The story follows a young apothecary that has a knack for finding herself at the heart of important affairs. The series is full of drama, making good usage of its feudalistic hierarchy, and is lined with a fair bit of mystery. There are several subplots that quietly develop in the background, spanning across multiple character perspectives, that only compound with interest as the season goes on. The setting itself is imperialistic feudalism - there is a strict social hierarchy, and it will be your head if you try to go against it.
The animation is good throughout the show. The horse-drawn carriages are the only notable instances of CGI usage in the show, and even then they are well-done and only end up standing out because they do clash a touch with the splendid background art and animation done throughout the anime. The composition throughout the series is great and does an outstanding job at creating atmospheres humble, opulent, and occasionally eerie.
The characters are dynamic, interesting, and likable. The writing is decent, though it is the weakest component of the anime, and even then it is well above average for the number of narrative elements the series manages to juggle. Some of the resolutions that occur throughout the series lack finality - these are narrative points of interest that simply vanish once addressed. There are some particularly vacant follow-ups concerning what is perhaps the dramatical climax of the series, and there is no indication thereafter if they will be expanded upon in the future. The story very heavily centralizes its main character to many critical moments that occur throughout the series in the form of the confidant - the character in which the rest of the supporting cast confides, which enables her to more effectively speculate and make deductions that are seemingly out of reach for the rest of the cast, despite their own higher social statuses giving them a significant advantage for the role of information gatherer.
All that aside, this is an excellent anime and does what it can to keep track of its own timeline. I strongly recommend this series to anyone seeking a more serious drama with aspects of mystery, as there is certainly enough of both to keep you occupied alongside the web-like network of characters, and it also works effectively as something of a slice-of-life too.
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Addendum: a second season has already been forecasted and so it is entirely plausible that the threads of some of the more unsatisfactorily wrapped-up items are picked up in the continuation of the series and may be given full closure then and there.
