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Star Rating:
The Apothecary Diaries is an anime that follows the story of Maomao, a young apothecary who grew up in the red-light district. After she gets kidnapped, she’s sold off to the imperial palace, where she begins work as a servant. However, after she uses her knowledge and medical skills to save the emperor’s child, she attracts the attention of the head eunuch, Jinshi. He promotes her to lady-in-waiting and food taster for one of the concubines. There, Jinshi continuously requests her help in solving mysteries that pop up around the palace.
Honestly, I love this story. I started reading the manga long before the anime came out and have loved Maomao and her story ever since. I’m much farther into the manga than the anime series is, so it’s been a while since I read the beginning parts. However, from what I recall, the anime is doing an excellent job at adapting the manga closely.
The Apothecary Diaries is such a well-written and interesting story, and the anime is no exception. First of all, Maomao is a great main character and a great female character too. She’s unique, interesting, funny, and really loveable all around. It’s hard not to adore her.
She’s smart and capable, but it’s never so much that it becomes unreasonable. Her upbringing explains why she’s the way she is. For example, her adoptive father was a talented doctor, so she’s learned her medical skills from him. Also, growing up in the red-light district around courtesans gave her a variety of other helpful knowledge.
She has some unique interests and hobbies. So, that just makes her more of an original character and fun to watch. She’s entertaining, and she’s definitely become one of my favorite anime characters overall.
Jinshi is also a very likable, well-written character. He’s obviously smart and capable enough to warrant his high position in the palace. Of course, there are also some secrets to him that add to his story as well. His interactions with Maomao are fun to watch and some of the best parts of this series.
It’s definitely more of a slow burn romance, so don’t expect too much too quickly. However, there is something there. It’s obvious the two of them are growing closer to each other. It’s cute, and the slowness of it makes it feel more natural and real.
The story’s setting is a fictional country that resembles ancient China, with an emperor and court you’d see in their history. Obviously, there are a lot of intricate political details that go on around the palace, with many of the mysteries that Maomao must solve related to them in some way. So, the story itself is well-written, with plenty of detail and intrigue to keep you wanting more.
I also really like the artwork and character designs. Each concubine is distinct and unique, which makes it easy to tell them apart from each other. I’ve read some series in the past where that was actually kind of hard to do because they looked a lot alike.
Maomao is beautiful, and I love how she looks, particularly when she dolls herself up a bit. I preordered a figure of her in her garden party attire, a scene where she’s absolutely gorgeous and such a badass, honestly.
One thing I really like about the anime that you can’t get when it comes to the manga is all the colors. It’s nice to see each character with their detailed colorful hair and attire, especially with how fancy some of the elegant outfits of the concubines are.
Honestly, I have nothing negative to say about this anime. I love it so much. The art is detailed, beautiful, and it’s animated really well. Each character has their own unique personality. It’s well written and entertaining. And Maomao is such a loveable female lead.
The Apothecary Diaries is a good anime. I definitely recommend watching it. I even recommend it to people who haven’t seen any anime because it’s such a good, well-written story. Maomao is genuinely the best part of the series, but there are plenty of other aspects of the anime to enjoy and love.
You can buy the first part of season 1 on Amazon.
Check out some of my other anime reviews.
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