the apothecary diaries wiki
It’s lacking in all but one aspect, which is the pacing. I think everyone and their mother have commented that every episode feels like it only lasts 5-10 minutes, it’s very engaging. But outside of pacing, the direction isn’t all that much. The series
director is Omata Shin’ichi, a Studio Shaft graduate also known for Kaguya-sama and Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu. You can clearly see this with the visuals of the show being full of recognizable “shaftisms,” yet those feel like mechanical surface copying without any underlying substance, especially when measured against other ex-Shaft directors such as Itamura Tomoyuki (Vanitas and Youfkashi no Uta) whose “shaftisms” look like a genuine artistic vision.
For example, the "glitchy green screen" and the "archaic wipe transition" effects are just failed "ironically bad" stylizations. Because stylizations are supposed to have style to them, there is nothing stylish about a wipe transition, anyone can do them in Windows Movie Maker, it takes no thought or effort. And wtf do green screen effects have to do with a murder mystery set in the XIX century? It's the last genre you'd expect to see CGI special effects in, there is no
thematic connection, again, it's just pretentiousness.
The director also took the worst possible lesson one could take from working on the Monogatari franchise: how to fuck up the narrative by arbitrarily changing the arc order. The anime starts with an (original?) lore-dump episode that irreparably ruins the actual first arc of the story (episodes 2-4 of the anime) by retroactively turning all the plot points
revealed there (for the first time, in the proper order) into pointless repetition (like the reveal of which exact supernatural beings the main couple are), as well as deflating many intended to be tense moments (like when the main character who’s been acting as a goofy clown for the entire arc reveals himself to be an insanely strong fighter in the arc finale - but we’ve already been spoiled on that by the first episode).
And then there are fight scenes that are pure cringe, with characters double and triple jumping in the air as if it’s a match of Super Smash Bros.
Three teams of three members must battle to smash each other’s crystals until only one team remains. Unfortunately, Lance is on another team, and Mash and Dot are both so clumsy they smash their own crystals,
meaning to win they must somehow keep Finn’s crystal safe at all costs. However, first they have to meet up because just like in the first stage their starting points are separate. 175"Finn Ames and the Friend"
Transliteration: "Fin Eimzu to Tomodachi" (Japanese: フィン・エイムズと友達)Ryo NakanoHisashi HigashijimaFebruary 3, 2024 (2024-02-03)[17] There
exist 13 ancient wands known as Master Canes that bestow blessings on those who can wield them. Carpaccio captures Finn, but when Finn tries to resist Carpaccio’s magic causes stab wounds all over his body; Margaret reveals Carpaccio possesses a Master Cane that transfers damage Carpaccio receives to his opponent via a Goddess statue. Finn refuses to surrender his crystal as Mash’s life depends on it.
With Ippo excited to hear the news, Yagi told him that it will take place in Japan and gave him the champion's profile, which was in English. With the help of Itagaki, Ippo
managed to translate it to Japanese for the gym members that the champion's name is Keith
Dragon, along with his boxing information. When Ippo came across "Heaven's Cannon" and "Ground Cannon", he becomes confused. Yagi suggested for him to look at Dragon's hobby, which turned out to be mahjong. Ippo asked Yagi if Dragon is good at mahjong, to which Yagi revealed that his skills earned him the nickname "Manhattan's Demon King". Ippo discussing Takamura's stubborn decision of not wanting to fight overseas with the Kamogawa gym staff.
