#xiaoling

[dresdencodak]

The next Extremely Heterosexual Dark Science page will go up next week, but you can read it early right now over on my Patreon!

[ecargmura]

I Finally Watched The First Episode Of The Apothecary Diaries

The Apothecary Diaries has been one of the seven animes I said I would be reviewing for Fall 2023. This anime aired in October. It’s December right now. I finally stopped holding it off and got to watching the first episode; I’m eight episodes behind! What are my thoughts of the first episode? I think it’s interesting!

I love fantasy shows, and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is one of the animes I am watching this season. I know that The Apothecary Diaries is another hyped up show and I actually love the difference between them. Frieren is a western-inspired fantasy story while The Apothecary Diaries is an eastern-inspired fantasy story. I love that I’m now reviewing two fantasy shows of opposite spectrums.

From what I saw, this anime seems to be about Maomao, the protagonist, who was kidnapped and sold to work as a palace servant. She used to be an apothecary and lived with her dad before her kidnapping, so she has a plethora of knowledge about herbs and poisons. She had involved herself with solving the mysteries behind the illnesses of the baby prince and princess and realizes that they were poisoned. She tries to warn the consorts about the poison, but it was too late for Consort Lihua as the prince died while the princess, daughter of Consort Gyokuyou, survived thanks to the mother heeding Maomao’s warning. This catches the attention of both Gyokuyou and Jinshi, a very beautiful eunuch who is in charge of the rear palace where this all takes place. I think that the story is going to be about Maomao using her knowledge to solve poisoning cases, so I think that the story will be episodic in a way, which isn’t bad.

Maomao as a character and protagonist is very interesting. Because she’s an apothecary, she was able to educate herself into knowing how to read and write, a trait that not many low-class girls like her have; this is evident with how Xiaoling, her friend, asked her what her tag said and how she was the only one who read Jinshi’s sign when servant girls were called to his office. I really like smart characters, so to see Maomao be that sort of character makes me excited to see more. I just hope the writing will be consistent for her. She was super cute with how she liked seeing herbs and such. I can’t wait to see how she’ll use her knowledge to help people. I already like her.

Jinshi feels very sketchy to me. He’s beautiful as heck, but he’s giving me trust issues. Is he using Maomao or does he genuinely want to work with her? If so, what’s his reason? He seems like a man of high status and what I know about asian/oriental fantasy stories is that any man of high status are suspicious. I do have to say, the anime really does like to emphasize how beautiful this man is as there are always close ups of his face or some parts of his face to show off his beauty. Someone in the animation studio must really like him.

The other characters in the story haven’t shown much, so I can’t say much about them. Xiaoling is cute. Gaoshun is probably that one character that has screen time but doesn’t say much due to his role as Jinshi’s attendant. Lihua seems like she’ll either be a villainous woman or one with development later on. Gyokuyou seems like a nice lady. I’ll talk more about the characters once they get more screen time in future episodes.

This story is Chinese inspired from names to buildings, but why is it that Gyokuyou’s name is in Japanese while everyone else’s names are in Chinese? I’ve noticed that Japan has a tendency to do this sometimes when it comes to animes with Chinese affluence. From this spreadsheet I saw on TVtropes, Gyokuyou’s name in Chinese would be Yuye. I mean, sometimes, Chinese, Japanese and Korean names would be translated into how it would be pronounced in their respective languages, but in a world where there are names like Maomao, Jinshi and Lihua, a more Japanese name like Gyokuyou does stick out like a sore thumb.

Not just Jinshi, the entire animation is very beautiful. The studio is OLM Incorporated; they have done many projects, but they’re also known for animating the Pokemon anime since the beginning and are even animating Horizons. The whole scenery and the way everything is colored is so beautiful. I really love how the flowers look, honestly. The rhododendron flowers look really pretty. Maybe it’s just a me thing, but any anime that can animate nature super well is a good one for me. The music is also really good too! The opening is addicting to look and listen.

The voice acting is superb. They got an all-star cast with a few rising stars. Aoi Yuuki stars as Maomao. I think this is a perfect fit. Yuuki has the range to pull off the serious, comedic and cute moments. Maomao was so entertaining to watch just from the first episode because of her performance. Jinshi is voiced by Takeo Otsuka. I feel like I’m seeing that name a lot in recent animes. I know he voiced Aqua in Oshi no Ko and Aqua is one of my favorite characters there. Unlike Aqua, Jinshi is more of a dynamic character, so instead of seeing him all moody and depressed like in Oshi no Ko, he’s all chipper. I think this shows Otsuka’s range and I can see why he’s getting casted left and right—he’s definitely a rising star. I don’t think I’ve heard Yui Ishikawa voice such a hot woman before. I’m usually familiar with her voicing teenagers, so this is the firs time I’ve seen her voice an adult and a mom at that. Lihua hasn’t shown up yet, but I do commend Ishikawa for going out of her comfort zone. I didn’t even know Yoko Hikasa voiced Gyokuyou until I looked it up. I don’t remember the last time she used that tone for a character. She has been voicing strong-willed, tough older ladies lately, so hearing her using a rather softer tone caught me off guard. Everyone else did a great job; I’ll talk about their performances in future episode.

Since this will have 24 episodes, I will be taking my time with the reviews for this anime. I know I am behind, but I want to take my time since I am juggling with a plethora of other animes to review. I hope you enjoyed my review! What are your thoughts on the first episode of this anime?

[haileythegremlin]

My headcanon ship between Xiaoling and Callie from Style Savvy, wip, want to make a collage of them interacting, because I adore them! <3 I love love love them so much, I know it's not official, but I think they'd make the cutest girlfriends! Slight Redesign!

[justanaspiringsomeone]

A Touch and Kiss

[namwenderz]

Babys

[cowsaresexc]

love you till the night ends

winrina angst ,, prolly part of aespa's lore wc: 638 ⟡ originally posted in wattpad note: im rlly like sorry if this is shit i had to write it in a rush ++ plz dont mind my old cringey works as they'll prolly be deleted in a few days ... or just forget about it :sobscryingdying:

As winter and karina step out in the surface one of them knowing that their love was temporary. Only winter knew, like every princess movie, you can only love till midnight was struck. But now, if one of them bids a farewell, everything will be washed- like everything. They would forget the both of their presence. Winter didnt want this happening, it was a curse, it was a curse of the black mamba. She knew what karina didnt know, she chose not to tell her. She knew that it was bad but, she knew that this was for the best for the both of them.

She only could wish to banish the black mamba, shes nothing, shes nothing but an ae living in this cruel world. She somewhat knew, that this curse happened all because of her. She had chose to fight the black mamba on the flat itself, now, the world of kwangya is now ruled by a dark evil curse that revolves around her. Everyone cannot know that she did this, the curse was everything that happens in one day is temporary, basically if you meet another person today, they will not remember you the next day, both of you will act like strangers that have never met each other.

Winter had put potions on the rest of her loved ones so they could conquer the curse. Little did she know, the black mamba had put everyones mind in a trance, the spell.. it was temporary. Now that it was the last day of that potion, even tho, karina dosent know the curse everyone- i mean, everyone on the land of kwangya dosent know. It just keeps happening and controls itself, she was the reason for this chaos and now, she feels like the gods above her head are ruining her life for summoning such a dangerous happening.

" winter, is something wrong? you've been so off since this morning " Karina said, slightly tilting her head in confusion " im okay, im just thinking about something... " she said while staring down trying to avoid her eyes " is something bothering you? we can talk about it you know, i wouldnt want to be a useless significant other if im not comforting to you, winter. " she jokingly scoffed at the previous sentence Winter didnt respond instead, she just chuckled to the question

" hey, what would you do if everyone... forgot about you... you forget about everyone... it'd be like you haven't met a single soul in your years of living? " Winter broke the silence between them " i would... i would freak " she took it as a joke, but she didnt know it would actually come to reality. Winter frowned as she took it as a joke, Karina was about to speak when winter suddenly had interrupted her " Im sorry, but this is my last goodbye, karina " " winter? what are you say- " " i promise, when i have time, i will visit you and make you try to know me again, maybe in another universe. " Karina was too shocked to reply to her lover. " we may be fated, but maybe not in this time. Tomorrow, you'll forget how i even existed, even though ill not forget you. Im sorry, this was all my fault, for the last time, i love you till the night ends. " Before they can both talk it out, Karina vanished. Winter knew this was for the best, for the best for her lovers sake and the sake for herself. Even tho she loved her with her whole life, she couldn't hold this for a long time. It hurt her seeing the sight of everyone forget her while shes here, feeling locked up in a cage of doom. the end.

very shit, i know.

[blackberreh-art]

Just some fun with colours~

[ilseofskadi]

i’m trying to clear my desktop bc i’m going to be sending my laptop in to be fixed soon (hopefully)

as always, spicy stuff under the cut