The Fall 2020 Manga Guide

The Apothecary Diaries

What's It About? 

Maomao is a pharmacist from the pleasure district who finds herself working as a servant in the palace of the emperor. She hopes to quietly fulfill her contract at the palace without ever receiving a "visit" from the emperor. She comes to discover that the emperor's children suffer from short lifespans and begins to investigate the cause as the only two remaining royal children continue to get sicker.

The Apothecary Diaries is a manga adaptation of Natsu Hyūga's novel of the same name, drawn by Nekokurage and compiled by Itsuki Nanao. Square Enix Manga & Books licensed the manga, and will publish the first volume on December 8.

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

If you're one of the roughly three people who read Harem Days: The Seven Star Country and are sad that it's ended, rejoice – The Apothecary Diaries does a good job of hitting many of the same sweet spots. Set in what appears to be historic China, and based on the inevitable light novel, the story follows Maomao, a young woman who, shortly after completing her apothecary training, was kidnapped and sold to the imperial palace as a laundrymaid. Understandably pissed, Maomao promptly hides her literacy and pharmacological skills so that her captors won't get as much of her wages as they would otherwise, and she sort of grumps her way through life. Naturally that has to change for the story to progress, and when Maomao realizes that a spate of infant deaths and concubine/consort illnesses are likely attributable to poison face powder, she blows her own cover and ends up as a lady-in-waiting to one of the emperor's favored ladies. The plus side? She gets to use her skills. The downside? Sir Jinshi keeps hitting on her.

Maomao hates that.

Because this is at least in part a romance, or following romance tropes, Jinshi thinks it's super neat that Maomao keeps looking at him like he's the dog crap she just stepped in, and I could see this becoming more of a problem as the series goes on. Since he's already crossed at least one boundary on the personal space front, that's going to bear keeping an eye on for some readers.

Fortunately, the rest of the story makes up for it. Maomao is delightfully prickly, utterly devoted to her craft and not all that unhappy that she's the de facto food taster for her mistress because she's spent so much time experimenting with poisons that she's basically immune to most of them. But even more interesting is the subtle way that the book discusses and dissects what women's lives were like in the closed garden of the Inner Palace. Maomao was given no choice in entering the Inner Palace as a laundrymaid because no one cared that she had been abducted; she was a peasant woman and beneath their notice. The concubines and consorts, meanwhile, live entirely beholden to the whims of the emperor – the face powder they were using (which likely contained arsenic, at one point a popular ingredient, or possibly lead) was to maintain the beauty that they relied on to catch and hold his interest. In the fourth chapter, a concubine fakes a creepy illness (sleepwalking) to make sure that she's given as a gift to the soldier she's loved since childhood; her fear was that if the emperor suddenly took notice of her again in a positive way, he'd revoke the present and keep her in the Inner Palace. It's a terrible, proscribed existence for all of them, and while the book never states that outright, it's clear that it's still making a statement.

It's probably not entirely unfair to say that The Apothecary Diaries is like a combination of Harem Days, Snow White with the Red Hair, and Saiunkoku Monogatari while still being very much its own thing. It's definitely worth picking up, even if you aren't itching for historical fiction set in China, and I'm hoping that the next time we do one of these Guides, I'll be able to include its source novel.

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Caitlin Moore

Rating:

I preordered the first volume of The Apothecary Diaries a while ago based on a friend's recommendation, so really, there was a lot riding on this preview guide entry for me personally. If I didn't like it, I could safely cancel my order and save myself some cash. If I did, I could rest well, secure in the knowledge that I had made a good purchase that was worth my money.

Well, looks like Right Stuf just made another ten dollars, because I loved this volume.

I'm kind of a junkie for semi-historical fantasy stories starring strong-willed women like Yona of the Dawn and Saiunkoku Monogatari, and The Apothecary Diaries hits on a lot of what I like about them. Maomao was kidnapped and carried off to work as a maid in the palace's inner chambers, where the emperor's concubines live. She's not pleased with her fate, but she's trying her best to make it work, and when her literacy and apothecary training come out, her status increases considerably. Stubborn and intelligent, Maomao is one of my favorite kinds of heroines, but with an unusual twist.

The stories like this I usually read, that I grew up reading, usually have their heroines running up into barriers and throwing themselves against them until they break down. In The Apothecary Diaries, women face similar sorts of barriers, but they don't try to bust them like I'm used to. Instead, much like many actual historical women, they either accept their fate, or use their ingenuity to find ways around the system and make what they want happen instead of changing things. It may not be the most inspirational way to go about things, but there's a beauty and grace to the way they wield soft power that is admirable in its own way.

The artwork is gorgeous, as is appropriate for a setting where everything and everyone is made to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible. The women of the inner palace are truly beauties, as is their elegant hair and clothing. The artist Nekokurage does a great job conveying how Maomao, by comparison, is fairly plain, but her constantly exasperated expressions as she deals with the demands of the nobility are entertaining in their own right.

I have only one other wish for this series, though: that the relationships are built up more strongly. Maomao's primary relationship so far is with the beautiful eunuch Jinshi (who I suspect is not actually a eunuch considering his positioning as the primary love interest), and then with the concubines she works for. I'd like to see her develop a greater sense of camaraderie with some of the other maids – her equals, instead of her superiors. Still, it's a small quibble in such a lovely manga.