Kusuriya no Hitorigoto

Imperial China/ Female Servant with BioChem Knowledge/ Detective/ Potentially Romance?


***Hidden Gem Alert, but I prefer the other manga adaptation!!***
{More detailed drawing/ less detailed story}-> drawing focus


Minor Spoiler:

Story: 10
As an avid reader about history, I can definitely guarantee you that this story has actually gone through researches before writing them out. Social hierarchy, sexual differences are portrayed truthfully as those from the old Imperial days. With the background setup, the story planner needs to have decent scientific knowledge to create scenes for the main female character (Mao Mao) to act like a Conan-ish figure.

With so many elements together, each chapter (around 30-40p each) is able to transition smoothly and leave you wanting for more! Thus, an easy 10 for the effort from the novelist who help make his content adapt from novel into this manga.


Art: 9
Without a doubt, drawings of the characters’ emotions, clothing, and ornaments are on point. Background can definitely allow the me or the readers easily recognize the details of the ancient chinese decors or buildings. This version of manga is definitely slightly “more” detailed than the other manga adaptation; yet, it was the art style differences between the two adaptations that propels me to give this category an 9.

When I reflect upon the art style, it kind of reminded me of “Magi”. Because of this style, the manga is really chill and tries to potentially make readers smile or laugh. Yet, this doesn’t help generate enough of suspicion or shaky moments of “what is going to happen next” feeling for a detective-ish story. Thus, for me, this is a -1.

Other than just the style, everything is fantastic. For chapter 3, you can definitely see how much more details the mangaka put into effort of drawing the effect of the drugs on 3 maids.


Character: 10
Easily a 10 when different characters have various depths, thoughts, emotions, and motivations behind what they do through the scenes and how they grow!


Enjoyment: 9.5
I love the manga and I love the theme. I appreciate the style of this manga. -0.5 because I prefer the other adaptation. Yet, I still binged read 23 chapters in 4 hours and will definitely check out the new updates.

Overall: 9.33->9
When you are two manga adaptations from the exact same novel, one has to come out as a winner. Unfortunately, this lost so -1. ;( YETTTTTTTTTTTTT, I will not discredit the content and art of this manga. It is still extremely fantastic! :D Just not the better style~


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*For this manga, I have written two separate reviews regarding the diff between this and the other manga (https://myanimelist.net/manga/110929/Kusuriya_no_Hitorigoto__Maomao_no_Koukyuu_Nazotoki_Techou).

Both of which are based from the same novel, but their art style is pretty different and minor details are slightly diffferent as well. Some sections of the review will be exactly the same, but some won't. Read carefully for the contrast between these two and find out which you prefer!

Im not really good at reviews but i want to try to convince you to read this manga.

The story is very unique in it's setting but what makes this manga standout so far are the characters. I found myself several times being taken back as they went against expectations, the shining example being the main character in Maomao.
She is a great example of a "strong" female protagonist done right as she strives to pursue her own interests even in a new circumstances, helping those around her.

The art itself is pleasing, especially on the character closeups and it's comedic moments through the interactions of Maomamo and those in her work circle hit well in delivery and expressions.

As someone who is a fan of the manhua "Song of the Long March", I can say that I am pleased with this manga.

First off, a strong female (intellectually in this case) in a historical setting is not a new concept, but it's not exactly common either. I have read a fair share of them, but this one is quite unique and Maomao is a very interesting lead. Not only does she contain a vast amount of knowledge in herbal medicine, but her attitude is not one to mess with. Despite having a weak/frail appearance, she is anything but that and can easily take care of herself since her experiences in the red light district has steered her development in that direction. I also find her love for poison to be very amusing, as it is a food taster's greatest fear, while for her it is pleasure. She is overall very likable with her sassy and comical demeanor. For the male lead I don't have much to say since we do not know much about him, as we don't often get his perspective very often. However, I will say that he is quite likable at the moment and his interactions with Maomao is very adorable.

For the art work, it is just gorgeous. Not only have I found myself staring at the intricate details, such as the beautiful hair pins, but I appreciate the art that the manga itself is.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this manga and I highly recommend it :)

Wow, I think we found another gem that is none of your conventional storyline with the same damn stereotypical lead characters. If I could compare this series to another, it would be Akatsuki No Yona off the bat. Although this is a seinen, I felt that it can also play off as shoujo genre as well because of its art style, and the vibe that I got from the first few chapters. I've always enjoyed historical setting in my manga so when I discovered upon this series, oh boy I was so excited.

The protagonist is not just sassy, but also has a very likeable personality that would make the readers fall for her charms. She's a little crazy- which the author has done very well in drawing her wicked expressions during those situations. Whenever I see those, I just go "Oh shit.." and would be very taken aback. HOWEVER, she's also very smart and is very good with her words. She's sharp and can read the situation very well, which is something that I find quite refreshing.

The plot of this manga is very interesting. I don't think I've come across similar storyline and I think it has a lot of opportunities to develop. It is not your typical girl-in-palace-falls-in-love-with-a-high-ranking-official cliche and has her doctor/pharmacist background as a "side dish" to go with the story. Although I would say that I would love to see more of Maomao in her vast world of medicine and poison. If any of you have seen the K-drama "Dae Jang Geum/Jewel In The Palace", that's how I kind of want the direction of this manga to follow. Well, not exactly as the latter, but I expect for there to be more instances and situation where her skills as a doctor/pharmacist and knowledge of medicine are tested and thus, growth as a character and social status. Seeing how this is a seinen manga, I hope that the author would go in-depth as it is such a waste to just focus the story on the romance and shallow introduction of her medicine knowledge.

With that being said, if you're here because you seen this manga popping up in your recommendations or anywhere, go ahead and give it a shot! You won't regret it and in fact you'll probably thank me. I hope reading this review has encouraged you to give the manga a chance. You'll love it, so enjoy and have a nice day! ;-)

Found another favourite and I can confidently predict this manga will blow up soon.

I really enjoy how the chapters are episodic and reminiscent of detective/Agatha Christie-type narratives (in Kusuriya's case, each chapter is usually about discovering who was responsible for poisoning [insert name of imperial concubine that was poisoned]). Although this sounds repetitive, each chapter is kept interesting with new strategies the female lead uses to identify the culprit.

This manga is based on a light novel and from reading a few chapters of the light novel I can say that the plot is/will be GREAT and keeps you intrigued for the whole duration of the read with it's many twists and turns. The light novel develops from an episodic structure into a more long-term narrative as it goes on which makes the story very interesting so I can only assume the manga will go through the same thing - Story 9/10

Female lead is comically matter-of-fact, quietly intelligent and shrewd. Male lead is equally as intelligent but acts as a great foil to her in his flamboyancy. They make a great match. - Characters 10/10

Art - 10/10
So clean and crisp - love the style.

Romance 10/10
It's subtle and slow to develop but it's so cute.

Definitely worth reading.

This month, the novel got licensed by J-Novel Club, giving hopes for readers to see an anime adaption someday. Rumours began to spread about this and I’m just really hoping it will be adapted someday.

Kusuriya no Hitorigoto is a great manga. To put it simply, you’re just reading a girly Sherlock Holmes solving cases in an imperial court of ancient China. Well, she’s not as eccentric as the paintings of Holmes can be those days but you get the point, Maomao is an extremely intelligent girl with an unusual personality. As a daughter of a pharmacist, she learned a lot from her father. Each chapter seems like to cover an incident in the Imperial Court, related to poison most of the time.
From simple cases to harder ones later in the manga, every time she shows her skills and her knowledge in medicine but this is where she’s different, Maomao is not showing off. You see, the Imperial Court where the scenes take place is just a gigantic harem for the emperor. I will not spoil here how it works, you’ll discover by yourself (if not you already did) but to keep it short, the court essentially only has two types of people: girls who try to appeal the emperor and eunuchs running the place.

The logical thinking would be that Maomao is a young girl trying to appeal the emperor, both physically and by showing off her massive brain. Oh boy, this is totally the opposite, she’s the odd woman here. Maomao is not here by choice nor she wants to works her way up to the emperor, she just wants to live her life quietly.

So why is she solving cases for the court if she’s clearly not interested by the system itself? Well, the construction of the character can be quite simple here. Maomao is a sadomasochist. Literally. She clearly enjoys the pain a poison procures, the effects it has on her body, multiple times through the series we can see her body covered by the effects of different experiments she tried on herself. The joy it procures her is gigantic.

The other main character, Jinshi, the eunuch running the place, takes notice and made Maomao worked for him. Well they have a deal essentially but Maomao is personally working for him at some point.

Jinshi is a likeable character, although I do have some concerns about his building. He is introduced as a rich handsome guy but he can be confounded as a woman though since as a eunuch he doesn’t really process external masculinity. The plot entirely revolves around him, the action takes place in domain and as the superior of Maomao, he orders her around. So, what’s the matter? Well, the manga quickly imply that this might be entirely false and he might not be a eunuch at all. As the chapters go by, there’s more and more scenes where Jinshi seems to deeply care for Maomao and he actually might be developing romantic feelings.

The power of Kurusiya does not rely on the rom-com side and I’m seriously hoping it doesn’t take this turn. Maomao doesn’t care about love, I personally here don’t want to read a manga where the lead male is trying to seduce the lead female. It’s not the point of the manga, not its objective and not its driving force. The duo works fine for now, the visual disgust of Maomao for Jinshi is quite enjoyable, she’s really an odd person in this environment.

Although this possible turn of event can bother me, there’s too much to enjoy for the moment. The chemistry between the characters is excellent, the comedy is carried by the chibi faces of Maomao and some running gag regarding the behaviours of the MCs. The cases are quite entertaining, the world-building is intriguing, there’s a great potential here.

On the artistic side, I don’t have anything to say. It’s good but nothing special, it doesn’t depict at the perfection ancient China but it’s enjoyable. The characters are well drawn.

Overall, it’s a gorgeous story. I have high hopes for the future. Just don’t turn into rom/com average story please. Just don’t. Stay on the detective side and this 9/10 should carry on.

In its best moments Kusuriya no Hitorigoto is a historical royal court detective with a competent quirky girl pharmacist protag – the very sound of it is like a balm for my soul, I have waited for a plot like this for years! Unfortunately, it is still not free of side effects – one or another toxic substance is always present in the narrative and hurts the otherwise enjoyable read.

The premise is perfect. A young female pharmacist from a red light district ends up by chance becoming a harem maid, and quickly gets entangled in intrigue as a willing food-tester, occasional medic, and a detective for "sensitive" cases. When the story opens up more, in the adaptation of the second volume of the LN, the weight shifts more towards the detective work, with our heroine being an ancient China Sherlock – brains, medical knowledge, unusual personality – and a beautiful influential eunuch whose attention she’s caught being a Watson – social knowledge, cases and resources supply. Gradually, the investigations, initially simplistic and short, become more elaborate and/or educational, a slow-burn overarching plot starts to form.

It is fun, it is relatively realistic, it makes sense. A harem would necessary have a lot of the same problems a red light district has, it is logical that a woman can shine on the female side of the forbidden city. Eunuchs are known to have influence in harems and enjoy scheming. Furthermore, it meshes perfectly with the personality of our heroine – she is painfully intelligent, eccentric to a fault, detached, cynical, not stereotypically feminine, relatively amoral, laser-focused solely on production, invention, and testing of medicine and poisons. One could suspect she is on the autistic spectrum, with herbal medicine being her obsessive interest. Her fascination with poisons is so strong it’s almost sexual. She is a natural disruptor, a fascinating character to follow and a great foil to the flowery façade of court femininity.

The art is functional – attractive, easy to digest, but nothing to write home about. The best parts are the design of the main heroine with her many meme-worthy disgruntled faces and, probably, the ornate costumes of the courtesans. The supposed androgyne celestial beauty of an eunuch doesn’t cut it by manga bishounen standards at all, hilariously, however. And the art never rises to be something special or to the levels of elaboration needed for a proper historical period piece. The style is more of a medicine than a poison nonetheless, if we look at the final diagnosis of Kusuriya no Hitorigoto.

What truly plagues this manga is romcom it greedily clings to for some reason, but can’t digest properly at all. Kusuriya no Hitorigoto may be published as seinen, but it displays a lot of romatic comedy shoujo symptoms at any given moment.

The first issue is the tonal clash, born out of the -com virus strain. Kusuriya no Hitorigoto has a lot of “comedic” excessive mannerism and chibi contortions. Sadly, it’s not something like an occasional joke, it’s constant, stalling, annoying and masturbatory. Most characters are assigned 2-3 gags and those are repeated ad nauseam: “she is so wild, lol”, “maids act like school girls, omg”, “he sulks in the corner like a baby, haha”. The self-gratifying, meta nature breaks immersion. The upbeat, silly tone takes away from more serious moments, when a character is killed, banished, or executed. Staging and the subsequent demonstrations of these scenarios waste the page space.

The uncomfortable affectation is most evident in the way multiple characters treat the male lead. According to the lore, he is a gender-transcending beauty without peer, who sways both men and women to a destructive degree. A lot of text in the manga is dedicated to jokes about creeps hitting on him or hiding him from people for mutual safety. It’s not very logical since tastes and sexual orientation exist, it’s not supported by art, as I have mentioned, and it’s overall shitty to joke about sexual harassment. The heroine treats him with disgust overall, but routinely imagines him in sexual scenarios in her head, for some reason.

Yet an even bigger threat lies in the rom- part – in the misguided love story and in the male love interest himself, somewhat separately. The love story is simply redundant: it lacks chemistry and motivation. The heroine is not interested in corporeal matters except for healing and/or poisoning, is visibly disenfranchised in romance after her childhood in the red light district. She is distrustful of men and shows extreme disdain towards the male lead. The male lead is suddenly and inexplicably infatuated with her, his feelings are initially explained as “toying”, then manifest themselves in poor shoujo fashion – control, being condescending, pushing, touching, pressuring. His boundless support from the shadows cheapens heroine's successes. Worst of all is that the inexplicable need for stereotypical romance occasionally contaminates the plot, mostly in the form of heroine being enslaved or sold used as a lighthearted story device (what’s with casual slavery and female-oriented stories? tell me, Mahoutsukai no Yome!).

The male lead is problematic as a character overall. To make him more important the author has put him so high socially that he is essentially tied to the court, and most of the action in the manga is limited to his domains, basically - confined to the palace grounds. The global plot will likely be also driven by him. To make room for it the protagonist is repeatedly barred from making any choices for herself. He is it all – handsome, tall, influential, rich, unnaturally caring towards the MC, cunning, wanted by everyone. But his social position doesn’t seem fully realistic, and, what’s especially sad for me, right from the start it’s implied that he is not what he seems, and especially no eunuch. This is a huge disappointment, because why not? What’s so scary about it in the context of an antisocial heroine with poisoning fetish? Eunuchs existed, had influence, schemed, could seek companionship, romance, even sex. Having such an unusual pair, romantically or not, in the focus would have been madly entertaining.

In the end, Kusuriya no Hitorigoto doesn’t want to fight for its ideas, I am afraid. It may have an eunuch characters, but it doesn’t want to truly study what it means physically, socially, mentally. It may have a really weird socially awkward female lead, but then she is made to show conventional gratitude and affection suddenly. The main character is introduced as unfeminine, but later they go “you look stunning when in makeup” way. The author tries to noblify its main cast as if ashamed of their servant occupation. The red light district is scary and visceral, the sober view of the main heroine on class division is striking, but Kusuriya no Hitorigoto is not consistent with castle policies, social politics or generous with historical data, sadly.

In short, Kusuriya no Hitorigoto is classified on MAL as a historical seinen drama, and it is such a healing remedy indeed to an extent, but it’s also a female-oriented romance comedy placebo of poor quality. Drug tolerance varies by person, so some readers may be fine. The concentration of components varies wildly volume per volume too, so it pays off to be patient and waiting for the right moment with this manga. Personally, multiple times it seemed to me that Kusuriya no Hitorigoto had finally become what I dearly wished it to be – yet something always poisoned the impression in the end.

I would still prescribe Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, with caveats, to those interested in a detective story with medical edge in the ancient China setting, in female investigators, and maybe in court intrigue. The caveat being – don’t expect it to be high-brow or high-class too much to avoid possible disappointment. I definitely don’t recommend it to those looking for a good romance, social commentary, or historical knowledge.
Kusuriya no Hitorigoto is amazing as a recipe, but the realization is dragged down by unnecessary additions. Even for a reader like me, achingly ready for its starting premise, it’s at best more of palliative sweet cough drops for a seasonal respiratory infection, than a radical cure it promised to be and maybe could have been, if it had cut off the pollutants. At its absolute worst - it's a inedible saccarine slush, you should avoid on your menu if you want to get better.

I've read many kinds of manga, but ones in a while you will really encounter a hidden gem.

This manga is one of those, the story itself is very fascinating and so soothing to read and will really hooked you and makes you smile as you keep reading it.

A "Strong Willed" little girl MC is very amusing to see, to the point i want to hug her:). The art is very great and likeable and the characters are all adorable and pleasing to see.

If slice of life is your forte and with a mix of historical and medicine, I highly recommended this manga to you.

This manga is like the main character, an unusual gem that shines with a non-traditional beauty.

After I got your attention, let me explain my confusing intro for this review.
The story is a common, but also uncommon story, that puts a plebeian girl into the harem of the emperor as a maid. So far so common, but here the plot disperses from the common root.
There are no "ugly (usually not ugly at all) duckling charms beautiful prince" shenanigans happening here, because our main heroine is not interested in any of that. Her only interest is in herbs, mushrooms, poisons, medicine and experiments including all of those.
Unfortunately for her, even those interests can be quite valuable in a place brimming with intrigue and assassination attempts.
Unfortunate because our main heroine planned to get out of the place by being of no use as a maid, but her interest in aforementioned things cuts her plans to escape short.
How could she resist all the unusual poisons that are being used in the scheming of the palace?
The different arcs can vary heavily, but usually circle around the mystery of the happenings at the court of the emperor and his harem and end often in our quite clever main heroine having to play detective to uncover the truth of the events that shake up the inner circle of the emperors' harem. These fascinating episodic mysteries build the core of the story, but there is always an underlying plot that never stops moving. In this quite serious plot they somehow managed to weave in even some hilarious comedic moments. These can range from character to character moments to tasteful situational comedy.

If this description of the plot direction intrigues you for only the smallest amount you are in for a treat, because now we will talk about the real strength of the manga, the characters and the art.

The characters are astonishingly varied, while also managing to avoid most clichés. All the characters in the harem are unique and bring their own strength and weaknesses with them and this includes a giant cast of maidservants, eunuchs and later even prostitutes and soldiers that all have their unique place in this story. Even the far off side characters get at least some characterization and the moment we get close to any of them the characters bloom the moment our main heroine gets in contact using her wits or observational ability.
It is simply breathtaking to see a cast of this size realized in such a detailed and thought out manner.

While the characters are great, the art is where the manga really shines.
I read quite some media in a similar vein, but they often fall into some traps, having all characters be beautiful but too similar to each other (same face syndrome) or having the characters be to perfect, but not in this manga! What the artists did here is amazing, Nekokurage not just gave all the characters beauty and differentiated them through design, but s/he somehow also managed to convey the exact feelings the characters should convey.
No character is a better example of this masterful craftsmanship than our main heroine Maomao herself. She is never meant to be the beautiful flower, but that doesn't mean she wouldn't be appealing. She has a rough beauty to herself, that can be smoothed quite a bit if necessary (with the help of her fellow maids and cosmetics), that gives her a variety of looks that never betray her core design.
The designs completely sells the appeal of the second or first concubine, without undermining the beauty of the other characters.
The art also manages to visualize the beauty that comes from the confidence that surrounds the more important members of the harem (or the top prostitutes). Even if you see a character for the first time, nobody has to tell the reader at what position this character is, the body language, self-assuredness, clothing and actions will let you know the position of the character.
This brilliance is later even abused and played with when characters dress up to go undercover as a person of lower rank. It manages to showcase how much work has to be put into a disguise to dim the aura of someone with authority and the art makes sure to still let the true authority shine through in a moment of carelessness. These brilliant moments only work because of the incredible strength of the art.

The backgrounds are not as spectacular as the character art, but they are still brimming with detail and I'm sure that quite some research went into this time period to depict the places and architecture in as satisfying a way as possible.

In conclusion, this manga is astonishingly good. The story is interesting and goes in a direction you would not expect from the classical setup, while the art and characters fill the world with tons of life. This manga is not for the action hungry, but if you have any interest in mystery, political intrigue, early pharmacy and comedy in a historic setting this manga will be one of your favorites.

tl:dr on bottom

This manga was quite different than what I expected it to be by reading the first few chapters and looking at the artwork, in a good way.

At its core, this is a detective manga set in imperial Japan or China or something. However, the thing that sets it apart from other detective series is first and foremost the main character. Plot-wise it's fairly episodic in nature, with a few chapters being devoted to a separate case that the MC has to solve, so it runs similarly to other detective series. In this case, most of the mysteries have to do with poisons and other chemicals that contribute to the illness or death of various individuals within the palace. Nothing really groundbreaking in terms of plot here though

Where this manga shines is in the characters it showcases. The MC in this manga is a headstrong young girl that generally does what she wants unless she really can't help it. She is overly passionate about what she loves, is sassy towards authority and is above all very smart and clever. Her character alone carries the majority of this manga, and it's a treat to see such an unconventional character be the lead. The only other major character is the palace official she reports to, but he is much less interesting. Their relationship is pretty funny to watch though.

The art style of this manga is also very well done, with everything being very clearly drawn except in more comedic scenes that call for simplistic drawing. Honestly nothing but praise for the artwork shown here

Overall, the manga is a great one to read, although quite short at the moment. Going with the MC to solve the cases that only she can fully understand is always exciting, and seeing her just be herself is probably the most fun part of the entire ride.

tl:dr- strong detective manga with a great female MC and beautiful art