The Apothecary Diaries S2 Premiere Review
In late 2023, a new mystery drama anime took the anime world by storm, The Apothecary Diaries. Set in a fictional country based on medieval China, the anime is about Maomao, a young apothecary who unwillingly becomes a servant in the palace of the Emperor. After she solves a mystery surrounding the Emperor’s infant children growing sick, though, she becomes an unofficial detective as she starts solving more and more mysteries. That, and she finds herself as the center of attention for the mysterious Eunuch, who gets on her nerves. The anime is pretty good with a solid story and some very creative mysteries, so it’s garnered a large following since its debut. And now, more than a year since the end of the first season, it’s finally returned. So what new and interesting mysteries await Maomao in the season premiere?
Besides increasing the literacy rate among the Palace’s occupants, she helps the residents get a pet.
The Apothecary Diaries Season 2
opening – Season Of Memories (GFRIEND) pic.twitter.com/NBDQZJBrSY
— luli ❆ (@yunamisots) January 11, 2025 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Maomao is an Entrepreneur
As Jinshi’s visiting the Jade pavilion one day, he manages to catch Maomao in the middle of pulling off her latest side hustle. To help pay off the money she owes to the woman running the brothel she worked at, Maomao’s started selling manuals meant to teach women the…art of making partners very, very happy.
If you’ve seen the anime, then you know that this isn’t the first time Maomao has provided material meant to spice things up between couples. In the first season, she became an informal teacher in those things. And, since many people have resorted to finding secondary means of earning money in the modern day, I think most of us can respect Maomao’s hustle.
That little sale of adult manuals actuall segues into Maomao taking on yet another informal role in the Jade Pavilion by teaching the other servants how to read. It may not seem like much now, but in the Middle Ages, being able to read and write was the equivalent of having a PhD. Her one friend, in particular, is smart for wanting to learn how to read and write before she leaves the palace for good. More importantly, this marks the latest example of Maomao inadvertently increasing her importance in the Imperial court.
Enough about that, though. It’s time to talk about how the new royal pet!
Maomao and Maomao
While Maomao is looking after her lady’s daughter, Princess Lingli, the two of them discover a stray kitten that somehow wandered into the palace. After capturing it, the Emperor (being a good father) lets his daughter adopt it as a pet/serve as pest control for the clinic. The remainder of the episode sees Maomao and the others watching over the kitten. Rather, Maomao watches over it. The boys fawn over it and it’s natural cuteness, leading to the best moment in the entire episode.
Thanks to its numerous visual gags, the anime has made it no secret that it thinks Maomao has a lot of catlike qualities. However, seeing Maomao explaining how cats can charm humans to Jinshi, juxtaposed by images of their past interactions, is comedic gold. Maomao managed to perfectly describe her and Jinshi’s relationship without even realizing it. But the real icing on the cake is the fact that the staff decided to name the kitten Maomao. It’s a two-pronged jab at the catlike apothecary, as her very name comes from the Chinese word for “Cat.” That’s a clever pun.
The Apothecary Diaries may lack the action of some other big hits, but what it lacks there, it makes up for in other areas. I wound up binging most of the first season over the last year or so, and while I normally wouldn’t find a series like this interesting, there’s something about The Apothecary Diaries that pulls me in. I may not plan on reviewing it every week for The D&A Anime blog, but I do plan on adding it to my weekly schedule for watching anime. It’s definitely going to be one of the big anime people will be watching in the Winter 2025 season, if not the whole year.
THE APOTHECARY DIARIES S2 – ED SONG “SHIAWASE NO RECIPE” BY HIRAIDAI
Jinshi’s yearning for Maomao throughout the ED and his smile when she opened the door pic.twitter.com/C7MrKmlM5i
— tamina (@keiuzuki) January 10, 2025 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
