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EP. REVIEW: The Apothecary Diaries


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L'Imperatore



Joined: 24 Mar 2014
Posts: 936
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 11:31 am Reply with quote
Just got the manga ordered thanks to the premiere Sad
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Nachtwandler



Joined: 17 Mar 2014
Posts: 565
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 11:37 am Reply with quote
This low rating for all 3 eps. God, typical ANN.
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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3561
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 11:45 am Reply with quote
Nachtwandler wrote:
This low rating for all 3 eps. God, typical ANN.

If you mean the community score then I don't see what you mean, that's a pretty good score across them all, almost on par with Frieren.
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Gnarth



Joined: 06 Oct 2023
Posts: 175
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 12:07 pm Reply with quote
I had pretty high expectations, but this chunk of episodes absolutely blew them away. I already love Maomao and Jinshi (what a waste!) as well as the setting, hope to see their relationship growing and getting even weirder and funnier.

Great visuals and character designs (all the ladies are simply gorgeous), and amazing direction by Norihiro Naganuma, who made me fall in love with Ancient Magus Bride season one and while season two is suffering his absence, he got me here again with his gentle flow and insert songs that made me emotional again in episode three. Which, by the way, is my favourite of these with its simple but heartfelt story of a woman who never gives up on her happiness no matter the odds.

Finally, three composers are working on the OST, including Kevin Penkin, who at this point needs no introduction, and you can already tell. By far my second favourite anime of the season behind Frieren.
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ab2143



Joined: 09 Jan 2021
Posts: 755
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 12:33 pm Reply with quote
I’m expecting the first four volumes of the light novels to be covered
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Shay Guy



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 2291
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 1:11 pm Reply with quote
I'm nine volumes into the manga, but I decided to read ahead in volume 3 of the light novel because I'd been able to get it out from the library. I'm not a big ebook guy, so I'm quite happy with the news that it's getting a print release.

If anyone's confused by this review's use of "Inner Palace" and "Rear Palace", they're two different translations for the same thing. The official English translation of the LN uses "rear palace", and the manga translation uses "inner court". (Another translation difference I've noticed: Consort Gyokuyo's home is the "Jade Pavilion" in the LN and the "Jade Palace" in the manga.) Crunchyroll's subtitles seem to be going with the LN version.

I'm a little annoyed by the subtitles using "Pairin" for the elite courtesan Maomao's close to, especially since the baby princess is still "Lingli", and it's the exact same character for rin/ling.

Reactions like those in the preview guide have made me wonder if the mystery aspect of the series gets oversold, because the character dynamics are absolutely the best thing about it -- and above all, Maomao herself, this absolutely glorious autistic gremlin, this delightful little weirdo, this utter human disaster of a drug otaku. God, I love her so much.

Quote:
The opening mystery, about the arsenic-based makeup, is also ripped right from the history of humanity's remarkably bad decisions – arsenic beauty aids were on sale at least as late as 1889, long after people knew it was a poison. If you've got any knowledge of arsenic poisoning (from reading, of course!), the truth of the face powder and the sickened women and dead children is easy to figure out, but even without that, the resolution to the mystery is grounded in reality.

Is it supposed to be arsenic, or lead?
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nl_TvdL





PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 1:19 pm Reply with quote
The whole kidnapping thing felt a little off to me, like she didn’t even care. But from there, i really liked everything about it! Great start of the series!
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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3561
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 1:45 pm Reply with quote
Shay Guy wrote:
I'm nine volumes into the manga, but I decided to read ahead in volume 3 of the light novel because I'd been able to get it out from the library. I'm not a big ebook guy, so I'm quite happy with the news that it's getting a print release.

There's two manga adaptations of this. The one licensed by squareenix(12 volumes so far, 9 in English) is a bit looser adaptation, the other one(17 volumes, ongoing) follows the novel more faithfully, unfortunately the latter one isn't licensed nor is there any active fan-translation...
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Posts: 2652
Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 2:09 pm Reply with quote
Shay Guy wrote:
Is it supposed to be arsenic, or lead?

I believe arsenic, based on the symptoms. I think white lead makeup wasn't as commonly a powder as arsenic makeup was. I could be wrong, though.
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NeedMoreCats
Subscriber



Joined: 06 Oct 2018
Posts: 333
Location: Westchester, NY
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 3:20 pm Reply with quote
Princess_Irene wrote:
I believe arsenic, based on the symptoms. I think white lead makeup wasn't as commonly a powder as arsenic makeup was. I could be wrong, though.

Just going by the symptoms, definitely would go with arsenic. Lead poisoning would be less likely to lead to death, and would take much longer to recover from, and would leave lasting (possibly permanent) deficits in its wake.

I just so excited about this anime. I’m loving it so far. I think Aoi Yuki is perfectly cast as Maomao. All the chibi stuff totally makes me laugh. The banter between Maomao and Jinshi is just the best.

I’m afraid to comment too much since I’m completely up to date with the LNs. I would be mortified to spoil anyone’s enjoyment of the show. But, oh, it’s SO much fun watching the story in anime form!
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Nachtwandler



Joined: 17 Mar 2014
Posts: 565
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 3:21 pm Reply with quote
Princess_Irene wrote:
I believe arsenic, based on the symptoms. I think white lead makeup wasn't as commonly a powder as arsenic makeup was. I could be wrong, though.

Light novels clearly say arsenic (not sure why they cut this detail from the anime). They also cut the explanation why Gyokuyo was not affected while Lihua and children were: she is half-foreigner and has naturally lighter skin tone so she has no need to use much face powder.

Blanchimont wrote:
If you mean the community score then I don't see what you mean, that's a pretty good score across them all, almost on par with Frieren.

I mean ANN reviewers score. If I got it right they put eps. 1-2 as 3.5 and ep 3 as 4. Pretty low for one of the best shows airing IMHO. And I remeber ANN only giving B rating to LNs.

Blanchimont wrote:
There's two manga adaptations of this. The one licensed by squareenix(12 volumes so far, 9 in English) is a bit looser adaptation, the other one(17 volumes, ongoing) follows the novel more faithfully, unfortunately the latter one isn't licensed nor is there any active fan-translation...

I get it that some people prefer manga over books but this one is probably is the best written LN I read and official English translation is pretty good so I do hope more people give it a chance (yes, I know the publisher refused to make a paper version but e-books are readily available).
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Electric Wooloo



Joined: 19 Aug 2020
Posts: 314
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 4:24 pm Reply with quote
Nachtwandler wrote:
I mean ANN reviewers score. If I got it right they put eps. 1-2 as 3.5 and ep 3 as 4. Pretty low for one of the best shows airing IMHO. And I remeber ANN only giving B rating to LNs.

Since when is a 4/5 low? If you rate everything 5/5 no notes then what do you rate the truly exceptional episodes? As someone not familiar with the source material I also gave the episodes a 4/5. It was very good, the characters and tone where perfect, but a few things I felt could be better. The circumstances around Fuyou in general felt a bit lacking. Some of it might be foreshadowing however.

And for what it's worth, you're reading the scores wrong
1 reviewer gave the first episode in the preview guide a 3.5/5
A second reviewer in the preview guide gave it a 3.5/5
And the weekly reviewer gave the first 3 episodes a 4/5


Last edited by Electric Wooloo on Sun Oct 22, 2023 4:56 pm; edited 2 times in total
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MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
Posts: 13633
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 4:41 pm Reply with quote
Everything about this was top-notch...the animation, the Opening, the VA's, the direction, the beautiful (and busty) women, Jinshi and Maomao's dynamic, Aoi Yuki as Maomao...I'm glad they're adapting the series well.

Poor Maomao's dad though.
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flamemasterelan



Joined: 17 Apr 2022
Posts: 494
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 4:46 pm Reply with quote
Nachtwandler wrote:
This low rating for all 3 eps. God, typical ANN.

Yeah, an "almost perfect" rating. Such a low score.
Do you also complain whenever a Zelda game only gets an 8/10?
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Nachtwandler



Joined: 17 Mar 2014
Posts: 565
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 5:09 pm Reply with quote
Electric Wooloo wrote:
Since when is a 4/5 low? If you rate everything 5/5 no notes then what do you rate the truly exceptional episodes? As someone not familiar with the source material I also gave the episodes a 4/5. It was very good, the characters and tone where perfect, but a few things I felt could be better. The circumstances around Fuyou in general felt a bit lacking. Some of it might be foreshadowing however.

And for what it's worth, you're reading the scores wrong
1 reviewer gave the first episode in the preview guide a 3.5/5
A second reviewer in the preview guide gave it a 3.5/5
And the weekly reviewer gave the first 3 episodes a 4/5

Yeah, I read the scores wrong but still 3.5 for preview presuming they actually saw the episodes is low and how LNs were rated (it is one of the best written light novels out there and B is like "average", ANN gave higher scores for way worse but popular works).

flamemasterelan wrote:
Yeah, an "almost perfect" rating. Such a low score.
Do you also complain whenever a Zelda game only gets an 8/10?

I am not a fan of JRPGs. But I do think ep. 3 deserved 4.5.


Last edited by Nachtwandler on Sun Oct 22, 2023 5:13 pm; edited 1 time in total
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