The Apothecary Diaries

[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.