The Fall 2026 Anime Preview Guide

The Apothecary Diaries Season 3

The rebellion is over, but peace and quiet rarely last in Li. Just as Maomao resumes her pharmacist life, a strange breakfast pulls her into a new mystery. Meanwhile, Jinshi takes on his responsibilities as the Imperial Brother, haunted by a warning. As rumors spread of an immortal maiden amid a coming famine, the search for answers extends far beyond Li's borders.

The Apothecary Diaries Season 3 is based on the light novel series by author Hyūganatsu and illustrator Touko Shino. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Fridays.

Here's a tip for you: if a mysterious woman offers you a cure-all for the ills of both yourself and the world and then grins creepily, maybe don't take her up on it. In the world of The Apothecary Diaries, there's a better-than-zero chance that this is a real-life terrible drug known for harming people, and it will inevitably be up to Maomao to save the day.

That's just one of the plot points introduced in this first episode of the third season, however, and one that isn't even on Maomao or Jinshi's radar yet. Following the events of the previous season, Maomao has left the rear palace and gone home to the Pleasure District, taking with her Chou-u, one of the few survivors of the Shi clan. Chou-u may have lost some of his memory and the use of one arm, but his personality is completely intact, which means that Maomao has acquired a rambunctious younger brother, although I'm not sure she'd phrase it that way. Essentially, she's doing for him what was done for her: just as her father and Granny took her in when her mother couldn't care for her, Maomao has taken Chou-u under her wing, willing (and maybe even determined) to give him a good life. He's mostly settled in at Verdigris House, as is Maomao, although she's definitely still keeping in contact with at least Lihaku, the puppyish soldier she set up with her sister. Being Maomao, she's also very willing to use Lihaku when she needs to – although whether she'd admit that doing so ultimately helps not just her, but also Jinshi is up for debate.

Despite being out of the palace, it's plain that she still thinks in terms of living there. When Chou-u notes that the “empty” locusts he's fed are probably signs of an upcoming terrible harvest season, Maomao's first thought is to tell Jinshi. When she discovers Shi clan books being sold in town, she calls Lihaku, because she knows he'll report the issue. Part of her is very much still inside the palace walls, although I'm sure she'd be loath to admit it, and that's probably good news for Jinshi. He's fully out now as the Imperial Younger Brother, and the emperor's remark about “finding Yue a flower” is probably not what he's hoping for. I daresay he's more interested in a cat.

While this episode is largely all about setting up the next arc and reminding us of how the previous one leads into it, there's still a lot to enjoy. The stakes feel very high, both politically (making Gyokuyou empress is a definite risk, given her family background) and existentially, because a famine will affect everyone, whether they live in the afflicted area or not. And there's still poor little Lishu, whose father is clearly not pleased with her, a moment that feels very important given the screen time devoted to it – we almost get more of her than of Lihua and Gyokuyou. Whether Maomao's in the palace or not, they're surely going to need her expertise, and I'm sure it won't be long before a certain moon prince comes calling.

Now this is how you transition between arcs!

This season looks pretty weak, but there's been a shining light keeping me going: new episodes of The Apothecary Diaries, a rare example of an anime that is both popular and good. When we last left Maomao and Jinshi, they'd just stopped a potential uprising, revived a kid from death, and subsequently took him in, and went about their lives. Now, the emperor is preparing for a political marriage to his concubine Gyokuran, Maomao is introducing Chou-U to the ups and downs of life in the pleasure district, and everyone is eating locusts.

The new season doesn't take time to recap the last season, but it does do an excellent job easing us in. It starts with the characters settling into their new normal, the gentle pace giving us space to remember what happened previously without outright restating it. As always, new conflicts arise gradually; Maomao's powers of observation allow her to notice impending disaster before it strikes. There's something wrong with the locusts people snack on, and when she tries to look into it, the book she wants to use for research is missing. She wants to mind her own business, but is constitutionally incapable of doing so. Her intellectual curiosity has made it impossible for her to stay out of things.

I'll admit, the domino-setting is a bit more obvious than usual for the series. An impending plague of locusts and famine is a bona fide disaster that the emperor will have to deal with. A mysterious woman also offers a “medicine” at the very beginning of the episode. I know she's evil, because the animators individually drew all her teeth. There is no more definitive sign of malice in anime.

As an anime-only fan of The Apothecary Diaries, I can't wait to see how this plays out. The story has explored love, betrayal, sex, and so many other topics, but natural disasters are a new dimension. They're a perfect topic for a semi-historical show like this one.

Maomao's Reluctant Detective Diaries has returned to grace us with another season, and its web of mysteries still looks as compelling as ever. Between Maomao's hostage crisis and everything we learned about Jinshi's true identity, quite a bit went down toward the end of last season, so it's not too shocking that this premiere doesn't take long to jump straight into court politics. The palace is still busy sorting itself out after the downfall of Loulan's family, and the biggest shakeup there is that Gyokuyo is looking to finally be elevated into the role of Empress, which seems to only be adding to her list of enemies, as there are many who don't seem jazzed about having a foreign empress. However, while that rise in position is bound to lead to plenty of political machinations later on in the season, I'm just as curious to see how this shift ends up affecting Maomao, as her desire to avoid getting involved with the court is only going to be made harder if her level of importance shoots up right alongside Gyokuyo's.

As for Maomao herself, even though she's managed to avoid being dragged into any new mysteries to solve so far, she's been dealing with last season's fallout in her own way by continuing to look after one of the Shi Clan's few survivors, Chou-U. Given her generally dour personality, it's pretty funny watching Maomao being forced into reluctantly playing the role of big sister for him, and while Chou-U isn't adding too much to the show by himself beyond making it a little easier for Maomao to get dragged into new situations she doesn't want to deal with, giving her someone new to bounce off of for most of the episode does at least make it a little easier to swallow that Jinshi is mostly nowhere to be seen here. Chou-U's presence also helps set up what looks to be this season's central conflict: when he decides to munch on some locusts, he can't help but notice the taste might indicate a locust plague is coming, which could sweep through the entire nation.

Since the extermination of the Shi Clan has already put the Emperor into a rough spot, dealing with a plague is only bound to make his position even worse, and since it looks like the incoming plague might share a connection to the immortality drug Maomao's been researching, it looks like all the pieces are in play for this to inevitably become her problem. Still, while this all seems like a good setup for the rest of the season, if there's one big thing this premiere is lacking, it's Maomao bickering with Jinshi, and considering she can no longer stay in denial about who he really is, I'm really looking forward to seeing just how their relationship evolves from here. For now, though, it's good to have this show back, and as long as there are compelling new mysteries for Maomao to solve, I'm sure it'll be one of the fall season's biggest highlights.

Huzzah! Everyone's favorite misanthropic cat girl/gremlin/poisonous drug abuser Maomao is back, and this time everyone's munching grasshoppers. No, it's not a new dietary craze. Locusts are eating all of the crops in the provinces, and crunchy, leggy, insecty things with their guts scooped out, then broiled in sugar, are all that's left to eat. Or, I assume that's the case; otherwise, why would anyone eat a huge plate of these things for breakfast?

Turns out that grasshoppers taste bad; who would have thought? For true entymological culinary delight, consumption of the actual locusts who have munched the crops is far more preferable. But these dumb city folk don't know that; only characters associated with the now-destroyed Shi Clan value such knowledge. Like Kyou-u, who, despite what sounds like unpleasant brain damage from last season's near-death experience causing unfortunate memory loss, can still remember which crunchy bugs taste better than others. I know that insects are predicted to be a major source of protein for human consumption in upcoming years, but… ewww.

This episode has a lot going on, mostly as setup for what looks like the next major story arc. It follows on pretty smoothly from last season's grim conclusion, with mass executions having dealt with the rebel Shi Clan, Jinshi's beautiful bishonen face now sporting a distractingly manly scar, and Maomao desperately trying to hide her new assistant's true identity.

With the specter of famine and subsequent political turmoil hovering on the horizon, I don't expect poor Maomao to get much time to herself to ingest psychoactive substances, or whatever else she likes to do in her spare time. Although she's not currently a resident of the palace, relying on the local brothel, The Verdigris House, for bathing and meals, I can't imagine Jinshi, now revealed to palace residents as the second prince, will be able to stay away from her. After all, he seems to feel much the same way about her as Lakan, Maomao's father, feels about her syphilis-inflicted, brothel-residing mother, Fengxian. It is sweet to see the two of them reunited, playing a game together, with Lakan cheerfully declining his official duties to spend time with her. Their backstory is so heartbreakingly tragic. It's an intriguing start to the season, and more Apothecary Diaries is always very welcome.