(CR) Isekai Yakkyoku (Parallel World Pharmacy)

[Strahan]

The fact they are identical IS what's weird

Most authors don't take the time to world build wholly fresh and unique universes, not that I blame them. It'd be exhausting having to make up every. single. thing. So the existence of things like horses and whatever barely registers anymore. But the naming is what seems silly. I could accept organisms evolving in same manners on other worlds, but names have social meaning and that makes it even weirder for it being similar.

But anyway, I don't typically even notice. Just stuck out to me having the disease even named the same heh.

[Huh...?]

Originally Posted by Strahan

Just stuck out to me having the disease even named the same heh.

Guess the Author didn't want to confuse its Reader too much with the change in names, as the impact would be different depending on how fast the Readers catch on, and remember it.
This maybe also be more due to the fact that Author is from Medical background (if i remember right), and takes plot consultation from a practicing Doctor.

I mean, if say the Author named Tuberculosis/White Death as something like Grey Demise, and Falma/Farma even made a passing remark on how its similar to the disease he knew.
Readers/Viewers wouldn't really connect much with it, as it would be confusing.

[Tenzen12]

Originally Posted by Strahan

The fact they are identical IS what's weird

Most authors don't take the time to world build wholly fresh and unique universes, not that I blame them. It'd be exhausting having to make up every. single. thing. So the existence of things like horses and whatever barely registers anymore. But the naming is what seems silly. I could accept organisms evolving in same manners on other worlds, but names have social meaning and that makes it even weirder for it being similar.

But anyway, I don't typically even notice. Just stuck out to me having the disease even named the same heh.

To be honest I don's see difference between between identical sicknesses, spieces and names. I already accepted that different worlds have same animal spieces so I go along with rest of it as well.

That said, real question is "What is isekai"? If it's just different planet with no relation to Earth then yes, it's weird. If it's paralel world then it makes perfect sense though. Same goes if both worlds are made by same or related god. To put it simple if it's too weird to be concidence it might not be...

[Huh...?]

Episode 4 wasn't bad, but it did skip a few things.

- While discussing with Burno, Falma says that while he plans to release all information on production method of the medicines he knows of. But he also says that it would only after he had properly finalized the production method, as creating them in an improper way could be fatal, to which Bruno notes that, the knowledge of the Gods is dangerous if wrongly used.

- Louis comes in to force Falma to play with him, while he was talking to the Empress.
Noting it because, Louis doesn't really get that many appearances in the story, and this one was one of those rare ones.

- While Falma was being awarded for his service, he was made to touch the staff that the Empress was carrying, which triggers just like how it did with Ellen back in Episode 1 (though because hers if better quality it doesn't break). This informs the Queen on how powerful Falma is actually.
This event leads to later talk about on how the Ruler of the Empire is selected, and we also learn that the current Empress is actually a Muscle head who likes to fight.

[Marcus H.]

I've heard people stating that the guildmaster Baron is a classic mustache-twirling bad guy, but I can't help but think that he is simply protecting his own turf. After all, he leads a guild of commonfolk pharmacists. "Noble pharma" is definitely a threat to their income, especially with how his reputation as "the pharmacist who had cured the Empress" is known to many. For all we know, he thinks that a noble entering the pharmacy business is gonna doom the livelihood of those in the guild.

[grecefar]

Yeah but the commoner didn't look with good eyes the new pharmacy of a noble, they believe the prices will be too high for them. I doubt it will be a success from the beginning and looking at the title of the next chapter, farma will target the women first.

[BWTraveller]

Well, it makes sense that the common folk would be wary. I'm sure they see nobles all the time, often talking of financial amounts that they wouldn't see in a full year's wages. It's reasonable to suspect that a nobleman who claims he'll offer cheap drugs would either be thinking of a noble's idea of "cheap", an amount that few commoners could hope to afford, or be trying to scam them with low-quality drugs (or worse). The fact that he's clearly a child certainly doesn't help; looks like a little boy who doesn't know the first thing about anything playing house with his parents' money. No way could they trust him to understand the prices they can afford, or to make proper medicines, and on top of that the very situation might be kind of offensive to them.

[Huh...?]

Not sure why a character who haven't been introduced yet, is randomly given a Cameo (in Episode 5) while Falma was giving the tour of the empty Store.

[grecefar]

Well said from the empress, if farma keeps this up he will kill all the others stores.

[Decel]

The way the story played, they could literally end the series here after this episode.

I wonder what else they can bring up to keep my interest.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Really like that this episode actually presented that Falma has been struggling for a month without much of commoner customers.

But I'm shocked that Charlotte, a 9 years old, actually came up with the survey idea and did it on her own. Could it be that she's actually an exceptionally bright girl? Like Bruno who is also exceptionally smart & sharp for someone who grew up in this universe.

The old man spying for the guild is interesting. The Queen still having an active role in the show and teaches Falma how the economy here works is interesting. Falma dealing with cosmetics business first to establish his pharmacy to commoners is interesting. Female pharmacists no longer have jobs after childbirth is interesting. There's a bunch of interesting things in this episode that keeps my interest going.

[Tenzen12]

Originally Posted by Decel

The way the story played, they could literally end the series here after this episode.

I wonder what else they can bring up to keep my interest.

I don't know if show can keep your interest in particular, but ending the series here would make zero sense. Putting aside obvious plot hooks like old man bussiness, this episode while involving health concerns it isn't really about doing medicine, in matter of fact titular pharmacy barely get started and has no results yet.

[Decel]

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

I don't know if show can keep your interest in particular, but ending the series here would make zero sense. Putting aside obvious plot hooks like old man bussiness, this episode while involving health concerns it isn't really about doing medicine, in matter of fact titular pharmacy barely get started and has no results yet.

From my point of view:
-Open pharmacy: check
-Attract commoners: check
-Offer low (less so on the Queen's orders): check

The guild's goals kind of disappeared this episode, or rather didn't affect anything in any way.

There doesn't seem to be any grander goal or anything, or at least that I feel that we're actively chasing. Bookworm for example made it more explicit and even if a subplot ended we knew as viewers that it wasn't the end goal.

[Marina2]

After staying in my backlog for weeks, I finally caught up to the latest episode.

This is a such a wholesome isekai, I enjoy listening to Farma explanation on a medicine. The plot is quite simple so far but I don't mind. Another thing I like is a cast of snowflakes! All supporting casts (Like Chalotte and the Queen) and even background characters have really good design.

Ah, yes, look like cosmetic is always one of the best choice for business in Isekai. Good to see Farma business going well.

[Tenzen12]

Originally Posted by Decel

From my point of view:
-Open pharmacy: check
-Attract commoners: check
-Offer low (less so on the Queen's orders): check

The guild's goals kind of disappeared this episode, or rather didn't affect anything in any way.

There doesn't seem to be any grander goal or anything, or at least that I feel that we're actively chasing. Bookworm for example made it more explicit and even if a subplot ended we knew as viewers that it wasn't the end goal.

You didn't notice greater goals this Farma and this show has. I certainly don't think it's any less explicit then bookworm.

[Eater of All]

What continues to amuse me is the fine line this series has to toe because Farma is so OP. I think the approach being taken is to give it some degree of acknowledgement periodically, but otherwise brush off the issue, because it's not what the story is about. Absolutely fair.

The part that's acknowledged this episode is regarding market disruption. Beyond just that market, Farma can really upend that entire world's economy by synthesizing gold or any amount of arbitrarily rare material... that's no fun to think about. What's interesting to consider is how his pharmacy is disrupting the local pharmacy market. He technically has no ingredient expenses, but he does need to pay his staff, upkeep his fancy shop(s), and procure miscellaneous packaging and incidentals for his products. While that sets a floor for his prices, it's nonetheless far lower than his competitors, who 1) do have ingredient costs, 2) price in their expertise, and 3) want to make a profit. It's unclear to me if Farma is even selling the same kinds of medicine, given he probably knows more effective drugs for any general ailment than anyone in that world. So he's really selling more effective medicine for cheaper. He can easily monopolize the market, if only he has the production capacity. I think that's exactly the pragmatic, gentle approach he can follow achieve his end goal of cheap + effective medicine for all - as long as he is able to find formulas for those drugs that are within the kingdom's realistic technological capability, and that use non-Farma-synthesized ingredients, he should train/hire people to start mass producing them. Acquire his competitors and let them help produce his cheap and effective drugs, to spread knowledge of how those drugs work. Slowly advance the state of the art, and get the people to the point where they are able to innovate on top of that knowledge.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Btw, why did Falma's mother's hairdo look like that? Did she want to be a Super Saiyan or something?

[Marina2]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

Btw, why did Falma's mother's hairdo look like that? Did she want to be a Super Saiyan or something?

It supposed to be a disguise.

[BWTraveller]

Originally Posted by Eater of All

What continues to amuse me is the fine line this series has to toe because Farma is so OP. I think the approach being taken is to give it some degree of acknowledgement periodically, but otherwise brush off the issue, because it's not what the story is about. Absolutely fair.

The part that's acknowledged this episode is regarding market disruption. Beyond just that market, Farma can really upend that entire world's economy by synthesizing gold or any amount of arbitrarily rare material... that's no fun to think about. What's interesting to consider is how his pharmacy is disrupting the local pharmacy market. He technically has no ingredient expenses, but he does need to pay his staff, upkeep his fancy shop(s), and procure miscellaneous packaging and incidentals for his products. While that sets a floor for his prices, it's nonetheless far lower than his competitors, who 1) do have ingredient costs, 2) price in their expertise, and 3) want to make a profit. It's unclear to me if Farma is even selling the same kinds of medicine, given he probably knows more effective drugs for any general ailment than anyone in that world. So he's really selling more effective medicine for cheaper. He can easily monopolize the market, if only he has the production capacity. I think that's exactly the pragmatic, gentle approach he can follow achieve his end goal of cheap + effective medicine for all - as long as he is able to find formulas for those drugs that are within the kingdom's realistic technological capability, and that use non-Farma-synthesized ingredients, he should train/hire people to start mass producing them. Acquire his competitors and let them help produce his cheap and effective drugs, to spread knowledge of how those drugs work. Slowly advance the state of the art, and get the people to the point where they are able to innovate on top of that knowledge.

I'm pretty sure he's not just making all the ingredients himself. If he did that then he wouldn't have time to check patients or research new stuff. And a heck of a lot of the product is just simple items put together in specific ways rather than complex molecular structures like the antibiotics.

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by BWTraveller

I'm pretty sure he's not just making all the ingredients himself. If he did that then he wouldn't have time to check patients or research new stuff. And a heck of a lot of the product is just simple items put together in specific ways rather than complex molecular structures like the antibiotics.

Fun fact: he doesn't have to make the more complicated antibiotics. In fact, he'd be better off in the long run to start with simple ones to still have a sledgehammer if any bacteria develop immunity