Maomao is the daughter of an Apothecary who works in the
Pleasure District of her city. One day,
Maomao is captured and sold into servitude in the Emperors Palace. Though determined to keep her head down,
Maomao’s expertise with Poisons catches the attention of high ranking Eunuch
Jinshi. With more mysterious illnesses
cropping up across the court, Jinshi uses his influence to appoint Maomao as
the new Apothecary who works directly for the Emperor’s Top Concubines. It’s up to her to solve several cases some
see as curses or demonic in nature.
Anime set in Ancient China have become pretty popular
recently.
I can definitely see the
appeal from an aesthetic standpoint, they are mostly gorgeous titles, but
they’ve never really caught on with me, until now.
The Apothecary Diaries has had a slight surge
in attention thanks to the debut of it’s Second Season and it’s arrival on
Netflix earlier this year.
After seeing
some fan art of main girl Maomao at conventions, I decided, eh why not check
this out on Crunchyroll and see what I think.
Oh boy, I didn’t expect to be almost halfway through the show at the
time of writing this FIF but I’ll still try to keep my thoughts focused on the
first episode like always with this definite must see series.
Let me just say that a lot of why the show is clearly
going to work is Maomao.
Not only does
she have a cute design but her understanding of poisons and medicines and how
she explains them, it makes you want to listen.
Her inner monologues as she works things out, step by step, with all the
intel she has, girls a regular medical detective.
She’s got that dry bit of sass like Doctor
House but isnt an unlikeable jerk.
Maomao’s got the brains to make her stand out from the crowd as well as
hide within it and…wow feel like this whole FIF could just be me singing her
praises but Maomao is just that awesome, pure Waifu material who could also
save your life.
However, the same cannot be said of her leading
costar.
Jinshi is instantly standoff-ish
and creepy.
The guy thinks he’s a know
it all but still has to go to Maomao to figure out a key mystery in the
premiere.
He acts smug like he can get
away with anything and…ugh I’m just with Maomao whenever he’s around her,
uncomfortable and wanting to punch him.
Yeah, yeah, Jinshi is a beautiful bishonnen boy so he’s got girls (and
fangirls) flocking toward him.
But I get
the feeling he’s going to be another Tamaki from Ouran High School Host Club,
right down to having the rest of the cast to pick up his slack.
The world, animation and music are all very beautifully
crafted.
Settings like the Pleasure
District and the Rear Court all stand out from each other in aesthetics but
always feel equally huge.
And the OST by
composers Satoru Kōsaki, Kevin Penkin and Alisa Okehazama is so soothing to
listen to.
It actually sounds very
similar to Kaoru Wada’s work on Inuyasha, so much I could swear he did the OST
here too, but no.
In short, Apothecary
Diaries is just as great to look at as it is to follow the mystery to Maomao’s
inevitable conclusions.
The Apothecary Diaries feels deserving of its praise and
right now feels like an Anime I could recommend to even those who aren’t Anime
fans.
A fantastic leading lady and a
series focusing on Medical Mysteries is a fun pair up and I cant wait to see
what kind of solutions Maomao comes up with…also any attempt she gets to sass
Jinshi is gold in and of itself (as well as when she gets excited over Poisons
and goes all Kitty chibi and…wow I was right, this could just be an article of
me gushing over Maomao.)
This is
definitely (and already is) a must continue for me.
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