Lakan is far from my favorite character in this series (we all know Gaoshun holds that title), but there’s something so satisfying about witnessing his redemption with anime-only fans. We were all misdirected into believing Lakan is some kind of dirtbag, but he’s not. He and Fengxian are both victims of crappy circumstances and poor communication.
Episode 23 of The Apothecary Diaries covers the rest of manga chapters 36 and 37 or part of the 20th chapter of the second light novel. The anime had slight changes or embellishments, but otherwise, the show followed the source material closely.
One super minor change they made was the poison that Maomao adds to the drinks during her game with Lakan was originally kept in a little paper sachet, not a bottle. Told you: when I say “minor change,” I really mean “minor.”
I was really hoping they would adapt one panel in particular—the scene when Lakan finds out that Jinshi and Maomao’s relationship is nothing more than employer-employee.
It’s practically straight out of the manga, but look at that grin!
There was one panel that they didn’t adapt well, which left me disappointed. When Lakan finally konks out after taking a swig of alcohol, Jinshi and Gaoshun are shocked. Maomao, on the other hand, not so much.
The look Maomao has in the manga is different from the anime. In the anime, she’s completely indifferent. Maomao was expecting what happened to happen. In the manga, her facial expression is more… vindictive? I don’t know if that’s the best way to describe it, but my point is, it’s not the same.
One thing that I still can’t fully wrap my head around is when Fengxian and Lakan end up in bed together, Fengxian says she wants to play Go and Lakan thinks to himself that he wanted to play Shogi. I’ve searched my typical online haunts to see if anyone could clarify the scene for me, but I have yet to find a satisfying answer.
That scene has always confused me because I can’t quite grasp Fengxian’s meaning. We know that Fengxian was best at Go, and Lakan was best at Shogi. He could never beat Fengxian at Go, and that is why it’s such a big deal that he chooses to play Go during their bet. He wants her to win.
They were already playing Go before things take a turn in an unexpected direction. So what was Fengxian’s meaning?
Another thing on my mind is where Lakan was sent in his time away from home. Someone in the comments on YouTube was pretty adamant that the emperor was responsible for sending Lakan away, and I can’t find any evidence to confirm that. I don’t know if I’m just being short-sighted and that detail in a later volume, but I certainly don’t remember anything of the sort. What I did find was in the second volume of the light novel:
[Luomen’s] misadventure had not in fact done any harm to the family, but Lakan now found himself persona non grata for having been too close to him; he was told to go on a long trip and not come back for a while.
In the manga, Lakan’s father makes him canvass after Luomen’s banishment from the rear palace. Yet, in the anime, he’s sent to study abroad. Isn’t it interesting how all sources have Lakan doing something different? Big picture-wise, the detail truly doesn’t matter. Where he was during those three years and whom he met matter to the overall story, but I don’t think what he did during his time away does.
Two things in the episode were a bit out of place for me. During one of Lakan and Fengxian’s games, she says a few lines about how she doesn’t have a mother and that there is no such thing as a mother in the Pleasure District. Since we didn’t get context to that conversation, I don’t think it was a necessary addition to the scene. (But we are hearing this conversation from Lakan’s POV, so she might have said something prior, and he wasn’t paying enough attention to care.) Also, her singing while the two were sleeping in bed was superfluous.
Despite my thoughts, I do understand why they made those directional choices. Fengxian’s comments about motherhood set up her eventual relationship (or non-existence of a relationship) with her daughter Maomao, and the humming… will be explained more in the next episode.
I can’t believe the season is coming to an end next week. I’m so sad. But WOW, do they have A LOT to cover in the last episode. I can see the first half picking up back at the Verdigirs House, and then the last half of the episode encompassing the scene in the OP of Maomao in a pretty dress under the stars. I’m still hoping to see another La clan member in the last episode (Hey, if we got Rikuson early, we could also get someone else early too!). Anyway, we’ll have to see!
