The kidnappers are her “family”. The system is SUPPOSED to function as families can have their daughters work in the palace for extra income. But there isn’t anyway to check if someone is your daughter or not so people abuse the system and kidnap young girls to essentially sell into indentured servitude. People are aware this happens, but it’s difficult to try and fix and the palace doesn’t really have any reason to fix the system, because it gets them more servants.
As George speculated, this story takes place in China. Though a male heir is important as the country is ruled by the Emperor, in Chinese history, there have been women who ruled from behind the scenes… such as the Empress Dowager Cixi who took the opportunity to wield power when her husband died and she ruled in the name of her young son. Now for some trivia: “Maomao” means “cat cat” in Chinese. Lady Gyokuyou is voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki, who voiced Frieren.
Also, a small clarification on the concubines. Its 2000 concubines AND female servants, so girls like maomao and her friend would count towards the 2000. That said, concubine numbers can range from the dozens, to in one historical case being over 40,000, which was Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. Its ultimately a case by case thing with the emperors
Also George is right, this is based loosely on imperial China. All the names are Chinese. With that, Maomao means cat cat, which is why Maomao gets cat ears occasionally
Since George loved Frieren I know he's going to love this series. They were the two best in the last seasons. About the cat ears, Maomao is basically cat cat. So they emphasize that she's cat like. Oh and can't wait for episode 4.
Phew. So happy y’all found your way to this. It was such a perfect pairing to have this and Frieren airing together as reps of truly inspirational female led series. Such a fun little story, with an amazing MC. Maomao goated. Big Maomao on campus. The kids would call her a big stepper 😮💨🔥🔥
I know I'm late to the party but just a bonus piece of info, in Chinese, with names we sometimes repeat the word to make it sound cuter. This is mainly used for small children, but can also be used affectionately. It doesn't change the meaning at all. For example, Mao = 貓 (lit. cat), so Mao Mao = 貓貓 (which just means cat all the same)
Love that you started this! It's one of my favourite series. 2:20 Over many years I've watched dozens of if not a hundred animes, read many mangas and read a few night novel series including the Apotechary Diaries (coincidence I know) and I still don't consider myself a weeb. I just like good entertainment and I'm a fan of drawn media in general and I just think Japan's got it down way better than the west these days.
she wanted to lay low, "do her TIME" until here contract ran out then go home, getting promoted to be a Lady in Waiting means she is One Degree of Seperation from the Emperor, which means if anything happens to the Lady or the anyone around them, it could mean her life is done. Being in the Back Back Back grounds was way safer.
Apothecary Diaries reminds me of an older detective show called Diagnosis Murder with Dick Van Dyke playing a doctor who solves mysteries. Maomao is pretty great even by normie standards, she's basically House M.D/Sherlock Holmes crossed with Mulan (or Secret Garden/Little Princess for my 90s homies). Sherlock Holmes was actually a heavy abuser of substances in the original novels, and Gregory House is no exception either, so Maomao is VERY coded to fitting that brand of detective with a Korean/Chinese TV drama flair. Jinshi is basically a mix of Lestrade and Watson, leaning much more on the latter. It helps somewhat that Maomao isn't even a catgirl... the cat ears are used in manga as an "emote" to show excitement and "mao" is Chinese for cat, so the cat-ears are a light hearted pun on her name while also serving as a visual motif that conveys her curiosity, otherwise she's functionally just a deranged detective who didn't sign up for any of this.
there is a wonderful video essay on RUclips called Frieren VS Maomao - Writing a Female Protagonist, discussing in details why MaoMao and Frieren are very well written characters. I can even argue the best female MCs in anime.
Funny that Graham, who lives in Japan, couldn't quite tell where this was taking place. They don't specifically say because of tensions it may cause with China, I'm guessing. So better to think that it takes place in a fantasy feudal era. But Graham, please get out and visit some shrines and if you have the opportunity, visit Bejing and check out the Forbidden City. I watched this series and was entertained with Maomao and her character and by the stories and lives being told. The politics are interesting as well.
This story is based on a fictional version of Imperial China, and indeed, the Chinese Emperors kept pretty large harems within the Imperial Palace (the area where the concubines lived was usually called the Inner Palace, rather than Rear Palace, in translations I've read), for the sake of ensuring they had many children. Some Emperors had very, very, large harems, measuring thousands of concubines according with records (though the numbers are likely exaggerated), for which their ministers would criticize them (hence me saying the numbers are likely exaggerated), as that many concubines ramped up the expenses of the harem. The show still hasn't dived into it, but they've already hinted that politics within the Imperial Harem were quite high stakes, as giving birth to the Emperor's Heir was a very important position, which usually rewarded the concubine who birthed the Heir with the position of Empress, which in turn meant her male relatives, her father, brothers, uncles, etc, would be given important positions within the Imperial Administration. And no, it wasn't at all weird for Emperors to have a small number of children, or none at all, despite having an harem. In fact, it was a more-than-you'd-think-frequent situation for the Emperor to die without issue, or without having formally chosen an heir, which created a lot of tension.
Comment section for this show may have spoilers due to a small minority of fans wanting to sound smart. However, the show itself is very good. The only thing that prevented it from being a season's best was frieren.
The stereotype of the "smelly anime kid" is so true. I remember when I was a freshman in high school my best friend started an anime club and convinced me to join despite myself not watching anime. It was actually a really great experience and I found a lot of shows I enjoyed and friends to have fun with. However, there was this one guy who smelled like cat pee, had greasy hair, wore a long black coat, and sometimes brought a plastic katana to school. He was just one person out of the entire club, but he was the poster boy for the stereotype. Nice enough guy, but I personally never cared for him.
“This is awesome” indeed it is an EXCELLENT show. And actually one of the few I’ve managed to talk my colleague at work to watch and he really liked it too. (And he generally does not like anime.)
way late to the party cosmetics for centuries used elements we now know are toxic, like lead, arsenic, mercury, etc. White compounds back then used lead and it wasn't banned from cosmetics till the late 1800s early1900s and was still used in house paints into the 1950s.
Reactors always struggle with the first several episodes, because there's so much courtly etiquette obscuring what real things are going on, even with maomao bluntly plowing through situations. Vis: so-called "family" being the kidnappers, and maomao's play-along with the broken vase as a pretext to reverse the pay going to them
The only comment I'll make is to pay attention to even the small details. Many things come back much later on to have meaning. I preferred this show over Frieren personally, but I respect both shows a great deal.
Xiaolan (gossip girl) is precious and adorable and we need to protect her. She might even be my favorite recurring secondary character. Btw, the palace may have 2000 concubines, but the status of concubine is political first of all, as far as I can tell. This is a prestigious position and a good favor in order to build relationships. The emperor doesn't have to visit all of them. The show will delve a bit deeper into how the rear palace works. Long live Maomao, our freckled catgirl / mado scientisto!
How is Nokotan a “slice-of-life?” It’s more a goofball comedy. It’s like calling “Airplane!” a slice-of-life. Apothecary Diaries isn’t slice-of-life either.
To be fair, the whole cat-ear thing that comes out is literally just a visual gag that highlights and exaggerates a specific reaction to comedic effect. There's a lot of anime b.s. used as visual and allegorical gags can be off-putting to people who aren't used to or don't understand that style of visual storytelling. It's used to lighten the tone as opposed to turning fully comedic. Just like Tarantino, it's an acquired taste. The naming in Apothecary for Maomao is very Japanese, and less like Chinese. In Chinese, Maomao would be the nickname/term of endearment, since doubling a sound is considered familiar or cute. The literal translation is "cat cat" and is a way of infantilizing the word. Most Chinese would not name their kid "cat", it would either be a single or double character. It's possible that Mao is actually a different character that is a homophone; in Chinese it could be anything from fur/hair to feather, mold, nervous/scared, wool, raw or careless. "XiaoMao" means "little cat." Xiao in Chinese does not necessarily mean "small" or "young" or "little" but also Beautiful. Given that XiaoMao was raised in a brothel, I prefer to think her name is XiaoMao, Beautiful Feather. But because this is a Japanization of China, Maomao is literally "cat cat" and her nickname is "little cat." An interesting parallel is that a person could be call XiaoZhu, meaning Beautiful Bead, but that is also a homophone for "little pig" or "piglet."
2000 concubines and servants, not just concubines. There may be only 10-20 actual concubines, some high ranking, others low. Also a lot of concubines are from highly political families, hoping their daughter will catch the emperor’s eye.
Kids into anime enough to be in the anime club in high school are pretty freaking weird to be fair Its hilarious youre replacing one very loose historical fiction anime with another one
I swear gorge is watching best of the best from some time. 😂 Another good series. Gorge, nokotan is not Slice of Life. Wait until you see real slice of life.😮 Yes chibi character can be done good, see.
Hmm...my previous comment got taken down, for some reason. I was just trying to recommend another anime but I'll skip it this time. We'll see if this one gets taken down... The "chibi" effect in this anime is generally just used to show Maomao's thoughts or emotions, which is why it doesn't seem so out of place here. A lot of other anime use it more manipulatively, in essence to prompt the viewer to see a person or moment as comedic when it often isn't...at least to Western sensibilities. I'm guessing that's why it feels so out of place in a lot of other anime. It tends to be overused and inappropriately timed.
That's odd, we haven't removed anything. We're always open to anime recommendations, especially when the voting starts. In regards to the chibi thing, it's definitely not as jarring in this show and I think you're right. It's more of a tool to accentuate a character's emotions, rather than a tonal shift. That's probably what's bothered me the most in the past. - George
Basically families offer up their girl children as servants for a two year term. If a family has none they want to offer up, they might buy kidnapped girls to represent their family contribution Males have a longer term servitude and *ahem* alteration to serve. 51:42
3 месяца назад+3
16:30 lead poisoning, most likely. Wasn’t uncommon at all historically when white face powder was in fashion.
!["Maomao's a BOSS!!" - A Weeb & Normie React - The Apothecary Diaries [S1E3-4] (Highlights)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/tO1fOLnpm5Y/mqdefault.jpg)
!["Maomao's a BOSS!!" - A Weeb & Normie React - The Apothecary Diaries [S1E3-4] (Highlights)](/img/tr.png)
!["She gets to go HOME?!" - A Weeb & Normie React - The Apothecary Diaries [S1E7-8] (Highlights)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Rhcj3UlYHe0/mqdefault.jpg)
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
The kidnappers are her “family”. The system is SUPPOSED to function as families can have their daughters work in the palace for extra income. But there isn’t anyway to check if someone is your daughter or not so people abuse the system and kidnap young girls to essentially sell into indentured servitude. People are aware this happens, but it’s difficult to try and fix and the palace doesn’t really have any reason to fix the system, because it gets them more servants.
As George speculated, this story takes place in China. Though a male heir is important as the country is ruled by the Emperor, in Chinese history, there have been women who ruled from behind the scenes… such as the Empress Dowager Cixi who took the opportunity to wield power when her husband died and she ruled in the name of her young son. Now for some trivia:
“Maomao” means “cat cat” in Chinese.
Lady Gyokuyou is voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki, who voiced Frieren.
@@ogami7661 That’s interesting… but it resembles China the most… the clothing, names, architecture, food, and culture is quite Chinese.
I was laughing when you said you didn't think there'd be any cat girls in this anime. I mean... yes and no?😂
Also, a small clarification on the concubines. Its 2000 concubines AND female servants, so girls like maomao and her friend would count towards the 2000. That said, concubine numbers can range from the dozens, to in one historical case being over 40,000, which was Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. Its ultimately a case by case thing with the emperors
Damn, i just posted a similar response before I saw yours. Oh well.
Also George is right, this is based loosely on imperial China. All the names are Chinese.
With that, Maomao means cat cat, which is why Maomao gets cat ears occasionally
here we go, the next freaking banger show after Frieren... my 2 fave shows for 23/24
Since George loved Frieren I know he's going to love this series. They were the two best in the last seasons.
About the cat ears, Maomao is basically cat cat. So they emphasize that she's cat like.
Oh and can't wait for episode 4.
Yeah def 2 of the best most recent shows!
Phew. So happy y’all found your way to this. It was such a perfect pairing to have this and Frieren airing together as reps of truly inspirational female led series.
Such a fun little story, with an amazing MC.
Maomao goated. Big Maomao on campus. The kids would call her a big stepper 😮💨🔥🔥
I know I'm late to the party but just a bonus piece of info, in Chinese, with names we sometimes repeat the word to make it sound cuter. This is mainly used for small children, but can also be used affectionately. It doesn't change the meaning at all. For example, Mao = 貓 (lit. cat), so Mao Mao = 貓貓 (which just means cat all the same)
Finally. House MD of Thrones
Perfect name for it
And this time the MD is Ming Dynasty.
Love that you started this! It's one of my favourite series.
2:20 Over many years I've watched dozens of if not a hundred animes, read many mangas and read a few night novel series including the Apotechary Diaries (coincidence I know) and I still don't consider myself a weeb. I just like good entertainment and I'm a fan of drawn media in general and I just think Japan's got it down way better than the west these days.
she wanted to lay low, "do her TIME" until here contract ran out then go home, getting promoted to be a Lady in Waiting means she is One Degree of Seperation from the Emperor, which means if anything happens to the Lady or the anyone around them, it could mean her life is done. Being in the Back Back Back grounds was way safer.
Apothecary Diaries reminds me of an older detective show called Diagnosis Murder with Dick Van Dyke playing a doctor who solves mysteries. Maomao is pretty great even by normie standards, she's basically House M.D/Sherlock Holmes crossed with Mulan (or Secret Garden/Little Princess for my 90s homies). Sherlock Holmes was actually a heavy abuser of substances in the original novels, and Gregory House is no exception either, so Maomao is VERY coded to fitting that brand of detective with a Korean/Chinese TV drama flair. Jinshi is basically a mix of Lestrade and Watson, leaning much more on the latter.
It helps somewhat that Maomao isn't even a catgirl... the cat ears are used in manga as an "emote" to show excitement and "mao" is Chinese for cat, so the cat-ears are a light hearted pun on her name while also serving as a visual motif that conveys her curiosity, otherwise she's functionally just a deranged detective who didn't sign up for any of this.
there is a wonderful video essay on RUclips called Frieren VS Maomao - Writing a Female Protagonist, discussing in details why MaoMao and Frieren are very well written characters. I can even argue the best female MCs in anime.
I would say Kana and Akane from Oshi no ko are well written as well. but tbf they are not main protagonists but secondary protagonists
Welcome to the rollercoaster. It has twists and turns and one wild ride. Right now it is climbing, climbing…
minor clarification it wasn't 2000 Concubines said it was 2000 Concubines & Servants
Let’s fucking go! Maomao is a great MC, and yes, everyone is beautiful in this show.
the kidnappers posed as family basically, so the "family" aka. the "kidnappers" wont get money now
Rewatching this again really broke my heart hearing Lihua's wailing the night the prince passed away. Bearing child wasn't just a duty to her.
they make her hair into cat ears to show she's super happy. when you meet more people in this series you'll see more of this particular comedy.
"A Place Further Than The Universe" should complete the transformation of any Normie into a Weeb.
Funny that Graham, who lives in Japan, couldn't quite tell where this was taking place. They don't specifically say because of tensions it may cause with China, I'm guessing. So better to think that it takes place in a fantasy feudal era. But Graham, please get out and visit some shrines and if you have the opportunity, visit Bejing and check out the Forbidden City. I watched this series and was entertained with Maomao and her character and by the stories and lives being told. The politics are interesting as well.
This story is based on a fictional version of Imperial China, and indeed, the Chinese Emperors kept pretty large harems within the Imperial Palace (the area where the concubines lived was usually called the Inner Palace, rather than Rear Palace, in translations I've read), for the sake of ensuring they had many children. Some Emperors had very, very, large harems, measuring thousands of concubines according with records (though the numbers are likely exaggerated), for which their ministers would criticize them (hence me saying the numbers are likely exaggerated), as that many concubines ramped up the expenses of the harem.
The show still hasn't dived into it, but they've already hinted that politics within the Imperial Harem were quite high stakes, as giving birth to the Emperor's Heir was a very important position, which usually rewarded the concubine who birthed the Heir with the position of Empress, which in turn meant her male relatives, her father, brothers, uncles, etc, would be given important positions within the Imperial Administration.
And no, it wasn't at all weird for Emperors to have a small number of children, or none at all, despite having an harem. In fact, it was a more-than-you'd-think-frequent situation for the Emperor to die without issue, or without having formally chosen an heir, which created a lot of tension.
YESSS I LOVE THIS SHOW
I don't think she ignored the note she just didn't actually get it as it's not her job to clean
Warning, this series is kinda notorious for being spoiled. Not as much in the early episodes, but be warned
Comment section for this show may have spoilers due to a small minority of fans wanting to sound smart. However, the show itself is very good. The only thing that prevented it from being a season's best was frieren.
for lack of human test subjects apothecaries often did experiment on themselves.
Mao = Cat
Maomao = Catcat
Thats why she have cat ears when excited.
The stereotype of the "smelly anime kid" is so true. I remember when I was a freshman in high school my best friend started an anime club and convinced me to join despite myself not watching anime. It was actually a really great experience and I found a lot of shows I enjoyed and friends to have fun with. However, there was this one guy who smelled like cat pee, had greasy hair, wore a long black coat, and sometimes brought a plastic katana to school. He was just one person out of the entire club, but he was the poster boy for the stereotype. Nice enough guy, but I personally never cared for him.
the era of "glomp"
We all know that guy
“This is awesome” indeed it is an EXCELLENT show. And actually one of the few I’ve managed to talk my colleague at work to watch and he really liked it too. (And he generally does not like anime.)
way late to the party cosmetics for centuries used elements we now know are toxic, like lead, arsenic, mercury, etc. White compounds back then used lead and it wasn't banned from cosmetics till the late 1800s early1900s and was still used in house paints into the 1950s.
Reactors always struggle with the first several episodes, because there's so much courtly etiquette obscuring what real things are going on, even with maomao bluntly plowing through situations. Vis: so-called "family" being the kidnappers, and maomao's play-along with the broken vase as a pretext to reverse the pay going to them
Graham, i have to disagree, liking a handsome anime man is just as manly as liking anime women :O
The only comment I'll make is to pay attention to even the small details. Many things come back much later on to have meaning. I preferred this show over Frieren personally, but I respect both shows a great deal.
Xiaolan (gossip girl) is precious and adorable and we need to protect her. She might even be my favorite recurring secondary character.
Btw, the palace may have 2000 concubines, but the status of concubine is political first of all, as far as I can tell. This is a prestigious position and a good favor in order to build relationships. The emperor doesn't have to visit all of them. The show will delve a bit deeper into how the rear palace works.
Long live Maomao, our freckled catgirl / mado scientisto!
2000 represents the concubines plus their servants.
How is Nokotan a “slice-of-life?” It’s more a goofball comedy. It’s like calling “Airplane!” a slice-of-life.
Apothecary Diaries isn’t slice-of-life either.
To be fair, the whole cat-ear thing that comes out is literally just a visual gag that highlights and exaggerates a specific reaction to comedic effect.
There's a lot of anime b.s. used as visual and allegorical gags can be off-putting to people who aren't used to or don't understand that style of visual storytelling. It's used to lighten the tone as opposed to turning fully comedic.
Just like Tarantino, it's an acquired taste.
The naming in Apothecary for Maomao is very Japanese, and less like Chinese. In Chinese, Maomao would be the nickname/term of endearment, since doubling a sound is considered familiar or cute. The literal translation is "cat cat" and is a way of infantilizing the word. Most Chinese would not name their kid "cat", it would either be a single or double character. It's possible that Mao is actually a different character that is a homophone; in Chinese it could be anything from fur/hair to feather, mold, nervous/scared, wool, raw or careless.
"XiaoMao" means "little cat." Xiao in Chinese does not necessarily mean "small" or "young" or "little" but also Beautiful. Given that XiaoMao was raised in a brothel, I prefer to think her name is XiaoMao, Beautiful Feather. But because this is a Japanization of China, Maomao is literally "cat cat" and her nickname is "little cat."
An interesting parallel is that a person could be call XiaoZhu, meaning Beautiful Bead, but that is also a homophone for "little pig" or "piglet."
Who told them that this show was a slice of life show? lol
2000 concubines and servants, not just concubines. There may be only 10-20 actual concubines, some high ranking, others low. Also a lot of concubines are from highly political families, hoping their daughter will catch the emperor’s eye.
Yeah, the Emperor never even "visits" a lot of the concubines. There are at least a couple hundred concubines though.
20 is a very low number for emperor.
@@gilgameshlfx7006 They don't show him being particularly wandering. In fact as a prince, Ah-duo was his only consort.
Kids into anime enough to be in the anime club in high school are pretty freaking weird to be fair
Its hilarious youre replacing one very loose historical fiction anime with another one
I swear gorge is watching best of the best from some time. 😂
Another good series.
Gorge, nokotan is not Slice of Life.
Wait until you see real slice of life.😮
Yes chibi character can be done good, see.
Which priority for "slice of life": Place Further than the Universe, Yuru Camp, or Nichijou?
Hmm...my previous comment got taken down, for some reason. I was just trying to recommend another anime but I'll skip it this time. We'll see if this one gets taken down...
The "chibi" effect in this anime is generally just used to show Maomao's thoughts or emotions, which is why it doesn't seem so out of place here. A lot of other anime use it more manipulatively, in essence to prompt the viewer to see a person or moment as comedic when it often isn't...at least to Western sensibilities. I'm guessing that's why it feels so out of place in a lot of other anime. It tends to be overused and inappropriately timed.
That's odd, we haven't removed anything. We're always open to anime recommendations, especially when the voting starts.
In regards to the chibi thing, it's definitely not as jarring in this show and I think you're right. It's more of a tool to accentuate a character's emotions, rather than a tonal shift. That's probably what's bothered me the most in the past.
- George
Basically families offer up their girl children as servants for a two year term. If a family has none they want to offer up, they might buy kidnapped girls to represent their family contribution
Males have a longer term servitude and *ahem* alteration to serve. 51:42
16:30 lead poisoning, most likely. Wasn’t uncommon at all historically when white face powder was in fashion.
also Arsenious oxide