Welcome to Anime Rants with 7Mononoke (Mono for short). Since I was unaware the anime would be starting in Fall ’23, I didn’t originally plan on writing about The Apothecary Diaries. My plan was to cover another series called Undead Unluck. Now that I’ve learned of the existence of The Apothecary Diaries, I’m happy to start writing about it instead. (I may still watch Undead Unluck eventually, but it’s too much for me this season.)

As a fan of shoujo anime with a long-term interest in the medicinal history of plants, I was immediately interested in the premise of this show. It’s about a girl named Maomao who worked at her father’s apothecary. She was extremely knowledgeable and inventive with her use of plants for medicine. One day, Maomao was kidnapped and sold as a servant to the inner palace of the Emperor. But knowing the personality of Maomao, there’s no way she’s going to remain a laundry girl forever.

Besides having a great premise and an intelligent female lead, this series is also appealing in terms of visuals and audio. The animation studio is OLM, which has a great reputation. (I was especially impressed with their production of Summertime Render last year.) Anyway, the music and songs are great, and the voice actress behind Maomao is Yuuki Aoi. She’s a long-time favorite of mine. So, without further ado, here are my reviews for the first three episodes of The Apothecary Diaries.

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Episode 1: Maomao

On the way back from delivering medicine to a courtesan house in the city, Maomao stops in a field of flowers. That’s when she gets kidnapped by three men. They sell her as a servant and she’s forced to work in the “rear palace,” where the Emperor’s concubines and eunuchs reside. Rather than a decorated concubine, Maomao is but a lowly laundry girl. As she adjusts to to her new life, she plans to keep a low profile until she can pay her way out of servitude in a few years.

Three months after Maomao’s arrival, a concubine named Lihua gives birth to the new prince. There is also a baby princess, recently born of the concubine named Gyokuyo. Unfortunately, the babies both become seriously ill. When Maomao hears about the symptoms and the history of babies dying in the rear palace, she knows of a certain poison that’s likely responsible. The poison is found in high-end makeup powders. Maomao leaves an anonymous message for Gyokuyo, warning her.

Thanks to Maomao’s intervention, the baby princess recovers. Lihua’s baby dies, since she rejected the poison warning that Gyokuyo passed to her. A handsome eunuch and physician by the name of Jinshi tries to find out who wrote the message. He is able to single out Maomao because of her ability to read and write. Jinshi takes Maomao to see Gyokuyo, who thanks her for saving the baby. As a reward, Maomao will be promoted to Gyokuyo’s personal attendant.

That’s the gist of the first episode, which was thoroughly entertaining and strikingly beautiful. I love the art style and character designs so far. For me, the color choices and saturation are the best things about these visuals. Everything is so vibrant. The backgrounds and settings are all beautiful, too. Maomao is very cute and Jinshi is highly attractive. Though Gyokuyo’s design is lovely, I actually prefer Lihua’s appearance by comparison. She’s gorgeous.

It’s only the first episode, but I can already tell I’m going to like these characters. The dynamic between Maomao and Jinshi is already shaping up to be a lot of fun. Maomao’s reactions are funny. So far, I really like her personality. It’s a bit like Haruhi from Ouran HSHC, but not as masculine. Maomao is curious, intelligent, and willing to help people if the opportunity presents itself. She has the makings of a great shoujo protagonist.

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Episode 2: Chilly Apothecary

Maomao starts her new job as one of Gyokoyo’s ladies-in-waiting. There are four others: Honnyan, Yinghua, Guiyuan, and Ailan. All the young ladies are friendly. Before long, Maomao’s main job begins. Her task is to sample two meals a day to test for poison. It’s dangerous because Maomao could suffer health issues or death if she consumes poisoned food. Luckily, as an apothecary, Maomao had already gained immunity to common poisons. She celebrates the chance to sample fancy food.

One day, Jinshi comes to visit. After Maomao successfully identifies an aphrodisiac by smell alone, the eunuch is impressed. He asks for her thoughts on a case of mysterious poisoning among soldiers. Maomao solves that mystery, determining that the cause was not food, but the smoke from firewood containing toxins. Jinshi then requests that Maomao create a powerful aphrodisiac for him. The apothecary girl is delighted to be making drugs again.

With a huge supply of expensive ingredients at her disposal, Maomao creates an extremely potent aphrodisiac coated in chocolate. She made a few sweet snacks with the leftovers, planning to eat them alone later. Unfortunately, three of the ladies-in-waiting sampled the snacks and fell under the effects. Maomao apologizes, but at the end of the day, Jinshi is impressed with her work. He thanks her in the creepiest way possible, touching her hair and neck sensually from behind.

Throughout this episode, Jinshi was trying to make Maomao fall for him to strengthen her loyalty. His charm, however, doesn’t work on Maomao. She sees him as arrogant and creepy. For Jinshi, this is more fascinating than frustrating. He feels bizarrely pleased to be judged and looked down on for once. (Can we say bottom energy?)

While we’re on the subject of Jinshi, I don’t like his “secret job” of testing the sexual loyalty of the concubines. If a lady in the rear palace tries to sleep with him, it means they are unfaithful to the emperor. They will likely be punished for their indiscretion. As if they have any choice in being the emperor’s sex slaves. The important thing to remember is that Jinshi is simply doing his job as someone who also doesn’t have a choice in the matter. I mean, I seriously doubt he agreed to become a eunuch.

There was a lot to enjoy in this episode, from Jinshi’s seduction attempts to Maomao’s dance of delight when she saw the medicinal ingredients storage. I also loved the part where Yinghua, Guiyuan, and Ailan got “drunk” on the aphrodisiac snacks. It’s heavily implied they started pleasing each other, although Maomao points out that they didn’t “go all the way.” Anyway, the mishap was hilarious, and the idea of the three ladies getting it on is pretty hot.

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Episode 3: The Unsettling Matter of the Spirit

A rumor circulates through the rear palace, telling of a ghost woman in white who haunts the east gate area. Jinshi visits Maomao again and asks if there’s anything she can do about sleepwalking. He also reveals that the “ghost” is a quiet concubine named Fuyou who is being sold off soon to a military officer. She apparently suffers from sleepwalking. Unfortunately, Maomao has no remedies. She says it’s probably a condition caused by stress.

In truth, Maomao thinks there’s more to the story. But since it’s all speculation, she keeps quiet about it. Eventually, the time comes and Fuyou is sold to the military officer – and both are indescribably happy. Maomao’s suspicions were correct. Fuyou faked the sleepwalking illness, hoping to get sold off to her childhood friend, the military officer. As for his part, he specifically requested Fuyou as his reward after winning a battle. Due to both their efforts, Fuyou and her lover had a happy ending.

It was neat to learn about the fuyou flower, AKA the cotton rose. The flower changes color over the course of the day, similar to how Fuyou the concubine seemed so different dancing at night compared to living quietly and nondescript in the daytime. Although some saw her as a creepy ghost, Maomao and others knew Fuyou and her moonlight dance were truly beautiful. This striking beauty was born from hope and love.

On a somewhat random note, there was also something else I loved about this episode. There’s this old man – presumably a eunuch – who works in the apothecary area of the inner palace. At first, he had a very negative reaction to Maomao. But after he saw that she was good at making medicines, he welcomed her heartily. This old man is kind, sweet and somehow adorable. It was so cute when he made tea and snacks for Maomao! What a good person.

That’s all my major notes about these episodes. I guess the last thing I would add about episode 3 is that I hope Gyokuyo gets a happy ending some day, too. She wants hope, love, and security as much as any other human. Good luck, Gyokuyo!

Thanks for reading~

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