A long time ago, I had the chance to read the manga, The Apothecary Diaries. Out of all of the modern webtoons I read, this one was my favourite by far. I enjoyed the plot that involved solving mysteries, the intelligent female lead, and the plethora of interesting side characters. When I heard that an anime was coming out, I was super excited, but I was wondering how they would adapt it. Normally with adaptations, they tend to leave out certain events or aspects, however to my surprise, they did true justice to the manga.
Before I tell you about why I loved the anime adaptation, I’m going to give a summary of what happened in The Apothecary Diaries. Maomao is a young apothecary who is living in the entertainment district with her father. She usually works at the Verdigris House as their apothecary and through her experiences working, she has a wealth of knowledge on multiple subjects, most notably, medical knowledge. One day, she went out into a field to collect ingredients which is where she got kidnapped by flesh merchants. From there, she was sold as a servant to the inner palace with her kidnappers collecting her paychecks. By pure chance, she happened to find out about the dilemma two high consorts had been going through. Using her medical knowledge, she investigated the case. This event was a catalyst for the many cases Maomao later investigates. She is a much-needed figure in the inner palace with her apothecary experience.
Currently, there are only 15 episodes out, and the first season will have a total of 24 episodes. So, if there is any time to pick up this anime, it’s now. Before we go forward, I’d like to mention that I’ll be spoiling part of the show in my review.
As a fan of the manga, I really enjoyed this adaptation and how it brought this story to life. I liked how they added some scenes into the manga that further helped develop the relationships between characters like when Consort Lihua had watched over Maomao as she slept after Maomao had helped her recover from being poisoned. It was quite exciting as a fan to see certain characters I recognized who would have significance later be seen within the early episodes of the anime. Not to mention, that the anime was able to take scenes from the manga and give it the proper framing it needed without being restricted to a page.
As a character, Maomao is a much-needed breath of fresh air. She is intelligent, quick-witted, and detached. Being in the inner palace, Maomao knows when to act and what to say. Her knowledge as an apothecary allows her to act like a detective for the inner palace. She knows how to utilise her knowledge to do good and tries to help out where she can, despite her limited power as a servant. People adore her obsession with poison as she’s not against eating and testing poisons.
Something I really liked was how many side characters aren’t truly bad people and have reasons to act as they do. From the first episode, people might assume that Consort Lihua is a bad person, but later we learn that she is proud, but not haughty. She is a powerful consort and acts with a demeanour according to her rank. Maomao assumed that after she helped Consort Lihua recover from her poisoning, Consort Lihua would chase her out, but Consort Lihua did quite the opposite, instead greatly caring for Maomao. Consort Lihua is just one of many examples of this, so you should watch the show to see the other characters.
I stand by my statement that the anime did justice to the manga. I can’t wait to watch the next nine episodes (and hopefully the next seasons, that is if The Apothecary Diaries doesn’t fall into the shoujo anime curse). I hope this review convinces you to watch it!