What I do wholly recommend and loved were the first 13 episodes, of which are worth a watch, however past that is a bit iffy in my opinion. What hooked me from the beginning was the show's setting, story and context. It managed to weave its fairly unique situation into the tropes of the mystery genre. From concubines, mid-wives interactions, to rear palace hiearchies, Apothecary diaries had a real thing going on as learning and exploring this world was a joy to watch, all the while having a great MC with a fitting background and story.
Past episode 13, the second arc kinds just takes a turn for the worse... the whole first arc was what I said previously, a lovingly crafted experience into the inner workings of the rear palace, specifically, we see Maoamo apply her apothecary experiences at the rear palace to mysteries typically involving uncertain deaths, tied in with her daily duties as a mid-wife. I won't spoil it here but I will go in-depth in a spoiler section, but essentially the second arc past episode 13, feels like it slowly loses its charm as Maomao turns into a fairly generic genius MC that can solve any mystery, to which I can't give an instant recommend. Without spoiling it, firstly, the second arc essentially stops thinking of Maomao as an apothecary and more as just a Sherlock Holmes and secondly, they stopped focusing on the inner workings of the rear palace and it kind of becomes Sherlock Holmes but in China, where China just acts as a setting and nothing more. Though, while I make it sound like it completely disregards Maomao and the setting of china, the second arc does retain some nice aspects, and does have maomao shine with her abilities as an apothercary quite a few times, but it just feels noticeably reduced in the second arc
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The big plot change in the second arc is that Maomao gets fired as a midwife, and as a result returns to the courtesan house she worked at before. However Jinshi buys her out and therefore Maomao now works directly under Jinshi. My main argrument with how this arc is done is that her apothecary experiences are barely put to show; poison, let alone medicinal mysteries aren't ever as highligted anymore. I'm not saying they don't exist, but it's just so boring to watch some random mystery that doesn't tie in too much to Maomao as a person herself other than "she is just smart". What sealed the deal and made me write a review was after watching episode 16. In episode 16 a craftsman dies and leaves 3 items to his 3 sons. The premise is that the craftsman didn't leave the instructions of a secret technique to any of his children. it's not even a murder myster, it's a, "let me figure out this fancy puzzle the craftsmen made" It's just so bland as another character could have easily replaced Maomaos shoes since it didn't even apply her apothecary skills at all except maybe knowing some metallurgy, though that hardly passes as medicinal.
Another spoiler being episode 17, where most of the episode revolves around Maomao putting makeup on Jinshi and then maomao accompanies Jinshi to somewhere outside the forbidden palace. The ending of the episode to has a sort of cliffhanger where Jinshi asks maomao how one reduces the value of a courtesan. I think the reason why is that you are able to infer about Maomaos mother from this, however, my brain is tiny and this anime does require more thought than most if you want to connect the dots. However taking away that cliffhanger I just didn't find the episode that enjoyable. This one is personal preference, as I'm not sure why, but I never got too interested in Jinshi as a character, he does have some depth in terms of that he has a secret-esque background,
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Overall, I loved this show from Episodes 1 - 13 however it just pains me to see the directions it goes from its second arc onwards. They had something unique and interesting: a young apothecary suddenly thrusted and working as a midwife in the rear palace, and while it still retains some of its charm it slowly loses said charm as it starts to feel like a generic drama/mystery anime.
