I was gone for a bit, but now I’m back! I know how much you missed my nitpicky comparison reactions for The Apothecary Diaries. Don’t lie.
Anyway, I’m sorry I missed covering episode 16. As much as it pains me to have a gap in my Apothecary Diaries coverage, I’m just going to have to live with it. By the time I finally had time to sit and write, it was Friday night. And honestly, the 16th episode didn’t really do much different from the source material. They slightly embellished the backstory of the three brothers and their father, but other than that, everything else was pretty much the same.
Now this week’s episode definitely had a few differences. Episode 17 covered chapter 27 and most of chapter 28 of the manga. I liked most of the episode, but I think they missed the target on a few things. With that said, overall they did a great job with the small additions that they made to the story.
In the manga, Basen is nowhere to be seen during Jinshi and Maomao’s jaunt around town. I liked that they added him in as a covert bodyguard, even though we saw that Jinshi was well aware he was following them. (As an aside, I noticed that a lot of people think that Basen is Gaoshun’s brother and not his son. Granted, when Maomao compared the two in the last episode, she never specified their relationship. Even when I read this series for the first time, I took it to mean they were father-son immediately, but maybe that’s just me.) I loved that they had him salivating over the chicken skewers and then later chowing down on several of them while.
Another addition (kinda) was Gaoshun returning to Jinshi’s quarters to find Suiren cleaning the young master’s old toys. The gist of this scene actually happens elsewhere – all the way in chapter 56 of the manga. It’s a bit different, since the original scene involves Maomao and Suiren, not Gaoshun. But the conversation about hiding Jinshi’s favorite toys was fairly similar. Since I’ll discuss spoilers, I’ll leave the discussion of this scene for the end of this post.
I mentioned earlier that the animators missed some chances to really showcase a couple of character reactions from the manga. The one that stands out the most is Gaoshun’s smile when he gets the idea to make Maomao accompany Jinshi on his excursion. The anime doesn’t do nearly as good of a job as the manga did to convey Gaoshun’s sly actions. I mean, sure, most of the time we see Gaoshun in the anime, he has a perpetual “I can’t believe I have to deal with this shit” look on his face, so to see him smile is jarring enough. But his smile in the anime doesn’t convey nearly as much emotion as it does in the manga. Just take a look below and tell me I’m wrong.
See what I mean?! Tell me those two smiles hold the same emotion.
Another is Maomao sniffing Jinshi’s hand. Maybe I’m missing some subtext, but I thought how Maomao does it in the manga was a much bigger deal. She’s talking about his scent, after all. Why’d she sniff his hand? In the manga, she goes straight for his clothes. Which one of these two actions below seem like the bigger deal to you?
One thing I love about watching the anime is despite the number of times I’ve read the manga or the light novel, there are still scenes that surprise me. This is particularly the case when Jinshi and Maomao finally arrive at Jinshi’s destination: the restaurant at the end of the pleasure district.
Maomao notices that the inn above the restaurant provides the same “services” as the Verdigris House. She deduces that since Jinshi went through such great lengths to disguise himself, his meeting involves activties at the inn, not the restaurant. It also doesn’t help that Jinshi took that exact moment to ask her about how to lower the value of a courtesan.
Actually, you know what’s different in this scene from the manga? In the manga, Jinshi doesn’t just come out and ask Maomao about what Lakan had said to him. He actually gives Maomao the drink that Lakan gave him to give her, even though Jinshi doesn’t tell her about the drink’s owner.
It’s funny how both Maomao and Jinshi are very smart people in their own right, but for anything outside of their respective domains, they’re idiots. Okay, well, maybe “idiot” is kind of harsh. Jinshi is so clever at times and can pick up on cues and hidden agendas, but it amazes me that he didn’t proverbially read the room. That was possibly the worst moment to ask Maomao a question like that, especially with the assumption she was making about him and what he was there to do.
And Maomao, with all the things that she noticed about Jinshi this episode (his ripped body, his callused hands, and his mention of being at camp), she doesn’t take it a step further to ask why all these things are true for Jinshi. Or maybe she does ask why, but stops from actually answering the question for herself. Because we all know that if it’s not medicine or poisons, she doesn’t really care.
Speaking of Jinshi’s body, am I the only one who thinks that the anime makes him too muscular. I wish they toned it down a little, so that his frame matches with the manga.
Okay, wait. Now that I’m looking at the two side by side, maybe Jinshi does have the same body size in both. Maybe it’s the back muscles. I just don’t like how they animated it.
Next week’s episode is going to be INSANE. Yeah, okay, I know I’ve said this a million times by now, but I swear I really, really mean it this time. I sound like the boy who cried wolf, I’m aware, but I re-read the coming chapters in preparation for next week, and damn. I’m assuming that they’ll also cover two chapters in the next episode, just as they normally do. I can’t wait to see how they adapt what’s coming next! Especially with the abrupt way that they ended this episode, I’m curious to see where they’ll pick up next week.
SPOILERS BELOW
Before we even get to talking about chapter 56, I’ll say that in the lead up to the chapter, a few things are quite different from what they are now. Maomao no longer works as Jinshi’s servant and is back in the inner court working in Gyokuyou’s pavillion. One day, however, she gets involved in a mystery with the empress dowager (the current emperor’s mother). In fact, the empress dowager herself asks Maomao for help. During the time she’s investigating, she ends up spending the night again at Jinshi’s place.
However, her original room is taken, so she stays with Suiren instead. While in Suiren’s room, Maomao notices a really nice box, which turns out to be a bunch of Jinshi’s toys that Suiren has kept all these years. The conversation Suiren has with Maomao is quite a similar conversation to the one she has with Gaoshun in this most recent episode, but the purpose of the discussion in chapter 56 is Maomao’s discovery of one of the “toys” in the box.
It’ll be quite a while until the anime reaches this chapter, so I think it’s interesting they chose to add this scene now… but I can see why they did it. Especially Gaoshun’s line of how Jinshi’s not in a position to have favorites.
