Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: The Apothecary Diaries
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Vs7
Posts: 37 |
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In rear palace, probably. But Jinshi wants her to work in outer palace, and the Boss showing favoritism to some no name girl will be noticed and have consequences |
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Shay Guy
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You know, the court ladies' questions about why this scrawny rando gets to work under their Jinshi-sama could be given some pretty good answers if anyone wanted:
"He knew her as a lady-in-waiting in the inner palace. She was the one who uncovered that recent plot against the Virtuous Consort's life. That was after she saved the princess's life and nursed the Wise Consort back to health from the brink of death." "…Um. Is she the daughter of someone important?" "She normally works in brothels." (Oh and he knows she's not going to try to get him to wear underwear made from her own hair what is wrong with this guy's fangirls.)
Like Azure Chrysanthemum said, 小/xiǎo = small (same as "shougaku" for "elementary school" in Japanese), just as 猫/māo = cat. And if you look back at episode 1, Gyokuyou called her daughter Lingli "Xiaoling" a couple times. Same sort of thing. One oddity about this setting is that some characters have names with Mandarin pronunciations, and others have names based on the on'yomi readings those characters took on in Japanese (some only very distantly related to the Chinese version). Gyokuyou is a case of the latter -- her name means "jeweled leaf", and would be read "Yùyè" in Mandarin. And the "haku" in Lihaku is the same character as the "pai" in Pairin, 白/bái/white. (As a tangent, Pairin's "rin" is the same as Lingli's "ling", so that's just inconsistent translation. Same as the official LN translation, though the manga's goes with "Pai Ling".) |
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Vs7
Posts: 37 |
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Not sure about Lihaku , but Gyokuyou is mentioned to be a foreigner, iirc. So she might be from in-universe equivalent of Japan |
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Azure Chrysanthemum
Posts: 124 |
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From what we know now, Gyokuyou is definitely not Japanese. She's from the west, the manga fills in a few more details that I think the Anime may have brushed over. spoiler[Functionally she's from a desert-based trading community. She's very light-skinned and doesn't use the white face paint, which puts her likely as light-skinned Arab or possibly having some European descent since there does seem to be an Ottoman Empire allegory in this setting which did stretch from Eastern Europe to the middle east and included parts of Ukraine where people would be much more light skinned and fair-haired. She is described as having red hair and green eyes which almost implies a Celtic descent and wouldn't necessarily be out of place given the general intermingling in the area she's stated to come from.] |
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Electric Wooloo
Posts: 311 |
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That... makes WAY more sense 
I shouldn't watch these when tired |
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Electric Wooloo
Posts: 311 |
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spoiler[ At the start of episode 3 one of her attendants calls her home the "Western Capital" and the conversation in general gave the impression of them talking about 2 cities in the same empire. So I'd imagine the area is meant to be the Taklamakan or Gobi Deserts] |
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dm
 Subscriber Posts: 1395 |
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She's also described as having red hair and jade-colored eyes, so I suspect she's from the far west. Last edited by dm on Mon Jan 08, 2024 10:17 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Shay Guy
Posts: 2166 |
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Yeah, it's quite possible that it's deliberately "exotic" with Gyokuyou (the east/west thing making for a fun reversal with Japan and China's geography), but it's less likely to be the case with Lihaku, or Fuyou the dancing concubine -- her name is written 芙蓉, "cotton rose", which is pronounced "fuyou" in Japanese and "fúróng" in Mandarin.
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Covnam
 Posts: 3737 |
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A week was definitely too long, so great to see it come back with a good episode. I was worried that the change in venue would mean we wouldn't be dealing with any more mysteries, but the next episode preview seems to get rid of that notion.
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MFrontier
Posts: 12011 |
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New OP! While I'll miss Maomao seducing me with her dancing, this one definitely teased the plot of the second half more (and is a treasure trove for novel readers). Also Lihaku absurd muscles and Pairin absurd boobs.
Also that was a nice Jinshi ED and also a surprisingly romantic one at that. Just couldn't resist a shot of him shirtless next to a windowsill, huh? The rare moment between Jinshi and the Emperor. Considering what we know about their familial ties, and their possible real family ties, there were several layers in that conversation. Jinshi is continually stunned speechless by Maomao's beauty when she gets dolled up but finally realizes that she needs her freckles less she garner more (male) attention. Suiren reminds me of Yurie from My Happy Marriage. I assume she's been taking care of Jinshi since he was a kid. And she approves of Maomao! Jinshi's plan to make Maomao a court lady so it would be easier to woo her was pretty much doomed to fail. Gaoshun probably realized that early on. Maomao still has to ward off ladies who think she doesn't deserve to be there but Kaori Nazuka seems focused on her for an entirely different reason. Also monocle dude. |
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AspiringShoulder
 Posts: 12 |
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By the way, in case anyone's interested, I made a spreadsheet comparing Chinese vs. Japanese pronunciations for Apothecary.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NK5XSwMNrbOEhnUcF8Grfh_nVkIPszqFnAUr1jczI18/edit?usp=sharing |
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Shay Guy
Posts: 2166 |
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With lots of material from much later in the novels, it should be added. Also, this is my 2,000th post here. Not what I'd have picked for the milestone, but, woo. |
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InfiniteNothingness
 Posts: 129 |
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Hey, this is pretty neat. Thanks for sharing.
This is pretty quality on Hyūga Natsu's part. |
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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So last time I mentioned my dissatisfaction with the trope of Maomao being actually beautiful I was told that she wasn't supposed to be beautiful and people weren't gawking at her for being beautiful... and yet in this episode we have people not only gawking but actually commenting on how beautiful she is. Maybe in the LN it's established that she's not really all that pretty, but it seems the anime has its own vision, and here she's supposed to be really beautiful without her freckles and being all dolled up. Honestly I'm still not fond of it.
Another thing I'm not fond of either is the show's tendency to use the Not Like Those Stupid Girls trope to elevate Maomao. I really dislike that trope, and I wasn't happy to see it in this episode, multiple times. I mean, yes, I get it, she's special, but there are ways to show that without leaning into the "she's superior to other women because she's not fawning over the hot guy/she's hiding her natural beauty/she's not into silly things/etc" angle. Anyway, all this aside, the show continues to be a pleasant watch. Clearly her lineage (as well as Jinshi's) is going to be one of the main mysteries in the second cour, and I wonder if it's going to be tied into a larger plot involving the new characters, or if it'll remain as just a character background. Personally, I'm sure she's actually the daughter of someone important, and Jinshi is clearly not an eunuch and is related to the emperor. |
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primalmaximus
Posts: 106 |
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I'm honestly surprised that the novels are so dense that it took twelve episodes to cover the events of the first novel. That by itself would make me interested in checking out the series. But the fact that the story is so damned good, makes me even more interested in reading the novels.
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