This actually started with wanting to do a one-off drawing of Ah-Duo with a motorcycle but it spiraled into a modern AU with med student Suirei somehow. And the rest just followed.
When it comes to Shisui, more people should remember her villainous side and consider what it must cost her to live with what she's done. She inherited some of Shenmei's traits, whether she likes it or not. Much of her kindness is genuine, but so is her ruthlessness. That duality shows up a lot throughout the series (case in point, Chue), but she's had the chance to cut deeper than most. She cared about Maomao, but was still willing to use her. As Sazen's Secret showed, she genuinely wanted to save the country to the point of begging Sazen to secure the encyclopedias to fight the locust plague, but she was also willing to let it fall if it proved too weak to survive her schemes. In her one experience with Jinshi, she judged him a good man (so true girl) and decided the nation deserved to live. But she also left behind all the ladies-in-waiting to die (not that she could do much to save them really, but still), and it's ambiguous how exactly she treated them before.
None of this is a condemnation. It's precisely why I love her character so much, especially her troubled relationship with Maomao. But it's also why any depiction of her should grapple with this contradiction more directly, especially now that she's on her own. The canon text never gave us a full glimpse into her perspective, not even in Sazen's Secret. It leaves a lot of room to ask what it must feel to live like that. Does she feel guilt and remorse over in Not-Japan, or has she learned to bury it? Does she keep her distance from others out of caution? Does she struggle to form attachments? After all, the very few friends she's had (Maomao and Xiaolan), she used them.
She's likely kind to children and to strangers who don't pry. But if you cross her, she's merciless. She was prepared to devour the emperor if she had to bear his child. Even Sazen understood what she was.
From the official side story, Sazen's Secret:
He [Sazen] made sure to light a fire at night. To keep warm, the two of them would sleep under the same pelt. It wasn’t that he didn’t get strange urges. But if he laid his hands on her [Loulan], he had a feeling he would be the one eaten rather than the one eating.
I also love the way she leaves:
“What will you do?”
There was nowhere for her to go. The world wasn’t so nice for a woman to escape alone.
“I’m thinking of running further south.” Loulan grinned. “See ya. All the best.”
She turned her back on him without any reluctance to part.
That is Shisui in a nutshell. A woman whose pure smile hides sharp teeth, presenting herself as carefree and just a little distant to the people who care about her, and then she leaves. Running off to fend for herself in a merciless world.
She seems resilient enough that this hasn't broken her. She's a strong, smart person who's made the most of a terrible hand. But like many of the strongest people in her time, there's a sense that, deep down, she wishes she didn't have to be this way. Even in succeeding, she paid dearly for it. She used and betrayed a friend. She lost her sister. She left people behind to die, with only the narrow victory of saving a few children (which she can't even be 100% certain about). And she survived by the skin of her teeth, because of the very friend she used.
Last we saw of her, she was all bright smiles and going "I'm off to find the One Piece," but I think she always keeps Suirei and Maomao (and Xiaolan) in the back of her mind, both fondly and with regret. We've only ever seen her put on a brave face (with few exceptions), but the way she left them must haunt her as much as she's clearly haunted them.
I cannot believe the anime staff added this to show which kind of ship they are focusing this season. It is a continuity filler to explain how deep Shisui/Loulan’a feelings for Maomao. It is neither in the light novel nor the manga. It is amazing.
Perhaps Shisui wanted to apologise, ask her how she’s been, and tell her the truth. And in the end, give her some instructions of what she’s about to do. In the long run, she stopped her hand from knocking Maomao’s door, hesitating, while she overheard her enthusiasm in the other side of the room despite all the harsh reality that Maomao got into. Shisui knew that the apothecary could overcome it all. She was a smart young woman after all. She believed her.
Ever think about how pro-women the apothecary dairies are? I do, and now I'm writing an entire thing about it because hyperfixation go brrrrrrr.
WARNING!! HERE BE SPOILERS FOR LIKE… EVERYTHING UP TO LN 8!!
If you don’t know, The Apothecary Diaries are a series of japanese light novels that were adapted into a manga, which were then adapted into an anime. The mc of the series is a girl named Maomao, who is an incredibly intelligent apothecary with a wide knowledge of poisons and medicine. Through various series of shenanigans, she goes from being a regular servant in the Rear Palace, where the Emperor’s consorts live, to being the food taster for one of the major consorts, then briefly working in the pleasure district (basically a red light district) where she grew up, then begins working for the manager of the rear palace, who is also Maomao’s love interest. Along the way, she stumbles onto and solves various mysteries, which is the bigger gimmick of the series. Now, if you were to watch the anime, read the manga, or read the light novels, something you’ll notice if you pay attention is how much power women hold. It isn’t an open, loud and proud thing, it’s set in imperial china in the 17th century at the earliest, but if you look for it even a little, you will find it very easily. I want to talk about a few things, but the one’s I’ll highlight right now are Maomao, naturally, the Empresses Dowager and Regent, and various other women from the manga and light novels that’ll probably spiral into tangents.
So. Maomao. If she suddenly decided to really wield the power that she has access to, she could easily be one of the top 5 most powerful women in Li, probably top 3. Here are some of the ways she has insane access to political power:
She is Lakan’s absolute darling daughter, no matter how much she does not want anything to do with him. In his eyes, she can do NO wrong. Lakan is such a powerful man that even the Emperor is hesitant to do anything that would upset him
Related to previous, she is Lahan’s younger sister, again against her wishes, and he holds an affection towards her that mirrors their father’s. Lahan isn’t as important as Lakan, but he’s important enough to go on big diplomatic missions with the Emperor’s younger brother
She has the favor of all 4 of the recent High Consorts of the Emperor: Gyokyou, who I’ll get back to, Lihua, Lishu, and Ah Duo. I’m not counting Lou Lan/Shisui since she isn’t a consort for very long and is disgraced/will be disgraced.
Gyokyou?? Hello?? Maomao saved both her life and the life of her infant daughter, tasted her food, and tended to her when she was pregnant with her son, and even taught her ways to help pleasure the Emperor better
Saved Lihua’s life twice over; once by removing the toxic white powder and nursing her back to health, and the other by foiling a plot by her sister/chief lady-in-waiting
Personally requested by both the Emperor and the Empress Dowager to do tasks for them
Best for last: Jinshi. He is so down bad for her it’s hilarious and kinda pathetic. Poor guy. Anyways, HE’S THE IMPERIAL YOUNGER BROTHER. His claim to the throne is still up for debate at the point where I’ve gotten to, so there’s still a chance he could be the literal Emperor. AND HE WANTS MAOMAO AS HIS WIFE!!! He wants to marry Maomao! And he’s told her this! There’s a chance that Maomao could be Empress! Even if he doesn’t become Emperor and he marries her, that would still put her around the same power level as Gyokyou, who is the current Empress, and Anshi, the Empress Dowager (aka the Emperor and Jinshi’s mother)
If Maomao really wanted to grab her life by the reins and fuck shit up, she could embrace the La name, marry Jinshi, almost certainly have the backing of Gyokyou and therefore the Emperor, and probably also Lihua and Ah Duo. I can’t see her actually doing it, but it’d be fun to imagine…
Next, the Empresses Dowager and Regent. We’ll start with the Empress Dowager, the Emperor and Jinshi’s mother, who we’ll just refer to as Anshi for simplicity. It’s mentioned multiple times just how much influence she has. She was almost single handedly responsible for ending the making of eunuchs and taking of slaves, and she did that while dealing with the late Emperor. It’s said that the Grand Marshall was put in place by her, and he remains exceptionally loyal to her. She dealt with the late Emperor, placing such a fear of women into him that he stopped going after young girls (Yeah, the late Emperor was a pedo, if you weren’t aware). And now, Anshi is an extremely respected figure with power over the major players of Li.
The Empress Regent… If I were to talk about everything she did, we’d be here for hours. But she essentially took control of Li during the reign of the late Emperor, who was a fool unfit to rule. You cannot understate the impact she had, and her legacy haunts the narrative. She is one of the easiest characters to point to as an example when you talk about women’s power in TAD.
Miscellaneous characters lightning round! GO!
Shisui’s Mother; leader of the Shi clan, the one orchestrating the entire coup against the Emperor
Shisui; was a consort, but was a very smart spy who would find out information from other consorts, and eventually sacrificed herself to pull all the blame onto her and the Shi clan and make them the villains, before faking her death and escaping to live her life in another country
Ayla; one of the foreign emissaries, seems to hold a lot of power in Shaoh currently and was providing weapons for the Shi coup
Suirei; basically Ah Duo’s closest advisor currently, and extremely medically minded like Maomao, so they get along very easily
The High Consorts; the women closest to the Emperor, pissing them off is a bad idea because they can and will ruin you (Except for Lishu, but she’s so extremely unlucky that everything does its thing for her)
The Shrine Maiden; the most powerful woman in Shaoh for basically her entire life, unseated the former Emperor as a baby (if you say that she’s not a woman because she was born with a penis you will be blocked, no if’s, and’s, or but’s)
The White Lady; so, so many crimes. Had an entire network of stuff going on in which she used her albinism to appear as an immortal to commit her many crimes
In TAD, 9 times out of 10, you pick a powerful character, it’s gonna be a woman. This series adores women and celebrates them whenever possible, whether it’s something small like an emissary from 50 years ago finding Grams so otherworldly beautiful he described her as a moon nymph, to something as major as basically Anshi’s entire character and her backstory and relationship with the late Emperor. And when something tears women down, like marriage standards or the binding of feet, the series denounces it through Maomao. When Maomao isn’t taken seriously by other characters, it’s treated as an obstacle and that character is seen as an antagonist or villain. The male characters we like, Jinshi, Gaoshun, the Emperor, Basen, Lihaku, Sazen, Kokuyou, they all hold Maomao in high regards and respect her opinion, listening when she proposes theories. It’s the women that push things forward, that introduce the conflicts and try to seize power and foil plots and solve mysteries.
The men with power don’t really do anything with it, but the women do everything.
The snakes and insects were all slow, since it's right before their hibernation. Just in case, I took out the venomous ones first, and used the herbs I had on me to make insect-repellent ash.
Kokuyou's voice keeps being described as "strange" and "cheerful" in the Japanese
and also that same word for "strange" was used for slightly socially taboo behaviors in the setting, including homosexuality. And Kokuyou and Sazen seem to be a lot touchier and emotionally closer in the original text than the English translation captures.
In fact, when Sazen is "threatening" Kokuyou with a contract, he's saying "shomon" (証文). This shares the first character in 証明制度, "shomei seido," which may be the author making a nod towards the audience at same-sex partnership oaths (パートナーシップ証明制度).
(if so, that would also be especially fascinating considering that Sazen's biggest concern with co-habitation with Kokuyou seems to be that their Landlord, the Madam, will jack the rent. A big legal problem with partnership oaths is that they don't provide legal protection for housing discrimination.)
Anyway fellas I'm INCREDIBLY tempted to describe Kokuyou's "strange and cheerful" voice as "queer and gay" at LEAST once and you'll have to kill me to stop me
