This review contains major spoilers for The Apothecary Diaries season one.
The Apothecary Diaries had been sitting on my watchlist since last year. I knew I would get to watch it eventually, but I wasn’t particularly in a rush. I knew it was good but I would get to it when the stars aligned. And then finally did on January 1, 2025.
With the new year, I decided it was finally time to clear my backlog in preparation for this new winter anime season. The Apothecary Diaries returns on January 10, so it was time to catch up. I was so enthralled I binged it in 3 days.
Since the story is nowhere near over, I won’t do my usual in-depth review just yet. But I did want to brain-dump all of my initial thoughts on the series and what I loved about it so far!
What I Loved About The Apothecary Diaries
Case Closed but Set in Imperial China
As a child of Toonami and Adult Swim, I grew up watching Detective Conan, better known as Case Closed in the US. Each episode involves Conan, who’s stuck in a child’s body, solving a mystery. I was surprised at how similar The Apothecary Diaries is. While Maomao’s specialty is medicines, herbs, and poisons, her robust knowledge of basically everything makes her a great detective.
As The Apothecary Diaries was airing, I had seen a lot of chatter about Maomao and Jinshi, so I was not aware of the plot of the show. Had I known it would be this detective mystery show, I would have watched it much sooner. I love that each episode essentially focuses on solving a mystery or weird occurrence, and initially, they don’t all seem connected but later on, we learn they are.
The Politics of it All
As a lover of history, I love a good timepiece anime. Set in Imperial China, this world is new to me. I think the anime does a great job of explaining the concubine systems and the politics of the palace. The palace and its government serve almost as characters and up the ante in every situation. I don’t usually care for the background politics in shows, but here it’s hard to ignore since it is so central.
You Think You Know But You Don’t
One of my favorite things this anime does is that it lets you think you’re catching on to the big “secret” when in reality you’re falling for the traps it sets for you. A lot of the times, I thought I was picking up what they put down, only to later realize that’s what they wanted me to think! Case in point, the strategist Lakan and the courtesan Fengxian.
You’re led to believe that Lakan assaulted and impregnated Fengxian so that no one else would have her. It seems Maomao hates him and he gives off weirdo creepy vibes which heightens the theory. But as we learn in the season finale, Fengxian likely planned to get pregnant by Lakan to get out of her buyout. While Lakan is a weirdo, he’s a regular weirdo due to his facial recognition condition and not a weirdo trying to get Maomao for nefarious reasons. Their story is a sad one, but it’s not dipped in extra sad layers as one may think.
I think the anime does a great job of subverting your expectations with the main storyline while leaving you enough breadcrumbs for other plot points, like who Jinshi really is, which will become important later on.
Maomao
Being the star of the show, it’s no surprise that Maomao would be one of my favorite characters. However, her character can easily turn too “tropey” and not enjoyable if not done correctly. She’s a brilliant detective, skilled at reading between the lines and putting together pieces. Yet, she also is socially inept, often missing important interpersonal cues, like Jinshi’s affection for her. Sometimes characters like these can be annoying, or lean into one part of their personality too hard. Maomao is the perfect balance of clueless without being overdone.
A big part of what makes her detective skills brilliant is that she tries to mind her business. Yes, she figures the case out but mostly, the intricate details are revealed in her inner monologues. To Jinshi or the officials, she only says what is necessary without getting involved. She doesn’t want to show off or be viewed as clever. She wants to do the job and be safe.
When it comes to her relationship with Jinshi, she makes a lot of objective observations about him. She acknowledges he has “heavenly” looks and that he’s a man anyone would want to be with. Her BL-level imaginations of him are hilarious. Yet as much as she misreads his emotions for her or finds him annoying, she deeply respects him. I don’t think at the end of season one, she has any romantic feelings towards him. But I can’t wait to see if their relationship will transform in season two.
Towards the end of season one, we also learn that Maomao considers herself incapable of love, remarking how that emotion must have been left in her mother’s womb. I think it’s interesting that she views herself this way because even though she doesn’t show it normally, she does love the people around her deeply. We see her display so much love for her adoptive father Luomen, and for the ladies of Verdigris who raised her.
Waiting for Season Two
I could probably list 200 more reasons why I loved this anime. The story felt so fun and fresh. It was a great mix of intrigue, comedy, and suspense. I have zero clue what season two has in store for us but I can’t wait to get right back into Maomao and Jinshi’s world with them.
I feel the same about your sentiments about Lakan and that part of the series. I also thought the story was heading somewhere different, but I appreciated the reality a lot more once things had been revealed. It’s sad, yes, but not overly tragic, which is something many of us can relate to in our lives. MaoMao was a very nice character to watch and I agree that the balance of her traits was done well. I’m not sure if they’ll be romance, but I’m content with series either way they choose to spin it. Thank you for the review, I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Loved this so much.