The Apothecary Diaries began as a light series novel written by Natsu Hyūga and illustrated by Touko Shino. In 2023, it came out as an anime, its genres covering drama, mystery, and romance. In this review, despite the ongoing release of season 2, this will solely focus on season 1 and I will cover season 2 when it is completed. So, beware spoilers for season 1!
The series covers a young girl protagonist named Maomao, who was raised by an adopted father running an apothecary. Suddenly, she is kidnapped and sold to the emperor’s palace as a servant. She’s discovered very quickly by the main male protagonist, Jinshi, to be very intelligent after she solves a mystery that saves the lives of the emperor’s concubines. Maomao becomes an essential part of the inner palace life, serving concubine Gyokuyou. After this, the show assumes a mostly episodic nature of Maomao solving mysteries around the palace and using her skills as an apothecary.
For those who were confused and unfamiliar like I was, I’ll quickly explain some terms that constantly come up in the show. A concubine is a woman who lives with a man, unmarried, and usually held to a lower social standing. The emperor in this show has many of them, but there’s four of them that reign supreme to the rest, the aforementioned concubine Gyokuyou, Lishu, Lihua, and Ah-Duo.
An eunuch is a man who’s been castrated in order to serve and work with the women in the palace. Both of these were terms I wasn’t familiar with, but you learn quickly watching the show what they mean.
I only discovered this show very recently and fell in love with it. I love the silly dynamic between Maomao and Jinshi, a master eunuch in charge of the inner palace. They start off as not quite enemies, but Jinshi treated Maomao as a silly pet rather than a person, but grows to become very fond of her, and hesitant to show it at first. Maomao, on the other hand, did not trust Jinshi and found him annoying and weird, but grew to understand him a little better over time.
While the show does follow a mostly mystery of the week format, a ton of the mysteries add up, leading to a much bigger reveal over time. For example, many little mysteries kept occurring in the palace, and it eventually led to Maomao figuring out that there was an assassination plot for a very high ranking official. She hurries to the location and barely makes it in time to save Jinshi from death. However, she initially didn’t know who the murder plot was for, and discovers it’s Jinshi when she saves him. Jinshi is shocked but grateful for her, and carries her out of the building to get her help.
This is one of the many instances where we realize Jinshi may not be who he seems. On the outside, he is simply the head eunuch of the inner palace, but there’s a lot of mystery about him, and we are led to believe he’s much more important than he pretends to be. I’m aware of the reveal in more detail in season 2, but I’ll save it for another day.
Even so, their dynamic is one of my favorite things about this show. The quiet moments they have with each other, like when Maomao falls off the inner walls and Jinshi, drunk, catches her and holds her crying because he doesn’t want her to leave. This show does an excellent job with their slow-burn relationship and how they very slowly come to care for one another in their own ways. Jinshi is much more flippant and is a serial flirter, but truly only has his eyes for Maomao.
Maomow stops disliking Jinshi and comes to respect him more. She is also a largely stoic personality, only showing extreme happiness or excitement over her love of poisons and medicinal items. Otherwise, she’s a bit more calculating and methodical when she speaks. She finds it difficult to relate to human emotion, but over the series, you can see her change. She comes to care for others in her own way, like helping when she doesn’t have to, or noticing little changes in Jinshi’s moods while she pretends not to care. Their relationship so far is masterfully done and I’m currently fangirling over later scenes in the next season that I can’t wait to talk about in that review.
Even with my raving about the romance, this show also features Maomao at her best, solving little mysteries around the palace with her knowledge of medicine and wits. It also focuses on less savory things about this culture, like the Verdigris house Maomao grew up in, raised by essentially three big sisters who serve as popular courtesans. Not only does Maomao know a lot about the apothecary trade due to her adopted father, she is also intimately knowledgeable about courtesans and helps the concubines with this knowledge in order to get the attention of their emperor.
We even discover who Maomao’s parents are. Lord Lakan is an unusual strategist in the palace who initially appeared to have unsavory motives for seeing Maomao, but is ultimately harmless. Her mother, Fengxian, was a popular courtesan at the Verdigris house and met Lakan. They fell in love, but at first it seemed Lakan abandoned her, but it was actually because he was sent away. She contracted syphilis, leading to abusive behavior towards young Maomao. Despite her harsh upbringing, Maomao thrived with her adoptive family, but suffers from having trouble connecting with her emotions and meaningful attachment to other people as a result.
While I enjoy the other aspects of the show, learning more about the inner palace and its inworking mysteries and murder plots in order for others to take power, the true heart of it is Maomao and Jinshi, and seeing the two learn to understand each other better. In turn, this helps Maomao understand her own feelings towards him and other people better. If you love slow-burn romances and subtle character growth, this anime is a great choice for you.
