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Shogakukan Asia Releases Frieren: The Anthology, The Apothecary Diaries Manga

Shogakukan Asia describes Frieren: The Anthology:

From Frieren: Remnants of The Departed comes a collection of five short stories inspired by the adventures of Frieren and her companions of the present and past.

From tales of Frieren's whimsical obsessions, her mishaps in the kitchen, and the origins of a young hero Himmel and his childhood friend Heiter, each story provides a whimsical imagining of their journey off the beaten path, exploring new chapters yet to be told.

1. Frieren Wants to Learn About Humans by Jona
2. Himmel's Travel Log by Kazumi Yamaguchi
3. The Adventures of the Hero Himmel by Ren Miura
4. Frieren in the Kitchen by Kassan
5. Frieren Makes a Detour by Soichi Igarashi

The anthology manga collects five short one-shot spinoffs of Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe's Sōsō no Frieren manga. The one-shot manga all debuted in May 2023, and the anthology collection shipped in Japan in December 2023.

Yamada and Abe launched the ongoing manga in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine in April 2020. The manga has won several awards, including the New Creator Prize for the 25th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2021 and the 14th Manga Taisho Award in 2021. In addition, the manga was nominated for Best Shōnen Manga for Kodansha's 45th annual Manga Awards in 2021 and the 46th awards in May 2022. Shogakukan Asia releases the manga under the title Frieren: Remnants of the Departed.

The Frieren: Beyond Journey's End television anime premiered with a two-hour special on September 29, 2023. It is the first ever television anime series to premiere in NTV's "Kinyō Roadshow," a Friday evening programming block usually reserved for feature films. The anime then started airing later episodes on October 6 at 11:00 p.m. JST in NTV's new anime timeslot, "FRIDAY ANIME NIGHT." The first season ran for two consecutive cours (quarters of a year) until March 2024. Muse Asia streamed the anime as it aired in Japan. The anime will have a second season.

The size of a city, a legion of women, reserved solely for the Emperor—this is the Inner Palace. Into it is thrown Maomao, an apothecary who was kidnapped and sold into service.

Now, she has to survive working as a maidservant… but all is not well in Paradise.

The emperor's children are dying one after the other under mysterious circumstances. Is it really a curse as the rumours say? A certain apothecary might just have the answer… but will they even take her seriously?

Kurata's manga adapts Natsu Hyūga's The Apothecary Diaries (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto) light novel series. Kurata launched the manga in Monthly Sunday GX magazine in August 2017. Shogakukan's Sunday Webry manga website started publishing the manga online in December 2018. Shogakukan published the manga's 18th volume on March 19.

Kusuriya no Hitorigoto: Maomao no Kōkyū Nazotoki Techō is a separate manga adaptation of the original light novel series from Nekokurage's manga adaptation titled The Apothecary Diaries. Nekokurage's The Apothecary Diaries manga adaptation launched in Square Enix's Monthly Big Gangan magazine in May 2017. Square Enix published the manga's 14th volume on September 25.

Original light novel author Natsu Hyūga previously admitted that they do not know why there are two manga adaptations of their novels. Both manga launched only three months apart from each other.

Natsu Hyūga began serializing the original story on the "Shōsetsuka ni Narō" (Let's Become Novelists) website in October 2011. Shufunotomo began publishing the novels in print volume with illustrations by Touko Shino in August 2014.

The light novel series inspired an anime that premiered in October 2023 with the first three episodes, and aired for two cours (quarters of a year). The anime will have a second season that will premiere on January 10.

Thanks to Kim P. for the news tip.

Source: Shogakukan Asia