Kusuriya no Hitorigoto 2nd Season

Using her wit and vast knowledge of medicines and poisons alike, Maomao played a pivotal role in solving a series of mysteries and conspiracies that plagued the imperial court. Having recently come to with the secrets of her parents, she returns to fulfill her normal duties on behalf of the emperor's highest-ranking consorts. Maomao also works alongside the eunuch Jinshi to better the consorts' many ladies-in-waiting, including helping them learn to read.

However, with the arrival of a merchant caravan comes a new wave of intrigue. A pattern of strange coincidences involving the visitors and their wares unsettles Maomao, driving her to investigate the puzzling circumstances behind the convoy. As dangers from both outside and within threaten the balance between the imperial concubines, Maomao continues to utilize her cunning and medical expertise to keep the women safe from harm.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Maomao Main

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Jinshi Main

Ootsuka, Takeo Japanese

Loulan ing

Seto, Asami Japanese

Shisui 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

Morishita, Katsuji Producer

Okamoto, Junya Producer

Fujimura, Tomoko Producer

Iwata, Takao Producer

Reviews

May 24, 2025

undamoth

Recommended

Preliminary (16/24 eps)

Desperate Housewives+Sherlock Holmes in China is back

Apothecary Diaries is a charming amalgamation of things that are both appealing to guys and dudettes. It got a badass female protagonists that is smart, flawed, strong, and distinct from other geniuses in fiction. It got Chinese-esque aesthetics, rich cultural lore and background, clever case-solving, lovable cast of characters, humor, and great animation. Cases are intertwined, respects continuity, and the aforementioned lead has quite the unique circumstances, disposition and personality. MaoMao is one of the best female protagonist from this era of anime and manga or ever, for that matter. If you came to the show for MaoMao, you ... are already covered.

True to its name, The show has notable focus on apothecary, chemistry, as well as the tribulations of being born on different social rankings, the complexity of politics, and the power trip of being concubines. This review is both of the first and second season which I consider to be just a continuation, with ittedly very minimal alterations to animation quality. Here, the show just flows from episode to episode as we follow our lead going about slaving around the anime forbidden city, making friends and foes here and there and still driven by the motivation of getting pimpin' medical ingredients while keeping her head out of the gallows.

In any case, if you read the reviews of the show, I'm just gonna be parroting most of em because the show is just great. Arcs gets resolved, more mysteries are unveiled, more dastardly plans undone, and more character development for the cast. MaoMao still dips her tongue on suspicious liquids, Jinshi still obsesses on her, and this season, we got frogs.

So yeah. Recommended.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jun 3, 2025

ke1pme

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (17/24 eps)

This review is more of a rant than anything.

I thoroughly enjoyed s1. It was an okay series. Chinese imperial dramas are known for the sprawling complexity and politics, and the anime sort of captures that vibe. The animation is great, and the humour is fun. S2 retains that, but also brings some glaring issues with the writing to light. For one, the season more or less takes on a episodic mystery format, but the mysteries themselves are very contrived, with lots of leaps in logic and extremely niche scenarios. A lot of the “reveals” feel like a stretch, although this wasn’t the dealbreaker for me. ... If you don’t squint too hard at it, you might come out of the show having a good time.

That said however, I'm planning on dropping it right after I'm done with this rant. My main gripe with the show is with how maomao is written. TLDR: s2's static plot exposes maomao's poor character writing as a mary sue. It's hard to stay invested with her lack of personal stakes in the plot, and any internal struggle or character growth on her part. I have far too much to say on this, as i will in the rant below, but feel free to skip to the end instead.

(rant incoming)

Mary sues are characters who are improbably good at anything relevant, lack any meaningful flaws with consequences on the plot, don't grow or struggle internally and have their respective worlds revolve around their usefulness. Maomao, in my opinion, fits this to a T. I can look past her being some deductive genius with a good grasp on ancient medicine because she inherited it from her adoptive dad, but when she becomes this omnipotent problem-solver for almost everything in the rear palace, that just takes me out of the story. It’s the reason why the later episodes become unbearable to watch, because her role in the plot has basically ascended to this. An infallible, super-sleuthing, sherlock-macgyver type character with vast medical knowledge and feminine knowledge (from the brothel) and whatever other skill or knowledge the mystery-of-the-week calls for. It’s to the point where it seems like the palace might just collapse without all her help.

The people that matter in the show are also quick to be enamoured by her because on top of her broken skillset, she is also incredibly kind, class-conscious, emotionally intelligent and endearing. Jinshi especially (more on this later). A flaw the show tries to push is that she’s sort of awkward with emotions and people. But when this has little to no bearing on the plot, and she’s able to be emotionally perceptive and read people when the situation calls for it anyway, this becomes just another fun quirk that feels more like an accessory.

She also has no personal stakes in the main plot. She doesn’t have any real motivation to climb the ranks in the palace because of her general unbotheredness. Because of this, she’s mostly just reactive to the problems around her—she’s never changed by any event and she doesn’t really struggle or grow from them. She just steamrolls through any problem she encounters—just give her an episode or two to figure it out and she will. By this point of the show, everything goes something like "a problem arises-> maomao is called in to do sleuthing-> maomao solves the problem-> people are wowed-> foreshadowing that this is part of a bigger problem". Rinse and repeat. As a viewer, you just feel like you’re being strung along. There’s no clear direction with the story. Just stuff happening. And when the stuff happening borders on repetitive due to a lack of any character development or progression…it’s like, okay, where do we even go from here? Maomao was at least entertaining to watch in s1, but now it’s painfully clear that she is a dull character. She’s just so goddamn realised already that she doesn’t have any room to grow at all. The most I can imagine at this point is just her warming up to Jinshi. Which brings me to my next point.

Her relationship with jinshi is incredibly one-sided. On its own, it isn’t a problem. Sure, maybe for all her perceptiveness, maomao is actually incredibly oblivious. Or emotionally constipated. Or flat-out uninterested. Fine. But when the show doesn’t commit to either bit, and instead throws in innuendos, “almost” moments, blushing, kiss teases—all without establishing any real emotional groundwork from her side, it’s not romantic tension anymore. It’s whiplash. If the show is going to steer things in a romantic direction, at least make maomao’s feelings for him a little more ambiguous. Let there be a change in how she views him and treats him at least. But we're now a full season in and she has yet to regard jinshi with anything more than mild intrigue or ive tolerance. I read that the light novel had much less of a romance focus, and I think that would’ve served the anime better too. It just fits maomao’s characterisation more. And lets jinshi retain some of his dignity lol.

(rant over)

Whoever is reading, sorry you had to sit through all that. I don’t hate apothecary diaries, just frustrated at the poor character writing. If you can tolerate that, as I did for most of the series, then by all means. It’s not a horrible show and at least makes for an entertaining watch. The animation is charming and worldbuilding isn’t half bad. Personally though, I've hit my bullshit threshold at where I'm at in s2.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 6, 2025

Ammp96

Not Recommended

Funny

Preliminary (14/24 eps)

Hi!! I'm not a native English speaker, in case there's something misspelled or something...

This has been a real disappointment. The first season was great, I loved it, but the pace of this second season and how irrelevant what happens generally isn't... it's impossible for me to enjoy it all. Maomao's development is null. Just when it seemed like it was getting interesting, everything just stays the same, a waste of time.

I watched 14 episodes, there's no way I can continue. I've already lost interest. Slow pacing is one thing, nothing happening is another... I'm really sad about the drop in quality.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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