2024 was a year of many great anime and their lead characters. All, who any other year would have easily been the best of that year… BUT Frieren existed and was still going on from the end of 2023. And now we look at one I came to, about in the end of last year on a bit of a curiosity, and ended up watching it all and getting a friend into it too.

It has to be something about a piece of work, and how lived in it feels, that at the start of episodes there is a bit of text telling you that its setting is fiction. That is the setting Apothecary Diaries puts us into, one that you would be forgiven for assuming is based in the actual Imperial China of history and not a fictional country based heavily upon it.

This is the world our lead Maomao lives in. The daughter of an apothecary, she uses her skills to aid the somewhat legendary brothel near where she lives… until while getting a bit too over eager on getting herbs, she’s captured and sold to work in the Imperial Palace. After using her skills to solve why the Emperor’s children are dying and the illness of the lead concubines, she failed to do it discreetly and is caught up in the various conspiracies and machinations going on in the Palace, notably used almost as a pawn by the eunuch Jinshi.

The best comparison I can make to the nature of the story would be that of Sherlock Holmes. Maomao, while being eccentric due to her love of poisons and many other potions and medicines, uses her skills to work out various mysteries and crimes often given to her by Jinshi. The main difference would be that while that is Sherlock’s job, here it’s a bit of a side gig for Maomao as she is quickly given a job working for one of the 4 concubines of the Emperor, namely a poison taster… something she struggles to hide how much she loves. That also gives us an increase in the cast of characters, namely her new employer concubine Gyokuyō and her various handmaidens who are all portrayed as highly skilled and intelligent women.

What I’m quite impressed by is that the series which is 24 episodes long (well first season, season 2 is currently ongoing) adapts only 2 volumes of the light novels. That means roughly 12 episodes per volume. I have seen many light novel adaptations (mostly Isekais) for 3 volumes into a 12 episode season. This just shows the level of how much is being adapted into the series, much less is being glossed over or pushed to the side, you even get Maomao’s inner thoughts, something that’s often dropped from adaptations.

A big strength of this series is the characters, and how people aren’t stupid. The other leads aren’t portrayed as dumb to make Maomao seem smarter (look at what so many early adaptations of Sherlock did to Watson). Characters like Gyokuyō are shown to be highly politically intelligent with knowledge similar to Jinshi. They utilize Maomao’s knowledge of medicines and poisons but aren’t rendered powerless without her.

As I kept watching I could see why, when this show was out, people were raving about it and I am making sure to watch season 2 as it’s coming out, though I must admit I am doing so with the Dub which is performed very well, bringing out the different characters’ personalities. As mentioned at the start, 2024 had many great seasons and this was one of them. If you are after an intelligent show with mystery elements this is one to watch, and if not… it’s still one to watch.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐