A fun anime following an apothecary with her adventures in China's rear palace. It's a fun approach to use Alchemy and Herbal techniques to problem solve complications. Maomao's character is really entertaining and takes a strong place as an entertaining, fun and highly unique characteristic female lead. Episodes follow the trend of a problem occurring which Maomao will solve using a mix of her Apothecary skills and Detective Intuition. Bit by bit towards the latter half of the series, we find out the incidents are actually connected and it culminates in a climatic event whilst also connecting to Maomao's past and how deeply she and her family are involved.
(Refer to my profile for a guide on how I judge my 5 Rubrics)
Rubric 1: Arts and Fun = Entertaining & Artistic Merit = 2/2 points; Apothecary Diaries is an entertaining and interesting take on using Apothecary knowledge as the 'magic system' in this series (It's not magic but the means to resolve plot points) which is interesting and the Character dynamics of Maomao and the whole gallery of side characters is quite interesting and fun
Rubric 2: Recommendation = Recommend to everyone without reserve = 2/2 points; I have no qualms about recommending this to everyone. It has something for everyone, the detective-esque mystery, the calm slice of life, character drama, romance, diegetic alchemy and historical context. Episode 23 in particular is something really touching.
Rubric 3: Narrative Consistency = Some flaws or Nitpicks with room for improvement = 1/2 point; Summarized as that at any moment you can ask Why, What, When, Where, How about the plot and you will know with little confusion. While for the most part the anime is quite interesting, there isn't a strong correlation of how it all ties together outside Maomao's Bizzare Adventures and whatever Jinshi is feeling like. This reservation is the strongest at the Finale of the series. I disagree with the explanation given at the end given the intense animosity and high running emotions as well as the history of the characters involved. It made little sense why half the things happened as they are if it was so easy to fix everything, it makes a core complication seem contrived or unnecessary. I'd happily take an extended Episode 23 with 5-10 minute extra epilogue with a decent explanation than Episode 24. That said, I understand why people like it so I won't rain on that parade, it is quite enjoyable but I have my reservations.
Rubric 4: Emotional Moments = Minimum 3 Emotional Moments = 2/2 points; Moments which elicit a strong emotional response. Can be either excitement or sadness or even anger or shock/outrage. Think United States of Smash if you will. This anime had no shortage of them, I can count a minimum of 3 highly emotional moments that made me go 'OOOOOHHHH' or just deathly silent at how absorbed I was. 2 of which happen in the final 3-4 episodes. Well worth the build up and the emotional climax. This also includes sound track and sound design, Opening 2 is one of my favorite openings in general.
Rubric 5: Personal Bias = Caters to atleast 1 of my biases = 1/2 point; I prefer 3 things: History/Lore, Idealogue and interesting Magic Systems. Apothecary Diaries has History theme done really well being set in China during the rule of what I'd consider either Ming or Qing dynasty. The Apothecary Magic System and Idealogue are both touched briefly, since Maomao somehow gets Detective Ex Machina as well, and while her place as a commoner and the fate of the lowborn is discussed early on it is dropped in the latter half to focus on Maomao's past and budding Romance with Jinshi. As such, I can say it only really catered to my Historical itch, with the other two leaving more to be desired.
Overall that is 8/10 for Apothecary Diaries.
Thank you for coming to my TedTalk
Mar 29, 2024
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