Today at Anime Rants, we have 7Mono’s notes for the last few weeks’ worth of episodes of The Apothecary Diaries. I’m now five weeks behind, but this post should get me caught up to three of those five. I’m afraid there’s no interesting tangential introduction topic for today. Instead, we’ll dive right in to the episodes.
Content Warning: Please note that episode 18 contains mentions of rape, unwanted pregnancy, and emotional trauma. Nothing explicit or violent is shown in the anime or discussed in any detail in this blog. Still, I thought a warning might be appropriate.
Episode 16: Lead
I thought it was cool how Maomao solved the metalworker mystery. The father really knew his sons well and wished for them to get along. The youngest son was the most interesting to me, as he was the one who understood his father best. I don’t have any specific thoughts other than Maomao’s intelligence is impressive and the solder key was really neat. But what the hell is solder, anyway? I didn’t know, so I googled it. I’ll explain based on my extremely limited knowledge.
Solder is a metal alloy, meaning it’s a mix of different metals. As we saw in the anime, solder has a low melting point, easily becoming liquid when warmed. In modern metalworking, soldering is the process of joining two metal pieces by “gluing” them together with hot solder. As Maomao pointed out, working closely with solder can lead to symptoms of toxicity like fatigue and depression. That’s because of the lead in the alloy. Modern solder is made without lead for safety.
The last few minutes of the episode show Jinshi talking with Lakan again. He asked for the continuation of the story of the courtesan. In particular, Jinshi wanted to know how Lakan “reduced the value” of the entertainer. Lakan didn’t give a direct answer, instead suggesting that Jinshi should ask someone who knows the world of courtesans. As a result, Jinshi starts a plan to go out into the town and find the answer. He summons Maomao to do his makeup, and the episode ends here.
Episode 17: A Jaunt Around Town
In this installment, Jinshi goes on an outing into the public town and market outside of the palace. Before he goes, he needs to look completely different to avoid recognition. Thus, he asks Maomao to do his makeup. After a complete makeover, courtesy of Maomao, Jinshi looks much more like a common man, though he’s still quite handsome. Goashun tells Maomao to accompany Jinshi, posing as the noble daughter of Suiren (the old lady who serves as Jinshi’s caretaker). Together, Jinshi and Maomao walk around town.
Toward the end of the episode, Maomao and Jinshi approach a courtesan house that Jinshi apparently wants to investigate. But before Maomao can leave him alone to do his business, Jinshi directly asks her how one would reduce a courtesan’s value. Maomao says that although there are several ways, the most surefire method is to get a courtesan pregnant. Jinshi, the sweet summer child, is rather shocked by this answer and the dark implications of what Lakan might have done. To be continued.
As for my thoughts on this episode, it was really nice and cute to see Maomao and Jinshi walking around town together as if they were on a date. I didn’t always like Jinshi that much, but I’ve grown to love him. I totally ship Jinshi and Maomao now. Also, Maomao looked so cute and pretty in that pink-and-white outfit. Adorable!
There’s one other thought I want to add that I’ve been meaning to mention for some time now. Maomao constantly has the thought that such-and-such is strange or unusual given that Jinshi is a eunuch. She’s been assuming that from the beginning. I took on her assumption as fact until very recently. It’s doubtful that the secret son of the last emperor would have been made into a eunuch.
Maybe I’m dense, but I didn’t understand that until it was pointed out to me by a fellow fan of the show. The series looks a bit different now that I realize Jinshi could be a normal young man. I guess we don’t really know for sure though. Anyway, that’s about all my notes on this episode.
Episode 18: Lakan
This was a big episode with many significant reveals. The main surprise for me was the existence of Maomao’s “mother,” the courtesan who birthed her. I thought she would be dead, but she has been kept alive by the grace of the Verdigris house, who gave her a private room to live in. She is isolated there because she’s dying from syphilis. Although Luomen continues giving medicine to the sick woman, he can’t cure her condition.
The former courtesan apparently tried to kill her unwanted child after birthing it. Either she never went through with it, or Luomen managed to stop her and adopt Maomao before it was too late. From the ravages of the disease as well as the emotional trauma of rape and unwanted pregnancy, the woman basically lost her mind. She is now a shell of herself who doesn’t speak anymore and can’t live without help. It’s really tragic.
We now know for certain that Lakan impregnated the courtesan against her will in order to ruin her. We don’t know, however, if he somehow purposefully infected her with the disease. Either way, he’s evil. And as I feared, he’s after Maomao, whom he knows is his biological daughter. He has apparently been trying to convince the old lady at Verdigris to sell Maomao to him, but the deal was never approved. The grumpy old lady has actually been protecting Maomao after all.
Also, speaking of the courtesan house, it’s great that all the ladies there love Maomao and make her feel better. They’re all her big sisters who like to baby her to some degree. The bathing scene was one of the only moments in this episode that wasn’t unpleasant.
Lakan started showing interest in Jinshi after learning that he hired Maomao as his servant. Now that he knows the truth, Jinshi is also protecting Maomao by refusing to give her to Lakan. He does suggest that Maomao at least meet with the evil man, but her face becomes so grim and hateful that Jinshi drops the idea immediately. This is a really icky episode full of unpleasant emotions. It’s hard to see Maomao dealing with it.
Before ending today’s post, I also had a note about Suirei, the court lady with long, black hair. She is beautiful, interesting, and mysterious. I definitely get an ominous vibe from her, so she might end up having an antagonistic role, but I like her nonetheless. I’m not sure what she’s doing with medicine and herb gardens, but I suspect she’s making poisons for some reason.
Suirei randomly told Maomao that she would be growing morning glories near here soon. I wonder if there was some meaning in that statement besides the literal interpretation. I know that morning glories have seeds with serious toxins in them. The seeds were sometimes used to induce abortions in women before modern medicine. Other times, for the weak or elderly, the toxins could even threaten one’s life. That’s just a bit of personal knowledge I wanted to share.
~Thanks for reading~
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