This summer, I started watching an anime called Apothecary Diaries. The story takes place in ancient China during the time of emperors and an imperial harem. The anime is about a girl called Maomao, a skilled apothecary trained by her adopted father. She gets kidnapped and sold to serve in the imperial palace as a servant. Maomao has an unusual passion for poisons and an insatiable curiosity. Her inquisitiveness and expertise reluctantly pull her into situations where she ends up solving mysteries with a eunuch named Jinshi, leading her through various adventures.

What I appreciate about the anime is how it incorporates science into the story’s historical context. (Minor Spoiler) For example, it shows how lead in concubines’ makeup poisoned both them and their babies. Another instance reveals a body that didn’t decompose, causing rumors of a curse, but was actually caused by arsenic in paint. (Interestingly, the story of Snow White was supposedly inspired by a story of a girl murdered by her stepmother using arsenic, which prevented her body from decomposing.) The narrative doesn’t hesitate from history’s darker topics: Maomao was kidnapped and sold; the red-light district and tragic endings to women who get pregnant, women and children’s lack of control over their lives as they are shown as family tools are some examples. Despite the oppressive era, the anime manages to find warmth in relationships, the grit to continue, and humor within the character’s interactions.

Note about Dubs

I watched The Apothecary Diaries in its original Japanese with subtitles, and despite potential nuances lost in translation, I felt I got an authentic representation of the story. I tried the English dub but couldn’t stand it. The characters’ personalities seemed to shift, and subtle meanings were lost due to different intonations. In the dub, they often sounded overly chipper, making relationships feel hollow. I find this to be the case almost every time I watch dubbed movies or animation. Perhaps it’s the desynchronization of mouth movements that distracts my brain, or perhaps it’s something about the tone, volume, or pitch that just doesn’t carry over in dubs.