WHY HAVEN'T WE WATCHED THIS PEAK?! 💐Apothecary Diaries Season 1 Ep 1 & 2 REACTION!!

[@FlubbedPig]

Basically, the servant girls are largely sent by their families to work in the palace, with a fixed portion of their pay being sent back to their families, seemingly on a standard 2-year contract. Maomao has essentially been caught-up in a scam where-in kidnappers claim to be the girl's family, and forcibly enlist them into the palace's service to leech off their salary. The kidnapping is not condoned/orchestrated by the government/palace officials, it just flies under the radar.

[@AEGIS55842]

Yes, exactly this. I was looking to see if anyone else had explained this here.

[@oleub23]

and its her word against the kidnappers, and she lives in a society that would inherently distrust the claims of a woman over her 'father'

[@BlackSmokeDMax]

I believe it is 2000 "concubines and servants" not "2000 concubines" and their servants.

[@ghostphil6030]

Yeah, and most certainly not a 50:50 split

[@jangjangjangjong]

And some concubines could have 10 or 20 servants dedicated to them

[@techmage89]

Yeah, it's probably closer to 50-100 concubines, figure they have some ladies in waiting and lots of serving girls to take care of menial tasks. Once you factor that in, it's not unreasonable that there are 20-40 servants for every concubine.

[@KaizenEdwardTopacio]

Basically the same if the Emperor took a fancy on the servant. Basically they are the reserves

[@ruhuqueen2193]

50:45 no one else except emperor and gaushin (jinshi's assistant) knows about him being there as a loyalty test Jinshi being the most beautiful person in the nation is a part of thr plot, so both male and female fawn over him

[@maxojavierrojasurzua5746]

Maomao one of the best female protagonists of recent years in anime. I plan to watch the first season again and then I'll go on to watch the second. Enjoy this series. ❤💐

[@Sora_Taki]

I think so too

some tidbit info: in the ye old days make up poweders used mercury as a primary ingredient, so they were poisonous believe it or not chocolate is actually an aphrodisiac, its just that since we eat it from our childhood it doesnt work on us

[@LeMrAlpaca]

I believe in this case it was Lead instead, but point stands

[@IZEASGT]

Yeah, this particular makeup is Venetian ceruse. It was real, and it really had lead, and it really was toxic.

[@Le7emeChat]

Pure cacao/black chocolate is aphrodisiac. Not milk-chocolate, or modern chocolate (cut with oil). Plus getting used/building resistance to it is really fast.

[@Scyon13]

​@@LeMrAlpaca yep lead poisoning

[@badgerdax1763]

Always happy to see more Apothecary Diaries reactions! For some ancient China context regarding how the employment works in the rear palace; essentially it is common for families to sell their offspring into work. Many families have lots of children specifically for money, so the family get part of the cut in pay. The Emperor offers a 2 year term for employment as servants in exchange for the family getting a cut of the money, so it's a deal very many take on. But whilst it is supposedly an honour to work beneath the Emperor, not every person offered is willing, so there is little difference between a young girl being offered who is kicking and screaming as her family force her into work for their own gain, vs a kidnapped person. Because of this, there is a popular smuggling ring around kidnapping young girls to sell into the business, framing themselves as their family and thus receiving the family cut of the job. Because these are such lower end jobs as well, there isn't much regulation towards investigating and ensuring those employed are actually from where claimed to have come from. Mao Mao of course knows there is no point in trying to put up a fuss when her low laundry role means she is very easy to discard of, and it's just easier in the long run to finish the work and get home when she can.

[@MichaelAury]

Love this show. This + Frieren ran at the same time and it was such a good winter

[@mrpeanutbutter6817]

48:00 About this theory, Gyokuyou was actively trying to save the prince and Lihua by warning her about the makeup powder. If she wanted to climb up the ladder at all costs, she didn't need to do that, as her and her head lady in waiting were the only ones who saw the message. Obviously, they ARE competing against each other, but i think the warning makes it clear that Gyokuyou draws a line at least at people getting hurt.

[@tararocksong5085]

Competing against one another is one thing, but the line that should never be crossed is poisoning/murdering children.

[@twinkisam]

Lol I find it funny how u guys spent so much time thinking who & why someone gave jinshi aphrodisiac, when it was just some minister being gay lol 😂

[@aqcchi1961]

😂😂😂

[@BOLDcast]

Lmao

[@dididyo2253]

@twinkisam After hearing Carson theorize hard, I kinda get his theory too!!

[@twinkisam]

@@dididyo2253 lol I can see as this show has a lot of other mystery apart from this, but his theory doesn't make sense bcz no one else knows about jinshi being there as test. So they can't subotage him for that reason

[@dididyo2253]

@twinkisam hmm good point, but it also would be an assumption that nobody knows :D

[@crow-the-cryptid]

To clarify; it's not all rhododendron haha. The makeup was lead and the wood was just another random poisonous plant.

[@IZEASGT]

The “Pai” in “Pairin” means “white”, FWIW. 白鈴, I think - “white bell”. The latter kanji is actually the same as the “Ling” in Princess Lingli’s name. Romanization can be weird with this series.

[@dididyo2253]

MaoMao basically means CatCat

[@recklesserves155]

Im so happy you guys are checking this series out! Hope you guys enjoy the ride

[@dididyo2253]

The deduction that the babies weren’t subject to a planned poisoning was due to the fact that not only the prince was poisoned, but the princess too. Somebody who would want to kill the successor would only poison the male baby. I guess you guys already know, but since a female baby would historically not be as important to the emperor as a male one. This only explains MaoMaos assumption, and I do get Carsons point. If somebody would like to manipulate the position of multiple courtesans they would maybe poison/assasinate them and the babies altogether. However killing them to climb the ranks does not make sense, since the emperor chooses his courtesans based on political importance and maybe his personal taste. Since this deduction is less clear and holds up rather loosely it seems like maomao makes her assumptions logically and based on likelihood. It’s not impossible that the poisoning was deliberate, it’s just less likely. A double edged way of investigation.

[@EronanTruth]

It was that the prince and her mother were poisoned. However, between the princess and her mother only the princess was poisoned. So out of the 4 prominent people, it was 3 people that were poisoned. If you wanted to poison the princess, you'd probably want to poison her mother as well.

[@Birthday888]

Mao Mao's deduction is still the most likely outcome. It makes no sense for someone to use a slow-acting poison to assassinate one of the babies in such an obvious manner. People around them are already suspecting foul play, and far more lethal and fast-acting toxins are pretty easily obtainable if one knows where to look. That plus, as you said, killing the female baby makes no sense from a political standpoint. Thus Mao Mao's assumption is that the poisoning is accidental, because of how obviously sloppy this "poisoning" is.

[@dididyo2253]

@ yeah, that’s what I said in the end. MaoMaos deduction is the most likely option :) Also good point about more effective toxins!

[@GTBX01]

Apothecary Diaries is an accessible anime because it's beautiful, has plenty of humor and engaging characters...but don't underestimate the complexity of its particularly good writing, its attention to every detail, its serious and dark themes, and its complex plots. It's an anime that lets viewers figure out part of its universe for themselves, and some of the links between characters and events. You'll learn about how works this imperial China-inspired world, the structure of the palace, the inner court/Rear Palace (where there are only women and eunuchs) and the outer court. As well as hierarchical positions. The Rear Palace has 2,500 people divided into categories: consorts, ladies-in-waiting, eunuchs and servants. Of course, it's not 2000 concubines (2000 concubines would take almost 6 years to spend just one night with each one).

[@Eli-bj2ik]

So there are a lot of concubines in the palace but most of them are actually for dignitaries and other workers. Only the high rank ones are for the emperor himself. Also Mao is Chinese for Cat! That’s why they portray her as one!

[@therethan-family1234]

Just to note: Gyokogou looks mature, but she's only 19 years old. She is very fond of any kind of entertainment that the comedy-act of Maomao + Jinshi gives.

[@Green-FUKUFUKUFUKUFUKUFUKU]

I don't mean it in a rude way, but the perspective of a man is so interesting lol, like, of course they think Maomao was commiting self-harm because of an abusive background lol, it's so common among women, afterall.

[@kirsandresmith6422]

as someone who personally comes from an abusive back ground and who works with a lot of similar people (especially young ones i work in whats basically a school for way woard teenagers) its yes and no. (admittedly i typically work with mostly guys) but in my experience neglect is way more likely to lead to self harm in both genders that physical abuse atleast from what i have seen. physically abuse tends to lead to people being distant anti social and hyper srexual atlest from what I've see. girls are far more likely than guys to do obvious self harm and bring harm to other physically. guys tended to either emotionally abuse others using social dynamics assuming they had social leverage or counter to that just not participate in the group at all.

[@Green-FUKUFUKUFUKUFUKUFUKU]

@@kirsandresmith6422 i'm unsure if physical abuse was mentioned in either my comment or by the girls in Apothecary Diaries, but I appriciate the insight.

[@IZEASGT]

The take on that from the Psyculturists channel was interesting - Ed’s commentary was essentially “yes, she’s doing medical experiments, but it’s still self-harm, so what does it say about her that she’s so casual about damaging her own body for the sake of her studies?”

[@Max465]

I mean...I don't want to go too hard into specifics since Carson and Lindsay are still pretty early into the show...but...parental neglect is pretty solidly an abusive background. So...he's not wrong.

[@Green-FUKUFUKUFUKUFUKUFUKU]

@@IZEASGT i meaaaannnnn, it definitely doesn't *not* have to do with her parents.. so, makes sense honestly.

[@Ozai75]

One thing you guys might've missed is that Jinshi ate one of Maomao's chocolate brownies himself. Which is why he was suddenly far more amorous towards her.

[@pockypimp]

Maomao apparently translates out as catcat in Cantonese I or Mandarin. That's why she gets the cat ears in her chibi form. The white face powder was most likely lead, a common whitening agent used even up to the 1970's before everyone figured out it's poisonous.

[@alsinakiria]

Oh, they knew it was poison the entire time. In our world, at least. The ingredients were known as poisonous back in Ancient Greek and Rome. They just didn't care. Same as smoking, vaping and fast food. People are well aware it will slowly kill you over time but consume it anyway.

[@KinDGrove]

Being familiar with Chinese dramas, etc. and the whole political plot of this story is really a breath of fresh air. Usually most anime/manga focus on the politics in European politics, etc. because Medieval Europe is such a popular set piece. Its gonna be interesting to see your guys reaction to it all as you piece together it all.

[@sera7174]

Yea, it's here! I was so excited I kept checking KZbin every 30 minutes or so. :D

[@dezaknar0]

Didn't Expect you guys to watch this but that's awesome can't wait for episode 5

[@Blue-Lunako]

2,000 concubines? How can you make such a mistake? No matter how you look at it, he's saying that the number of women, including servants and concubines, is 2,000, so you know that 99% of them are servants.

[@farmaceut8083]

Yep...No idea why Carson thinks its 2000 concubines and that the Emperor would have relations with all of them!

[@petthequeenofmaddness8592]

he doesn't sleep with all of them as they are "gifts" or peace agreements and such with other powerful people as they hope the emperor make's them a "wife" of the haram and if not they hope they marry someone rich/powerful

[@hoyajung1548]

so happy you are reacting to this show, FINALLY!!! this show will keep you excited and thinking! can't wait for your reactions!

[@stephwiller9089]

OMG YES FINALLY!!!! So happy you guys are watching this one. I was a little sad to se only one episode covered of One Piece but then saw you were doing this now too which is awesome.

[@MrRourk]

Yes Chocolate is considered a Aphrodisiac and that is why it is a popular gift on Valentines Day.

[@dssrkr]

Chocolate can be an aphrodisiac. But it's mostly psychological. What the animé missed from the manga is that, in the manga Maomao added spirits, which is what alcohol and aphrodisiac are maid from. So it's a chocolate aphrodisiac covered fruit. In the brothel, someone tried to drug one of her sisters courtesan by drugging them with chocolate aphrodisiac mixed in it. So maomao got the idea from there.

[@crow-the-cryptid]

BOLDCAST APOTHECARY REACTIONS? I NEVER THOUGHT WE'D GET THIS! HYPE! It's genuinely one of the best series in recent memory.

[@skye387]

Two way Jinshi able to "control" Maomao in doing what he did were : 1.that if Maomao got charmed by him, she would have tried her best to follow his expectations ; 2. Notice that he brings the women who were charmed by him in front of Maomao, it's so that the other women would be jealous of her and "spy" on her to find fault in her resulting in quick information transfer to him from one of them if Maomao ever did something wrong/suspicious.

[@Nichols_Santa]

Also, Maomao was raised in a Brothel. She's seen every flavor of "Rizz" to be had, and she see's it as what it is, manipulation.

[@TheLorax787]

Love the Apothecary diaries, hope you guys enjoy it! Enjoyed your discussions because you don’t have all the information so are theorizing and are actually thinking deeply about the show and what directions it might go. As a warning, maybe be a bit cautious of the comment section, because as a mystery and intrigue centric show, a lot of people can’t help spoiling certain things about it. Or even just over explaining things.

[@HaittaaksSes]

Maomao ruled out the deliberate poisoning because the princess was also sick and having the same symptoms. There'd be no reason to poison the princess at this point. Even if you're lower ranked concubine, just give birth to a male heir and your status would rise higher than the concubine that gave birth to a baby girl, so no real reason to target the girl.

[@BrunoCAquino]

Still can't believe that Gyokuyo voice actor is the same as Frieren, shes too good

[@dhamon45]

The disclaimer in the beginning of the episodes could be because the Chinese are said to be prickly about anything that could possibly reflect badly on their nation and the studio are just covering their backsides. That said, this is still basically feudal era China.

[@dyslexicfaser]

The dub calls the quack doctor 'that quack's a bill short of a duck' which is just great

[@rf7182]

2 Best Anime 2023: Frieren & Apothecary Diary 2 Best Woman MC: Frieren & Maomao And these two become the best without using action as their main genre (in frieren, action is sub genre)

[@originaldcjensen]

The kidnappers provide her to the palace as their family, and they get a percentage of her wages for her two-year term of service.

[@noerodriguez8633]

Just a fun fact: mao means cat in chinese so maomao=catcat so yeah her personality plus the name: all the cat imagery.

[@domreto5055]

found this gem when i finished a big series and have been watching it on release since such a good show

[@BlackSmokeDMax]

Hit the like button as soon as it started. No way they aren't going to f-ing love this! Look forward to the reactions on this series!

[@mewwile]

LOVE the ridiculous theorizing, this is the series for reading into everyone's motives! keep it up!

[@LorenaDoCouto]

Jinshi is beautiful and attracts both male and female, it's part of the plot, nobody knows he is a test of loyalty

[@DesertHomesteader]

Just for the record, drugs and poisons are only one dimension of this show. It is more about surviving, solving mysteries and managing complex relationships in the strict world of Imperial China.

[@fatrown3]

I think the makeup had lead in it. She just tied the message to a rododen.. idk how to spell that

[@tariqueanderson9240]

Just checking if we are actually getting the last 4 episodes of blue lock or are u guys taking another break from it?

[@drbeeant]

I hadn't realized you HADN'T watched this yet. Hell yeah! So here for it.

[@royallanvillareal7422]

Lady gokyouyo's VA is from Anya and frieren...

[@davidskiff3083]

I have to say personally that I liked Apothecary Diaries better than Frieren.

[@aqcchi1961]

Same ❤

[@ruusho131]

Maomao is depicted as a cat because the word for cat in chinese is literally maomao

[@GenuisSocietyNo83Herta]

This is also my first watch along 😂 I have a hobby of skipping shows that I know is good for future watch Like how to this day kyokai no kanata is still on my watch list haha 😂

[@the-A-and-the-Z]

that's for choosing one of my 2023 favorite anime...

[@LorenaDoCouto]

Remember jinshi is supposed to be an eunuch

[@raec5426]

Ep 3 and 4 if it's one video reaction is a great set of episodes together.

[@sun-door]

Great choice!

[@tetama2agani]

So happy you are reacting to the Apothecary Diaries this anime is amazing the visuals are stunning the plot is mysterious funny and interesting and Maomao is so funny she's so much like me wei

[@are3287]

Insane theories lmao 😅 Not a complaint just funny

[@creaaampaan6244]

What a luck in 2025!! My fav channel, boldcast reacting apothecary diaries!! 😭✨🤍

[@BOLDcast]

Very lucky indeed! We’re gonna be posting like 4-6 eps per week until we catch up with season 2 cause we want to watch it before it finishes airing

[@aurore9958]

YESSS YOU REACT TO THE GOAT !!!!!!!!!!

[@kevinkovacs3131]

You guys SHOULD have watched it when it was airing... this is pretty much the type of anime series that you guys LOVE watching. lol I waiting last year if you guys gonna react to it or not but I give it up.. till I saw this today. lol

[@pepeedge5601]

I can't remember if they say it in the show, but the makeup probably has lead in it.

[@tyladean6794]

So its not 2000 concubines its a total of servents n high ranking servents aka ladyies in waiting theres concubines which theres not alot of to begin with theres like 5 in total who r high ranking theres middle ones who r only picked if they catch the emperors eye but they wont become high ranking the majorty of women there r servents some of them r kidnapped like maomao n r sold illegally but then theres commoner servents who r sold legally then theres girl who come from good familys that r not commoners i suggest u look up the ranking system for that time period it would better understand also those buns were litterally from a male military officer whowanted to drug jinshi n have sex with him

[@joemadrid3827]

Just dropped by to say check out Orb on the movement of earth anime

[@jhonreysumagaysay2667]

Now that I think about it... Spoiler (question) Is it the monocle guy the one who gave the buns to sabotage Jinshi or just a random one?

[@Karaly3000]

Random one (not exactly). Spoiler: In one of the episodes, it's mentioned that an officer known for hating women was with a court lady, and people believed it was because she used an aphrodisiac. It's implied he was the officer that was trying to make Jinshi eat the buns and Jinshi gave the lady the chocolates so she could seduce the man as revenge. At least that's how I understood it.

[@AniMageNeBy]

Yes, you are very, very late. Back when it was released, I suggested it to you guys at least a half dozen times, but you didn't react to it, ever. And I'm sure I wasn't the only one, so the question remains: why didn't you react to it? It was and is widely popular to boot, so I never understood your decision on this...

[@BOLDcast]

We’re reacting to it now We were just very overwhelmed last year and kinda fell off our game But as you can see we’re really love the show and you’re going to be getting aLOT of it going until the end of Season 2’s run

[@AniMageNeBy]

@@BOLDcast Well, I guess it's better late than never, and I'm glad you're liking it. Ep3 and especially ep 4 are going to be even better than the first two. And the whole thing might look episodically structured, but the fantastic thing is, at the end of many mysteries, they'll all come back intertwined to show a grander plot. But I don't want to spoil too much, so enjoy as you go!

[@grommashhellscream4157]

Now check orb

[@AlexDevillord1]

Glad you started it, cant wait for analysis and theories :D It's gonna be a fun ride :D

[@yuangarcia9198]

PEAAAAK

[@Green-FUKUFUKUFUKUFUKUFUKU]

\^v^/ lets goooo

[@clowtears1898]

Can't wait for how wrong ur discussions in every episode

[@clowtears1898]

SO LATE!

[@Le7emeChat]

Why does want the aphrodisiac? Answer in Episode 5, anything else is a spoiler.

[@CimmerianAssassin]

The idea behind apothecary diaries doesn't seem enticing. Many people overlook it, but it is honestly such a good anime though.

[@fai2664]

first!

[@prajaktajoshi1380]

guys please consider my hero academia plzzzzzzzzzzzzz