It’s not going to change my overall view on this season or this series, both of which are very positive. But this episode and indeed this denouement of Kusuriya no Hitorigoto didn’t work for me. I thought this was the weakest episode of the season (maybe after the ghost story one). That’s unfortunate, given that it was the de facto conclusion of the Shi arc (or whatever it’s quasi-officially called). Didn’t hate it, just didn’t buy it. Not that interesting and not worthy of all the build-up that led to it. But that’s probably not going to be a common take.
For lack of a better explanation, I feel like this all got very light novel. That’s almost never going to be a good thing, and it wasn’t here. I get that Kusuriya is a light novel but broadly speaking it’s done an admirable job sidestepping the pitfalls of the medium. This was the exception that proves the rule, I suppose. I’m never – never – a fan of everyone and everything stopping so a character can make a long speech. Explaining everything that happened? Worse. Trusting the audience is something LNs rarely do, and The Apothecary Diaries has mostly been an exception. That didn’t hold true here.
I also thought that while most of this arc has been admirably naturalistic given the grandness of events, things got very theatrical here. That’s not a bad thing in itself, but it didn’t fit. It all just felt very orchestrated to give Loulan a grand finale. In fact “operatic” is a good word to describe it – she went out with something that was an aria in every sense but the singing. Again, arias are fine in context – in operas. Here it stuck out like a sore thumb. A matter, again, of trusting the audience – to get the details, and to feel what you want them to feel.
As for the explanation itself – which was spelled out in exhaustive detail – that was kind of a mixed bag for me. I think most of us had got most of the way there by now and didn’t need the explanation in the first place. The hostage thing has traction because, in effect, both Shenmei and Loulan fulfilled that role, for different emperors. And indeed, that was a common fate for children of lords powerful enough to be a potential threat. I don’t think Shenmei has been an especially good antagonist as she’s just kind of a cackling caricature, so her backstory doesn’t pack much of a punch – and I certainly don’t buy an attempt to make her sympathetic at the last. But Loulan is a different story.
This business about Shishou orchestrating the whole thing to to gather all the kingdom’s bad elements in one place? Kind of a stretch to be honest. An attempt to make things too neat and tidy. He’s a tragic figure to be sure, and he got his operatic death scene too. I think the whole scenario would have had more impact without that tacked on, but it’s not a huge issue. A bigger problem with me is Jinshi going along with Loulan placidly, standing there and letting her point a gun (which he has no idea is sabotaged) at him, and acquiescing to her requests. Including damaging his Imperial visage, which is a very big deal.”You’re dead anyway, so I’ll let you say your piece”? Okay. The rest? ROFL, no.
Don’t sell out the tragedy is my view. I guess as a Heike Monogatari devotee I’m a bit of a historical purist, but there’s more pathos with the realistic outcome here. The Shi Clan is screwed, and whatever contrivance you want to offer about Shishou doing it for the good of the empire, that’s just the way it is. A man in Jinshi’s position would never let a dead woman walking scar him, or risk his own future for the sake of doing favors for a traitorous clan. Maomao? That’s another story. Her taking chances to help Loulan and act on her wishes I could see (and indeed likely will). But not the (former and possibly future) crown prince.
To an extent how the postscript handles the aftermath could color my view of all this. Though, ominously, the preview almost makes it look like a recap episode. Jinshi doing something unwise for Maomao’s sake I could totally see, because he’s in love with her and that clearly impacts his rationality. If the fate of the Shi Clan is romanticized too much that’s going to be a problem, but Maomao acting on the sly to try and stave off their extinction could be very interesting. As I say, my overall take on the season is going to be a positive one either way. But you know the old Enzo-ism, endings are important. And this one is certainly no exception.
Simone
June 28, 2025 at 5:16 pmYeah honestly this fell flat for me too. I reckon the main problem is that there’s no way to make this look “realistic” without destroying any shred of sympathy a modern audience can feel for Jinshi. That kind of mass execution stuff by our lights is called a war crime, not justice, and simply having Jinshi scowling at it while still letting it be carried out wouldn’t salvage it. But on the other hand, this felt really contrived, and the “gather all the corruption in the Shi clan to destroy it” just really silly. Also makes Shishou look even more of a chump (spent his life pining for an awful woman who didn’t deserve it, and then sacrificed it for the sake of an Empire that… doesn’t seem to particularly deserve it either?).
The finale I think will be some kind of epilogue and I guess the montage is only meant to evoke that it’ll involve Maomao digesting and elaborating all that has happened. But we’ll see. Ending with a bona fide recap would be a genuinely weird choice.
DonkeyWan
June 29, 2025 at 7:13 pmYes, this was a very problematic episode. For one thing it neatly (too neatly) draws to a conclusion the simmering undecurrent that has been in evidence throughout the series, one of the key mystery drivers that kept you watching. This feels like a hard reset, which will mean a whole new set of enemies being brought to bear. Moreover, now that the Prince has been outed the dynamic and setting is going to change.
Another problem for me is the strength of the diaries was actually the character development of the women in the series. In contrast the male characters are not as interesting and the dynamics between them are far more straightforward. When you take Maomao out of the Imperial Palace the story becomes less interesting and when the number of male characters involved increased it also becomes even duller. These last couple of episodes have been thin gruel and you are eager for a return to the Imperial Palace. But as either we will have to suspend belief and return to the original dynamic or have a complete change and new set up, either way the charm of the series will be lost.
Finally as to the episode itself, it was just not good. Randomly waiting to arbitrarily wait for a Crown Prince to turn up and follow you is dumb. His bodyguards not chasing immediately after him was dumb. The 10 minutes of exposition was dumb. The explodinmg handgun was dumb. The dancing on the balcony was dumb. The bodyguards mindlessly shooting Loulan was dumb. Why not just wait until she finishes and arrest her, what threat was she, why volley and fire? Dumb, dumb, dumb. The whole ending was out of character and dumb from everyone concerned. I am presuming the kids aren’t actually dead and have just been drugged to near death, why couldn’t Loulan do the same (in fact if the kids are dead that’s also pretty dumb).
It just felt like it was all tied up with a piece of string as if to say “Ok, we are done with that now, let’s move onto the next setting.” Kinds frsutrating in truth.
Nellie
June 30, 2025 at 9:52 pmI think Jinshi’s shaped up quite nicely as a meaningful character this season.
I hadn’t ever thought Kusuriya would abandon pragmatism for poetry. It did so this episode- and it didn’t quite work for me.
Loulan scratching Jinshi’s face because he was representative of the imperial system that ruined her clan- and was basically a doppelganger for the man whose poor choices culminated her in both her mother vindictiveness and her half-sister’s misery (yes, I’m talking about the previous emperor)? Excellent idea- in theory, not so much in execution.
proper1420
June 30, 2025 at 4:12 pmHere’s another vote of agreement with this review (except that I think the narrative started going wrong with the kidnapping, so my impression of the season is less favorable than Enzo’s).
One thing that bothers me about Jinshi’s lack of any good reason to trust Loulan the way he did in this episode is that the previous episode passed up an opportunity to give him a reason: Maomao could have pled for mercy for Loulan, telling Jinshi that it was she who destroyed the stronghold’s powder stores. It still wouldn’t have excused his allowing Loulan to hold a gun on him, but it would have been something. But despite Maomao’s earlier desperate concern about Loulan’s fate, she passed on this opportunity to make a comment about Jinshi’s appearance instead. Maybe the shippers liked that line better.
I suspect that Loulan’s dance was an attempt to reproduce the magic of Maomao’s dance at the end of season 1. If so, it was a bad idea. A daughter who dances upon the reunion of her long-separated parents as one of them approaches death is poignant. A villain (even a pretend villain) who breaks into an expressive dance when cornered is absurd. My impression is that whoever is responsible for this scene has run out of ideas and is trying to ape something that worked previously. With one episode remaining it is perhaps premature to jump to conclusions, but this doesn’t bode well for future seasons (if the anime continues).
And then there are the hints that Loulan’s death is fake. We don’t see Loulan’s body. The post-credits glint in the bushes suggests that there’s something interesting at the foot of a stone wall. And the gift of the hair stick seems like a Chekhov’s gun that is likely to show up again later. I’m finding it difficult to be optimistic about where this story is going.
Vance
July 1, 2025 at 6:48 amGuardian Enzo, I don’t think we were supposed to come away with believing that Shishou orchestrated all of the kingdom’s bad elements in one place. I could be wrong, but I believe Loulan was specifically spinning it that way as part of her acting in order to pseudo redeem her clan during its final moments. That’s why she made her dad, Shishou, take responsibility as she suggested to him in an earlier episode. She did that to give herself room to request for the dead children and Suirei to be spared.
Vance
July 1, 2025 at 5:07 pmFull thoughts here. I didn’t explain myself fully last time, making the mistake that you could read my mind.
I don’t think we were supposed to come away with believing that Shishou gathered all of the kingdom’s bad elements in one place. I could be wrong, but I believe Shisui was specifically spinning it that way as part of her acting in order to pseudo redeem her clan during its final moments. That’s why she made her dad, Shishou, take responsibility as she suggested to him in an earlier episode, which is her way of making him contribute to something good in his final moments. Shisui specifically telling Shishou to take responsibility suggests he wasn’t in on it until the later when Shisui confronted him, which is backed by how Shishou didn’t even know of the extent of Suirei’s abuse by Shenmei. He was basically a yes man for Shenmei’s bullshit.
Shisui did that to give herself room to request for the dead children and Suirei to be spared by spinning the planned rebellion as a mostly intentionally failed one before requesting to allow for those who have died once to be allowed to live. Her planned confrontation with Shenmei was to sell Jinshi on this idea. Jinshi was even somewhat skeptical of Shisui’s claims, but he obliged her due to the pain the pedo emperor caused given he himself personally knew of at least 4 women who experienced such pain with Anshi, Shenlu, Taihou, and Shenmei. Shisui made the most out of a shitty situation. Some people thought it came across as ridiculous and ruined the usually good writing in Kusuriya, but I’m inclined to believe that it’s an issue of lack of media literacy. It is fully within reason that an anime-only such as myself could perfectly understand what happened, and it’s not hard to comprehend this episode.
Simone
July 2, 2025 at 3:40 amIt’s still dumb because the concept is dumb. Either we’re supposed to believe that is what was really going on, and it’s dumb, or we’re supposed to believe that Jinshi could make even a plausible effort at pretending to believe it is… which is also dumb. It’s such a ridiculous excuse no one could buy it even as a veneer of plausible deniability.