect, but it's still a very enjoyable show. The world feels realistic and it portrays the historical setting very well as the main character solves mysteries and uncovers intrigues at the royal palace. And there's also a little bit of romance to spice things up a little bit. It's just there are flaws in and it doesn't really excel in any aspect, generally being mostly above average. CHARACTERS I personally like the main character, Maomao, I personally like the voice acting a lot with how unenthusiastic she sounds most of the time and how it contrasts the other female characters, who focus on elegance while Maomao tries to stay low. But looking deeper into her she's just a "Mary Sue" type of character. Despite being young, she seems to be knowledgeable about everything, there's nothing she doesn't err about and nothing she hasn't learnt yet, only requiring a minor detail to come to a conclusion and find evidence for something. Some of her knowledge makes no reason. Oh yeah, and she built up invicibilty against poison, cause why not. That said, her negative characteristics make up for it, with her being dense, introverted and being unable to relate to people. The other characters are good, despite there being a lot of them they're distinguishable. The antagonists aren't pure evil and have bad and good sides and good motives for their actions. STORY The anime portrays concubines and prostitution in an open way, though I find it treats it too positively despite showing the bad sides as well. It may come as off putting for some. The mysteries and intrigues in the story are great, the solving isn't really. As the viewer, you're basically told almost everything to understand the mystery, with the key word being almost, because there's always something that only the genius Maomao will figure out. I always came close to solving a mystery myself but being stuck on something involving poison, physics etc. It' still enjoyable though with how convoluted it often times becomes. Then there's Jinshi. [minor spoilers about the story structure] First, his story is told in such a weird way (with it being made confusing in the first place not helping), Maomao will assume something about him based of some details, which basically reveals info about him, but you don't really get a confirmation, since Maomao doesn't dwell on it due to her philosophy of not assuming things without having evidence, which she doesn't feel like seeking. And then the confirmation comes straight from Jinshi, but as a monologue during a plot point that often doesn't relate to Jinshi at all, is several episodes late and basically comes at a random arbitrary point. And the MC still doesn't know btw. Also the romance is cute with it highlighting the fact that it's one sided, but we don't even get the reasoning for why they love them isn't really clear from that one side, there's a motif about the other side being a toy, but that's about it. It's still fun though and makes me savour every development. PRODUCTION As I mentioned, the voice acting is great and same thing goes for the soundtrack, the first opening is awesome. It isn't a high budget/tier production and it's not like every second is an eye candy, but it still manages to look beautiful in some scenes. I find the audio design to be out of place sometimes and there are minor scenes where I had to skip several seconds ahead due to them being slow. 7/10