Summary
- The Apothecary Diaries' second season is confirmed with 24 episodes, premiering on Jan 10, 2025.
- Staff changes for the new season include Akinori Fudesaka as director and new opening theme by Lilas Ikuta.
- The series combines historical intrigue, medical knowledge, and a strong female protagonist in ancient China.
As previously promised, new information on the second season of The Apothecary Diaries was revealed today, including a new trailer. The Apothecary Diaries was one of 2023 hits not everybody saw coming. Although the novel series was already somewhat big among a niche audience, it was not widely known like Shonen Jump titles usually are (we're talking about Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer).
Tying together a good plot with good animation, the adaptation of Natsu Hyuga's novel series won fans' hearts. It's well-deserved for the series, since the plot is indeed quite amazing. It's really nice when animation that is a bit different from the usual mainstream stuff is able to trend among the public.
Historical Anime To Watch If You Love The Apothecary Diaries
Historical anime fans who enjoyed The Apothecary Diaries are spoiled with choice when it comes to other, similar anime of the same genre.
The new season is already confirmed to return with 24 episodes, and the first episode is scheduled to debut on January 10, 2025, and it will run for two consecutive cours. Now they dropped the main trailer, previewing the new opening theme ("Hyakka Ryoran", by Lilas Ikuta). Check it out:
The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 Staff
There are a few changes in the main staff for the next season. Akinori Fudesaka replaces Norihiro Naganuma at the direction. Apparently, this is Fudesaka's directional debut, but he worked as assistant director in the first season, so it might not be such a huge change.
Naganuma is still working on the series, but now only as the head writer. Other staff names include Yukiko Nakatani (character design), Katsumi Takao (art director) and Satoru Kousaki, Kevin Penkin and Alisa Okehazama (music). Toho Animation Studio and OLM are still in charge of the series. Some people might link OLM with Pokémon or Yo-kai Watch, but they've also been doing pretty different stuff recently, like ODDTAXI.
The "Game of Thrones" Of Tang China
The story takes place in Imperial China, during what would be the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD). The protagonist, Maomao, is a girl working as an apothecary in the red-light district. However, one day she ends up in the Imperial Palace because she was sold as a servant.
A few years later, she uses her skills as an apothecary to solve a mystery regarding the illness of the emperor's children and concubines. After that, she is often requested to use her skills to solve many mysteries (often related to political conspiracies) in the royal court.
The Apothecary Diaries anime is available to stream on Crunchyroll, with subs and dubs in several languages. Square Enix (print) and J-Novel Club (digital) license the original novel in the US.
Source: AnimeTV
The Apothecary Diaries
- Release Date
- October 22, 2023
- Directors
- Norihiro Naganuma, Akinori Fudesaka
- Writers
- Norihiro Naganuma
- Franchise(s)
- The Apothecary Diaries
Cast
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Emi Lo -
Kaiji Tang
-
Alex Horn
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