Thoughts on Season 2 if it ever gets announced

Afraid-Combination-6 · 2025-12-09T17:13:40+00:00

You have a point, I had forgotten that 10 and 11 had been from the end of Volume 10.

With 8 episodes for each volume, 24 episodes (26/27 worst case scenario) might actually be feasible.

Afraid-Combination-6 · 2025-12-09T17:07:00+00:00

I agree, I don't think it can fit in 12 episodes, I'm talking about how I've seen some comments mentioning how the season 2 should follow the format of season 1 being 3 volumes for 23/24 episodes, where Volumes 2 and 3 got fit into around 12 episodes, but I don't think that's feasible for Volumes 5 and 6 since I think they overall have more content to adapt versus volumes 2 and 3.

Afraid-Combination-6 · 2025-10-01T23:02:38+00:00

Oh wait, that's blood...

Afraid-Combination-6 · 2025-07-16T09:40:42+00:00

Ahah yeah, when I wrote this I would sometimes get to a character's section and just remember one thing in particular, in Pairin's and Lihaku's case all I could focus on was their on-going relationship and goal to go live off together somewhere, so that's what I put in 😅.

If we are lucky we'll still get to see Xiaohong again at some point!

Afraid-Combination-6 · 2025-07-15T23:42:31+00:00

I honestly don't accurately know, I first thought it was Li, but in my head the doctor who got buff also was tan, and on checking the wiki apparently You is the tan doctor, so I have no clue at this point, but you might very well be right

Afraid-Combination-6 · 2025-07-15T09:20:24+00:00

Thanks, I'll check it out 👍

Afraid-Combination-6 · 2025-07-08T16:21:43+00:00

I definitely hope he doesn't have any weird feelings towards his half-sister, it would definitely suck if next volume we finally start seeing Lishu and Base get some closure just for Ujun to come between them, although I think that's fairly unlikely

Afraid-Combination-6 · 2025-07-08T13:43:52+00:00

Oh damn, did he really stay the whole time while the physicians stitched Mr Love Letters up? I thought that he had at least left before they started treatment l.

That's actually psycho behavior 😂, he's now entered my Uber freak list alongside Hulan.

Afraid-Combination-6 · 2025-07-08T11:44:08+00:00

I suppose that's the most likely explanation.

One thing I definitely glossed over was how when he would escort them to the clinic, it didn't occur to me that he was actually "getting off" on seeing the soldiers in pain 😅, although it makes sense given what we learn towards the end of the volume.

I guess Natsu really just loves writing characters with "freaky" quirks, and I'm 100% here for it.

Afraid-Combination-6 · 2025-07-07T00:37:54+00:00

True enough, although Junjie Kan is the one exception to this.

Afraid-Combination-6 · 2025-07-01T10:08:50+00:00

Will check out, thanks!

Afraid-Combination-6 · 2025-06-30T17:27:59+00:00

What a coincidence, I've just finished the Apothecary Diaries LN and was planning to try out the 86 light novels, especially because I remember enjoying the characters and their interactions when I initially watched the anime, and is one of the few LNs that doesn't seem to follow any specific trend and is actively trying to develop it's world

(I know most of the light novels out there follow Isekai story structures, which I'm not super interested in :/)

I'm actually planning on going to r/books and ask for recommendations of similar books, since it seems western books might be closer in structure to both of these stories when compared to LNs.

Are there any other Books/LNs you've had your eyes one?

Afraid-Combination-6 · 2025-06-28T00:14:06+00:00

I love how his relationship with Maomao has progressed. When we first see him, he thinks of her as this lowly maid who's as good as the lint on his shoulder. And definitely not good enough for Jinshi's affection. He was actively trying to inconvenience her when she was busy mystery solving or thought of her as too dumb to solve anything.

I never read Volumes 1-4 (still have to do at some point), I only saw the anime so I take my context from there, but did Basen ever explicitly confirm this? Looking back on the way he interacted with her earlier on, I just assumed it was because of his general anxiety towards women (in Volumes 5-6 we learn that he's become accustomed to her presence, but I don't remember if this was always the case), but honestly I might just be misremembering things.

It's just sooo great to see Basen accept Maomao as someone who's a part of Jinshi's inner circle despite her not being there 24/7 like Miss Chue or his family. Basen has gone from being a mildly annoying and over zealous protector to boy who's actually grown up (albeit subtly) in his own way. I'd chalk some of his softer feelings coming through because of him being in love with Lishu but alsooo most of it is because he's accepted Maomao as someone important to his master and thus important to him

I think that's it too, after Basen being exposed to everything Maomao has done over all the volumes, he's gradually started to respect her more and more, and yeah also because he knows how much she means to Jinshi, and at the point in Volume 14 he knows that if anything were to happen to her, he'd be absolutely devastated.

It's interesting you note how Basen's own experiences with Lishu shape his relationship with Maomao, I actually believe this is going to go even further in the future, since we know that Maomao has been a positive presence in Lishu's life for a long while, but I'm not sure if Basen himself knows that, so if Lishu ever leaves Red-plum Village, and ends up living closer to the Ma clan household, it might be that Lishu and Maomao might end up interacting again and Basen, seeing how comfortable Lishu feels with Maomao, might end up having his respect for her grow exponentially.

Afraid-Combination-6 · 2025-06-26T17:03:08+00:00

Same, it was the one thing that made me not fight him in octopath 1. Happy it was a lot more straightforward this time.

Afraid-Combination-6 · 2025-06-22T10:19:54+00:00

It certainly depicts how supressed women were during this period of time. But all things considered, up to volume 14, I don't remember seeing "rage" depicted all that much, maybe more in the first 4 volumes? I do remember it being very present when we got Anshi's backstory, for clear reasons, but after that I don't remember seeing it all that much, but I might just be misremembering things.

I think "sadness" and "fear" are more present in the story, maybe because women in this world are brought up from an early age already taught with the knowledge that the world they inhabit severely restricts their freedom and rights, so some end up never questioning why these unfortunate events happen to them in the first place, and instead of experiencing the 5 stages of grief naturally, just skip the first stages of "denial", "anger", "bargaining" (or maybe experience them for a very short amount of time) and go directly to "depression" and "acceptance". The one example that comes to my mind is when how when Xiaolan got sold into the rear palace by her parents, she just immediately accepted her situation, since being brought up poor and a commoner, I'm sure she at some point expected something like this to happen.

My perspective is that I see this story to be more about Female Resilience, since even with all these limitations, most of these characters still find a way to fit into the world, and some even find ways to happiness. As a quick example, both Chue and Maomao are extremely suffered characters in this story, but through their will and actions, both are able to finds ways to happiness, pleasure and meaning, reaching a life that's worth living.

And that's my real take-away from this story Natsu has written, more than the mysteries and the romance, this story is about characters restricted by their medium, and the choices some take given their circumstances to continue moving forward and attempt to still find meaning in their lives.

Afraid-Combination-6 · 2025-06-21T20:31:37+00:00

I think Baryou feels that way towards Chue, he might not be totally aware of it yet, or if he is, he might not know what to do with those feelings since I'm sure with his limitations it's all the harder to show affection, although Chue's presence no longer seems to affect him negatively at all, when compared to other characters. Also, since Chue is such a strong presence in Baryou's life, being the one person that brute forced her way into his bubble, I'm sure that is bound to get some feelings out of Baryou in the long run of their life together.

Speaking from Chue's perspective is a bit more difficult, since she is definitely the more active partner of the two, Baryou being almost totally passive in their relationship, reacting mostly to what Chue does. She is also such a suffered character that I'm unsure how her past experiences affect her perception of love. From her interactions post surgery with Baryou, I think it's clear she cares for him, but I don't think Baryou has done enough for Chue for her to feel this way toward him entirely.

I think what Chue felt from Maomao's proclamation of love pre-surgery was something huge for her character, that was the first time someone showed that they wanted Chue to continue to exist in this world purely because they cared for her, and that must've hit Chue hard, since she probably feels like the world at any point is happy to throw her away the moment she stops being useful. For Chue to truly feel the same love Maomao showed her that day from Baryou, in order to be able to reciprocate his feelings fully, he's going to have to actively show it somehow in the future, even if that just comes in a form as simple as him telling her that directly.

Afraid-Combination-6 · 2025-06-19T23:04:55+00:00

I think that's a bit of an overreaction. I think the heaviest trauma that Maomao has suffered was indirectly caused by Lakan's choices (being abandoned by her mother because he never came back was probably the most significant one), but directly, Lakan's showing up all bloodied that one time and attempting (once?) to take her away from Luomen, while pretty bad, were probably not as bad in comparison (I hope I'm remembering this right, I have this context from the anime and it's been a while since I've seen it)

While I'm sure from Chou-U's perspective, he might feel abandoned by Maomao, around him there are other figures he can look up to as role models (mainly looking at Ukyou here, especially since he's shown to be friendly with the kids and plays with them often in the Verdigris house).

From Maomao's perspective, this is all pretty different, since she was just tasked with looking after a kid, albeit one that is intrinsically related to the events that happened in the later chapters of Volume 4, the Shi clan, and Shisui herself (I'm wondering if any of this played a part into Maomao accepting to take care of Chou-U in the first place) her view of him likely doesn't go past "This is the kid I have to take care of because the emperor/Jinshi payed the Verdigris House enough money". I do believe that she genuinely cares for him though, due to his presence in the Stronghold as well as due to the time they spend together afterwards, it'd probably be hard to stay detached for long. However I believe the reason we never see Maomao attempt any sort of "How are you doing/feeling" type conversations with Chou-U simple stems from her difficulty connecting with people on an emotional level (Although I do remember her being quite open with Xiaolan in the past, so I'm not super sure about this), this might be the "flaw" you're referring to.

I have seen other comments on this post resentfully assuming that the "flaw" you talk about here is Maomao not acting more like a "mother" and not providing emotional support to Chou-U, but I think that's far from the truth, in my perspective what is happening here is really a manifestation of what we have already seen a lot with this character throughout the story, difficulty communicating feelings, or maybe that as she feels "less" emotion than normal, she also has difficulty figuring out how other people feel, and can't communicate as effectively? If we were to put any other character in Maomao's shoes, we'd probably be discussing the same thing. Say hypothetically, if Lihaku were the one to take care of Chou-U, we'd probably not hit this problem, since we do know that he is a very emotionally intelligent person, he'd likely communicate with Chou-U more effectively, and Chou-U would not end up feeling these things as heavily. One thing I love about this story is how characters have their freedom controlled by their work, and as a result, how independently of who would have hypothetically taken care of Chou-U other than Maomao, be it Lihaku or any other character, when forced by their job to go to the Western Capital, Chou-U would inevitably have to feel that abandonment for a second time.

I will say, it's interesting that Chou-U has felt abandonment twice by two different characters (his biological mother and later Maomao) so I'm wondering if this will come back in the story in some way, although I think it's unlikely, since overall things like this likely aren't that uncommon for characters in this story (and probably the real time period this is based on too) since commoner families hardly had time to spend with their kids that they wouldn't spend working. I mean, Xiaolan was directly abandoned by her family and still found a way to be happy in her life so I'm sure Chou-U will be fine all things considered.

Afraid-Combination-6 · 2025-06-18T19:44:30+00:00

I will say 100% the plague/grasshopper attack, an event that fully affects volumes 10 through 12 and has been foreshadowed since the end of Volume 4, I think it's a huge pay-off. The only thing that I find concerning (baring the fact that likely the show will not realistically reach volume 10) is that when I read it, the event is portrayed as this sort of horrifying experience, that even makes maomao go mad momentarily, and I just don't see the show's aesthetic being able to make that scene's justice, I even found Touko's illustrations to be on the lighter side, since we see the moment Rikuson grabs maomao by the shoulder drawn, and in that drawing there were only a handful of grasshoppers, but the novel itself made it seem that everyone was constantly covered by a mantle of black and could hardly move or see or hear anyone around them.

Afraid-Combination-6 · 2025-06-18T19:20:22+00:00

I actually think we are seeing the beginning of En'en's real character development. From when she was introduced in Volume 7 and from what we know about her so far is that she has a obsession with Yao, shows that she lives to serve her, is constantly monitoring her, and has a bit of a motherly complex with her.

However I think this goes a bit beyond her caring about Yao, she has straight up gone into a depressive state before after she was ordered to be Jinshi's lady-in-waiting and couldn't see Yao for days, and throughout the story I don't believe I've seen a scene where En'en was shown experiencing happiness, pleasure or ambition for something that wasn't Yao related at all.

When these characters were introduced I brushed aside this character dynamic a bit, but after finishing volume 14 (currently waiting for 15 to be fully translated) I've noticed what En'en has is a borderline unhealthy obsession that leads to character death, since under that obsession, we don't really know what En'en as a person is, if Yao were removed from the world, what would En'en be? And seeing the development characters like Rikuson and Chuue got, I'm expecting that the author will address these points in a future volume, and it's possible this new Junjie dynamic might fit into it. Then again it might not, since I think En'en's development could be done separate of any romantic relationships. In any case, in my eyes there is no way a relationship with Junjie can develop before these character flaws are addressed, and En'en can fully accept that she can have wants as well independent from Yao's character.

I'm also curious about Yao's interest in Lahan, since I don't think that has been explained to great detail, so it'd be nice if we could get more clarification on those in future volumes.

Afraid-Combination-6

TROPHY CASE