The first arc of The Apothecary’s Diaries It begins and ends with a mystery that relatively few people in modern Japan have to face: why would a baby die before its first year of life?
It is a stark window into a time when high infant mortality rates were considered an inevitable fact of life. In historical China, the infant mortality rate was above 40%, and that is a conservative estimate. A common wisdom expressed by the novel’s characters is that a baby really can’t be counted on to survive into adulthood until it is over seven years old. Even the most privileged members of society are not surprised to see their children die.
Given the pervasiveness of the problem, it is understandable that even learned doctors cannot explain the individual causes behind a particular death. Maomao, the story’s intrepid apothecary and pseudo-detective, is needed to piece together the truth with her accurate medical understanding of drugs and biology.
Maomao is an interesting character, not simply because he is a poison-loving pixie, but because everything he knows is technically within the limits of what a person in pre-modern China had. could know. More or less. He has access to a bit of anachronistic insight because his father figure studied medicine in a Western country, although that knowledge is also pre-modern. By combining the two disciplines and exclusively embracing medical knowledge that is upheld by scientific rigor, Maomao regularly impresses even a 21st century audience with his ideas.
What this ends up showing is that premodern medicine was actually pretty solid in its own right. Doctors grasped the pieces of the puzzle, even if they were mixed with scientifically flawed cultural ideas. Maomao never mentions the European practice of bloodletting, for example, nor does he associate his cures with the five elements of traditional Chinese medicine. In that sense, he is a deeply anachronistic character. But the thing is, the things she knows can be observed by anyone, even without scientific training.
Transplant a character like Maomao to the imperial court and suddenly mysterious mishaps that a viewer would ignore as “part of the times” have a real explanation. Sometimes, like in episode 14, Maomao’s idea is no deeper than “flour is easily fuel”; It is not common knowledge by the standards of the time, although it is certainly not a satisfactory revelation in any other type of setting. This simplicity makes Maomao a more believable character within the world he occupies, while also drawing attention to the gap between modern and pre-modern science.
All this is to say that The Apothecary’s Diaries is an excellent example of a historical (or pseudohistorical) mystery. This type of story takes audiences into a different cultural view of the world, where modern science should not be taken for granted, and impresses them anew with the timeless art of logical thinking. An anachronistic detective but not also anachronistic: that’s the key. By making Maomao a weirdo and peculiar by anyone’s standards, and who technically only knows things that someone in his time could know, The Apothecary’s Diaries It achieves that fine balance.
If it weren’t already obvious, The Apothecary’s Diaries It’s a very charming show based on an equally charming book. The mysteries may not be the highlight of the plot, but they are an indispensable part of what makes the characters and setting so fascinating. With her sharp wit and cheeky nerdiness for unusual activities, Maomao is a heroine for the ages. Move over, Edogawa Conan, the anime world has a new star detective.
(By the way, the author of detective conan is a big fan of The Apothecary’s Diaries and even drew Maomao under the light of a detective. His fame has reached everywhere!)