Polygon.com / 11.01.25

The Apothecary Diaries is back, and now's the perfect time to catch up

The Apothecary Diaries wasnt just my favorite anime of 2024, but my favorite show altogether. Based on the light novel series of the same name, The Apothecary Diaries is a perfect blend of medical procedural and period drama, sprinkled with a delicious slow-burn romance between one of my favorite tropes of grumpy girl and flirty guy. Its so damn good, and every episode immediately made me want to queue up the next one. Fortunately, the second season kicks off this week. Unfortunately, because the episodes drop weekly, I cant binge them all at once. But if you havent seen this anime yet, you have the perfect opportunity to catch up on all of season 1 and have a nice backlog of season 2 to dig into. I envy you!  [Ed. note: This essay contains some setup spoilers for The Apothecary Diaries.] The Apothecary Diaries takes place in a fictional country thats basically patterned after Tang dynasty China and follows Maomao, the adopted daughter of an apothecary, who studies medicine herself....
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