Sign inOpen the app
Sakura Society | An Anime Appreciation Podcast

Poisonings. Curses. One girl Solves All | Manga Monday

Monday · 1 min · 2.9 MB
0:00-1:56

Streams straight from the publisher. podnod never proxies or re-hosts episode audio.

Open in podnod

Welcome to Manga Monday!

This week we're diving into The Apothecary Diaries, based on Natsu Hyuuga's light novel and adapted into manga by Nekokurage, a mystery series set in an imperial court that shouldn't work as well as it does.

Maomao is a 17 year old apothecary raised in the red light district who gets kidnapped and sold as a servant in the emperor's rear palace. She plans to keep her head down and survive her term quietly, but when the emperor's infant children start dying, she can't help herself. She figures out the cause, leaves an anonymous tip, and immediately catches the eye of Jinshi, the impossibly beautiful palace official who promotes her from laundry maid to poison taster.

What follows is a medical mystery series wrapped in court intrigue, where Maomao solves cases with pharmacology, logic, and an unhinged enthusiasm for poison that borders on concerning. She's blunt, stubborn, and completely immune to Jinshi's charm, which only makes him more obsessed. The anime adaptation became a global hit, season two has already aired, and the manga has over 30 million copies in circulation.

If you want a protagonist who's more interested in testing toxins on herself than romance, this is your series.

If you enjoy the show, please rate, review, like, and subscribe to Sakura Society | An Anime Appreciation Podcast — and any other podcasts you love. It takes seconds, costs nothing, and means everything to us creators. (The algorithm only accepts 5 stars, just so you know.)


My amazing sponsors:

  • Audio-Technica — the best in audio equipment
  • Iced Tea Aesthetics — anime streetwear done right (use code SAKURASOCIETY5 at checkout to save $5)
  • Japan Crate — Japanese snacks and treats delivered to your door (use code ATEBIT15 at checkout to save 15% + get free shipping)

Affiliate links: