Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: The Apothecary Diaries
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shosakukan
Posts: 297 |
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Hyūga Natsu, the author of the Apothecary Diaries novel series, has said that Lì is a fictitious country which is roughly modelled upon Táng. But she has also said that the cultural level in Lì is approximately that of the 16th century in the real world and there are cases where she has characters have pieces of scientific knowledge if those pieces of scientific knowledge are what real-life humankind has obtained by the end of the 19th century. spoiler[In the Apothecary Diaries, there is a scene which indicates that Luómén can make medicine which is effective in the treatment of syphilis and which is better than mercury and arsenic. Even Salvarsan, which was first synthesised in the early 20th century in the real world, contained arsenic, and the period in which to administer penicillin to patients became the standard treatment for syphilis in the real world was the 1940s. And academics think that syphilis was brought to China in the 16th century due to seaborne trade between Europe and Asia. It is said that the oldest extant Chinese medical book which mentioned syphilis is the 1513 reissue edition of Lǐngnán wèishēng fāng by priest-doctor Shì jìhóng.] When Hyūga Natsu depicts courtesans and the red-light district in Apothecary Diaries, she consults the 'Bǎnqiáo zájì' book by man of letters Yú Huái, but actually, Bǎnqiáo zájì is a book about a red-light district and its courtesans in the Míng period. (In Japan, famous scholar of Japanese literature Maeda Ai, who also taught at Stanford, compared Bǎnqiáo zájì with Ryūkyō Shinshi, a book by Edo/Meiji-period scholar-author Narushima Ryūhoku about the Yanagibashi kagai/hanamachi in the late Edo period and early Meiji period. After Professor Maeda's passing, Cornell University purchased many (approximately 13,000 volumes) valuable books (including a diary written in Narushima Ryūhoku's own hand) that had belonged to Professor Maeda and housed them as the Maeda Collection in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections of the Cornell University Library.) And the names of 'chess' pieces that are mentioned in the Apothecary Diaries are those of shōgi 将棋 (Japanese chess) pieces, rather than those of xiàngqí 象棋 (Chinese chess) pieces. So if a Sinologist scrutinises stuff which is depicted or mentioned in the Apothecary Diaries on the assumption that the Apothecary Diaries intends to realistically depict the world of real-life Táng (or real-life ancient China in Period X), probably there are things that he thinks are anachronistic, anatopistic, or simply 'wrong'. |
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Andrew Cunningham
 Posts: 451 Location: Seattle |
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I mean, they're not adapting the English translations. The line is likely the same veiled threat in Japanese, but three different translators interpreted it differently based on the context available to them. (The anime is really playing Lakan up as a villain, so naturally this version gets the strongest wording.) Actually looked it up. The Japanese is: いつか押し倒してみたいと思っていたものですよ All three takes are pretty valid. This a pretty common euphemism that literally means 'push her down' but isn't inherently non-consensual; I've most frequently seen it used with couples that aren't quite [expletive] yet, but the speaker thinks they should be. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11431 |
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I was pleased that they remembered he couldn't eat with the cotton stuffed in his cheeks. But it seemed like they forgot to replace it when he was done? His face looked thinner to me, at least.
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Azure Chrysanthemum
Posts: 123 |
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My wife and I both cracked up when we saw Basen angrily eating his skewers while shadowing them. Poor boy, so put upon.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 2619 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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I noticed that, too. My guess was that he didn't want to, or flat out refused to, put slimy spit cotton back into his mouth. His own saliva, yes, but still could have grossed him out. |
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TJ_Kat
Posts: 370 Location: Saskatoon, Canada |
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I love how neither Suiren nor Gaoshun say a word and just stare then cover for Maomao when she puts the rouge on Jinshi's lips.
...and adding Suiren to the ever growning list of people who treat Maomao like a dress-up doll. lol |
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Covnam
 Posts: 3713 |
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I'm surprised to see that they would have had courtesans who never slept with any clients. You'd expect them to have to get to a point in their occupation where they could manage that, but I guess if you plan to filter them out earlier, then that would work. Presumably there's a tipping point where the cost to be the first simply outstrips what most anyone could reasonably pay and after that it's a moot point.
Maomao said that they are separated by looks during their training. Those without qualifying looks go on to physically take care of the clients. Those with looks and talent (skill/intelligence) can be the ones to mentally take care of client and can retain their purity. It's not mentioned, but presumably the ones with looks, but lacking in talent also end up providing physical services? |
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Thesarum
Posts: 423 |
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Lots of info for Jinshi to process here. It seems he might be starting to put together who her adoptive father is, but he's still fairly in the dark about what Lakan is up to.
I hope explains himself at least a little, because that's a pretty awful question to directly ask someone who grew up with courtesans as adoptive sisters. It's not exactly his fault (though he really doesn't help himself) that Maomao has already jumped to an entirely incorrect assumption as to the purpose of this trip (she really is always ready to assume the worst of him isn't she?), but his timing there was terrible. I wouldn't be surprised however if that wasn't the half the purpose of Lakan indirectly suggesting to him that he ask Maomao about it. We should cut him a little slack though, because quite a bit of his processing capacity is taken up by the fact he's on a not-date with Maomao while she's looking like that, and that she bought him skewers, and did that adorable grin thing. The guy has it pretty tough. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11861 |
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I love how it takes all of 3 peoples' efforts to make Jinshi look less conventionally attractive (even if he is still attractive). Maomao can't resist a challenge and isn't immune to dress up herself (just not of her own volition).
This was basically day date between Jinka and Maomao and Jinka sure loved playing the part of the attendant. I love how Maomao keeps rationalizing to herself that Jinshi is just an eunuch every time she notices obvious evidence that he isn't. Maomao is worried Jinshi with makeup will start a World War but she's no slouch herself all done up and with that bright smile. I love Basen getting his own three skewers. To be honest I wonder if Maomao would be as bothered by Jinshi seemingly heading down to visit a brothel if she didn't know him better by now. She sounded kind of disappointed (and not just because he wasn't going down to her gran's place). Jinshi realizing who Maomao's dad actually is pretty significant, especially if he knows the involvement Luomen had in his own birth. There it is, the bomb finally dropped. The way Maomao's whole demeanor and attitude changed really captured just how seriously she took this, and how personal it is. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18252 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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This was perhaps the most light-hearted episode to date (favorite joke was Basen with the chicken skewers!), which makes it all the more remarkable how the production drastically shifted the tone when Jinshi dropped his immensely loaded question. Outside of Frieren, I can't think of any other recent series which could pull such a transition off to that degree. Anime series commonly show their quality most clearly in the little details, and once again an episode of this series is loaded with them.
And really, how could anyone resist this? 
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Nachtwandler
 Posts: 538 |
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Probably yes. And some of the high-ranking ones still sleep the clients (see Pairin), it is just preferable not to and it nulifies risk of pregnancy. |
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dm
 Subscriber Posts: 1389 |
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Episode 18
Well, I guess we won't have to tip-toe around spoiler[Lakan's identity] after this episode. Maomao's reaction to Jinshi's news was done wonderfully, and Jinshi's reaction to her expression told you all you really needed to know, if you glanced away from the screen for a moment. Poor Jinshi, fretting about what Maomao thinks of him, having seen him enter a brothel under the pretext of meeting someone. And Maomao's nightmare..... I'm a little confused about the logistics of what happened when nineteen years ago at Verdigris House (and maybe for a few years after). |
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Shay Guy
 Posts: 2159 |
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Hey, we get more of Maomao's mama! And the woman who gave birth to Maomao, too.
I think this was the first point in Nekokurage's manga that the annex showed up -- the scene in episode 8 where Meimei nudges Maomao into visiting is anime-only. And at last the tall court lady with the poker face gets a name: Suirei. Everyone, please do your best not to confuse her with Jinshi's elderly maid Suiren.
I like that the anime and Nekokurage's manga had different approaches to it -- almost polar opposites, but each playing to the medium's strengths. Nekokurage had a double-page splash panel of Jinshi seeing Maomao's reaction, drawing it out, while the anime freezes time in a wide shot, with her back facing the camera, and then only shows her face for about two frames. It's almost like how Evangelion or something would show a PTSD flashback.
End-of-season spoilers: spoiler[All the anime-only reactions I've seen interpret it, understandably, as Maomao's mother trying to kill her. I'm looking forward to seeing people find out the truth, which might be even more twisted -- and then look back at earlier episodes and realize the camera's been drawing attention to Maomao's pinky at suitable moments the whole time.]
Yeah, the show's still trickling the details out. And honestly, I'm still not clear myself on when exactly Luomen met and adopted Maomao. |
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Jafwasw
Posts: 13 |
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The manga version uses the wording "And I thought I'd like to some day have my way with her" for that scene, so the anime is more in line with the manga here. But in my observation, this wouldn't be unusual, since the anime has heavily used the manga version as a guide to how to depict scenes. (And I expect that will continue through the end of the season at least, since the end of this episode takes the story into the beginning of manga vol. 6, and 10 volumes are currently out in English.)[/quote] I mean, they're not adapting the English translations. The line is likely the same veiled threat in Japanese, but three different translators interpreted it differently based on the context available to them. (The anime is really playing Lakan up as a villain, so naturally this version gets the strongest wording.) [/quote] To be fair I don't think Lakan would really do that to Maomao, he's just baiting Jinshi to get a reaction spoiler[it becomes very clear in the later books that Lakan does love his daughter in his own dysfunctional way even though Maomao loathes him with a rare passion for her. Interestingly it also becomes very clear as the story goes along that Lakan and Maomao's personalities, specifically their respective obsessive natures, are more similar than Maomao would ever want to admit. I think Luomen probably turned up at Verdigris House as soon as he was aware that Maomao existed, it must have been a couple of years after he was discharged from service and at some point it is clear he found out what his nephew had done][/spoiler] |
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Shay Guy
Posts: 2159 |
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Just saw an acquaintance call this "a waste of an episode" on Discord, and I do not understand how some people's minds work.
Also I hear "koi" in the Japanese dialogue, so I'm confident that's what's meant. If there's any ambiguity, it comes from the limits of English translation. |
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