Despite knowing exactly what was going to happen during this episode of The Apothecary Diaries, I cried. Silly, I know, but there were a few really emotional moments that got to me. One was seeing Fengming break down and cry, another was seeing her standing outside of Ah-duo’s bedroom and listening to her mistress sobbing, and the last was seeing Ah-duo and Lishu say goodbye to each other.
The 11th episode, ‘Reducing Two to One,’ covered the rest of the honey arc – manga chapters 17 and 18 – and even a few panels into chapter 19. In general, I haven’t complained much about the art and animation of the series, but I have to say that the art this episode was spectacular. Yes, I have a penchant for favoring any scenes that showcase a night sky full of stars, so maybe I’m biased, but the scene with Maomao and Ah-duo drinking on the wall was absolutely beautiful.
Just like previous episodes, differences between the anime and its source material were relatively minor and served to flesh out the scenes. I particularly enjoyed the fact that they added flashback scenes to Ah-duo’s birth scene. Seeing how difficult it was and how much she suffered, it makes sense that she lost her ability to have any more children. Hey, we even got a tiny glimpse of Luomen… even if he was being dragged away by guards to attend to the empress dowager instead.
Now. Let’s talk about the most important scene in this episode: the wall hug scene. I rate it 10 out of 10. Five stars. Would recommend watching over and over again.
They went panel-for-panel with the manga when adapting the scene. It was perfect as it is, so adding or removing anything would have taken away from the emotion of the scene.
Honestly, what I was anticipating the most was how they were going to handle Jinshi explaining where he was prior to catching Maomao at the wall. In the manga, it doesn’t explicitly say that he was drinking with Ah-duo, but we do see half of Ah-duo in one of the panels.
Side note, can I say how hilarious I find it that Ah-duo changed from her consort robes to men’s clothes when she went to go drink outside.
Anyway, you can see from the manga panels below that it refers to Ah-duo as “he” even though it’s clearly Ah-duo. Just look at the panel at the bottom left corner. She’s wearing the same overcoat and carrying the same gourd. I know Maomao says that Ah-duo is “mannish,” but using the wrong pronouns for her has always bugged me.
But the hugging! The tears! The way Maomao gives in and stays there to keep Jinshi company. How can anyone, especially Jinshi and Maomao shippers like myself, not love this scene?! There are a couple of 4-koma strips at the end of manga volume 4 that extend the wall scene just a little, but I’m guessing they didn’t add it this time because it would have changed the emotional impact of the scene.
I wouldn’t be me unless I found at least one thing to complain about, however. The last scene with Gaoshun and Jinshi was too short. From the YouTube reactors I’ve watched for this episode so far, people are confused about what that scene means. Some think that it means Maomao is from Fengming’s family, and that’s not the case… at least not how they think it is.
The manga does a much better job explaining the situation. (Minor spoiler for next episode). Because of Fengming’s actions, everyone connected to her, like her family and their business associates, are being punished with varying degrees of severity. The men who kidnapped Maomao were associates of Fengming’s family, and if you remember, they sold Maomao to the palace under the guise she was family. Therefore, on paper Maomao is connected to Fengming’s family, even though she’s in no way related.
Okay, there’s one other thing that kind of annoyed me. I don’t think people will catch this unless they obsess over the series like I do. It’s certainly easy to miss, but Lishu finally has an ally. The food taster turns from being a bully to sincerely supporting her mistress, hence why she’s running after the young consort, unlike the other ladies-in-waiting.
Overall, it was a fantastic episode… but I’m most excited about next week. MY NUMBER ONE MOST ANTICIPATED SCENE IS IN THE NEXT EPISODE!!! I. Cannot. Wait. I’m always glad whenever the weekend rolls around, but next Saturday can’t come fast enough. Just from preview I know it’s going to be good! I can already tell they’ve added to it, and if the next episode is as good as this one, it’ll be worth the wait.
