Corner Café

Season 2 of The Apothecary Diaries is reaching its climatic end in the next few weeks. However it will be torture for fans as Episode 47 (Season 2 Episode 23), the penultimate episode, originally scheduled for June 20, 2025, will be delayed for one week. We have already suffered with anxiety a couple of weeks ago when Episode 43 (Season 2 Episode 19) was also delayed for one week just as MaoMao was kidnapped for the second time within a year… Some minor spoilers below and spoilers in the relationship chart image, so don’t look too closely if you don’t want to be spoiled…

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Waiting patiently for Episode 44 early tomorrow morning when we finally get to meet the evil one!

Just a note about Episode 39 (Season 2 Episode 15), it is a subtle farewell episode to one of our beloved characters because we are seeing the three friends (featured heavily in the end credits of Cour 2, Season 2) together for the last time as Xiaolan will not appear again in person after this episode (at least up to Volume 13 in the light novel)…

After watching some reaction videos, I’ve also noticed that some reactors are still confused about the job positions in the palace! The palace has an outer palace/court and an inner palace/court. Court ladies work in the outer palace (where the military and administrative offices are located) and they are educated female workers, for example Suirei was a court lady in season 1 and she was not allowed to go inside the inner palace; hence she has to disguise herself as an eunuch to be working in the inner palace in season 2 where all the consorts and their ladies-in-waiting, and female servants (nearly all are uneducated) lived, including Shisui who is pretending to be a servant.

Another point to think about, the assassination attempts have always been aimed at the emperor’s brother (outside the rear palace), not Jinshi the eunuch! So put your thinking cap on, why is Suirei impersonating an eunuch in the rear palace in season 2 where the emperor’s brother has never been in so far…

Update May 31, 2025: First we have the frog episode, here comes the snake episode (Episode 45)… Back to Episode 44, was looking forwards to the Luomen and Lakan scene and it didn’t disappoint, in fact better seeing it in action rather than just words in the light novel, LOL… Lahan certainly knows his adoptive father’s weak point, as soon as Lakan appeared (in Jinshi’s office in the outer palace), he immediately whispered to Gaoshun to send for Luomen who was in the rear palace, haha… (That was how it was described in the light novel, but here in the anime it looks like Lahan excused himself and went to get Luomen himself.) Hence the carriage since it is a long way from the rear palace to the outer palace… And you think the guard outside MaoMao’s room is just a passing character? He has a name, Sazen 左膳, remember that for the future… Just like when the aide to Lakan was anonymously introduced during the Lakan and Shishou confrontation a couple of episode before… I am quite sure that was Rikuson 陸孫 (see June 14 update below) who is related to the three new ladies-in-waiting for Gyokuyou… Remember Shin? She was also anonymously introduced in the very first episode of season 1, and we didn’t fully understand her motives until season 2!

Oh, if you didn’t understand the scene in Shenmei’s parlour, it is basically an orgy… She drugged her ladies-in-waiting and have male prostitutes there for her entertainment… We really need a family tree to sort out the past, while in the rear palace, Shenmei’s lady-in-waiting (also a distant cousin) was Taihou 大宝 who was a sexual victim of the former emperor and had a daughter. However that daughter was expelled from the palace with a palace doctor, who was accused to be the father of the child. (This led to the castration of any doctors in the rear palace from then on.) Years after Shenmei was sent into the palace as a consort, Shishou married this banished daughter and they had a child, Suirei. So Suirei is actually Jinshi’s distant cousin, they had the same grandfather, the former emperor.

Another thing, did you realize that when Lakan accused Jinshi of not knowing if he was a man or a woman, Lakan was implying he knew it was Ah-Duo impersonating the emperor’s brother persona at the meeting with Shishou.

Update June 7, 2025: Clever way to end there, LOL… I was trying to figure out how they will end the remaining 4 episodes. So Episode 45 includes Chapter 17 to halfway through Chapter 18 in Volume 4. We got 3 more episodes left, and there are still the second half of Chapter 18 to the final chapter, the epilogue (Chapter 23), in Volume 4 to cover this season, very intriguing to see if they will include the final scene in the epilogue chapter in Season 2 or leave it for the beginning of Season 3! Since the timeline in that final scene fits with the beginning of Volume 5…

Anyway back to Episode 45… Don’t confused this banished doctor with Luomen, they are two different doctors – this banished doctor with Taihou’s daughter is NOT an eunuch. He is the same person as the previous apothecary working in the stronghold trying to make the resurrection drug.

In the light novel, Shisui/Loulan was trampled by the men escaping from the room, but only hinted in this episode by her sitting on the floor… Also did you blink and miss the part where that guard has already escaped outside the stronghold and he turned back, for what? That will be a major arc in Season 3! Also looking forwards to seeing Lihaku finally realizing who MaoMao is related to… Watch for Lakan next episode, that will be funny…

If you can’t wait for the next few episodes, I’ve found the audiobooks of Volume 4 from a couple of sites on YouTube, this is a better one with more accurate pronunciation of names, the other one pronounced MaoMao as “MayoMayo”, LOL, which is very distracting… I’ve cued the narration to just after the explosion in the gun manufacturing room…

Update June 12, 2025: Wow, they are releasing an anime MV of the opening theme song for cour 2 on Saturday June 14, 2025 at 12:30am after Episode 46!

Update June 14, 2025: Oh shoot, they didn’t animate Lakan jumping down the wagon and letting out a painful cry! But wait, Rikuson 陸孫, is that you? LOL… So, the aide with Lakan during episode 40 is not Rikuson, but the other one named Onsou 音操! I checked again, Rikuson actually appeared briefly in season 1 near the end of episode 21, I forgot about that! In the light novel, Rikuson’s name was only introduced in Volume 5 and Onsou’s name was introduced in Volume 7, before that they were only mentioned as Lakan’s aides…

BTW, did you understand “the insects leaving their young behind after winter” reference? If not, you will have to wait for the final episode, LOL… Since I expect next episode in two weeks’ time will focus on the rest of the attack on the stronghold… Also Jinshi’s hairpin will become important later on…

Just something I found out recently, only for those who has read up to Volume 8 where the character of Tianyu has been introduced… In the English translation, he calls MaoMao as NiangNiang 娘娘 (as in addressing the consort), whereas in the Chinese translation, he calls her 咪咪 (MiMi), which is the sound a cat makes written in Chinese, or MeowMeow in English… This is very interesting so I checked and found out the Japanese sound for ‘meow meow’ is ‘nyan nyan’, so who is correct, the English or the Chinese translation? As the novel is Japanese, although set in ‘China’, if the author has written the sound as mi mi, it would not make sense to a Japanese reader, so I think the Chinese translation is correct in that nyan nyan should be translated as mi mi or meow meow in English? Calling her NiangNiang makes no sense even if it’s a mischievous name… Also in Episode 41 when they were looking for MaoMao after she was kidnapped, I am quite sure Gaoshun called out ‘nyan, nyan’ for the cat instead of ‘mi, mi’!

Update June 27, 2025: They are also releasing the special anime version MV of the closing theme song for Hitorigota by Omoinotake tomorrow morning after the screening of Episode 47…

A few points to ponder… I read the early volumes of the light novel early last year, I’m currently reading the Chinese translation of Volume 14, so I’m a bit vague about all the details in Volume 4. So I may have gotten something totally wrong!

Let’s clear up some facts first… There are a few groups getting revenge due to the actions of the former emperor, or doing things for political reason. First, Shishou who was a favourite official of the empress Regnant (former emperor’s mother), but his political power has declined after the death of the former emperor and his mother. The current emperor only endured him, rather than seeing him as an ally… Shenmei hated the former emperor because she was considered too old by the former emperor when she entered the palace as a political pawn by her father. The former emperor never touched her, but instead slept with her younger lady-in-waiting, Taihou, which produced a daughter. So her hatred extended to Taihou and her descendents. Then there were a group of sexual victims of the former emperor who were never allowed to leave the rear palace, including Taihou and her friend Shenlü, who were all working in the unofficial clinic in the rear palace set up by Anshi (current emperor’s mother). Therefore, Shenmei would not be colluding with Shenlü in poisoning the heirs of the emperor, they were working separately in their own agenda.

Shishou, or his faction, sent Loulan into the rear palace as consort to use her as political pawn to increase his political standing in the palace. Now since Shenmei hated the current royal family, she would not have sent Loulan herself, who has pure Mother Royal bloodline, into the palace as consort. She would consider that as tainting her pure bloodline by the current emperor’s bloodline… That’s why she said Suirei’s bloodline was tainted… She wanted to overthrow the current royal family and set Loulan up as the next Mother Royal. Now did Shenmei know Shishou has sent Loulan into the rear palace as a consort? Clearly not since she’s not surprised Loulan showed up in the fox village, Loulan (or maybe even Shishou the tanuki himself) probably had another servant impersonating Loulan in the stronghold while she was in the palace to fool Shenmei. If Shishou had done that, Loulan might have stolen that idea herself so she could become Shisui occasionally in the palace. In regards to if Loulan was pregnant, my feeling when reading the light novel is NOT. I don’t think the emperor slept with her (visiting high consorts regularly is an obligation for the emperor, same deal for Lishu but we know the emperor never touched Lishu), Loulan ate the lantern fruit as precaution just in case the emperor decided to sleep with her, and that became a habit for her. Evidence by the fact Kyou-u said that was Shisui’s favourite fruit, meaning she has started eating the fruit long before she entered the palace. (Similar to Lakan in season 1, misleading clues and conjecture by MaoMao. Speaking of Kyou-u, did he know Shisui and Loulan are the same person? That is the question, LOL…) If we think back to Lady Fuyou episode in season 1, we know there are ways to deflate the emperor’s interest, maybe by confusing the emperor with so many lookalikes is one? And Loulan always appeared aloof when she was in the palace. On the other hand, the emperor knew Loulan is a political pawn and an unwelcome one. From the reactions/discussions I’ve watched/read, nobody considered the emperor’s POV… He is a smart ruler unlike his father, surely he will not just sleep with every consort, especially the political pawns with questionable motives, without considering what will be the consequence! Even though the current emperor is a capable ruler, my guess is Anshi would also have cautioned the emperor of the consequence (from her own experience with her second child) if Loulan got pregnant and had the ‘first’ son (remember at this point in time they don’t know if Gyokuyou or Lihua would give birth to boys or not), Shishou would become the emperor’s father-in-law! But in the end they needn’t have worried, since Loulan herself couldn’t care less, LOL…

Loulan probably did not plan to kidnap MaoMao at first. She may have just planned to escape in the beginning, since she was looking for an escape route. She probably had arranged for Suirei to come into the rear palace as an eunuch so they can plot to stop the rebellion, also gave Suirei a chance to visit her grandmother’s grave before they are all executed for Shenmei’s rebellion. While looking for an escape route outside the rear palace, she accidentally met MaoMao, and after finding out her biological father is Lakan, I think it was then she decided to kidnap MaoMao, so Jinshi and Lakan will find out about the rebellion through her kidnapping. When MaoMao wrote the note and stuffed it into the tree hole after she was just kidnapped, Shisui would have seen her doing it when MaoMao (and us the viewers) thought Shisui was also kidnapped at the time. In the light novel, the second character MaoMao wrote on the note was crooked because Shisui suddenly called her name while she was writing. Thinking back Shisui was trying to tell her Suirei has come back because the next moment Suirei turned back… Shisui probably just want to hide MaoMao in the village to help with the children, but well, MaoMao got caught by Shenmei… And so it goes…

Update June 30, 2025: Poor Xiaolan, both her friends suddenly disappeared without a trace… At least she still has Seki-u to play with…

Great finale to Season 2! So, I mentioned that they added some new plotlines last episode which was not in the light novel, for example the last scene where the guard saw something sparkly in the bush… That implied the guard rescued Loulan and took her away and probably nursed her back to health… I always wondered how Loulan could walk away with her injuries and fall from the top of the wall, then where did she go? As for the children, MaoMao knew what Loulan meant, and she never revealed they took the resurrection drugs to anyone because that has to be kept a secret from all outsiders since all Shi clan members should all be executed with no exception. And hilarious that Xiaolan kept sending letters to MaoMao but never wrote the return address or where she’s working, although technically MaoMao could have found out from the palace records, LOL…