Maomao, a young apothecary from the city’s red light district, is kidnapped and sold into service in the imperial harem. Her one saving grace is that the officials don’t know she can read and write. As a result, all she has to do is clean the concubines’ dirty laundry for two years, then she can go home. If she keeps her head down, said head will stay firmly on her shoulders.
However, when the Emperor’s infant heirs start dying under mysterious circumstances, Maomao can’t bring herself to look the other way.
Maomao’s efforts to save the child of Lady Gyokuyo—the emperor’s favorite concubine—are successful. Her efforts to do it discreetly? Not so much. Exposed for the intelligent and educated woman she is, Maomao is promoted to lady-in-waiting and food taster to Lady Gyokuyo. Despite this precarious new position, Maomao’s plan remains the same: keep her head down, avoid the nonsense drama of the court and make it out alive.
Drama, of course, comes looking for her in the form of the annoyingly beautiful eunuch Jinshi. Maomao may be a brilliant woman, but Jinshi is a shrewd and cunning man in his own right—and he isn’t about to let a useful tool like her slip from his grasp. But if Jinshi thinks his usual manipulations and ethereal beauty are going to get Maomao to do what he wants, then he’s in for a rude awakening.
Quick Review: Eschewing conventional court drama and romance in favor of medical mysteries, The Apothecary Diaries sees our reluctant protagonist saving lives when she’d rather be conducting mad science experiments on herself.
Offering a progressive yet grounded view of women’s lives in a land based on Imperial China, women are the movers and shakers of this story, even as the specter of patriarchy looms over their lives.
The manga’s art offers a level of intimacy distinct from both the light novel it is based on and the famous anime adaptation that followed its publication, making this manga series a work of art just as worthy of your attention as its younger and older siblings.
In addition to the usual anime and manga fans, I highly recommend this series to fans of Sherlock Holmes and House, as well as fans of historical romance and court intrigue looking for a story that tackles the usual tropes from a new angle.
Herbs Over Flowers
One thing I’ve always appreciated about media from Japan is the willingness to play around with genre. A lot of the most popular manga and anime are a hodgepodge of genres, such as Dandadan working in rom-com antics between the two leads when they’re not fighting supernatural threats or the famous One Piece, which masterfully fuses brutal action, slapstick comedy, epic fantasy, social commentary and political drama.
In recent years, a particularly popular form of genre-bending has been to subvert the traditional hero’s journey entirely, zigging where other stories would have zagged. I’ve talked about this twice already this year: Ruridragon staunchly refuses to be anything but a slice-of-life story despite its half-dragon protagonist and the promise of a fantastical world of dragons just off-panel, while Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End centers the beautiful elven maiden who would normally be a supporting player in someone else’s story.
We see this trend continue with The Apothecary Diaries. Maomao is kidnapped and forced into servitude, only to catch the eye of our handsome Byronic hero. It’s a scenario right out of your favorite bodice ripper, and yet Maomao is utterly disinterested in playing the part of the blushing maiden.
Though she was born a sex worker’s daughter, Maomao isn’t looking to Hamilton her way to the top, nor does she dream of being swept off her feet Pretty Woman-style. Maomao was quite content in the red light district, where the sex workers are her sisters and the apothecary she apprentices under is the only father she’s ever known.
At the same time, Maomao’s pragmatic nature keeps her from being too upset about being uprooted from her content life. For a woman in her era—loosely based on Imperial China—getting kidnapped and sold into slavery could have ended much worse. So Maomao shrugs her shoulders at the prospect of doing laundry for a measly two years. She doesn’t even let on that she can read and write, lest she risk being promoted to a more troublesome job.
Maomao’s pragmatic attitude may stop her from jumping headlong into a life of court intrigue and romance, but it’s her conscience that pulls her into the drama of the story. She isn’t so cold and calculating that she can look the other way when the Emperor’s infant children keep dying. Not when she knows she’s the only one knowledgeable enough to save them. Like Gregory House before her—and Sherlock Holmes before him—Maomao’s calculating pragmatism and apparent cynicism belie a strong sense of morality that forces her to intercede when lives are on the line. And in the Imperial Court, lives are always on the line.
Through her eyes, Maomao’s circumstances are weaved into a story about the medical mysteries she encounters during her service at the imperial harem, with any thoughts of romance and court intrigue being relegated to secondary genres that we experience on the rare occasion we shift to Jinshi’s perspective.
Jinshi takes full advantage of Maomao’s morals and keen observations, but not in the way he expected. Accustomed to getting his way with his ethereal beauty, Jinshi quickly learns that Maomao isn’t the sort of demure maiden he can woo into doing what he wants. She can, however, be won over with herbs, insects, ox bezoars and other classic Chinese herbology ingredients.
Character Clash
Jinshi is Maomao’s opposite in every way, exemplified by their contrasting character designs in the animated adaptation—him a tall, beautiful man whose robes and hair come in a regal purple, contrasting Maomao, who is small, plain and draped from head to hips in green. Their respective colors represent where they come from: Jinshi lives his life in the court, while Maomao is practically one with the herbs she adores.
Jinshi seems eager to be the leading man in the exact sort of romantic drama Maomao is trying to dodge like a … well I was going to say “dodge like a hornet,” but Maomao would happily be stung by a hornet so she could study the effects of the venom. The point is, Jinshi and Maomao aren’t even in the same book—so to speak—let alone on the same page.
However, neither of them are so belligerent that they can’t work together, whether that be for the greater good or so that Maomao can earn her rewards—though she and Jinshi have vastly different ideas of what constitutes a “reward,” causing further friction between the two. Jinshi clearly considers himself God’s gift to women, and Maomao doesn’t necessarily disagree, but he’s a gift Maomao would gladly turn in for store credit. She would rather indulge in poisons and potions than any carnal or romantic pleasure. This gives Jinshi a much-needed reality check, but also furthers his interest in the apothecary.
Your mileage may vary when it comes to this sort of dynamic between two leads, but in my estimation, The Apothecary Diaries does a great job of dodging the pitfalls this trope sometimes falls into. There’s banter between the two, yes, but the two develop a professional respect for one another. Maomao and Jinshi both have keen eyes and sharp minds, and they value those skills in one another.
Crucially, Jinshi grows past his initial arrogance after getting to know Maomao, to the point that his self-consciousness develops into a new obstacle to overcome. Related to this is Maomao’s pragmatic acceptance of her place as a woman in a highly patriarchal society, and how that forces Jinshi to consider his role in that society.
Liberation and Survival
Anime, manga and light novels have never shied away from commenting on modern politics and social issues. Following a government investigation in 2018 that revealed that multiple medical schools in Japan had rigged women’s test results to exclude them, there has been a noticeable rise in explicitly feminist works published within this subculture in the subsequent years. Examples include the yuri novel The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady and its subsequent manga and anime adaptations, as well as the upcoming anime adaptation of May I Ask for One Final Thing?.
A lot of these titles are aspirational, seeing our female protagonists get revenge on the sexist pigs who wronged them or tear down the patriarchal system that oppresses them. The Apothecary Diaries, however, is more about navigating through life around these male chauvinists and corrupt systems.
I’ve found myself struggling to describe this approach to addressing the systems that oppress women. One might call it a more “grounded” approach, focused on surviving and even thriving within systems that likely will not be changing within the next 24 hours. I think that’s an accurate descriptor in the sense that it addresses our most immediate reality and our limitations within that reality. However, I don’t want to mistakenly imply that aspirational feminism isn’t grounded in reality—women have been winning our freedom piece by piece for centuries, and someday all of us will be fully liberated.
Perhaps the comparison should be “liberation” versus “survival”?
Regardless of what you call it, I found Apothecary Diaries‘ means of addressing systemic misogyny and patriarchy uplifting in its own way.
Maomao’s sisters, hailed as the “Three Princesses” of their brothel, hold a great deal of political power within their brothel and have full say over which clients they choose to entertain.
This treatment of sex work as simply another way of making a living—with pitfalls and opportunities like any other job—is refreshing to see when our modern politics have been actively harming sex workers for years.
Similarly Gyokuyo, the concubine who takes Maomao as a lady-in-waiting, is perfectly happy with her place in the world. Similar to the Three Princesses, her status as the favored concubine offers her a great deal of political power even above Jinshi.
Many women in this story are carving out a comfortable existence within the limits of their society, while those who do lash out against the Emperor and his court are often depicted as cunning, intelligent women and sympathetic victims, their crimes paling in comparison to the sins of the previous Emperor. The previous Emperor is gradually revealed to be an ever-present specter haunting the narrative, reminding the reader of the depths of depravity to which a man can sink when he’s allowed to treat women and girls as his possessions.
Interestingly, Jinshi is the heroic character who seems most willing to bend and skirt around the rules, challenging the system as he does so. The clearest example is him informally recruiting Maomao as the court’s unofficial pathologist and apothecary—a rather lofty role for a woman in their society, let alone one born in a brothel.
This series’ approach to feminist critique of society accepts, to a degree, women’s powerlessness in the face of an absurd and broken system, but emphasizes women’s capacity to find their own sense of joy, meaning, value and even power within that system.
I think this approach and the more lofty, idealistic, liberating feminism seen in other works of fiction complement and support one another. Sometimes you need to be told you can do anything. That you can be anything. But sometimes you need to be told that you’re doing your best in the face of an unjust society. That you can still find happiness even when faced with oppression.
The Intimacy of Graphic Novels
The animated adaptation of The Apothecary Diaries quickly became a hit in no small part due to its vibrant art style and expressive animation. If you’ve seen gifs or clips shared online, most likely they’ve been showcasing Maomao’s adorable cat-like behavior as she fawns over poisons and disgusting animal byproducts while Jinshi desperately tries to keep her from experimenting on herself with said poisons.
At the same time, the animators are equally capable of conveying powerful, dramatic moments. Anyone who watched the recent season two finale knows exactly what I’m talking about.
All of that to say that the manga adaptation has a lot to live up to, since this critically acclaimed anime will be many people’s introduction to the series.
I’m not going to claim Nekokurage-sensei’s art always meets that lofty goal, nor do I think it would be fair to expect it to. The anime adaptation has some of the cutest chibi artwork and animation I’ve ever seen in my 20+ years as an anime fan, so I was never expecting the manga to top the anime on those terms.
There is, however, one area where I think the manga surpasses the anime, and it’s something that books as a medium excel at: intimacy.
I’ve been downplaying the burgeoning romance between Maomao and Jinshi, and that’s because their relationship is the slowest of slow-burns. The mysteries that Maomao has to solve are the real star of the show here, with Maomao and Jinshi’s growing relationship being a secondary but meaningful plot point. But it’s also because it wasn’t until I read the manga version that I realized how steamy their interactions could be.
What happens in the story is largely the same, but the art and page layout emphasize Jinshi’s advances and enhance his seductive, masculine beauty. I found myself getting far more flustered reading the manga than watching the anime.
In addition to the enhanced sexiness, the intimacy of the manga’s art also enhances the anguish characters go through, at times making my heart ache in ways that the anime versions of those same scenes had not.
As such, I have to insist that both the manga and anime adaptations of this story are equally worthy of your time and attention.
Spoiled for Choice
Our collection contains physical copies of The Apothecary Diaries manga, while our digital collection on Hoopla offers the original light novels on which the manga series is based. And, happily, the animated adaptation is now available on Netflix, so you can reserve one of our new Roku + Hotspot kits and give that a look as well!
Regardless of where you choose to start your journey, I strongly hope that you’ll give each iteration of the story a chance. The Apothecary Diaries is filled with compelling characters you’ll want to visit again and again, so take advantage of our collection and give each version a try!