(CR) Kusuriya no Hitorigoto (The Apothecary Diaries) Season 2

[grecefar]

I guess there is much politics and appareances and the fact that lishu is still a naive kid and can't get rid of all the ladies in her pavillion. At least she showed some guts and took the mirror back.

that hadsome eunuch looks like someone we know.

I hope nothing bad happens to xiaolan but for the looks of it maomao will come to the rescue and loumen back at the palace?, looking foward to it.

[Kanon]

I really hope they find a way to improve Lishu's life. She gets no visits from the Emperor which must make her feel pretty bad about herself and her servants treat her like crap. She doesn't belong in the Rear Palace, or at least not as a high-rank concubine. I was happy Jinshi scolded that bitch but that didn't seem to be nearly enough.

It had been quite some time since we had seen Jinshi acting all sparkly, I was just as turned off as Maomao. It just feels so wrong to see him behave like this. Good on him for actually managing to call Maomao by her name.

Seems pretty obvious that new eunuch is Suirei, but I wonder how she's fooling the people inspecting her. Or do they not strip them naked?

I was extremely worried about Xiaolan after the end of the episode, but she seems more or less fine in the preview. Maomao will probably work something out. She, more than anyone else, knows how precious Xiaolan is. No harm must come to her!

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Seems pretty obvious that new eunuch is Suirei, but I wonder how she's fooling the people inspecting her. Or do they not strip them naked?

It looked like there was scarring (possibly faked?) on her skin so that might have been enough to justify her not removing her clothes. The quack doctor said the check is just to feel if there's a "frog" there so if they don't have one and have a sufficient reason not to disrobe...

[Master_Yoma]

So its off to find out if theres a ghost or its just something or someone else but Gyokuyou seems to be excited about it but cant go and then theres Jinshi just using his looks to get things done

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Frontier

It looked like there was scarring (possibly faked?) on her skin so that might have been enough to justify her not removing her clothes. The quack doctor said the check is just to feel if there's a "frog" there so if they don't have one and have a sufficient reason not to disrobe...

Simply feeling up over the clothes sounds extremely lax if that's really all they're doing.

[mangamuscle]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Seems pretty obvious that new eunuch is Suirei, but I wonder how she's fooling the people inspecting her. Or do they not strip them naked?

Lucky for her that the chinese were so insecure they even cut the penis, otherwise she wouldn't pass any test, no matter how half assed.

BTW, if the slaves are from other country, why did they also cut the penis, imo it is too convenient.

[Tenzen12]

Is it? Castration for slaves were very common across the history with earliest record going to back to 2000 BC and last one was in 1996. Regions it existed was basically everywhere in asia, west and north Africa and even Greece and Rome.

It's too common practice to be considered "too convenient" to find some. In matter of fact this "not-quite-china" might very well be only country in region to abolish it to that point.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

Is it? Castration for slaves were very common across the history with earliest record going to back to 2000 BC and last one was in 1996. Regions it existed was basically everywhere in asia, west and north Africa and even Greece and Rome.

It's too common practice to be considered "too convenient" to find some. In matter of fact this "not-quite-china" might very well be only country in region to abolish it to that point.

Historically it made sense (in a way). You'd castrate male slaves and servants to ensure they wouldn't procreate. Simple as that. That's why they are allowed to be near the concubines (because they don't pose a risk of doing something that only the emperor should).

[Nachtwandler]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Simply feeling up over the clothes sounds extremely lax if that's really all they're doing.

Their goal is not to get any "functioning" males into the harem, not to prevent woman sneaking in disguise. So just making sure there is nothing there is enough.

[Mad Pierrot]

What's the big deal about Jinshi calling Maomao by her name? Maomao wasn't even surprised about it

[magnuskn]

He had always (maybe subconsciously) avoided calling her by her own name before.

[Nachtwandler]

Yeah, previously he always addressed her "apothecary".

[scififan]

Originally Posted by Mad Pierrot

What's the big deal about Jinshi calling Maomao by her name? Maomao wasn't even surprised about it

It is the common joke used in many anime. The short answer is search "Why do the Japanese hesitate to call each other by their first name?". The long answer is calling first name instead of last name shows the relationship(social hierarchy and level of friendship) of two individuals. Not doing so would considered as disrespect. In romantic anime, not doing so would cause embarrassment from happiness.

[Decel]

YouTube

https://youtu.be/5T6LY9f3iGo

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[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Decel

YouTube

https://youtu.be/5T6LY9f3iGo

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

Jinshi can't get enough of saying Maomao's name and she can't get enough of thinking about his "Frog" and what to do about it .

[Frontier]

Okay, this is bad. Not only is Xiaolan in trouble, but that eunuch she bumped into who was carrying the ice is in deep @#$% as well. Not to mention this is for Loulan, the only concubine Maomao doesn't have an "in" with. It's telling that even Maomao is freaking out a little about this. But for Xiaolan, she'll improvise and come up with something. And Jinshi knows she's got this .

Poor Xiaolan. A Concubine had singled her out and given her a hair stick, and now this happens because she was so happy about it she got distracted. She's surprisingly emotionally resilient for a girl that was sold off by her parents to the palace, but she's still just a young girl who made a mistake and doesn't deserve this .

But luckily Jinshi is there to rile up Maomao and look at her with the most seductive and teasing eyes of all time, always happy when Maomao needs something from him. But Xiaolan may have started out as just an information source, but now Maomao truly sees her as a friend, and her rationalizing that is just the cutest and funniest thing Jinshi has ever seen .

I mean, of COURSE Jinshi is going to help her, though he would appreciate it if she finally was willing to listen to what he has to say to her. And if he finally wears the hairpin he gave her all the way back in season 1, then he'll feel even more motivated to tell her .

What is Maomao's solution? Why, some fine-grade ice cream! How could Loulan resist? The eunuch and Xiaolan sure can't! And all this talk about Loulan, but it's Shisui who slips in and delights herself with some ice cream too! And Maomao can't help but be happy seeing Xaiolan and Shisui playing around together .

Gyokuyou is truly glowing with her pregnancy, and Lingli is looking forward to her new sibling, and everything should be okay...until Maomao realizes they might be dealing with a breech pregnancy. I mean, that Hongniang was able to handle Gyokuyou's first pregnancy without any help is impressive, but they need professional help for this one and there's only so little Maomao can do. But she knows someone who can .

Luomen! I mean, dudes' delivered enough babies he's probably the perfect choice for this, it wouldn't even be his first breech pregnancy. Obviously Hongniang is wary of his reputation, but Gyokuyou is reasonable and smart enough to realize that there was probably more to his situation and anyone Maomao would go to bat for has to be worthy of it .

Must be surreal for Luomen to return to the rear palace, though even more surreal is for Gyokuyou's girls to all be surprised Maomao's dad is...actually normal and reasonable, compared to Maomao. It's even making Seki-U speak up more !

Hmm...that handsome and deceptively feminine eunuch is looking at a grave? Wonder what's up with that ?

[magnuskn]

I loved Xiaolan going full Fern on Maomao.

[Kanon]

Xiaolan's smile was restored by Maomao in a matter of minutes. As it should be. How does she know how to make ice cream though? This has absolutely nothing to do with medicine. At any rate, this little incident showed that Maomao has truly grown as a person and sees Xiaolan as a true friend. The same probably goes for Shisui as well, they've known each other for a while now (the progression of Gyokuyou's pregnancy is a good indication of the time passing).

I thought it was in poor taste for Jinshi to tease Maomao at such a time, even if he wasn't asking for much. I wonder what he would have done if Maomao hadn't figured something out. I'd like to think he would have pulled some strings to get Xiaolan off the hook.

The second half was a lot more serious. Gyokuyou proved herself to be a very reasonable and smart person once again, and obviously her absolute trust in Maomao played a big part. That said, after seeing the doctor who is supposed to perform a dangerous surgery on me can barely even walk, serious doubt would have crept into my mind. Luomen really seems too old to do this, and I wouldn't be surprised if Maomao ends up being the one doing it with Luomen guiding her through the procedure.

I'm eager to find out more about Luomen's past, and possibly why Jinshi was switched with his uncle in the process.

Originally Posted by Frontier

Must be surreal for Luomen to return to the rear palace, though even more surreal is for Gyokuyou's girls to all be surprised Maomao's dad is...actually normal and reasonable, compared to Maomao. It's even making Seki-U speak up more !

If/when they find out Lakan is her biological father, they'll probably just go "yep, that makes sense". No matter how much she hates it, she takes after him.

[grecefar]

maomao cares about xiaolan a great deal, she just jumped to help without hesitation.

and I'm happy to see loumen again, just seeing him makes me smile.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Xiaolan's smile was restored by Maomao in a matter of minutes. As it should be. How does she know how to make ice cream though? This has absolutely nothing to do with medicine. At any rate, this little incident showed that Maomao has truly grown as a person and sees Xiaolan as a true friend. The same probably goes for Shisui as well, they've known each other for a while now (the progression of Gyokuyou's pregnancy is a good indication of the time passing).

I can only imagine she saw it made at the Verdigris House once because I doubt Luomen would've ever made it for her .

I think we see in this episode how Maomao cares a lot even if she can't quite cop to said feelings. Even though she clearly sees Xiaolan (and probably Shisui too) as a friend, she had to frame it in a way where she wouldn't just outright say "she's my friend" because she's not used to those kind of feelings. But Jinshi could tell.

I think it's also similar to how she's not always very reliable in regards to how she feels about Jinshi.

I thought it was in poor taste for Jinshi to tease Maomao at such a time, even if he wasn't asking for much. I wonder what he would have done if Maomao hadn't figured something out. I'd like to think he would have pulled some strings to get Xiaolan off the hook.

I think he was always going to help her one way or another (and had confidence she could figure a way out of this), he just needed an excuse to finally give her a reason to sit still for five minutes, wear his hairpin, and listen to his confession .

The second half was a lot more serious. Gyokuyou proved herself to be a very reasonable and smart person once again, and obviously her absolute trust in Maomao played a big part. That said, after seeing the doctor who is supposed to perform a dangerous surgery on me can barely even walk, serious doubt would have crept into my mind. Luomen really seems too old to do this, and I wouldn't be surprised if Maomao ends up being the one doing it with Luomen guiding her through the procedure.

She could use more on-the-job training .

If/when they find out Lakan is her biological father, they'll probably just go "yep, that makes sense". No matter how much she hates it, she takes after him.

Hey, she's calling Luoemon "sort of" her father and acknowledging he's basically her great uncle, at least she's not completely denying Lakan's status as her bio dad .