The Apothecary Diaries

Episode 16

There have been plenty of anime heroines who march to the beat of their own drum, but I'm not sure any do it with the aplomb of Maomao. A major highlight of this week's episode is the way that she just casually ignores Basen's instructions to behave as his follower to go do her own thing. On the one hand, “doing her own thing” is the entire reason Jinshi sent her to the metalworkers' house; he wants her to use her powers of perception to figure out what's behind the late master's will. On the other, Basen either wasn't told this or just doesn't like to be contradicted, and arguably he's the one with the power in this situation. As far as anyone else knows, Maomao is just one of Jinshi's servants; she's got no real reason to be there unless it's to make Basen look more important by having a follower tag along. Basen himself may be aware of Maomao's true purpose – as Maomao realizes, he's in all likelihood Gaoshun's son and therefore privy to some salient details – but maintaining the useful fiction would make him more comfortable.

Maomao, unfortunately, doesn't care all that much about making other people comfortable, at least not if it's going to get in the way of what she has to (or, to be honest, wants to) do. Although she is aware of social niceties, as she demonstrated in the inner palace, she's also not beholden to them. Whether this is a product of her upbringing behind the scenes in the red-light district or just an intrinsic part of her makeup isn't clear, but woe betide he who gets in the way of Maomao doing her job, social niceties be damned. That's part of what makes her so appealing to Jinshi, but also what makes her difficult to deal with for more rigid people like Basen.

He does, however, have the good sense to sit back and let her do her thing, which in this case is figuring out the secret of the inheritance that the late court metalworker left to his three sons. This once again adheres to the basics of the fair play mystery – it's obvious that the fishbowl belongs on the table in front of the window, and Maomao's pointed questions about the father's health are all recognizable signs of lead poisoning. Since lead has a low melting point, this should lead the savvy viewer to the same basic conclusion that Maomao reaches about the bowl, the light, and the keyhole, but even if it doesn't (and I fully admit that a lifetime of reading mystery fiction has given me some very weird bits of knowledge) the mystery is handled well. It's not dragged out and while it may look like Maomao is the smartest person in the room, that's because she's the only one with both the knowledge and the objective distance from the situation. The sons all have the metallurgy information, but they're way too emotionally involved in their father's will to see things clearly; Basen has the situational objectivity, but he doesn't have the craft and medical knowledge. It's a nice way of showing that Maomao's not just another Holmesian stereotype; she's her own person who just so happens to have both pieces required to solve the case.

The bigger issue, I'd say, is why Lakan brought the situation and the story about the mysterious devalued courtesan to Jinshi in the first place. Sure, he smirks about the late craftsman's prowess, but that feels like an obvious attempt to misdirect Jinshi. He's looking for something more, and right now the best guess is that that something has to do with Maomao. We've mused that the courtesan he mentions was her mother, although we don't know whether or not that's true yet, but if that's the case, what does that suggest about Lakan's potential interest in Maomao herself? It could be sinister or simply curiosity, but whatever the case, keep an eye on Lakan.

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The Apothecary Diaries is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.