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Tara recommended this and it wasn’t at all what I expected. It’s about a young girl that serves in the forbidden city as a sort of detective using her deep knowledge of poisons. But it’s an anime in Japanese. That was really jamming my brain. Chinese characters in a Chinese setting speaking Japanese in a sophisticated anime style. Plus I’ve been through the forbidden city like 3 times now and the backdrops are extraordinary (cgi foundation no doubt). Don’t know if I’ll watch more. The story and characters are intriguing so I might, just to get a handle on it.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
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01-26-2026, 10:31 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-26-2026, 10:32 AM by Drunk Monk.)
I'm about 5/6 eps deep now. It's pretty entertaining but I can't put my finger on exactly why. There's some unsaid sexual stuff (it's all concubines, ladies in waiting and eunuchs). There's been sword fights, well, some sparring. The poisons border on hallucinatory. There's those classic exaggerated chibi-caricature moments, a lot of them, so prevalent in anime but they work really well here. The main protag, Maomao, the poison taster and apothecary expert, is hilariously deadpan. She grew up in a brothel section so she intentional makes her face with freckles, which are viewed as ugly, as a habit from childhood that she used to deflect would-be rapists. I know this all sounds dark for a cartoon, but that's about all I can handle nowadays with the horrific news cycle.
I suspect mostly it's about having something to connect with about with Tara.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
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Solid reason
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm
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I’m close to the halfway point and it’s getting rather complex. Seems as if the separate mysteries solved in each episode are actually linked by some greater overarching scheme. It’s the imperial court so there’s plenty of intrigue as the four courtesans struggle to hold their positions in a turbulent political palace. One thing this anime does quite well is capturing golden hour - the colors just glow. And it turns out the Maomao, although just a teen, really likes alcohol. It’s played off as funny - when she gets to drink, it reverts to a chibi kawai caricature expressing how happy she is.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
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Seen
This was astonishingly good. It all came together in the end. All the episodic tales wove into several superb climaxes - quite the unexpected payout. Disparate elements were actually layering and foreshadowing so the last few episodes were immensely satisfying.
I’m down for s2.
Not D00M recommended however. There are other anime series that I’d point to before this. TAD is too deep into the genre to be appreciated by anyone not well aquatinted with anime.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
