The Apothecary Diaries First Impressions!

Key points for The Apothecary Diaries first imressions:

• The protagonist, Maomao, stands out with her unique and entertaining personality, adding a fun element to the series. Her obsession with medicinal practices and cleverness make her a compelling character.
• The episodic nature of the plot, particularly in episode 3, showcases the potential for engaging story arcs. The combination of strong character dynamics and well-executed individual stories contributes to the overall enjoyment.
• The art style, a blend of traditional anime aesthetics with a unique touch, complements the old Chinese Palace setting. The visual elements, including character and clothing designs, enhance the overall spectacle of The Apothecary Diaries.

I finally managed to set aside some time for this anime and now I am kind of regretting not jumping on it sooner. This anime deserves to be talked about more. I thought that The Apothecary Diaries would be another anime about some medicine and stuff like that. Think of something like Isekai Pharmacy.

But this is quite a bit more than that. It kind of also serves as a “history” lesson in a way as it describes the medicinal practices of that time in quite a detail. Aside from the plot, the anime has some fun characters as well.

So anyway, welcome back to another one of my First Impressions articles, today I am talking about The Apothecary Diaries. So let’s get started right away.

What do I think of The Apothecary Diaries so far?

Our MC, Maomao pretty much has an obsession with things related to poison medicine, and everything in between. She literally experiments with her medicine on herself, even going as far as forcing a snake to bite her LOL. All that just to find a cure. She is a big part of why this anime is so fun to watch. She basically starts foaming at the mouth when she gets to make a medicine or a poison or something. Outside of her goofy behavior, she is really smart as well. As shown in episode 3, she is very observant and understanding.

Maomao along with Jinhi and Gyokuyou and other side characters make for a very interesting cast and are probably the main reason why the show is so entertaining. Aside from them though, the plot is decent as well. It has been pretty episodic so far but I’d like to see this anime do story arcs because I feel like it could do those really well. The episodic stories, especially the one in episode 3 have been so good that this anime could easily pull off some great story arcs if that kind of writing continues.

Visually, the animations are pretty good but the art style deserves some major props here. The art style is close to the traditional anime art style we’re used to but still different somehow. On top of that, the old Chinese Palace setting of the anime, the character designs, the clothing designs, etc. add so much more spectacle to the visuals of the series. I really like what they have done with the adaptation so far.

That is all for now!

The Apothecary Diaries has been really fun so far and I look forward to seeing more of it. As of now, I think it is fair to give this anime an 8.5/10. Let me know what you guys think in the comments. I will take my leave here. See ya!!

Also, check out some Mappa drama here.