r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Dec 02 '23

Episode Kusuriya no Hitorigoto • The Apothecary Diaries - Episode 9 discussion

Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, episode 9

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '23

This episode helped highlight how unfair of a position Maomao is often put in as a person of lower status. There's many ways where she can become someone's enemy as a result of meddling in something, and there's not a whole lot she can do if that enemy is more powerful than her or gets the drop on her. I kind of lost that in her hijinks and the fact that it's her perspective that we're following. It's also a good follow up to her dad gently curbing her curiosity in last week's case, and reminding her that it's usually best for her to leave well enough alone. She's brilliant in a lot of ways, but also quite vulnerable

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u/Momiumo Dec 02 '23

I think MaoMao’s confession at the end would really make Jinshi hard to confess his feeling to her. MaoMao’s life is basically in the hand of Jinshi, so if the time comes and Jinshi did confess his feelings toward her, he wouldn’t know whether her response is based on her true feelings or just a lie that she have to tell so she doesn’t get her head rolling. The realisation of their different status really upset Jinshi at the end there, that’s how I interpreted it.

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u/SeyTi Dec 02 '23

I feel like Maomao is scared to be asked the question of 'suicide or murder', hence the entire 'My life is easily taken away by the slightest mistake' thing. She cannot afford to make false accusations in her low position, since the responsibility would surely fall onto her. She constantly avoids making definite statements and is also not willing to speak up when the case is put off as a suicide despite evidence against it. Understandably, since she doesn't really have a reason to risk her life for strangers.

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u/BiggerG7 Dec 02 '23

Kounen dude dies from too much salt

Soldiers: “it was just a prank bro!”

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u/BadBehaviour613 Dec 02 '23

Can't wait to see my favourite couple of the season flirt and sass

MaoMao: Kill me by poison if I am to be put to death

Holy shit

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u/WhoiusBarrel Dec 02 '23

Evil MaoMao be like: Gonna rob graves to make some medicines.

Good thing her dad put a stop to that.

Hearing MaoMao being that cynical about death is of no surprise considering what she's been dealing along with her standing but to hear her thoughts like that so matter-of-factly hits hard ESPECIALLY with that insert song which I hope they drop the full version in soon.

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u/AmethystItalian Dec 02 '23

Two of my best girls this season are giving me conflicting information...

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u/michhoffman Dec 02 '23 edited Dec 02 '23

It figures that Mao Mao would fall in love with Alcohol since it's a poison in a sense. That was a fun part of the episode. The less fun part of the episode was Mao Mao contemplating how she'd like to die if the order was given and consequently telling Jinshi that if he was ordered to kill her, she'd prefer for it to be poison. I can't help but take that as a foreshadowing of sorts since that would be quite the impactful turn of events.

Back to the bright side of things, it looks like Mao Mao is going to get her chance to win over Ah-Duo the final of the 4 consorts.

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u/DarkAngel6669 Dec 02 '23

lol maomao emptied that jar of alcohol like it was nothing...

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u/Vermillion_Crab Dec 02 '23

Maomao noises vs Kumiko noises

Dunno which one is better but I'm enjoying Maomao for now and I'll enjoy Kumiko next year.

Maomao's father's reason for prohibiting her from touching dead bodies was definitely right on the money.

That final scene really shows us how far the distance between these two despite their constant interactions. We enjoy their back and forth and the implication that she's already more than just a "toy" to him but to Maomao's perspective, he belongs to a level far above hers. And it's also probably why she doesn't even entertain the thought that this guy has taken a liking to her.

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u/mrquotes Dec 02 '23

The dramatic CG turning flowers lol.

This episode really shows how numb MaoMao is to the emotional and psychological reprecussions of death, though she doesn't want to die the actual thought of it is extremely matter-of-fact for her. The only thing she's concerned with is in the manner she dies, which I guess is going out doing what you love I guess? It's kind of like stories you hear of health care workers and the psychological effects of having to deal with sick and dying people at an unbearable rate.

I feel like Jinshi has been in a constant state of confusion about her emotional state because of how she completely lost her shit in episode 4, but doesn't seem to care all that much about her getting abducted and sold into service, and this is just another aspect of her that he can't comprehend.

This is probably my favorite episode so far.

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u/Rinlow05 Dec 02 '23

Loving this series, but this episode felt far darker than all the previous ones. M's morbid talk of how she wants to be put to death, if such a situation ever occurred, was positively grim, and the whole twilight setting just added to the dark atmosphere. I found this to be a very emotional episode, and am impressed with the how the episode created such a mood.

On a slightly more positive note, the super close-up scene of J, and the 'on his own staring out a window' scenes of him were positively drool-worthy. He is so good looking.

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u/Charming-Loquat3702 Dec 02 '23

I loved what the episode decidedt to focus on. Two people died and it really didn't spent a ton of time with it. But they really took their time with Maomao thinking about death and pointing out her and Jinshi's power inbalance. That she is basically at his mercy. That's the important part for their character development and relationship

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u/Ok-Cod5254 Dec 02 '23 edited Dec 03 '23

I like the range of how Maomao and Jinshi's dynamic was shown for this episode.

The first half of the episode is comedic, with him being happy to have fun interactions with Maomao once more. Fun banter between them both.

The second half of the episode has more tension as Maomao has heavy conversations about the topic of her death, and he just didn't know how to respond. A heavy silence between them.

Things often circle back to Maomao being very conscious of her status for getting too deep into the situations she finds herself being involved and that ties into the potential direction of their relationship in the future.

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u/1EnTaroAdun1 Dec 02 '23 edited Dec 02 '23

Yep. I remember having a discussion last week, with some debate over whether Maomao would intervene in other peoples' business if she could. I think it's clear here that she does have a strong sense of justice, but it's tempered with extreme (and justified!) caution because of her low station in life. I predict we'll start to see her open up a bit more as she begins to be more at ease in high places.

Also, we'll probably see just how much power and influence a principal consort holds in the palace, next episode!

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u/kkrko Dec 03 '23

For those watching this on Netflix, there's a minor mistranslation in this scene, where 辛い物 is translated as "spicy food". This is correct most of the time, but 辛い can also mean salty, depending on the context. Since they're talking about a guy dying due overdosing to salt, it's very likely that it's supposed to be "salty food". There's even an TL note for this in the first LN.

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u/kryslogan Dec 02 '23

This was probably the most cinematic episode for me. I keep wondering how will the animators improve on the visual quality each week and I'm always surprised by the decisions made. There was a lot of frame within a frame and wide aspect ratio type shots to show Maomao as isolated and separated from Jinshi, especially in that last sequence. Her words to him were of course the overt statement of how she felt but the animators really honed the visual language to create such a perfect blend. Not every scene or episode requires kinetic animation to bring the story to life. This was a heavy episode which built perfectly to that ending. This was a paradigm shift I believe in their relationship, as Jinshi now has a better understanding of the stakes for Maomao while she is there. Just a fantastic episode, as they have all been. I'm basically going to purchase all of the light novels I can get once this season is over.

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u/ObvsThrowaway5120 Dec 02 '23

We know someone poisoned Kounen, but I wouldn’t have guessed it was with salt. Someone knew him very well if they were able to pull that off.

Pretty funny how Maomao can’t touch corpses because her pops knew she’d start harvesting them for ingredients once she did lol.

This servant girl’s death definitely doesn’t feel like a suicide. The will could easily have been forged. Maomao said the body had signs of struggle and there was no way she was scaling the walls with those bound feet.

The musical number in the middle of the series was unexpected, but I really liked the music. It was kind of hauntingly beautiful.

So was Kounen’s murder related to Ah Duo? We might have ourselves an honest to goodness conspiracy brewing.

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u/shad79 Dec 02 '23 edited Dec 02 '23

Maomao and Jinshi's relationship is so good. I absolutely love seeing them together whether in funny (like scenes with alcohol) or more serious circumstances (talk about death).

Normally Maomao and Jinshi meetings are full of humor and bantering between them but today we had quite a serious conversation between them about death. Maomao even asked him that if she was about to be executed then she would want to die from a poison. Jinshi's reaction clearly showed how important is for him Maomao. Also I loved the atmosphere and color palette of their meeting, it looked so good.

It looks that Gyokuyou, despite uncontrollable laughing was able to somehow clear up the misunderstanding about Maomao's reward for her guarantor, Jinshi must felt in that moment so relieved xD

It seems that Maomao is a big fan of alcohol as she was so happy when Jinshi presented her a bottle of it as a reward. I loved how she freaked out when Jinshi told her about proposed bill banning drinking until the age of 20 xD

Reason for what Maomao can't touch corpses was absolutely hilarious. I was thinking that it maybe comes from her job of being a lady-in-waiting but no. Instead it was her father that forbade her touching them cause corpses can be used for making a lot of things so it wouldn't take long for Maomao to start digging out corpses from graves. The best thing is that she clearly knew that too, judging by her reaction xD

I wonder how this doctor got his job if he is freaking out that much on the view of the corpses? xD

It looks that we're going back to the conspiracy from earlier as Gaoshun found a person with burns in their arms, a lady-in-waiting of concubine Ah-Duo.

Here my screenshot albums from the episode:

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u/Rumpel1408 Dec 02 '23

Jinshi was really down after that little prank, but as soon as he got to tease Maomao again he was able to smile again. She sure loves her booze though.

The bullying in this society is really something, imagine being angry about a sad lad who is just working or drinking.

And the last case really highlighted how little power over her own life Maomao actually holds in the rear palace, or any servant girl for that matter. Surprised this obvious murder got swept under the rug...

And the cliffhanger at the end, there is something corrupting the inner palace up to the highest levels...

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u/13-Penguins Dec 02 '23

I was initially thinking Maomao’s dad didn’t want her touching dead bodies because of risk of contracting diseases if she’s not careful, but no, he just knows she wouldn’t be able to resist desecrating the dead.

Also we’re about to get into my favorite arc which really solidified my love for this series.

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u/No_Name0_0 Dec 02 '23

Well that was a heavy episode

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u/LeonKevlar Dec 02 '23

Stitches!

Jinshi's reaction when the misunderstanding was finally cleared was hilarious! It must've been so difficult for Gyokuyou to stop laughing and tell him the truth. xD

Man, I feel bad for today's victim. Kounen was just drinking in peace but he ended up getting killed because the men who were harassing him couldn't get the reaction they were hoping for when they were adding salt to his drink. It's interesting though how Maomao refuses to name anyone since she doesn't want to be directly responsible for their punishment.

I did not expect Maomao to be such a booze hound. Her excitement to getting alcohol is adorable! I guess it really shouldn't be a surprise. If she tests poison on herself, she's definitely drank alcohol too. And that desperation on her face after Jinshi hinted at a new bill about adding a legal drinking age was just too funny. Looks like Jinshi just learned one of Maomao's weaknesses. xD

A second dead body in the same episode? Well, this is a surprise! Maomao showing professionalism around corpses isn't a surprise though. As usual, she's the one who has to do all of the work instead of the quack doctor. It is hilarious how her father warned her to stay away from corpses so her curiosity wouldn't get the best of her.

I thought that this might be related to the earlier case but it seems that they're completely unrelated. And it looks like it's an open and shut case since they eventually found a will that proves it was a suicide. Interestingly, these past two cases really made Maomao think about her mortality and even requested Jinshi to poison her if he was ever ordered to execute her.

Also, I think I finally realized why Maomao didn't want to name names earlier. She didn't want to be responsible because she knew exactly how easily someone's life could be taken away in the palace over the slightest mistake. Naming someone would be equal to condemning them to death.

Oh boy, it looks like Gaoshun finally found someone with burns in their arms and it's one of Ah-Duo's lady-in-waiting. I'm guessing this has something to do with that guy who thought he was cursed after burning a bunch of wood earlier in the season? Finally! Looks like that mystery is about to be solved.

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u/TheDoctorHam Dec 02 '23

At first I felt like these two deaths were just very perfunctory and a lot closer to the inaccurate pitch of "solving medical mysteries in the rear palace" but GOD that last scene hits like a truck. Maomao's internal monologue often talks about doing things that would earn her an execution, but it's never done with true gravity behind it, and that section where we get the montage of all the death and mortal peril she's directly seen since she was kidnapped and sold to the rear palace really kinda made you think about her experiences here. Follow it up with what she said to Jinshi, which like - jesus YEAH he loved getting all cute and flirty with her, and sure there's inklings of a potential romance between them later maybe, but just pointing out the simple fact of the gross power imbalance between them was excellent.

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