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Maomao has maintained her tsundere character pretty well inThe Apothecary Diaries. While Jinshi can be seen slowly falling for her, Maomao looks at him with utter disgust and often strays away from him. However, you cannot trust her exterior reactions as she has also felt attracted to Jinshi in her own bizarre way.
The only difference is that Maomao never realized that she was attracted to Jinshi, and the audience glanced over the slight detail due to her bizarre description. In fact, Maomao was attracted to Jinshi in season 1, but even fans with the most keen observation power failed to notice it.
Maomao’s attraction towards Jinshi was visible inThe Apothecary Diariesseason 1
Episode 13 ofThe Apothecary Diariesseason 1 is titledServing in the Outer Court.The episode adapts chapter 1 of the light novel’s second volume. In the episode, Maomao returns to the palace but is asked to work in the outer palace, to her surprise. Since she was fired, she could not be reinstated in the inner palace again, and she began directly serving Jinshi.
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In one scene, Jinshi has just woken up and is in a disheveled state andMaomao is completely captivatedby his beauty. She realized why only she, Gaoshun, and an old woman were allowed in the room. Jinshi’s beauty would have lured any woman or man, forgetting their boundaries. She begins thinking to herself that Jinshi is like a bug in heat who produces exotic scenes to attract mates.
She tells herself that if she could collect Jinshi’s scent, she could sell it as an aphrodisiac. This itself is proof that Maomao recognized the lure of Jinshi, butshe is in denial. Rather than admitting she is attracted to him, she tries to compare him with bugs, and successfully distracts the audience from her feelings.
Why you couldn’t detect Maomao’s attraction to Jinshi inThe Apothecary Diariesanime
The Apothecary Diariesanime is a pretty close adaptation of the manga and light novel. However, some nuances are bound to be lost and the same thing has happened in this instance. A subtle change of words is all that was needed to sideline what Maomao’s own feelings are.
In chapter 1 of the light novel’s volume 1, Maomao thinks to herself:
If I could capture that subtle aroma and turn it into an incense, I bet it would sell. Such was the mindset with which Maomao regarded her potential love-potion ingredient-ahem, that is to say, Jinshi.
This part in the light novel comes after a lengthy description of how Maomao thought that Jinshi was downright sinful for his appearance. The nuance in the light novel is much clearer as Maomao readily accepts that Jinshi can attract anyone. The readers can also see that Maomao is included in the same category.
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However, in the anime, the English subtitles are:
I wonder if I could collect this eunuch’s scent and sell it as an aphrodisiac?
While her previous thoughts are also shown in the episode, her facial expressionconvinces the audience that she is just thinking of Jinshias an ingredient and nothing more. While that is true to some extent, anime watchers have no idea just how distracted Maomao was with her thoughts. The light novel also leaves more to the imagination, and readers can thus understand the palpable moment.
The Apothecary Diariesanime is available to stream on Crunchyroll.
Aaheli Pradhan
Anime Content Writer
Articles Published :1556
Aaheli is an Anime Content Writer at FandomWire with 1300+ published articles. With five years of experience under her belt, she is a living, breathing encyclopedia for anime and manga. From Shonen and Shojo to the most niche anime, nothing escapes her radar. Her poisons of choice are Assassination Classroom, Gintama, Ouran High School Host Club and every Ghibli movie ever. She believes in living a slow life, surrounded by incomplete art projects and her beloved cats.
