The author of “The Apothecary Diaries” spoke in a recent interview about the creation of her successful series and dispelled some widespread assumptions. We summarize below.
Not ancient China
Speaking to Scrmbl, Hyuganatsu explained that many fans incorrectly assume that “The Apothecary Diaries” is set in ancient China.
In fact, this is neither chronologically nor geographically correct and the author emphasized that the plot is not directly set in China, but was merely inspired by Chinese history and culture.
Furthermore, in their opinion it is by no means an ancient era. Instead, she combined numerous interesting elements from 1,000 years of Chinese history and processed them into her own fictional world.
It was precisely this deliberately vague design of the setting that gave her great freedom when writing and enabled her to rearrange historical models according to her own ideas.
Maomao had a different plan
Another revelation concerns the main character Maomao, who was originally not supposed to be a teenager, but a much older woman with three children.
However, she decided on a younger main character because, in her experience, such characters are easier to convey to a wide audience.
The initial idea was still partially retained: Although Maomao is only 17 years old during the course of the story, she retained many of the characteristics and life experience of the older character originally planned.
Finally, the author revealed that some cases from “The Apothecary Diaries” are based on real incidents. Several cases of poisoning were directly inspired by historical reports of food poisoning and poisonous plants.
The anime adaptation of “The Apothecary Diaries” so far includes two seasons, which are available on the Crunchyroll streaming service with German and Japanese language versions. A third season and a film are already in the works.
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Via Scrmbl
© Natsu Hyuuga, Touko Shino, Shufunotomo / The Apothecary Diaries Production Committee