Title : The Apothecary Diaries
Written by : Natsu Hyūga and Itsuki Nanao
Illustrated by : Nekokurage
Published by : Square Enix
Magazine : Monthly Big Gangan
Original run : 2017 – present
Volumes : 10
Good medicine tastes bitter.
Synopsis
Mao Mao, a girl who works as a pharmacist assisting her adoptive father, a doctor, is kidnapped and sold to the palace as a servant girl. For a while, she works discreetly as a servant girl, but when she solves a mystery about the prince’s weakening, she catches the attention of a eunuch and is forced to help him solve various cases.
Review
This manga is a comic adaptation of a novel and combines elements of fantasy, historical fiction, and mystery. It is a mystery-solving story set in a palace in a fictional medieval China-like country, where the main character, a pharmacology enthusiast, uses her own knowledge to solve the case. Despite being a work of fiction, the story has a high quality of reality, allowing the reader to easily imagine the world of the story. Since the story takes place in the Middle Ages, there are no complicated murder cases, and it is easy to read casually.
