Kusuriya no Hitorigoto

Maomao, an apothecary's daughter, has been plucked from her peaceful life and sold to the lowest echelons of the imperial court. Now merely a maid, Maomao settles into her new mundane life and hides her extensive knowledge of medicine in order to avoid any unwanted attention.

Not long after Maomao's arrival, the emperor's infant children inexplicably begin to experience grave symptoms—almost as if a curse has been cast. The curious Maomao easily solves the mystery and, to remain out of the limelight, attempts to leave an anonymous tip. Unfortunately, the dashing and perceptive eunuch Jinshi sees through it and manages to single her out.

In recognition of her talent, Maomao is promoted to lady-in-waiting for the emperor's favorite concubine, Gyokuyou. As Maomao continues to remedy the numerous ailments afflicting the imperial court, her pharmaceutical expertise quickly proves indispensable.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Maomao Main

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Jinshi Main

Ootsuka, Takeo Japanese

Loulan ing

Seto, Asami Japanese

Gyokuyou ing

Tanezaki, Atsumi Japanese

Kan, Lakan ing

Kirimoto, Takuya Japanese

Gaoshun ing

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Xiaolan ing

Kuno, Misaki Japanese

Lihua ing

Ishikawa, Yui Japanese

Meimei ing

Han, Megumi Japanese

Ah-Duo ing

Kaida, Yuuko Japanese

Morishita, Katsuji Producer

Fujimura, Tomoko Producer

Okamoto, Junya Producer

Mutou, Hiroshi Producer

Reviews

May 31, 2025

RAISTAGE

Recommended

The Apothecary Diaries
is one of my favorite anime's in my list,
it's first season intro and outro is so relaxing, i listen to it everytime.
i love how beautifully it's made, there are so many misteries, stories, puzzels, you'll fall in love with this the more you watched it, so 10/10 from me,
if i can compare this masterpeiece other it reminds me of freiren, i the same wibe from maomao, her behaviour, mischief smile,
if you have a good storyline taste you will love it.

Thank you to all writers, sketch artists, designers, animators, voice actors, your incredible work is that we learn and grow our imagination.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jun 5, 2025

CodeCypheur

Mixed Feelings

How overhyped this was has definitely skewed my perception, I was expecting a heavy romance set in the imperial court with lots of drama - instead I got a per episode comedy with a side of ham fisted story that was not interesting in the slightest. Oh and a whole lot of exposition!

My main gripe is just how much of a mary-sue/self inset the mc is. Her apothecary skills make sense as she was raised with one,, and her detective skills could be plausible if it wasn't for how the entire world revolved around her. Everyone else is made out to be a bumbling idiot ... who either loves her or genuinely wants her to die. it's just not believable and contributed to many moments that had me rolling my eyes with how out of place they were. She's so nonchalant and cool, she's not like other girls - but she's also scary! Girl please you cannot tell me anyone is threatened by her emo outbursts. I feel like her personality could work if she just wasn't surrounded by the most two dimensional characters in existence, there is no care put into any of the other characters which makes her stick out horribly.

The ML is hardly a ML, I don't get how this is classed as a romance besides the whole 'everyone loves me but her' trope, there just isn't anything there other than comedic relief and about two serious moments that would come off as romantic if it wasn't for her 'cool girl' syndrome - which ultimately leaves me questioning if there's any romantic connection between the two. It simply comes across as her seeing him as a mild friend/someone to put up with, and him clearly needing therapy to get over his denial of seeing her as a person he's pining for.

The show seems like it's trying to follow a structure similar to Violet Evergarden, a mystery where the character goes from place to place solving problems and growing as a person from those experiences; yet unlike violet evergaraden there never any growth - we're simply given slivers of information about the main characters past through exposition that is barely related to what she's doing in the episode, then its all revealed in like the final episode through a flashback that isn't even about her really. Its a hodgepodge of tangentially related stories thrown at the viewer without a care in the world for actual engaging storytelling.

Really unsure as to who the target audience for this show is as nothing is focused on, it's instead an amalgamation of half baked tropes thrown together and spat back out. I did watch all of it though and didn't think about dropping it, so as a piece of media to throw on when eating breakfast - it served it's purpose there.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Feb 11, 2025

Ryan_the_Bread

Not Recommended

Funny

***Repost - original review (01/05/25) killed by guideline violation, but visible on my listed entry for the show***

Am I a fucking asshole or does this shit suck?

I suppose both can be true, but that doesn’t ease the sheer fatigue that enduring The Apothecary Diaries, fraught with truly horrendous flaws as it is, can bring upon a person.

From the response online, I’d anticipated a mature period piece; y’know, a historical drama with sprinklings of mystery tied together through investigations performed by an, if the internet is to be believed (which it obviously isn’t), exceptionally interesting and compelling protagonist... And I’m going to just have to start ... assuming that anything released in the last ~5 years with a score of 8 or above on here is just flagrantly bullshit, because c’mon – utterly shallow and perfunctory character dynamics, a setting that’s not near as interesting as its potential should have it be, bogus mysteries and resolutions and a protagonist for which the label of “Mary Sue” has never been more fitting are, on a macro scale, just a small sampling of what leads The Apothecary Diaries to absolute ruin.

Starting off light, this show is not nearly as pretty as the internet would lead you to believe; the animation seldom reaches territory beyond basically just fine, and the character design (perhaps besides the unusual garb) is about as bog standard as it gets. The environments are maybe *a bit* more detailed than your standard anime, but how they’re realized is completely conventional. To make that make sense, I’ll point out that I’m talking about art DIRECTION, not style.

The art STYLE is basically a dime a dozen. Were it not for the show taking place in 15th century China (or at least some approximation), there wouldn’t be any sort of unique visual identity to speak of. How that’s all portrayed (the direction) is mind-numbingly uninspired. Seldom are the visuals used to elevate or enhance what’s being discussed; everything is terribly plainly shot. Even now, I’m struggling to recall any interesting or potentially probing shots – nothing’s communicated visually that isn’t arduously explained through dialogue. The entire composition of the show is flat, and thus watching it is often tremendously boring.

I wouldn’t usually go on for multiple paragraphs JUST about the art of a show, but I feel like what it's largely thought of as and what it actually IS couldn’t be any more in conflict. It’s shot flatly, the characters move like Half-Life 1 scientists and their designs are ordinary to the point of, I don’t know, me feeling it necessary to spend multiple sentences discussing it. The environments work, but they never inspired a sense of awe in me or anything. It’s not even like the looming red walls of the palace are used to convey anything on their own besides it just being what old Chinese palaces ACTUALLY looked like. In short, I was always annoyingly aware that I was watching a 2D show; the sense of dimensionality is severely lacking.

Truthfully, everything else wrong with the show (and there’s A LOT to cover there) stems from one thing and one thing alone: its protagonist, Maomao.

What a monstrous ego one must have to either write a self-insert protagonist like this, or to watch the show and earnestly relate to her. What could POSSIBLY be compelling about a character whose buffs are so great that they, time and again, negate ANY tension the story’s trying to build? Maomao’s a character whose mere presence necessitates the rest of the cast having to have the mental acuity of a steaming pile of dog shit. Maomao’s skills are so numerous, her reputation’s so grand, and her flaws are so non-existent that it’s almost offensive that the show ever tries to get me to care about her, let alone become seriously invested in what she does and what happens to her.

I’d liken her to an RPG character with maxed out stats, but I think comparing her to playing with developer tools enabled is more appropriate. Nobody is allowed to be smarter than Maomao - nobody is allowed to be better at ANYTHING than Maomao. Who the fuck is she to be inventing the tit job before numerous seasoned courtesans did, and with a flat chest and intact hymen? Before anybody thinks otherwise, Maomao is NOT a resourceful character – there’s never a conclusion she reaches that isn’t wildly speculative and insultingly quick. Her asspulling massive amounts of knowledge on subjects she hasn’t previously displayed experience in (and honestly just shouldn’t know anything about – she’s a fucking 15th century serf for goodness sake) is NOT how to write resourcefulness, improvisation, whatever.

Generally, good detective work (or at least *interesting to watch* detective work) involves more than a cursory glance at the crime scene and sees a good amount of twists and turns as the case evolves. The Apothecary Diaries, utterly inept as it is, lacks these things wholesale. It could be something that happened a hundred miles away that Maomao had no prior knowledge of, but she’ll always immediately jump to an absurd, and (of course) ALWAYS correct, conclusion based on next to no evidence.

When the precedent is set early on that the investigations are more performative than anything because Maomao is obviously ALWAYS going to get her man... Well, what the fuck should I give a shit? Her deductive abilities are like L, Columbo and Poirot on steroids, and she’s never emotionally invested in what she’s doing besides. It’s basically anti-drama; there’s no reason for me to care what happens next because the status quo is so obviously never going to be disrupted, and even if it was I’m afraid the show hasn't made me care enough about its characters and world to muster any emotion.

Hell hath no fury like a ludicrously poorly written anime protagonist. Should call Maomao “Dale Earnhardt” with how she’s intimidatin’ everyone. Seriously, she’s like 4ft nothing and effortlessly giving everybody the business. Colossally muscular soldiers, veteran prostitutes, her superiors – doesn’t matter, everybody better watch out when Maomao’s mad. Naturally, she shows no fear or trepidation when the time comes to mercilessly put someone (regardless of their position relative to her own) in their place. That’d be displaying weakness (i.e. HUMANITY) and, for reasons that escape me completely, it’s not a strategy the writer ever deigned to use.

Don't mistake my wanting Maomao to think and act like an *actual human being* as me just wanting every character in everything I watch to have severe emotional hang ups and massive insecurities; variety is the spice of life AND fiction. What I'm saying is that her egregious lack of flaws and introspection make it nigh on impossible for me to relate to/care about her. There's just nothing to be interested/invested in about a character who's effortlessly amazing at everything they do, feels no yearning/regret/shame/emotional imbalance whatsoever, is always correct, is lauded constantly by the rest of the cast ALWAYS and FOREVER, etc., etc. Did a kindergartener write her? Heaven forbid another character even so much as THINKS about disagreeing with some nonsense conjecture Maomao throws out into the world; from then on, they're invariably portrayed as being dangerously stupid and morally barren. It's sooooo boring.

There’s a scene early on where Maomao, in her oh so righteous defiance, open hand slaps and KNOCKS OUT one of the empress’ right-hand ladies for her incompetence. You think the woman she slapped ever tries to get revenge? Of course not, Maomao’s too scary :( You think Maomao faces any punitive measures? Of course not, she’s ALWAYS proven right and justified in her actions. You think Maomao ever reflects on and regrets what she’s done because although she was “correct” she handled it unprofessionally? If you think that’s what would happen, then I have a bridge I’d like to sell you.

This is not a character any sane person would honestly believe is interesting to watch. I can count on one hand how many actual “flaws” Maomao has in-universe, and that’s only because I can curl my fingers to look like a zero. There’s something to be said for aspirational characters; characters a viewer aspires to be like, but she’s even a terrible example of that.

Superman is an aspirational character too (assuming Maomao is actually meant to be aspirational – I just think the author’s a hack lacking in self-awareness), but he actually reflects on things he’s done and laments what he could’ve done differently. Self-doubt creeps into his mind the same way it does with you and I. There’s something to relate to there, even though his circumstances are far more exceptional than yours or mine. Maomao’s confidence (in anything) is never shaken and all of her flaws are self-inflicted.

Fellas, is choosing to be ugly relatable? No? People don’t feel like they choose to be ugly, but rather think of it as an affliction? Wild. Couldn’t be Maomao. Despite the fact that she’s beautiful in everyone’s eyes in-universe with or without her freckles, she chooses to put them on to lessen the chances of being abducted or raped. This shit drove me up a wall because:

1 – It didn’t fucking work. She gets abducted, like, 2 minutes into the first episode.

2 – How is this NOT offensive towards actual victims?

Because, what, people who aren’t conventionally attractive never face these things? Years of research contradict that, but go off I guess. Not like nuns, children, the elderly, men, and even fucking animals have ever been the victims of sexual assault.

It’s also at odds with her characterization otherwise. So you’re telling me Maomao, whose reaction to being kidnapped was no more intense than the mild irritation I experience when I’m told to pull the car around because my order in the McDonald’s drive thru is taking a little long, puts on fake freckles every morning to avoid that exact thing happening? One would think that if it’s a true, deeply held fear of hers, then her reaction to it ACTUALLY HAPPENING TO HER would be a little more than just, “Dang, ya got me. Shoulder shrug emoji."

The, like, ONE time Maomao actually fails something it’s bullshit. Jinshi (her superior, eunuch – it’s a whole thing) makes her take an exam for... something. I honestly can’t ; I needed as much herb as Maomao was playing with to get through this shit. Anyway, she fails the test spectacularly. Now I, naively, thought this might lead to some strife within Maomao that’d have her questioning her abilities... I might be incapable of learning. Or I was just giving the show way more credit than it ever deserved. It doesn’t lead to her feeling self-doubt or anything because, “Why would you expect me to ? It doesn’t have anything to do with my abilities.” I’m crashing out, man.

"Apologies, Maomao-sama, I didn't realize that this would be the one singular thing that you're arbitrarily NOT instantly amazing at. How foolish of me." It feels like being slapped twice in rapid succession. The assertion that this had nothing to do with her abilities is absurd; they're shown to be basically infinite. She goes from a simple toxicologist to homicide detective in the blink of an eye, so not being able to manage whatever menial bullshit Jinshi was having her do feels cheap as hell. Also, because this "doesn't have anything to do" with her skills and abilities, OF COURSE her confidence and competence isn't tested. Not like a character's ever been their most interesting when they face an intense trial or personal setback.

This is a very uncreative person’s idea of a well-written and intelligent character. She’s never limited by her own abilities, only a lack of resources and the morons surrounding her. One of those morons is the aforementioned Jinshi, who acts as an unwanted love interest. He’s a “eunuch”, and I put that in quotations because I never believed for a second that this dude didn’t have a dick.

Okay, so the way Maomao and Jinshi’s dynamic works is thus: Jinshi is the subject of considerable swooning from all of the other girls in the palace. He’s just soooooo dreamy, even in spite of the whole not-having-a-dick thing. The only girl he actually wants, however, is the emotionally vacant and standoffish Maomao. Maomao, despite being wanted by the single most desired man in the palace, doesn’t give a shit about him (the author insert here is frickin' killing me) and just wants to test poisons. That’s it, really.

Lest you think their relationship sees actual development, their feelings towards each other basically don’t change from the first episode to the last. Maomao never gets to properly “liking” Jinshi and Jinshi never takes the fucking hint. It’s a tiring dynamic that wasn’t at all worth committing to the screen.

So when you have an emotionally barren, near-clairvoyant super genius who’s never once bothered by anything anybody does or says to her, who barely seems to take joy in most of what she does and only does a lot of it because people she hates ask her to, then you probably shouldn’t be surprised when someone watching doesn’t care about or connect with her in any way. This all came to a head, for me, when she gets cracked with a bat and is sent flying down a flight of concrete stairs... only to just not the pain and continue arguing with her attacker, who is made to step aside because NOBODY can beat Maomao’s facts and logic... How childish.

What was probably meant to have me concerned for her well-being, instead, led to me jumping out of my chair and shouting, “LET'S GOOOOOOOO!” Now, lest you think that’s overly callous, I’d like to remind you that I was never once swindled into believing in Maomao as a real person, let alone anything approaching a well-realized and sympathetic character. Listen, I can't ROOT for her if I can't RELATE to her and, being a human being with thoughts and feelings, I can't RELATE to her if she's never displayed as having anything even *remotely* resembling human emotion. God must've forgotten the human condition when he put this one together.

The entire climax (if you can even call it that, bleh) to her arc about finding out what really happened to her parents, in her own words, DOESN'T IMPACT HER EMOTIONALLY. She finds out the truth and just kind of goes, “Cool. In no way will this influence my thoughts, actions, or how I feel about literally anything, though. I don't care.” What an abortion of a protagonist. But what do I know? It's the 23rd highest-rated anime on this site. Fuck me.

Y’know, in a better show, Maomao not being emotionally affected or phased by ANYTHING would be a huge sore spot for her. It’d be treated as a massive character flaw, tantamount to sleepwalking through life. Not here, though. “I’m crushingly lonely and can’t let anyone into my heart, but I kinda just... don't care.” What an awesome way to endear your protagonist to viewers. Jeezus. Like, if someone puts a razor blade in my salad and my tongue finds it before my eyes do, I’m probably not going to be super jazzed to finish the rest of that salad. Maomao is the razor blade in this metaphor, and the salad is the show. I could also compare her to a cancer that’s running roughshod through someone’s body, destroying everything in its path and making it impossible to ever have fun.

I'm not at all unfamiliar with appreciating shallow characters in a shallow way - Z Broly is one of my favorite characters in fiction. Dumb motivation? Debatable. Cool as fuck looking with a super fun moveset and awesome one-liners? Still debatable, but I adore all that shit regardless. I think Maomao's a character who can only be appreciated in a similar way. Deep characterization that you can rewardingly analyze endlessly? Fuck no. Cutesy kawaii waifu (kawaifu, if you will) tendencies with a knack for snarky witticisms? Sure! I think that's all atrocious, but there's an audience for everything. The difference is that I'm not about to pretend like Z Broly's that much more than the physical manifestation of the concept of "HYPE".

Maomao, by my count, is an expert botanist, chemist, metallurgist, carpenter, doctor, toxicologist, florist, homicide detective, makeup artist, calligrapher, sex advice giver (despite being a virgin oh my god this show’s so fucking bad), and dancer. In WHAT UNIVERSE is this a believable skillset for a 15th century Chinese serf? With all that knowledge, you'd think her internal dialog would be a bit more interesting, but nah. “Wow. This room’s really hot. It must be because that stove’s been left on. I should turn the stove off, so that it's not so hot in here anymore” Like gee, what stunning insight. Writing like this is truly unparalleled in the medium. I love how it reveals NOTHING about her character and is as banal as humanly possible.

The show’s quest to make me give a hoot about ANY of the characters was doomed as soon as I saw that nobody was allowed to be intelligent, productive, or helpful except for Maomao. I mean, duh, right? If 95% of the cast just exists for Maomao to be snarky to and annoyed by, and they’re shit blisteringly stupid besides... Yeah. *fart noise*

Dora the Explorer? how she’d always ask for help to locate, like, a map or an island or whatever? I feel so enlightened knowing that none of it ever mattered. You see, with or without any input, her ass is always gonna find what she’s looking for. Linear entertainment! It’s a foregone conclusion that she and Boots will always get what they’re after, so why bother to be invested? For a reason BESIDES it being a children’s show, anyway.

The Apothecary Diaries is basically just that: kiddie baby corner. You’d have to have never consumed a fictional story to believe that anything’s going to significantly challenge Maomao after, like, episode 3. But it’s weird, then, that it covers topics like prostitution, rape, murder, etc., because covering such mature topics is totally at odds with how dogshit and immature the writing is.

Speaking to which, the main antagonist, Lakan, gets his own Disney animated movie sympathetic backstory to show you just why and how he came to be a complete bastard. He’s supposedly smart, but he does also agree to a game of Go that’s so obviously rigged against him that it’s shocking it wasn’t played for laughs. Also, I feel like most of his buildup as a villain was just him walking into a room, saying something weird and ominous, and then just walking out. Never cared about him or what he was up to.

A few miscellaneous things before I depart:

- In episode 10 there’s a pretty (unintentionally) funny scene where Maomao covers up most of her face to help somebody her quicker... despite that person already having seen Maomao’s full face before. This doesn’t make any goddamned sense.

- Maomao tries growing roses at some point and has to hurry baskets of them to a greenroom when it starts raining. She says something to the effect of, “Shame you can’t control the weather.” I’m disappointed she never tried to, seems like she probably could.

- Someone say “comedy”? This show is where comedy goes to die. It shares a sense of humor with Your Lie in April, meaning that it’s almost impressively unfunny. I’m not sure when slapstick, pseudo-chibi gags became the anime standard for comedy, but I’d really like to move past it. Sometimes Maomao is depicted like a cat for comedic effect. Because curiosity killed the cat and Maomao has a curious nature, I guess? I wish this cat would kill itself.

- At one point Maomao, seemingly, intimidates Jinshi via astral projection. Is she fucking 1998 Undertaker? The idea of Maomao intimidating ANYONE, let alone the soldiers and prostitutes she DOES intimidate in the show, is so fucking lame, dude.

- What could possibly be the message to take away? What did Maomao learn that could be applied to our lives? “Be good at everything and, uh, profit?”

Utterly baffled at the success of this show. Mediocre art and animation, limp and grating character dynamics, possibly the worst protagonist I’ve ever bore witness to in the medium, and a shockingly uninteresting and poorly plotted, uh, plot.

But, again, 23rd highest rated anime on this site. Outrageous. Sucks to have my “old man yells at clouds” moment before I’m even old enough to rent a car, but goodness gracious anime will never improve so long as shit like this is hailed as the second coming of Christ. Show this to any halfway respectable film buff (or anybody who took a creative writing course once in, like, 7th grade) and they will, rightfully, call it the piece of shit that it is. This show and its success are a testament to why weebs (myself included) aren't taken seriously. Let's all strive to be (and watch) better (shows).

So yeah, The Apothecary Diaries... Get off my lawn.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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