If you’re keeping score at home, you already know this Pharmacist’s DiaryThe animated adaptation is both very faithful to the source material and progresses at a pace that shows the emphasis on the source material. Given this development, I fully expect the first half of the upcoming fourth season to cover the fifth and sixth novels, with the other two volumes covered in this review making up the third season. In a picturesque anime adaptation full of irony Chie Shinoharaof red river is a continuing crime against the source material, and the way the series handles it is impressive. That doesn’t mean that if you’ve seen season three you can pick up book five, as there are still some nuances and events that could be expressed better in prose, but it’s still an impressive feat.
These books are famous for taking Mao Mao out of the palace. While we’ve seen her return home briefly before, this is a rather different situation: Maomao’s journey is particularly tied to political events, and the trip to the Jade Demon’s hometown is authorized by the emperor. This is important because it shows that those in power are recognizing her skills; Jin Shi has had white lead powder since then, but now she has recognition from more than just him. This greatly increases Mao Mao’s influence, although it also risks losing her beloved pharmacist duties – and to be honest, “power” is not something Mao Mao is really passionate about. The fact that she wears fake freckles to cover up her beauty speaks volumes about her priorities: doing what she loves and doing her medical job to the best of her ability. Helping powerful people is just an occupational hazard.
This doesn’t mean that Momo doesn’t have feelings. She may be deliberately ignorant of Jin Shi’s budding feelings (and personal frogs), but that’s more a product of her own makeup. In Volume 5, there’s a line that tacitly acknowledges that Momo is romantic, or possibly semi-romantic, meaning she doesn’t feel romantic attraction. (If she were half-human and half-female, she would only feel this way after truly getting to know the other person.) She describes it as not having the same emotions as other people, implying that it makes her feel like she’s missing out on something that might make her “normal.” It’s an important moment in the story, both in terms of performance and understanding where she’s coming from. Momo is not against romance, and she has a very practical view on sex. Some of it is the result of growing up in a brothel; There’s no mystery about anything because it’s all transactional. It’s just something she’s not interested in – or romantically interested in; there are moments that make it clear she’s not asexual. Because Jinshi doesn’t quite understand where she’s coming from, her disdain for him is both attractive (she’s not like the other girls) and frustrating, and in volumes five and six he starts to make it clear that he’s not above using dirty tricks to get her.
Relationships play a huge role in this series. Every plot and action is driven by the interaction of two people, whether it’s the horror of the Shi family or the political implications of the emperor’s canonization of the empress. These volumes are particularly good at showing that nothing in this series happens in a vacuum – everything is connected, and often the solution to the puzzle requires the cats to solve it how. This is well demonstrated in volume four’s Shi storyline, which brings together seemingly disparate events from earlier in the series. Each plot point builds on the previous one, creating a real feeling of reading a single, long-form serialized story, rather than one where the author was just told to write more volumes.
That being said, there are some moments that drag, especially in volume six, which is a transitional plot thread. However, it does give the official script some much-needed time. Until then, she existed primarily as a physical reminder of the former emperor’s preferences, a sad figure trapped in a life she didn’t ask for and couldn’t leave. Her complete lack of agency is striking in this series because most other women manage to be seen and heard. It’s a measure of how young she really is, both physically and emotionally, that she can’t break out of her mold, and volume six finally starts to make up for it. It also introduces a romance for her, which is both an interesting choice and a sign of her growth; having someone attracted to her is no longer creepy.
Novels three to six continue the work started by the first two. Both Shaomao and Kim’s characters have become more dynamic, while Hinata has cut her teeth on tougher plot points; the ending to Shi’s storyline in volume four is truly depressing. While the political (or more political) turn in volume five does feel like a bit of a letdown after the tragic events of volume four, it still carefully constructs events and characters. If you like anime, it’s worth picking up the novel as well – after all, who wouldn’t want to revisit the original Frog or Testicle?