#2025 spring

The Apothecary Diaries

薬屋のひとりごと

(Anime + Manga)

Historical mystery by Matsu Hyuga

Era: 2010s, 2020s

Rating: S

Plot: In not-Imperial China, Maomao is the daughter of a local apothecary, and works her craft with the courtesans of a brothel in the red-light district. One day she's literally bagged by bandits and sold to the Imperial palace to become a maid, but after her knowledge of poisons and medicine helps saving one of the consorts and the daughter of another, she gets the attention of her mother, the emperor's favourite consort Gyokuyou, and of Jinshi, a high-ranking sparkly eunuch who appreciates her inquisitive mind.

Length: 48 episodes, ~80 chapters (ongoing) (covered second half of second season from #1 to #12)

Thoughts: One of my favourite ongoing show and certainly one of the best to show to anyone who's not familiar to the medium who might skew a bit older, The Apothecary Diaries is pretty much a story dealing in palace intrigue and the daily going ons of a place with a rigid structure as a medieval Chinese imperial palace. While much of the focus is on medicinal mysteries and ailments, Maomao also lends a hand on suspicious deaths and minor going ons on the daily lives of the rear palace. What makes this such a strong show is how Maomao navigates what is a very dangerous world for someone like her - she's a strong willed and exceptionally smart character, who knows her position in the court demands her to know when, what and how to talk - even when sure of something, talking to someone who can act on it with less consequences (usually Jinshi) or carefully implying something only the person she's trying to reach would understand. The concubines mostly like to have her close and wouldn't turn on her, particularly the Emperor's favourite, Gyokuyou, and while Jinshi can (and will) cover some of her eccentricities, both know there's a limit to how much he can do, so it's not like she can just annoy most of the residents of the palace. She expresses curiosity over Jinshi's peculiar status in the court and identity a number of times, but quickly tries to get her head out of even thinking about that, or even when Jinshi *wants* her to know, as she knows what curiosity does to cats. Likewise she also understands when Jinshi or Gaoshun ask her opinion on something, there will be details omitted for theirs but also her protection, and figuring out what is the picture on the puzzle while missing out on so many pieces is one of her talents and where many of the stories begin. She's also a complete poison gremlin who loves few things more than getting her hands on some rare herb or material, or test something on herself to the constant horror and desperation of Jinshi. But a show isn't a single character, and thankfully every character brings something to the table - the courtesans all are in the same perilous position of knowing they are political pawns, less disposable than their maids but not as much as you would expect, and showing too much ambition can end poorly for them. Said maids also know their lives in the palace can very much depend on the status of the consort they serve, and lacking their social skills, are often the ones causing needless friction inside the court.

Visually, it's impressive, doing a solid work of bringing not-medieval China to life. The character design is very rich and detailed, and they all have a wide range of expressions, including their chibified forms. For something that often breaks the tension with a well placed joke, it helps that the visuals do keep up with that.

There are two manga adaptations from the light novel, one alternate by Minoji Kurata (with the subtitle Maomao's Notes From The Inner Palace), the other by Nekokurage which serves as the base for the anime adaptation in design and some storyboarding. Very faithfully, I might add, if watching the anime isn't for you, you can just read the manga, and if you prefer to watch things move, it's not like there's not a treasure trove of material left, either. Worth keeping in mind neither is too far ahead of where the anime story has stopped, the Nekokurage version even lagged behind, so unless the production is comfortable enough to do it on their own and adapt directly from the LN (it so far covered 4 of the 16 published), and forgetting the whole "the anime exists to sell the manga" thing, it might take a long while before she's back on the screens, so I'd consider picking either of the print versions, and the LN itself.

Recommended to: Probably one of the best entry points to non-fans of anime, particularly of older age.

Plus:

Maomao is one of the best characters in recent years

Extremely good looking show, from the settings to character design and the animation itself.

Minus:

So, let's see how this works. It's the start of a new season and I have put maybe too many shows on the list to check if they're interesting or not. I'll be experimenting with the format to see how can I make this work. Pretty sure next time I won't be so wordy because I can skip explaining the premise. Or even writing at all, there's weeks where there isn't much to say and once again, I'm not going to do recaps.

(next week)

What was on?

Kowloon Generic Romance

(ep 1,2) One of the shows that caught my eye early on, a (checks title) romance anime set in the Kowloon Walled City that was never demolished between two co-workers at a real estate company. Reiko Kujirai loves new experiences, while Hajime Kudou prefers things as they are. One day she finds herself falling for him, and later finds a photo of them... in celebration of their engagement. It looks quite good, and for so much talk about nostalgia, it does have a certain retro touch to it, almost like a 90s OVA that was lost to time. Judging from the initial two episodes, between the visuals, the intriguing world and the plot mysteries, it's the frontrunner for best show of this spring.

Witch Watch

(ep1, 2) Maybe it's becayse how much I like Kiki's Delivery Service (and maybe I should do a post on it), but the concept of "new witch graduated and must now deal with the outside world" kind of draws me in, that's how I ended up watching Flying Witch, a show I still think of occasionally. Witch Watch however is very much a romcom about Nico Wakatsuki, a witch who ended her training in the witches holy land and is now back in regular society, and picked her childhood friend Morihito Otogi as her familiar, as he's from a long line of Oni. It's looking great if you want something quite silly, her general clumsiness and not knowing the details of spells doing a lot for it. Best joke, the spell to make things lighter she later discovers when used on people turns them into airheads. Then later, they discover things get heavier to compensate, and I'm not going to spoil the joke the episode ends on. Second episode has them going to school, and Morihito's attempt at keeping her identity under wraps doesn't get past her introduction in the first day. I think this is going to be fun, even more knowing it will stay with us until Fall.

Your Forma

(ep1, 2) Right, who's been playing too much Deus Ex before doing their designs for in-brain HUDs? Am I complaining? No, I kinda want to play that game. From the first two episodes, it starts as a murder mystery where Harold, the android partner of Echika Hieda, an investigator capable of diving into said brain implants and also doesn't like robots, is found to be a suspect as he's one of the three models that look like the suspect. It's a bit hard to tell where it's going by now beyond the resolution leading to some tension between the leads, but it's also a bit of a tired scenario by now: brain implants, androids breaking Asimov's laws (no sorry, the Laws of Respect), and I'm sure we're getting into if they have rights in no time. While it has good ideas visually, I've found character design and backgrounds a bit uninspiring, and the story... Yeah, I feel I've been here before. It's distributed by Remow, so check if it's available in your area on YouTube.

Summer Pockets

(ep1) Had this as a "maybe" because the story of a boy who uses his Summer break to help sort his departed grandmother travel memorabilia at her place in a small rural island and clear his head after some swimming related incident and meets four different girls reminds me of a trend many years ago of shows that were technically very pretty, very slow paced and mostly focused on the low drama of the mundane and human emotion, where the main character and the rest of the cast help each other out with their own problems and limitations, as the gentle music plays over the cicadas, maybe with some supernatural element, and then finished on some sort of bittersweet nothing of an ending because the important was the growth along the way or something like that, and... I'm not sure if I'm in for that ride. First episode really didn't do much to quiet that feeling, and since Spring 2025 seems loaded, I'm giving it three episodes to do it. At least it has two things going for it - it looks pretty and unlike Tasokare Hotel I can at least go to the Play Store and see the game it is based on.

Gundam Paper Jam In Tray

(ep 1) So, this comes just days after (finally) watching both Gundam 0079 and Zeta Gundam, and decided to watch it based on my fresh knowledge of maybe 5% of the whole franchise. It's set on a different timeline from the original show where Char Aznable steals the Gundam and leads Zeon to victory, then disappears. It's hard to say that much about it, as the first episode was a bit messy and tried to push too many ideas at once without really giving enough attention to any, but it looks pretty good and should be at least mildly entertaining should it work out a pace at which to tell a story.

Uchuujin MuuMuu

(ep 1) the description - a socially anxious college freshman has to share her apartment with a space cat who's trying to rediscover technology lost to his people - was enough to get a "yeah, maybe" out of me, and while I didn't expect the edutainment parts of it, it may elevate how bizarre everything is. So, the race MuuMuu belongs to blew up their own planet in the middle of a war, but not before killing all scientists and smart cats, so by exclusion, MuuMuu is an idiot, and is now disassembling home appliances trying to figure out how they work, and let's be honest, if cats could do that, I'm sure they would. Unfortunately for him, while Sakurako can search things on her phone, she can't exactly explain how they work, either, which also serves as a comment on how very little we know of things we use every day. I think I'll stick to it, it has the potential to get really weird.

Apothecary Diaries

(ep 2.14) So, after making everyone think about "frogs", it was time for the fan service episode, which opened the way for a new mystery in the imperial palace Maomao has the opportunity to solve. It's not a particularly difficult one for her, but still provided another insight on how Jinshi protects the order in the rear palace, so it was dealt in half an episode. For the second half, it keeps moving towards the finale as Jinshi and Gaoshun discuss when to bring her inside his other (possibly even bigger IYKWIM) secret that she kind of figured out already, but tries not to think about too much.

Food For The Soul

The first show I added to this season "must check" list, it's another cute girls doing cute things, based on the greatest Japanese tradition of showing food, in the same week I watched Wakakozake, so what could go wrong. Well, it *could* be boring, but within the first minutes there's a character trying to pass a bribe to a university clerk to let her start a club with less than 4 members. Gremlin. Yes. At the end we know the main purpose Shinon had to create the club was to have a place to hang out, shattering the dreams Mako had of cooking and going to restaurants together. If it turns out to be group Wakakozake, it's a winner.

Mono Weekend Animation

Right, from one club to another, now the stories of two girls who joined the photo club in their first year of high school, and now are running it. Or, trying to, as Satsuki misses her senpai who graduated and is now in fetal position under the table and An mostly followed her into the club for reasons. Then they meet a mangaka who was burned out after finishing her last work and forgot to send them a camera, and needs inspiration for a new work, and finds the adventures of the two girls just the thing. This is both another cute girls doing cute things anime, with a hint of hobby anime, as you can guess, photography and video. Sure, why not (extends the spring posting window to three weeks).

'Tis Time For "Torture", Princess

(#266) Ah, one of the things this series does best, introducing new characters and making a mockery of expectations immediately, this time the Hell Lord's older brother, who obviously looks as menacing, but is also as considerate as him. Do I want to see this animated in the second season? Yes.

In other news:

Makeine was confirmed for a second season. Kind of surprised but happy with it.

The movie version of Rose of Versailles gets an April 30th release date and English dub, on Netflix (via).

City The Animation by Arawi Keiichi gets a trailer, should be one of my favourites for the Summer season, already hinting it will have some of the "didn't need to go this hard" animation of Nichijou.

Also getting a new trailer, the new Ghost In The Shell adaptation by Science SARU scheduled for next year. It's apparently not following the tone set by the 1995 movie adaptation, but closer to the occasionally goofier source material, which will certainly be a big point of contention for those who see the Oshii version as the standard Major.

Questions?

Anonymous didn't ask, but sent re: Guild Receptionist:

Its funny because the Guild Receptionist anime completely botched the novel because the novel actually has really good pacing and the anime basically deleted half the novel cast off just so they could give Jade more screen time. The first volume goes into depth about why there are bosses and the ancients, also they cut off so many key elements that it feels weird and empty

Aharen-san is Indecipherable

阿波連さんははかれない

(Anime)

Romcom by Asato Misu

Era: 2020s

Rating: B

Plot: Shota Raido didn't have the best of times in middle school. Cursed with an unfortunate resting bitch face, he had trouble making friends, so to start highschool he decides to befriend the person sitting to his left, who happens to be Reina Aharen, but unfortunately for him, she just ignores him... or did she? Turns out, she also didn't have the best of times in middle school, being sidelined by her classmates for being clingy and timid to the point her voice are barely whispers. He decides to do his best to reach out to her anyway.

Length: 24 episodes

Thoughts: Well, really can't watch everything, and when this was suggested via Inexpressive Kashiwada and Expressive Oota, a show from the previous season I had a lot of fun with, I noticed it flew completely under my radar earlier last year. While both star very soft-spoken, tiny doll-like girls with pastel hair, they are very different shows, as Aharen-san is mostly a story about two odd-balls who started dating on the first episode and only noticed it by the end of the first season.

Something really good about it is how it never stops finding new ways to make jokes with, like Raido's inability to beat Reina at anything, even when everything runs in his favour either because she either adapted or he overthought or let some unearned confidence take over, his wild imagination, be it thinking Reina is gifted in everything and imagining together they'll make it to the top or how she might be secretly a delinquent, a sumo wrestler or a professional hitman, Reina's siblings, the younger brother who looks just like her and likes to wear her cute clothes and Raido couldn't tell them apart (thinking she has clones from a vat, Rei style) and was just messing with him because he heard Reina talk so much about him he wanted to see how he's like, and her younger sister who looks like her but more grown up, and while initially reluctant of Raido ends up accepting him as he'll take good care of her after they're no longer together (making Raido think it's because she has a terminal disease, not that they'll eventually grow up) and the family dog who often appears to deliver something she forgot, her inability to properly eyeball distances or her complete disregard for personal space that comes with that. It also finds some fun bits from the supporting cast, like her elementary school friend Oshiro, a very tall and athletic girl who's extremely shy and initially believes Raido is up to no good with her, and to keep her safe keeps watch over them in the strangest ways possible, turning into a stalker at times before realising Raido might look scary but is actually very supportive and accommodating to Reina and she is very happy with him, their normal friends Ishikawa and Sato, and the pair of teachers, Tobaru, who gets extreme nosebleeds thinking how proper the esteem between Raido and Reina is and then collapses mid-class, and her close friend and first year homeroom teacher Miyahira, who takes care of Tobaru when she goes down. Outside the school there's Atsushi, a young boy who idolises Reina believing she's a master of games, and Futaba, his tsundere friend who thinks Reina is trying to steal him from her and constantly threatening calling the cops on Raido. It's not a large cast, but the first season never stops doing new bits or variations on older bits until the very end, as well as leaning more in the romantic side of things as, once again, they took some time to realise they were dating since episode one. It's very easy to watch, and while in other shows the story would be about Ishikawa and Sato, the childhood friends who still hang on together, and Raido and Reina would be the two oddball comic relief characters, it never feels the show makes fun of them for what they are.

A traditional problem with romcoms is not knowing what to do when the main characters are finally together, and that's why that's usually pushed to the very final chapters because writing something compelling might be a pain in the ass if you spent most time (which often translates to years) playing in the "will they won't they", one of the reasons I rate Maison Ikkoku so highly is that it winds down the story perfectly, but here it's pretty much at the middle of the story. The second season starts with what the previous one hinted, the introduction of Riku, the gyaru character who was the classmate who Reina thought she pushed away. I feel in other times this would be some attempt at a love triangle, but here she's just another oddball character to add to the mix, as she's very much a mix of Reina (she's very anxious about making friends) and Raido (she's also often overthinks things too much, which was the reason she inadvertently pushed Reina away), and now Oshiro is also on the same class as them, and as Ishikawa mentions, it's kind of sad she isn't appearing from unusual places stalking Reina. Something the second season does is repeat a few bits and jokes from the season, but mixed up with new ones: you have all the Aharen siblings, so why not have the rest of the characters confuse them for Reina? It still finds time to tell new stories, like a game of not-Animal Crossing, a beach episode and a visit to not-Disneyland Tokyo, so it isn't just rehashing old bits, as it heads towards the end. On one note about the ending, not knowing the source material, having their final year pushed into four episodes feels a bit rushed, but at least the story feels complete as it is, more than I expect of something like Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro, which ended the second season on a bit of a nowhere place and every season without a announcement made me feel it is never having a third (I'm not even expecting it at this point). Sure it wasn't for lack of a material, it has 17 volumes, which should be enough for three seasons with chapters to spare, but somehow also feels this wasn't always going to be the plan. It's only more disappointing when you really love the characters.

I always say if a season looks particularly weak, you don't have to force yourself to watch shows at random, maybe just pick one show from a recent previous season and watch one episode per week. Sometimes it feels the only shows that are talked are either what's currently on air, and then a huge gulf to the Evangelions, Ranmas and Gundams of the past, when there's perfectly fine shows released in the past 20 years that could use some love instead of being forgotten the moment the last episode airs, and I'm glad I picked this one up I've missed earlier last year.

Plus:

As cute as it is sweet

As sweet as it is weird

Minus:

Witch Watch

ウィッチウォッチ

(Anime)

Fantasy comedy by Kenta Shinohara

Era: 2020s

Rating: A

Plot: After six years training in the witches holy land, Nico Wakatsuki, a witch with one of a kind generational talent, returns to regular society and for her familiar she picked her childhood friend "Moi" Hitogi, who comes from a line of oni, and who's not completely thrilled to live with the mess her klutziness leaves behind, but knows he must protect her from a disaster her mother, an oracle, predicted.

Length: 24 episodes (covered between #1 and #26)

Thoughts: Early on, I've mentioned how I really like these stories of "young witch finishes her training and must integrate with the general population", so this went into the watchlist quite easily. First, I wasn't expecting to be this amused, then got the pleasant surprise it would run for two consecutive cours, and even more as it maintained it's quality throughout all 24 episodes. One thing I absolutely adore about it is how well it commits to a bit - the spell that makes things lighter (and then heavier) which set the mood for the show, the shoujo inspired episode with a different style that caught me off-guard, the story of the boy who looks like a character from a New Horizon English textbook and speaks in the kind of rigid sentences you learn the grammar and vocabulary of a new language from, the student council that is just a parade of delinquent tropes, and later gets confused with the actual supernatural beings on the Morihito house who look very normal, doing an episode on the first week of a new season that for the first 10 minutes plays it straight like it's the adaptation of the in-universe hit manga Uron Mirage complete with OP and ED, when they discover the manga Morihito drew when he was younger and Nico's spell rather than making him live in that world made them look like his drawings, how Keigo wanted some help with his video channel, so Nico uses a Rule 63 spell on him (and then on the rest of the cast) which goes well until Wolf(y) makes an appearance and knows what people want to see, or when Nico decides she wants to have her magic candy wonderland by shrinking to an inch tall and then realising physics still get in the way of magic, all are perfectly executed. This is a show that *loves* doing bits, and puts a lot of effort into making them into full pieces, and for this to work, it helps there's a varied cast of characters, Nico is a clumsy witch still learning her craft who only has eyes to Morihito, who has to play the straight man to everyone's antics: Kanshi, who makes a great companion to Nico when both are low on their braincell count, Keigo who's a great depiction of the insufferable hipster poser, Miharu, the angelic-looking vampire with no filter whatsoever who says whatever crosses his mind, and friend of the Morihito household Nemu, who still considers visiting in her cat form because she likes to be petted. It's also a show that relies a lot on it's visuals to land a joke, and Bibury really does a great job to follow up on whatever bizarre spell or scenario was thrown at them. It's not the most dynamic show out there, but for the most part there isn't much in terms of fighting or action.

Not having read the manga (yet) but picking up a chapter here and there - there's was recently an incredible one where Nico accidentally turns Kanshi into a messaging app sticker that you know it's going to incredible to see animated - the feeling of the show is that it is mostly filler episodes, something silly to play with the characters two or three times an episode, barely showing any interest in plot, and... it works pretty for it. It does a few more serious or heartfelt stories here and there, but something resembling "arcs" is left to maybe a handful of episodes at the end of the first half of the season. And you know why in almost one year I still haven't done Sailor Moon? I'm a Nurse Minako kind of guy, love the filler and the silliness of it, the serious arcs are kind of a bummer and themselves feel out of place from the anime. This is one of those shows that ticks a lot of my boxes, and maybe I'll pick the manga in the near future and add it to the weekly posts. Second season is already confirmed, and it's a show that feels so well made with such good characters it's not hard to imagine only disastrous numbers would prevent it from getting it.

Recommended to: Want to see a Slice of Life with a witch who doesn't consider the full implications of what she's doing?

Plus:

Oh god Nico makes the best faces.

It does a good balance of the types of stories, with a great cast

It hits the jokes a lot more than it misses.

Minus: