The Apothecary Diaries

Fenmings motivation is a bit more complicated, you'll find out next episode probably.

Edited by Nachtwandler on Dec 10th 2023 at 5:05:43 AM

Damn, it was a perfect adaptation of vol. 1 final. Only last chapter and epilogue is left (generous of them to spend the whole episode on it). Now another wait to see it (((.

Edited by Nachtwandler on Dec 16th 2023 at 12:23:58 PM

The only hiccup in Maomao’s theory is that that would make Jinshi only 16 years old in the present? I don’t think he’s that young…

Some fantastic direction in this episode.

No. It will make him 18 or a bit older. They said that the child was born around 17 years ago and died 16 years ago. But there is a weird thing with how Chinese count the years that actually makes it around 18 years ago. Yes, "Jinshi" is officially 23, but it is "Jinshi", we don't know how old is the person "playing" him aka "Imperial younger brother".

Oh right. I thought the baby died almost right away after being born.

I'm confused. What's the reason Maomao thought the babies were swapped? I'd get it if it was to cover up the death of the emperor's kid, but the way she said it implied that the swap happened before the kid died.

Edited by Sterok on Dec 16th 2023 at 12:45:19 PM

Mao Mao hypotetized about it, because Ah-Duo said that her son was "taken from her" not that he died. She also guessed that someone high up found out and this is why her "fathers" punishment was that harsh (he did not report the swap). And we know her predictions are normally on-point.

Ah-Duo hinted why it happened this episode: she was sure emperors younger brother will have a better treatment than crown-princes firstborn, because prince can get more kids later while the emperor is expected to have spare heirs. The question is why empress dowager agreed for the swap in this case. I won't spoil here.

Edited by Nachtwandler on Dec 16th 2023 at 1:09:44 AM

Yeah, for the most part Luomen was crippled by the palace because he was involved in the swap as well as for the death of one of the babies. It doesn't really matter to them that he couldn't exactly refuse, which is also why he was castrated before being allowed into the rear palace. They wouldn't just let him in intact, even to save the lives of two such important male babies, and then they mutilated him further to keep the secret.

For what it's worth, this plot point is obscured quite a bit over the next few volumes and a lot of the characters don't have all the information themselves, but as of volume 10, Jinshi has been officially recognized as the Emperor's younger brother, but Maomao is 95% certain he's actually the Emperor and Ah-Duo's son. So that's where it settles out if you're finding it hard to keep track in the middle, like I did.

Loumen already became an eunuch awhile before the 2 babies were born. The previous Empress Dowage was interest in his foreign education so she forced him to become an eunuch to serve in the palace.

Wow, great episode. Nice to see my suspicions proved correct, though I did miss the connection to Fengming being the one responsible for the death of Ah-Duo’s baby. Do NOT feed honey to babies. In any case, Ah Duo seems to have gotten her wish; Jinshi has grown up hale and healthy.

The direction was indeed fantastic. Grabbed hold of my attention from start to finish.

Aah, right, right. Yes.

Episode 12: Did Maomao just get fired? With a hefty severance pay? And subsequently re-hired and bought with a mountain of cash? That was a rollercoaster.

Bit of a quiet episode before we head into the second half, focusing on Jinshi and Maomao’s relationship. There’s still a power imbalance at play, but Jinshi does try to avoid exploiting it, even if he can’t fully be rid of it. It’s only going to get iffier now that he’s explicitly bought her, haha. It was pretty funny how Jinshi’s learned Maomao’s number and tempted her to his side with a rare fungus. Possibly cordyceps? Whatever it was, it got Maomao dancing like the grandma. That was cute, you could see Maomao was practically raised by the Verdigris brothel.

Huh, seems like Maomao will be working in the Outer Palace now? That’s interesting. I would have figured Jinshi wouldn’t want her roaming a place that has guys with, uhh, functioning anatomical parts.

Edited by fillerdude on Dec 23rd 2023 at 9:58:54 AM

As someone who's watching the anime in part because I found out it will have a character with face blindness via the light novel's work page, I'm excited to see that a certain someone is already in the "next episode" preview. (As for actually picking up the novel, I feel I have the time to do this for only one series at best in the foreseeable future and my soft spot for time travel tropes means that there is another light novel adaptation this season that has made me extremely tempted to read its source material)

Edited by Nazetrime on Dec 25th 2023 at 4:03:45 PM

I've picked up the first LN, Midway through I find it interesting that so far the biggest change made by the adaptation is that Fonmin committed suicide, instead of being executed in the manga and anime.

Quite a good read all in all. Although T2 will only be out in January.

And so the second volume started. New OP has a bunch of spiilers but only readers will know what they mean.

I hoped the scene with Mao Mao failing the court exam will be more funny, but whstever.

Oh, and it's hilarious how they made Lakan look like antgonist at the end of the episode. You'll see.

Episode 13: And we’re back! The episode’s mostly about Maomao settling into her new workplace, Jinshi’s house. He’s gonna make her try to get certified as a court lady, presumably so she has to help with paperwork and stuff and thus need to stay close to Jinshi haha.

Maomao sure does clean up nicely.

The monocled military man seems interested in Maomao. Maybe he has a hunch that she can get him closer to Jinshi or something?

Oh boy, that's a lot of significant moments in the OP for sure.

Ok, they introduced our girl Loulan (to bad we won't see much of her till the potential S2) and also Rikuson (earlier than in the L Ns, he will also play more role later).

Sex ed lesson from Mao Mao was even more hilarious animated and some presumably isolated cases will start to link up soon enough.

Edited by Nachtwandler on Jan 13th 2024 at 1:30:42 AM

I saw someone on Tumblr suggest that the weirdly long shot of morning glories in the OP is there to fill space for shots of Shisui. By their reckoning, the type of flowers used in the OP are often mistaken for or mis-presented as a different type of flower that looks similar, though I don't recall the details and I can't quite remember if the novel drew that sort of hanakotoba symbolism anywhere.

That would make a lot of sense. Though that does suggest if they are going to all that trouble they plan to adapt volumes 3 & 4 as well.

Episode 14: Behold Maomao, the master of lewdness. She broke Lishu, haha!

I might call her Meowmeow from now on, actually. Her catlike mannerisms are precious.

Lakan already figured out what caused the explosion, it seems. Gonna guess he’s gonna hear about Meowmeow and take interest in her.

Funnily enough, her name is written as "catcat."

Well can't say it's not appropriate

The pace is still the same as in the first half and "Shisui" first shows up in the LN vol. 3. There is zero reason to include her in this OP.

Edited by Nachtwandler on Jan 14th 2024 at 4:08:04 AM

So on the series Trope page I saw Joka has the Blue Blood tropes. I don't know if it just guessing or someone read the novel but it has been confirmed that she is in fact royalty descended. Her great grandfather was the brother of the current Emperor's great grandfather who got disown due to dissecting (FOR SCIENCE) the corpse of the pedo Emperor's brother. His son then go on and has 2 sons, one of whom was Joka's dad.