I debated heavily if I wanted to recap this series alongside JoJo’s Steel Ball Run. Partially because it is already the third season and I didn’t do any of this for the previous seasons and partially because I do at some point want to look at the novels as well (the first 10 are on my shelf, just haven’t gotten to them yet). But what convinced me to have a look at this season more in depth than just watching the episodes and calling it a day was the upcoming series I announced earlier this week. One of the genres I will be dissecting is fantasy, and although this series is not particularly high fantasy, it is fantasy nonetheless and a very good one at that. So with that all said, please join me each week for a look at Apothecary Diaries and what it brings to the table.

And we start off on quite a bad foot as life in a fantasy world – just like historically in our past – isn’t exactly kind to most people. A drought has hit the region and people are starving. And from the looks of it, someone is trying to use these problems to their advantage. And then the opening, is that Yorushika I’m hearing? Of course it is, no one does this sound quite as well as Yorushika. There’s a lot going on in this opening and it has some beautiful shots mixed throughout which I will show off a little bit later on. For now, we have a plague of locusts to deal with.

We get a little bit of lore here about how this world works. The Emperor has – in the past – granted twelve clans to be the named clans which have a character in their name unique to their clan. One of these clans was the Shi clan, which has just been destroyed. And I was going to ask this but the question was answered before I had the chance, but these clans are indeed named after the zodiac. I absolutely adore the myths and fiction surrounding the zodiac and think it makes for a very interesting backdrop in stories. There’s enough there that you have some baseline setting that everyone can agree on but because it’s a myth, you can also freely work with it and mold it into something new. I wonder if this means there is a thirteenth outsider clan that is trying to join the Zodiac somehow, or if we’re forgoing that part of the story. Things are moving in the palace with Gyokuyou becoming the empress and Jinshi being revealed to be the emperor’s younger brother. And of course Lakan is late but at least he has a nice excuse. And it’s probably for the best as it looks like the vultures are all over the place.

We finally return to Maomao, who has returned to her home near the pleasure district. She gets to watch the owner of the pleasure house – not the old woman who is making the real decisions – being berated by the aforementioned old woman. She already has a nicely established sibling relationship with Chou-u and the two get to join in on breakfast. It’s hollow locusts. Yay. We are reminded a little of what happened to Chou-u – namely dying and coming back which cost him some usage of his limbs and most of his memories – but he does remember that skinny insects are often ahead of a bad harvest. While Chou-u sets up his portrait drawing business we also get a little bit more insight into the pleasure district and its operations. We’ve mainly seen it through the lens of Maomao who worked at the Verdigris house as an assistant of sorts, but now we get to see the darker underbelly. Now, I’m someone who thinks that sex work should be allowed within a country but that it is very important that when it is allowed, there are laws in place to make sure the people working within this profession are protected. It is also important of course that there are solid systems in place to make sure those laws are being kept. My main reason for this way of doing it is that it is a service that people will want to have and want to over regardless of if it is illegal and if it can be done in such a way that people do not get exploited – or are less likely to get exploited – then I think that is the best way of approaching it. But as you can see, even if there are laws in place to allow businesses like this to operate, if there are no clear systems in place to protect the people, then things will quickly go south. If there’s blood in the water and everyone knows it, but no one is cleaning the water tank, then you know something needs to change.

With a locust plague heading towards the empire and Maomao now being aware that the possibility is high due to Chou-u’s drawing, she can’t help but get involved in the situation. Even though she is no longer employed in the rear palace, she still cares about Jinshi and the people she met there. So she contacts Lihaku to see what might be going on. She knows she can abuse his love Pairin after all. Maybe someone can remind me, but have we encountered these books before? We must have because she brought it up here, but I don’t remember. My memory is already pretty bad in general but with watching and reading so many different shows, it sometimes gets a bit jumbled and the details elude me. There is a lot of hidden lore in this show which makes it great but with such long times between seasons it’s kind of lost on me and I imagine I’m not alone in this. Either way, we are reminded that there’s a difference between locusts and grasshoppers and the hollow tasting locusts were in fact the latter. So that explains why they taste bad. With all of this information, hopefully Maomao can prepare for the worst and clue in Jinshi. Either way, this guard seems like a decent sort, despite his thieving. I hope we get some more reminders of who all of these characters are and what their roles are in the story. We’ve got to pay close attention at least, but the worldbuilding is solid so if we do pay close attention, we should be fine. I enjoy being back in this world and it’s making me excited to eventually dive into the novels as well. I’ve got so much other reading to do first though, so it might take a while. Thanks for reading! We have limited time to read things each day and as always I’m glad you chose my ramblings for your entertainment.