Kusuriya no Hitorigoto is unquestionably a kaijuu at this point. The only real question is if and when it will achieve “Godzilla” status. Given the subjectivity of all this that’s in the eye of the beholder, but I think we’re getting pretty close. It can add a theatrical film to its cross-medium check marks, and shows no signs of slowing down as a commercial entity. The only cautionary note is that the novelist, Hyuuga Natsu, is currently hospitalized with what you hope is a short-term health issue. You don’t hear about LN authors working themselves sick (or worse) nearly as often as mangaka, but that’s not to say it can’t happen.
That said, there’s a ton of material already – so much so that the anime could run non-stop One Piece-style for years and not catch up the novels (the manga(s) less so, but it’d still be a while). But it doesn’t – and one really has to credit the production committee for the way they’re handling this adaptation. We get a constant, regular release schedule with breaks. Never long enough to lose touch, but sufficient to keep OLM and the staff from running ragged to keep up. The production quality is rock-solid and very consistent (the BGM is very underrated) and overall, it’s just a measured and supremely competent piece of work.
That’s a good thing, because The Apothecary Diaries is a very good series. I didn’t like the second season as much as the first but it was still worthwhile, and on the whole I’d rank this as among the very best light novel anime of the past decade. And speaking of “rock-solid” that’s exactly how I would describe this premiere. There was a small time gap from the end of S2 but we weren’t weighted down with ponderous exposition – one could easily put the pieces together. And it set the table for what looks like a pretty interesting recurring plot for the season, though one assumes we’ll still get a lot of “Meitantei Maomao” episodic stuff along the way.
My biggest gripe with the second season was the contrived and frankly ludicrous way it wrapped up the whole Shi Rebellion arc, and Loulan’s part in it specifically. That’s on the record, so no need to re-litigate it here. Clean slate, new season. One big change is that Maomao is now a Mao-mom of sorts – or big sister, or care-giver depending on how you frame it. Chou-u has returned with her, suffering from aftereffects of his “death” and resurrection (some paralysis, memory loss). Feeling some sense of responsibility for him, Maomao seems to have taken him under her protection – indeed he’s living with her, though spending most of his time at Verdigris (children being raised at such places was not remotely uncommon, for obvious reasons).
I feel like the Chou-u thread is potentially the most interesting turn we’ve seen for Maomao’s character. The ferocity with which she fought for him and the other Shi children was a shift for her, for starters. But on paper Maomao seems like a pretty terrible fit for child-rearing (I thought she might leave Chou-u with Luomen, as an apprentice – he’s a far warmer soul). Her track record is not one of emotional sensitivity to say the least, and there’s little indication here that she shows Chou-u much affection or considers his feelings, never mind love. But this is a chance for her to grow as a person, and it’ll be interesting to see what she does with it.
The MacGuffin of this season looks to be a bad crop year. Famine, maybe a plague of locusts – and the latter would be especially problematic. Why? Because the populace would see it as divine retribution for the Emperor wiping out the Shi Clan (well, almost all of it). In addition, the Emperor is set to marry Gyokuyou. That not only triggers the families of all the other concubines, but irritates traditionalists who don’t like the idea of an Empress with foreign blood. In short it looks to be a time of political turmoil, and that means Jinshi is going to be busy. Lakan is clearly obsessed with spending every day he can with his withered rose, so he may not be of much help.
It’s Chou-u who proves key to Maomao realizing what may be going on here, both due to fragments of his memory and his ability as an artist. Indeed he’s clearly a clever and talented little boy, and if nothing else Maomao would seem likely to want to nurture that. One interesting note is that the “locusts” being served up taste bad because most of them are grasshoppers – and in a drought year, grasshoppers outnumber locusts (I have no idea if that’s true). The guard from the Shi stronghold arrives in the capital trying to sell books from there, providing Maomao with another source for potential investigation.
All in all this is, again, absolutely solid stuff. Kusuriya works best for me when it’s relatively restrained in tone, as this premiere is. Maomao is a difficult person but never less than a fascinating protagonist, and Chou-u’s addition is an interesting potential catalyst for both of their character arcs. Frankly the field is pretty clear for Kusuriya this season – there’s not a lot on the schedule projecting to be notable – so I hope the first cour displays the series’ strengths more than its weaknesses. In any event it’s especially good to have it back in a season like this one.
