The Apothecary Diaries

by Natsu Hyuuga, Touko Shino, Kevin Steinbach (translator)

Synopsis:

In the East is a land ruled by an emperor, whose consorts and serving women live in a sprawling complex known as the hougong, the rear palace. Maomao, an unassuming girl raised in an unassuming town by her apothecary father, never imagined the rear palace would have anything to do with her—until she was kidnapped and sold into service there.

Though she looks ordinary, Maomao has a quick wit, a sharp mind, and an extensive knowledge of medicine. That’s her secret, until she encounters a resident of the palace at least as perceptive as she is: the head eunuch, Jinshi. He sees through Maomao’s façade and makes her a lady-in-waiting to none other than the Emperor’s favorite consort... so she can taste the lady’s food for poison!

At her lady’s side, Maomao starts to learn about everything that goes on in the rear palace—not all of it seemly. Can she ever lead a quiet life, or will her powers of deduction and insatiable curiosity bring her ever more adventures, and ever more dangers?

I got the first volume of the light novel version of Natsu Hyuuga’s The Apothecary Diaries after reading the first novel of the manga. It covers some of the same material, and then goes on much further — I think I read that it’s about volumes 1-4 of the manga. The series is historical, with a series of mini-mysteries throughout the first volume, though one of the characters would very much like it to be a romance as well…

I found that it was much easier to follow the sections of the plot that I’d also read in the manga, which is an experience I had with reading danmei: often it helps to get absorbed in the world and follow the various events if you read the same story as both manga/manhua, animation, and novel. I can’t put my finger on quite why that is, but probably a mixture of unfamiliar settings/attitudes and translation. The writing and translation certainly feels clear and easy to read, but I’ll read it and be like “okay, yeah, XYZ is happening, I understand, I understand… wait. What?!” (You could interpret this as me being an idiot, too; you may or may not believe me when I say I’m generally not, but either way, clearly something doesn’t quite click for me with a lot of light novels.)

Anyway, the big draw of this series for me is Maomao. I find her fascinating as a character: pragmatic, curious, self-absorbed in a way that isn’t intended to be offensive, perceptive and yet capable of turning a blind eye to things she wilfully doesn’t want to know… Her setup is a lot of fun as well, with her apothecary training and natural powers of observation fitting her excellently to work out the intricacies of the rear court’s life, while her laser-focused interests actually leave her completely out of step with others in other ways. (E.g. the way everyone thinks she’s been abused, but it’s all self-inflicted during experiments with poisons, etc.)

As for other characters, I find Jinshi’s thoughts and motivations actually perhaps a little less clear here than in the manga, which surprised me. I’d expected to get a bit more insight into what he’s thinking, and in a way you do see more of his reactions to Maomao, but still… I feel like I understood his situation less well from the light novel.

Overall, I had a good time, and I’m glad I have the next two volumes ready to read. I’m very curious how much of it is a “case of the week” episodic-type format, and how much of it starts to chain together into a larger plot.

Rating: 4/5