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Do you love the story and aesthetics of The Apothecary Diaries? Check out these anime you should watch if you like The Apothecary Diaries!
Set in the middle age of a fictional empire of the eastern world, The Apothecary Diaries took anime fans’ attention by storm in 2023. The story revolves around Mao Mao, an apothecary who found herself serving the royal palace after her sudden kidnapping. Although the royals brought her into servitude by force, Mao Mao quickly adapted to the life within the palace and, most importantly, the variety of diseases she encountered as a woman of medicine.
This anime is a mix of a great story, pleasing aesthetics, and charming characters. It rose as one of the most popular anime in the winter 2023 season alongside Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. However, just in case you’re craving more historical fantasy or mystery anime, there are plenty of others available.
This list covers anime you should watch if you like The Apothecary Diaries. The Apothecary Diaries wasn’t the first anime to bring the cultural influence of medieval China into anime. There are also other anime that brought the life of a doctor onto the screen as well as mysterious cases, just like in Apothecary Diaries. Here are some anime similar to The Apothecary Diaries for you to check out.
1. Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective
Though this anime doesn’t quite bring out the same aesthetics, if you like mystery, then you’ll love Ron Kamonohashi. Mao Mao and her curiosity in The Apothecary Diaries led her to decipher complicated poisons and other medical cases covered in the shroud. Her deductive skills proved to be vital as an apothecary.
Similarly, Ron in Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective solves mysteries ranging from cases of murder, missing persons, and kidnapping. Of course, this series puts more emphasis on the cases because this is a detective anime. However, it’s not that Ron doesn’t have his own character development. Along the story, Ron grows to be warmer from his initially isolated personality. Though the vibe of this anime is not quite the same as The Apothecary Diaries, Ron’s story offers a buffet of mysterious cases.
2. Parallel World Pharmacy
If you’re more about the doctoring stuff in Apothecary Diaries, then Parallel World Pharmacy is just the anime for you. This anime is about a doctor and researcher who got himself transferred into a fantasy world. Coincidentally, his new identity in the strange new world was that of a kid from a family of doctors, Falma de Medicis.
As Falma, his view on medicine was quite different from the rest of the aristocrats. He pushed for more medical care for the commoners, a privilege previously exclusive to the nobility. Similar to Mao Mao in Apothecary Diaries, Falma found himself dealing with the cutthroat politics among the royals.
3. Fushigi Yuugi
Anime taking place in medieval China isn’t something new. In fact, Fushigi Yuugi pulled this exact move back in the 90s. This is a story about Miaka and Yui, who got themselves transferred into another world after reading a book and ended up in that book’s universe.
Although Yui got back to the real world, Miaka found herself stuck and entangled in a peculiar situation. The emperor told her that she was the destined savior of the empire, the Priestess of Suzaku. However, as a destined priestess, she was said to have seven warriors as her protectors. So, Miaka had to find them. While she was embarking on this quest, the story carries her into love triangles, rivalries, and other intricacies along the way.
4. Snow White with The Red Hair
Much like how Mao Mao was taken to the Palace, our protagonist in Snow White with The Red Hair also had a similar encounter with the royals. The difference is that she escaped her captors and ran away to the forest.
This is the tale of Shirayuki, a cheerful red-haired apothecary, and her daring adventure after the prince of her country, Prince Raji of Tanbarun, tried to force her to be his concubine. In her escape, she was rescued by a prince of the neighboring country, Prince Zen of Clarines. Feeling indebted, Shirayuki aimed to be a court apothecary of Clarines.
5. Fairies Album
Fairies Album takes a slightly different approach to the whole medicinal world. Instead of depicting doctors concocting traditional medicine from herbs, this anime brings spirits into the mix. The protagonist of this anime is Tao Yao, a traveling spirit doctor. As she embarked on her travels, she encountered spirits with different problems and suffering. Also, if you love seeing some scenes that look like they came straight out of paintings, then this anime is for you.
6. Gosick
This anime is another throwback to the past, to the early 2010s specifically. Gosick takes place in a fancy boarding school in southern Europe, Saint Marguerite Academy. The main protagonist, Kazuya Kujou, had to endure a life of isolation because of his dark hair and dark brown eyes. Being a foreign student from Japan, his appearance got him the nickname “Black Reaper” due to his peers’ superstitious tendencies. However, Kujou’s school life started to take a mysterious route ever since he met Victorique de Blois, who could see the future. Together, they uncover a lot of mysterious instances happening at the school.
7. Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady with The Lamp
This anime is a story about redemption. Elise de Clorance was a selfish, obsessive, and disrespectful noblewoman. Her behavior eventually led to her death along with her family. However, she got a second chance and reincarnated as Aoi Takamoto with her memory intact and became a famous surgeon.
In this life, she tried her best to help people with her expertise. Unfortunately, she had to die yet again in a plane crash. Surprisingly, she woke up as Elise de Clorance in her teenage years. With her medical knowledge, she then went on her way to revolutionize the medical practice in her kingdom and redeem herself from her previous life.
8. Raven of The Inner Palace
Compared to the rest of the anime in this list, Raven of The Inner Palace is the most similar to Apothecary Diaries. The anime takes a similar medieval Chinese aesthetic and brings it into a fantasy world where curses and mystical abilities exist.
The story revolves around the Raven Consort Ryuu Jusetsu; some called her an immortal sage. But her magical ability also terrified others as much as it brought awe to them. She lived in a jet-black palace, away from anyone. She frequently granted many wishes, be it from common people or aristocrats. However, something changed when the young emperor asked her to grant his request and step out of her palace.
Conclusion
The Apothecary Diaries is a phenomenal anime for any anime and donghua fan. It is technically an anime and Japanese work, judging from its animation studio, light novel publisher, and author. However, The Apothecary Diaries successfully brings an immersive medieval China atmosphere. But that is not the only great thing about this anime.
The Apothecary Diaries also has its fair share of mystery and lighthearted moments thanks to Mao Mao’s wittiness and curiosity. In case you like some specific elements of The Apothecary Diaries or want to see something similar, go ahead and check the above-listed animes. You might just find another new anime to binge-watch.
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