Why Apothecary Diaries Is the Pringles of Anime

The Apothecary Diaries is the Pringles of anime: you can't stop with just one episode. But for a show that doesn't have lots of action, emotional gut punches, or crazy plot twists in the early going, what is it that makes The Apothecary Diaries such an entertaining watch? In this video, we'll look at and how Maomao and Jinshi make this a must-watch show, and how the high-quality sound and visuals make it a smooth watch while you're waiting for the mysteries to pick up.
Also, not sure where to put this, but I find it hilarious that Aoi Yuki, Maomao's voice actress in Japanese, once raffled off the chance to be slapped by her to one of her lucky fans. Jinshi would be first in line for that!
NOTES ABOUT NAMES:
"Jinshi" being called by his title rather than by a given name was apparently not unusual for eunuchs employed by the Imperial Chinese court. The same thing happens in Raven of the Inner Palace, another anime with a similar setting, where the head of the Imperial library is known by his title, and when the main character asks him what his real name is, he responds that he was given no other name besides his title.
If you're from the West and you look up the meaning of Chinese names online, you can run into some of the same problems that you get with looking up Japanese names: the same sounding word can have multiple different meanings based on the characters used to spell it. Chinese can pose an added difficulty for Westerners because it is a tonal language: words that would look identical if spelled with the Roman alphabet can have different meanings based on the tones used to pronounce them.
So one form of "mao" does mean cat, but repeating it as "Maomao" can change the meaning and make it more playful; in this case, it's a slang term for a girl. It's a similar situation to the word "bao," which can be "bag" or "treasure" by itself, but if you want to use it as a slang term for a baby, it needs to be repeated (Bao Bao). I should say that I am by no means an expert or even fluent in any East Asian languages, so if anyone knows more about this or can correct me, please post in the comments.
Streaming Links:
The Apothecary Diaries
www.crunchyroll.com/series/G3KHEVDJ7/the-apothecary-diaries
Chapters:
00:00 Apothecary Diaries = Pringles
00:37 Maomao
01:48 Jinshi
03:18 Locations & Foreshadowing
04:26 Music & Visuals
05:47 Mysteries
06:59 Rating & Gummy Bears
Copyright Stuff:
ANIME
The Apothecary Diaries
© Hyuganatsu, Imagica Infos/"The Apothecary Diaries"Project
IMAGES
Ivar Leidus, "The Hass avocado - single and halved. Grown in Colombia"
Cropped
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
David O'Hare, "Gummy bears"
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
Evan Swigart, "Hot Dog"
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
Famartin, "A Pepperidge Farm Soft White Hot Dog Bun in the the Dulles section of Sterling, Loudoun County, Virginia"
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
kitty.green66, "Cute cat"
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
Sheilalau at English Wikipedia, "Panda Cub from Wolong, Sichuan, China.JPG"
Basile Morin, "Lao little girl smiling on the island of Don Som.jpg"
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
Ian Skipworth, "Scorpis violacea (Blue maomao).jpg"
Regina Rullmann, "GarGOyle̠ Projektbild.png"
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
Pmlydon, "Daejeon Hanbat Baseball Stadium Summer 2023.jpg"
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
MUSIC
King Canyon, "Mulholland"
Cold Funk - Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100499
Artist: incompetech.com/
#apothecarydiaries

[@chowspecial]

The comment on how the characters aren't taking a modern viewpoint is on point

[@littleorphananimeYT]

It bugs me when every character has to have the same political views as a show's modern writer, no matter if it makes no sense for the time period the story takes place in.

[@chowspecial]

@@littleorphananimeYT totally - and it doesn't shy away from the issues either.

[@Chairman_Miao]

6:50 the Chinese characters corresponding to Maomao here is literally “cat cat”. Maomao is how it’s pronounced in Mandarin.

[@littleorphananimeYT]

Thanks for pointing that out: that helps.

[@GaarasBFF0911]

A reason why her name is interpreted as little girl or girl is that in Asian cultures your child nickname is usually a shortened version of your full name, then said twice. So Mao, being cat, and Mao Mao being baby cat or cat cat. My personal headcannon is that Maomao is what the girls at the brothel named her, since she's like a little cat that just shows up anywhere, at any time. Not sure if that's her real name, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is considering Maomao's back story. And another brothel older sister character being named Meimei. I have a feeling she was brought up in the brothel in the same way as Maomao, and the reason why she likes to be extra endearing towards Maomao. And I don't want to give too much of the upcoming plot away cause I went ahead and read the manga and don't want to spoil the rest of the season 😅

[@littleorphananimeYT]

I knew they did this with panda names, so it's good to know that it works for humans, too. 😆

[@angelofdeath0203]

Great video, I will definitely need to check it out now

[@littleorphananimeYT]

Thanks. Hopefully it's one that will be up your alley.

[@alt-animefan3231]

Read the manga, it's amazing especially frogs.

[@jimii_47]

As always, loved your review 🙌

[@littleorphananimeYT]

Thanks! When people get something out of the review, I always want to make some more.

[@Gabriel-l]

I've heard an intersting take on the first OP from another KZbin video. That being MaoMao isn't really that expressive or enthusiastic except when she is around medicines, poisons or herbs. The OP shows her being surrounded by flowers. We as the viewer, are overwhelmed by the myriad of flowers, however, MaoMao finds the flowers and the mystery of them either being poisons or medicines... shall we say excitable. Note that the OP shows that this is an ethereal form of MaoMao and this form returns to her earthly body at the end of the OP. This probably best explains why there is a disconnect between how the OP potrays MaoMao and her usual self in the anime. We can infer that her ethereal form shows how MaoMao truly feels about the mysteries surrounding medicines, but her earthly body is level headed and savvy about her circumstances. In short, the OP is meant to be a visualisation of MaoMao's obsession with medicines and poisons. The YT video then goes on to offer that perhaps the directors of the Apothecary Diaries thought that a Seinen anime would need a marketing boost and they decided that they needed a slightly arousing OP to attract attention from the dominant Shounen audience. I find this argument more convincing, as the first explanation was not obvious to me until the YT OP explained it to me. I personally agree with you that the director's missed the mark with the OP's visuals and song choice, it is not representative of the show's theme or its main protagonist and unnecessarily h0rni. I'm glad they fixed this in the 2nd OP though.

[@littleorphananimeYT]

That's an interesting explanation of the OP (first one). If you remember the title of the video, go ahead and post it here, or put a link. I'd like to check it out.

[@Gabriel-l]

@@littleorphananimeYT sure, its The Apothecary Diaries: An Anime Betrayed By It's Light Novel (by the Merri Kiwi). OP comments starting in 27:15. But I think the whole video is worth a watch.

[@Tealovestea]

Have literally been saying the exact same thing about the op!

[@littleorphananimeYT]

Oh good, it's not just me.

[@Zeon081]

The first OP literally spoils the end of a season. It will make sense when we get there.

[@littleorphananimeYT]

Now I'm curious. I'll have to remember to check back after the season.

[@ElaroLVI]

I was also put off by the OP until someone pointed out that it's an allegory for Jinshi's feelings about Maomao and how those feelings protect and lift her up, even if she isn't aware of it. The lyrics of Hana ni Natte (the OP) sound like what an admirer of Maomao would say, and the outfit and dance look a bit like someone's intimate fantasy. ;-)

[@vvivi6110]

I think it's also possible that the 2nd OP (Ambivalent) is about Jinshi's admiration for Maomao too. I mean, the lyrics literally seem like they just tore a page of Jinshi's diary out and made it into a song, lol. The visuals of Hana ni Natte also kind of put me off, but the singing is great. And I do think it's definitely about Maomao in some way, though not as strongly as the 2nd OP

[@littleorphananimeYT]

Ooh, I really like that idea of Hana ni Natte being from Jinshi's perspective. That would explain so much.

[@littleorphananimeYT]

I agree that the singing is great, which is one of the reasons I wished the whole thing was tied together a bit more. I've been listening to the song by itself recently, and I like it a lot better as just a standalone piece of music.

[@GarnetReaper]

I 100% agree with you about the first opening. Didn't really fit but someone online said it was Jensen (i can't think how to spell his name right now) point if view of Maomao, which I could see but still didn't like it

[@littleorphananimeYT]

Someone else mentioned that idea that the OP is from Jinshi's perspective, which I think makes a lot of sense. Still seems like an odd choice to introduce viewers to the show that way, though.

[@Kjaskar3003]

When I first heard the opening I also said she sounded like Shakira :)

[@littleorphananimeYT]

She could make a living being a Shakira impersonator.

[@septimus4762]

Jinshi pro’bly isn’t a title cuz… don’t wanna spoil it but again, as of today the anime story has progressed to a point to disprove that theory Again, the best examinée in the national exam wd be zhuang yuan, 2nd best wd be jin shi and 3rd wd be ju ren If it were a title ppl wd address him as X Jinshi (X being his surname), so there’s that as well Yeah this show is like junk food… difficult to put down but not good

[@littleorphananimeYT]

Yeah, it might not be a title, but I do like the coincidence (if it is a coincidence) between his name and the title.