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| Volume 1 cover of The Apothecary Diaries (manga) @ SQUARE ENIX LTD \ Natsu Hyuuga and Nekokurage |
A bit of context:
Xiao Mao or adorably as she is know in the series, Maomao, is an apothecary by profession. A traditional word used for what we now know as pharmacists. She not only understands the effects of poisons and medicines but is always actively looking for new drugs purely in the pursuit of improving her vast medicinal knowledge. She starts working as a maid at the Imperial Palace but is slowly moved up the ranks to food taster for an important member of the palace after her intelligence was identified by the amazing Jinshi.
The story focuses on Jinshi and Maomao but there are several wonderful characters that we meet along with way. There are several mystery cases that involves poisons and medicines. That is where our brilliant apothecary Maomao comes in to save the day after been pulled in by the enigmatic Jinshi. There is a lot to cover in this amazing story so I have split the post into two parts. In this post I will describe our two main characters and why I believe they might just interest you as well.
How is the story ?
I will be honest with you. I love Maomao as a character! In every series we do find characters who are passionate about their hobbies or jobs or interests. Maomao on the other hand is not just passionate but down right fanatical. That is a good thing in this particular context. I’ll explain why I think this passion is beneficial to the story in a bit.
I would first like to talk about Maomao herself. She has a particular interest in building her knowledge of medicines and poisons. Throughout the volumes that I have read I felt that she always knew the cause and effect of certain chemical reactions brought about by objects that are used daily such as perfumes, that are not as clearly evident to a novice such as myself. The only way she is able to do that is through constantly reading and experimenting.
Now the reading is fun but her experiments are what increased my admiration of this character even more. As an apothecary she needs to understand the effect of chemicals that are present in various items. Ordinarily you would find a guinea pig to test your theory about the effects of a drug, of course in a safe testing environment provided the animals are not harmed in any way. However, she with full awareness experiments on her self in my cases just to see the effects of some of the chemicals that she is trying to study about.
These experiments more often than not involve poisons. We do see her relish the fact, I’m not even joking here, that she is testing out a new or old poison. She enjoys learning, understanding and even predicting, quietly, the effects and possible sequence of after effects of poisons and medications. She truly is a mad scientist!
This is what I believe makes her such a wonderful character. That giddy eagerness to learn and build her already vast knowledge of medications and poisons is truly commendable. Frankly, it is also very relatable because in a way I to sometimes get so giddy with excitement at learning new technical concepts or improving my language skills.
Now that I got my living eulogy of Maomoa, as she isn’t dead but I just had to mention everything that I enjoy about her character, I will focus my attention on another fantastic character, Jinshi! We do come across many eunuchs in this story but Jinshi might just be the most beautiful of them all. But beauty is not the only thing that is great about Jinshi.
He is smart and calculative. However, that does get shadowed by his childlike antics usually when he is around Maomao. He knows how smart she is because he himself is genuinely a force to be reckoned with. There is more to them then meets the eye. Jinshi is practically present in almost all chapters in the 11 volumes of the manga but there is so mystery to this character that I believe is slowly getting unraveled.
They are interesting character not only because we don’t know their gender, not that it will impact the story in any way but also about their place in the Imperial court. Jinshi clearly holds a lot of power and sway but he is careful not to exercise it too much. Jinshi uses Maomao in the most effective way in which both can benefit.
Maomao often gets a treat in the form a rate chemical or item that she needs for her mad scientist analysis. Jinshi on the other hand gets some really complex cases solved. The cases are unique, intelligent and well laid out, which is why I have decide to talk about it in another post. We will meet many characters on this journey who are equally interesting but these two in particular are so captivating that I had to simply talk about them.
I won’t be able to provide more details about Jinshi, however, I can end this section with one thing that I hope you will enjoy as much as I did. Whenever my two favorite characters meet, it almost always is a cause of anyone to burst out laughing. You will notice that they appreciate each others intelligence but only one of them actively is trying to get the other one’s attention while the other one is simply enjoying solving cases. I’ll let you enjoy the story with that thought in mind hoping that you enjoy these scenes as much as I do.
Conclusions:
I think it is safe to say I love this series. As shown in the image above I have collected, read and enjoyed all 11 volumes of the manga released in English. Besides the two characters whom I have spoke about there are so many interesting characters that you will enjoy as well. The artwork by Nekokurage is brilliant but the underling story by Natsu Hyuuga is just spell binding.
You are pulled into a world of mysterious cases that involve poisons and medicines. At every step you are left with a feeling of wanting to know more about the characters and they parts they play in the mystery. You are left with a sense of satisfaction that our heroes Maomao and Jinshi purely use their intellect to solve these really complex cases in such an elegant manner.
I hope that this long winded post has somewhat intrigued you as well and has peaked your interest in reading this wonderful series. If it has not then I hope you do give the story a chance. If you have read it then feel free to reach out to me on this post or my socials to discuss our appreciation of this wonderful story.