Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: The Apothecary Diaries
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Uchay
Posts: 83 |
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I think a lot of people are underestimating how much make up, specially when properly applied, can change how a woman is perceived by people --- heck, it can completely change how a *man* looks like, too! I'd guess it's twice as true in time periods when make up wasn't as easily attainable or forbidden to the common woman. It used to be really expensive, if I'm not mistaken, so any woman using it would attract attention in the street.
The time period in this series isn't actually pinpointed, and I think it's more of a fantasy general ancient China so it can handwave some things, but from what we can glimpse, it looks to me the common people would have issues getting their hands on good quality make up, at very least. Most women you see walking down the street daily today are most likely using some sort of make up, too, be it something more fancy, or a more subtle lipstick with day to day face powder to enhance natural beauty. It's really not odd that Maomao would look stunning and make some heads turn with excellent make up that was applied by professionals whose work revolves around looking extremely attractive, even if she's wasn't naturally good looking. Honestly, if she had to use make up to look more plain, that means she at least looks naturally good---her face and body type aren't bad at all, and thus it's easy to make her look really attractive. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18389 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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He's crouched down in front of the same smoking pipe that Maomao later finds, so it's safe to say, based on anime content alone, that it's the same building. The more interesting question here is why he left the pipe behind, especially since he seemed to have at least some idea about what Maomao later figured out, too. |
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Ryujin99
Posts: 198 |
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I've spent the past month obsessively catching up on all of what's legally available in English for the LN and the manga, while keeping up with the anime.
And after all that, I really gotta say Loulan's entrance to the rear palace in the anime easily takes the cake among all three depictions (in my opinion at least).... yes I know there's a second manga, but that's not (legally) in English yet, so I haven't read it (here's hoping it gets translated eventually too). Also Jinshi continuing to try (with absolutely zero success) to flirt with Maomao in a thousand different ways will never cease to be amusing. Girl no-sells him every time (unless medicinal ingredients are involved), and I love it. |
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Shay Guy
Posts: 2253 |
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It interests me that with Loulan replacing Ah-Duo, all four of the top concubines are considerably younger than the Three Princesses. Plus of course their selection probably had a lot more to do with political ties than bedroom skill, so, no surprise that there’s a lot they have to learn that Maomao’s picked up.
Speaking of Loulan, that is a very striking intro scene. Honestly, the thing that interests me most is the long bit where that gate blocks our view of her — it’s a conspicuous choice of staging/cinematography/whatever, but I confess I’m not clear on what it conveys. On another note, there’s a bit cut from Lihaku’s conversation with Maomao, right after “someone’s personal quarters? sounds like a real weirdo”:
And that, I believe, is the sole reference in the LN to how Maomao made her trip back to the palace. (Nekokurage’s manga adds a one-panel flashback of her dressed up; don’t know about the other manga.) One other thing that caught my attention: when Maomao narrates about the empire late in the episode, it actually shows its name on that flag! It’s a variant of the character [url=https://jisho.org/search/*%E8%8C%98*]茘[/url] (“Lì”); someone on another forum I frequent noted that there’s some oddities there, because seal script wouldn’t be used that way. So, two episodes into the arc and already the questions are starting to pile up: What is Loulan’s deal? What is Lakan’s deal? What is that tall court lady’s deal? And whose pipe set off the dust explosion? |
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TJ_Kat
Posts: 407 Location: Saskatoon, Canada |
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As someone who also only has the anime to go by, at no point did I get the impression that Maomao is supposed to be some kind of natural beauty. When Maomao is turning heads I've always understood it to be 100% because of the makeup. I mean, Jinshi literally tells Maomao she looks like a completely different person in makeup. |
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Covnam
Posts: 3798 |
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Another great episode. Jinshi's cheek being red cracked me up
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Nojay
Posts: 114 |
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You see that gate from another angle later and you realise it's not part of a wall or a building, it's actually freestanding. It's a purely symbolic entryway, I presume to represent the barrier between the outside world and the closed rear palace, a barrier which others pass between every day but consorts never until they die or are released. Interestingly enough Loulan and her attendants DON'T go through the gate, they bypass it and it remains closed. Hmmm... |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18389 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Back in episode 1, Jinshi also leads Maomao around one of those gates when first taking her to see Gyokuyou, so they seem to be purely decorative and symbolic rather than actually used. (Perhaps meant to be indicative of the boundary of each high-level consort's absolute influence?) That said, I fully agree that the way Loulan was shown going around the gate in episode 14 packed more symbolic meaning than normal. Last edited by Key on Sun Jan 14, 2024 8:46 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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MFrontier
Posts: 13196 |
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They really nailed Loulan's introduction.
I like how Suiren tries to keep Maomao honest. I love how Gyokuyou uses the idea of Maomao teaching the concubines' sex ed as an excuse to see her again, though admittedly who better to teach them? And all the reactions from the concubines and their attendants was priceless (poor Lishu). Gaoshun learning to manage being considerate to the apple of his masters' eye. Surprise Kouki Uchiyama! Maomao back to solving cases in unconventional ways! No surprise this isn't her first explosion (that she's caused). |
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Oggers
Posts: 373 Location: Ontario, Canada |
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Idk, the face Maomao makes in this episode looks more like Kazuo Umezu's style to me than Junji Ito's (the shocked faces in Drifting Classroom are pretty memetic and have been referenced before).
With this episode, I've finally caught up with this anime. I started watching it kind of late, but I've been enjoying it a lot. |
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andramus
Posts: 187 |
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I read the first 3 or 4 novels of this series a year or so ago using my J-Novel subscription to read the free parts as they were released. I ended up falling behind and never went back to catch up.
I remember a lot of times things in the novels were alluded to without being explicitly stated via MaoMao's deductions. Which lead to my sometimes being confused about what was factual and what was suggestion or theory. Sometimes the wording was so indirect I wasn't even sure what it was MaoMao had deduced/theorized. Anyway my memory is pretty spotty but I feel like I might be confusing Lakan with another character from the novels. The character I'm thinking of didn't come across as sinister as Lakan had been presented and came across more neurodivergent. spoiler[He had trouble distinguishing people's faces and when someone's face did register he visualised their faces as game pieces. ] I've observed a few people react to neurodivergent characters - particularly ones on the autistic spectrum - as though they were sociopaths/psychopaths. I was watching a YouTube video a couple of years ago where the panel was talking about Ghostbusters Afterlife and one of the members said she didn't like the girl because she thought the girl was a cold-blooded psychopath with no empathy. Another member of the panel who had experience working with autistic children checked her on that which was good to see. Anyway Lakan either isn't the character I'm thinking of from the novels or he is more sinister than I remember. Last edited by andramus on Sun Jan 21, 2024 6:06 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Shay Guy
Posts: 2253 |
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Question I posed a while back on another forum: Which do you think Maomao would like better, ecstasy or LSD?
You should probably spoiler-tag the rest of this paragraph. |
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Covnam
Posts: 3798 |
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I hadn't considering that the conversation from the point of view of Maomao's parentage. Certainly getting a courtesan pregnant would affect her value.
I took it as a more not so thinly veiled threat against Maomao as presumably one good way to lower a courtesan's value would be to affect her appearance through some manner of physical violence. I suppose a non-violent way would be to stop any customers from coming to see her... Of course if her intellect was her most valuable asset, doing something to affect that would also work to lower her value, but then presumably Lakan wouldn't be interested in her. Regardless, I thought Lakan was saying that he would have no problem lowering Maomao's "value" if he couldn't use her. Should be interesting to see how things turn out! |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18389 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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No, you're thinking of the right character. Those details won't come up for a while, though - maybe not within the confines of this season.
He brought it up within the context of talking about the courtesan, so I thought it was pretty clear he was referring to the courtesan, not to Maomao. |
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Andrew Cunningham
Posts: 501 Location: Seattle |
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Arguably he is talking about Maomao, in that he's telling the story about his courtesan this way to get a read on Jinshi's moral character. If Jinshi's outraged by the suggestion, Maomao's safe with him. |
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