I decided to rewatch some episodes of The Apothecary Diaries season one before jumping fully into season two, and see ehn, this is one of those anime I don't mind revisiting because it just gets better the second time around.
For anybody who has not even watched this before, this is a story follows Maomao, a young girl raised in a red light district, working as an apothecary alongside her adoptive father, using her sharp knowledge of medicine to treat the people around her, but that peaceful life doesn't last though, because she gets kidnapped by bandits and sold off into servitude at the Imperial Palace, specifically into the Rear Palace, where the Emperor's whole hierarchy of concubines live, so now, for most people, that would be a devastating turn of events, forced away from the life you built, thrown into a completely unfamiliar world with no say in it, but Maomao is not most people, she is very resourceful in a ways that honestly impressed me even on this rewatch....
What starts off as just a laundry maid position quickly shifts into something much bigger once Maomao notices something strange happening to the Emperor's infant heirs, who keep falling mysteriously ill , and instead of staying quiet and minding her business like a normal servant would..... she steps in and actually figures out what is causing it, using her medical background to solve what everyone else had written off as some unexplainable illness , that single moment basically changes the entire trajectory of her life at the palace, because it catches the attention of Jinshi, this beautiful, composed eunuch who oversees operations in the Rear Palace. He promotes her, and just like that, Maomao goes from being an overlooked servant to a lady in waiting and taste tester for one of the Emperor's favorite concubines.
From there, the season basically becomes this string of medical mysteries, one after the other, each one letting Maomao flex her knowledge in ways that had me genuinely engaged rewatching it , a sleepwalking concubine who might be dealing with something more than just poor sleep, a suspicious death, disappearances, curses that turn out to have far more logical explanations once Maomao starts digging, what I love about the way this show handles it is that Maomao is not solving these mysteries with magic or convenient plot armor, she is solving them with actual reasoning, actual knowledge of poisons and medicine, and that grounded approach is what makes the show stand out from a lot of other palace dramas.
And underneath all these individual cases, there is clearly a bigger web being built, little threads of political scheming and power struggles hiding behind what looks like isolated incidents on the surface wattching it a second time, I caught details I definitely missed the first time around, small hints dropped early on that connect to bigger reveals later, which honestly made the rewatch worth it on its own.
The dynamic between Maomao and Jinshi also deserves a big mention, because iy is not just your typical rushed romance setup, It is slow, layered with mutual curiosity and respect, Jinshi clearly intrigued by how sharp she is, and Maomao mostly just trying to survive palace politics without getting too entangled in anyone's drama, romantic or otherwise.
Rewatching season one before going into season two properly reminded me why this show got so much love in the first place, It is indeed smart, it is patient with its storytelling, and it trusts you to pay attention instead of spelling everything out, if season two builds on this foundation the way I'm expecting, I think I'm in for something really good.
Rating: 80/100
Originally posted through scrobble.life/anime.
