Idk if you noticed that Lakan uncle is the person that raised maomao. Or that the little bit of decay along with the finger is maomao pinky piece. And I'm not sure, I think the mom died for the buy out. I thought it was implied. And not sure if her father is leaving leaving. Or just leaving for that time period
When this was released on Crunchyroll it was rated a 5.0 (it's now a 4.9), the only show in my recent memory with that high a rating at it's debut. Frieren has a 4.9 rating. While I live Frieren, I think Apothecary a more emotional show and for me just a little bit better. Thanks for reaction and looking forward to season 2 sometime in 2025.
"Apothecary Diaries" ranks as my third favorite anime of the recent crop of series, just behind #1 "Frieren: Beyond Journey's End" and #2 "The Dangers in My Heart" which has been almost universally praised as one of the best if not the best romcom ever!
Lakan actually doesn't see how sick Fengxian is, his blindness still views her as very beautiful. Lakan really sold me on being able to see the person behind her scars. Also, the animation when Maomao danced. Very Nice
You know what gets me about the dance scene? Throughout the show, there’s been this running gag of Maomao being used as a dress-up doll. The Jade Pavilion crew for the garden party, her sisters when sending her off with Jinshi, Suiren when Jinshi’s going out in disguise. And we’ve seen she can be quite fetching with nice clothes and makeup, so it’s hard to blame them. But this is the first time she’s _chosen_ beauty - chosen to present herself beautifully and move beautifully. She’s usually very reluctant to (see: freckles). But for this, she not only made an exception, but chose to dance atop the wall like Fuyou, where she could be seen from outside. All for a woman she has plenty of bad blood with, who’s dying of syphilis, and who wouldn’t have even been her first option for someone to send off with a husband. In the pleasure district, we’re told, a woman cannot truly be a mother. And the woman who gave birth to Maomao isn’t even the one who comes closest for her (as we saw, that was Pairin). For that matter, there’s no sign Fengxian ever held any love for Maomao. Yet still, in these final months of her life, Maomao chooses to show her kindness and respect, to honor this proudest of courtesans with the ending she longed for. She’s not often open about it, but Maomao’s a sweet kid.
Also, that fakeout confession scene is kinda like the mimic in the second exam in Frieren, or maybe the cactus joke in season 1 of The Good Place. You know how it’s gonna end, there’s never any doubt… but somehow, it’s still funny when it happens.
If you ever re-watch this, you'll notice a lot of subtleties that give hints. She looks at her pinky quite a bit throughout the show. I'm glad the ending pretty much confirmed a S2 without them even having to announce it lol. Also if you remember when Maomao said "women are clever" when talking about Fengxian tricking Lakan lol, only to try and pull the clever trick with Jinshi and the ox bezoar. Was a sad feeling when both this and Frieren ended as they were both my favorites of the season. PS. Delicious is really good and pretty funny. The core main characters are all enjoyable as well which makes the show that much better. It is 24 eps and we only just got ep. 19 today so it'll be finished relatively soon.
Lakan's not actually a bad guy - he's just smart about being seen as a threat. A military strategist - in a political environment where everyone's always looking to backstab each other - is served well by always appearing odd, creepy, dangerous. He loved Fengxian, he loves Maomao and has hopes for her. That doesn't mean anyone should forgive him, but at least understand him. Also - his ailment is an odd one. You can see features like anyone else: eyes, nose, etc., but his mind can't assemble them into anything he can identify as a whole. Thus, the chess pieces. Fengxian (and Maomao) are they only ones he can see as they are - or in the case of Fengxian, as she was. Which is a wonderful blessing. He doesn't see her scars, he only sees HER.
Not sure if anyone mentioned this but Lakan is suffering from a condition known as prosopagnosia. It's a neurological condition that cause an individual to be unable to perceive or recognize faces
Something easily missed in these past 2 episodes is that Lakan's uncle, "the only person that understands him" Is Luomen. Lakan can only see him as the chariot game piece, but using context clues in the flashbacks you can see he's got the same limp, and the head of the family yells at him about losing his important job at the rear palace.
To understand why granny kept her hidden i saw one video that did make sense on it. Granny has seen the story of a man promising the world to a courtesan only for them to be abandoned before being bought out after the liar has already gotten what they desired, she was a courtesan herself. She's probably seen it many times and warned other of this possibility. But now in her perspective she sees that story playing out with a woman who she thought was smarter than those girls who fell for such lies. The kindest thing she could do was nurse her and not throw her out to the streets like a courtesan in her position might have been. The brothel almost went down during that time but it was still something granny went through with. Suddenly years later Lakan shows up and granny is furious, and thinks he's just there to lie further.
Yeah and it was sad and unfortunate that it was a bit of the opposite, with the guy being purely in love and the girl wanted to be with him too, and it was just an unfortunate circumstance that the plans the girl made didn’t work out.
I have watched the anime and also read the light novel, but watching along with you for the second time was unexpectedly more exciting and fun. Seeing how you react and/or give your point of view of something specific happened on the anime gave me a different and much clear perspectives about the characters or what's happening in general. I'm very happy to know that you also like the anime. Thank you so much for watching this along with us.I had so much fun🙌🏻✨
best reaction to this final so far ! I am glad you like the show so much - I am also very excited for season 2 ! I am not sure if you've realized but the old granny of the brothel is actually Maomao's grandmother - so to mean the mother of Fengxian which explains why she was still being cared for so many years in the brothel. A normal courtesan would have been thrown out as soon as she is too sick to work anymore. When Meimei says "sister if you just weren't so stubborn" I think she means both Fenxian(her pride not to mention to Lakan that she wants him to buy her out) and her mother(resentment). The true tragic for me in this is that Lakan and Fengxian lost about 14 years that they could have spent together if Maomao's grandmother wouldn't have sent Lakan away and lied about Fenxian being gone. Lakan has a sickness where he can not recognize faces but since he is emotionally so attached to Fenxian (and they shared the passion of games together) he was able to see a persons face for the first time and of course this makes her very special for him - the same goes for Maomao. After those 3 years he could have bought her out and lived happily together but her grandmother prevented that. And now Fengxian has only a short amount of time left before she dies since there is no cure for syphilis. It is so beautiful to see that Lakan still sees her as that beautiful women from his memory instead of her sick appearance now. He will treat her very well - in that time it was standard to go 3 days on vacation but he goes for 10 days which is huge in that era and thows a big feast for 7 days (and pays equally much to buy her out) as if he bought out the most luxurious women on earth - just like he sees her - for him she has infinite value. It think he only ever was interested in her and so she is his world (and expands it literally). For Maomao it was nice to have Loumen as an adoptive father at least because the granny and Fenxian did never give her motherly love because they believed as long as they are in the brothel they could not be a mother and acted like that. I feel sorry for Maomao on that.
Hope you'll give The Dangers in My Heart a chance. It took the #1 spot on two different anime ranking sites for 12 weeks in a row for Winter 2024, an unprecedented record, beating out the likes of Frieren, JJK, Solo Leveling, and Apothecary Diaries. It's an amazing show and it would be a shame if you missed it.
"Tempted to read the light novels. . ." That was me, and I failed. I'm probably what may be considered 3 or 4 seasons ahead now. Still so fucking good. There are so few Japanese light novel authors that have been able to write a story good enough to get me addicted.
they really crushed that ending. i was honestly worried how they were going to finish the season because the entire season was so dang good, but it couldn't have ended better. this is in the top 10 from all the shows i've watched FOR SURE 😊
This anime is one of the best anime in this year for me.. Same as you.. I'm so excited to waiting the 2nd season.. Btw, could you react to Wind breaker, please?.. The anime is really really good.... Thank you for reacting the apothecary diaries ☺☺🥰
I actually cried in this episode, it was a great 1st season That new concubine & her dad are going to be antagonists in the 2nd season i just know it. I don't like her character at all so far. I'm in love with this anime can't wait for season 2.
сегодня посмотрел твои реакции на все серии этого аниме, и блин, мне действительно было интересно как ты отреагируешь на тот или другой момент, мне очень нравятся твои реакции, ты такая милая и забавная) лучшее открытие для меня за последнее время это твой канал, жалко что нет субтитров для людей из россии, но ничего.. пользуюсь автопереводом но он к сожалению не на всех видео:')
The one detail I love about this episode is back when Maomao said she'd want to have a swing at Lakan and break that monocle off his face (blue roses episode), and quite literally we see and hear Lakan breaking his own monocle under his foot when it falls off chasing after Fengxian🥲 it's POETIC CINEMA
One of the things I love about Apothecary Diaries, is that it's anime for adults. It's not a hentai, but the plot, the conflicts, everything is geared for adults. This isn't some highschool romance. There aren't any superheroes (superhero battles might be more accurate). It's not a bunch of moe girls, or horny harem tropes. Yeah, AD isn't unique there are adult dramas out there, sports anime exists (but seriously who watches them (j/k)), But generally speaking, the story is about adults, young adults, but adults (they have jobs) and intimacy is neither gratutious nor is it 'OMG hand holding!!!'. Anyways I hope we get more stories like this.
Meimei likes Lakan, and Maomao was hoping Lakan chose MeiMei if he don't get the meaning, is fine either way for her. And Luomen being Lakan uncle has play a big role later on in the story. Im currently on Volume. 10 in light novel and is crazy hype. I hope they release seasons for it, at least the upcoming season could be crazy. Or even one of the Volume itself could be a movie or something.
That's something that it's a Spoiler and not at the same time, I didn't read the LN or the Manga but I catch up to that clue when I rewatched for the first time when Lakan was telling his story about how his uncle influenced him and the timing in which both he and his uncle were sent to exile (his uncle being thrown out of the rear palace despite being so inteligent and needed) and also the fact that Loumen decided to raise Maomao, he certainly knew Maomao was his grand niece
@@pedrod.guimaraes5030 well the translation is somehow ruined the understanding for the whole show Luo Men (罗门）is direct translation spelling, while Lakan should had been "Luo Han" （罗汉）, not La Kan, it literally representing the family Luo (罗）as family first name, anyone looking at it would have come out the idea of the relationship, but the show with EN sub had hide it completely from the start
The correct reading of the person's name in the original is Luo Men , La Kan. By changing the reading of the names, it makes it difficult to understand the relationship. The story is intentionally misleading. This is a Chinese-inspired story written in Japan, so the readings may not always be in accordance with the Chinese.
Top tier show. Lakan came in with such vile, offensive creep energy but turned out to be a quirky papa bear. I hope to see Ah Duo again in future seasons. Maomao's relationships with the consorts' households is an underrated appeal.
Loved watching all of your videos for this series! 🥰 Another great anime to watch is The Weakest Tamer Began A Journey To Pick Up Trash. It flew under the radar this past season because of all of the other great anime that came out like Frieren and Apothecary Diaries but it is SOOO GOOD!!! It is a great mix of serious and sad mixed with light-hearted and touching moments about hope and learning to trust others again. Cant recommend it enough!!!
I really enjoyed this show, Maomao is a great character and I loved seeing her solve all those mysteries with her wit. Jinshi though I was never really able to sympathize with, for me he was like a little creep. He was always watching and following her and sneaking up from behind. So I was quite happy when she didn't really wanted to kiss, but trick him 😊 I'll sure be watching next season, too.
Maomao"s symbolic message with the blue rose is even more poignant when you think of how she grew them in a greenhouse. Just like her mother was born in a brothel, she was never meant to get out of it🥀
in the manga, lakan tried to abduct maomao when she was a child because he meet her, he knew that maomao is his daughter because he see her face. but then he realized that he was still a nobody, and maomao don't want to be with him. so just watch maomao from far away, and sometimes send her stuff. but manga is not finished, yet, and maybe it's also lakan behind maomao abduction and send her to palace, so he can be around her
This show's, reincarnated as a slime and the Overlord light novels are some good reads. Slime and apothecary diaries are tied in my mind but Overlord is number one.
Hah, this is the first time I noticed after multiple viewings, you can hear the monocle break when he falls over the fence. Maomao really did end up breaking it like she wanted.
By the way, that was not how Feng Xian actually looked. She's terminally sick and looked terrible. But Lakan only sees that beautiful face that he had seen before
Ok the only problem I had with this episode was how the writing pooped on itself. All this time Laken was built up as this really sinister guy and then he's made redeemable. That's fine, it's unexpected but not a bad writing choice. My problem was how it effected Maomao and Jinshi's relationship for a short bit. Maomao is so digusted by this dude that she never wants to see him, hides away when he comes over for hours, gives a face to Jinshi and assumes he sent her back to the rear palace to let her be kept away from Laken. No, it turns out the reason was Maomao was jealous of him being right all the time without any book learning, and was weird out by his eccentricities and wanting to spend time with his daughter? Like ifnshe knew he wasn't a bad dude why avoid him like the plague? She also nearly scoffed at Jinshi for assuming Laken raped her mother. All this does is make Maomao out to be an asshole. As Goushun said, no father wants to be disliked. Maomao doesn't even blame him for her mother's pregnancy ruining her life. Its like the writer wanted the audience to believe Laken is this really scary dude, made Maomao respond in kind and then had to backtrack by giving Maomao a really shallow reason for acting that way. Pooping on ones own writing indeed.
