A new seasonal visual for the month of November has been released for The Apothecary Diaries, featuring lead characters Maomao and Jinshi admiring the fallen orange autumn leaves.
The upcoming second season will begin airing in Japan on January 10, 2025 for two consecutive cours. The first season aired in late October 2023 and aired for two cours of 24 total episodes.
Norihiro Naganuma (The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 1) directed the first season and was the series screenwriter, with Akinori Fudesaka (Summer Time Rendering and Komi Can’t Communicate storyboarder) as assistant director, and Yukiko Nakatani (Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure) as character designer. TOHO animation STUDIO and OLM are in charge of the animation production.
Other staff include Misato Aida (Eternal Boys) as color designer, Katsumi Takao (Pokemon: Harukanaru Aoi Sora) as art director, and Rumi Ishiguro (Akiba Maid War) as compositing director. Satoru Kosaki (Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song-), Kevin Penkin (Made in Abyss), and Alisa Okehazama (The God of High School) are the music composers.
Meanwhile, the anime’s main voice cast for the series stars Aoi Yuki as Maomao and Takeo Otsuka as Jinshi.
The anime is based on the light novels written by Natsu Hyuga and illustrated by Toko Shino. It was first published by Shufunotomo on August 29, 2014 and has released 15 physical volumes as of March 2024. J-Novel Club releases the light novels in English digitally for North America, while Square Enix released the series in print.
The series began as a Shosetsuka ni Naro web novel in October 2011. It was later republished by Shufunotomo as a single volume under its Ray Books imprint.
A manga adaptation illustrated by Nekokurage was released in May 2017 and another alternate manga adaptation was launched by Minoji Kurata in August 2017. Square Enix licensed the first manga series for release in English.
Crunchyroll streamed The Apothecary Diaries worldwide and will also stream the second season, outside of Japan. It describes the main synopsis as:
Maomao lived a peaceful life with her apothecary father. Until one day, she’s sold as a lowly servant to the emperor’s palace. But she wasn’t meant for a compliant life among royalty. So when imperial heirs fall ill, she decides to step in and find a cure! This catches the eye of Jinshi, a handsome palace official who promotes her. Now, she’s making a name for herself solving medical mysteries!
