● As this work is still being released, I would like to start off by saying that at the time that I'm writing, we are at chapter 66. If things change drastically with time, I will come back and rewrite or edit this review.
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The Story ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The story is centered on Maomao, a 17-year-old pharmacist who lives and works near a red-light district. One day, while gathering herbs in the forest, she gets kidnapped and sold as a slave. She ends up working at the emperor's palace. Her knowledge attracts the attention of Jinshi, an eunuch with high rank who assigns her the role of food tester for a high-class courtesan.The story of Kusuriya no Hitorigoto is really well told. It has several arcs that differentiate the style. Sometimes you have arcs that are more investigative, others focused on a SoL (Slice of Life) style, while others are done exclusively for character development, uncovering backgrounds and such.
As Maomao is a pharmacist and gets assigned as a poison tester, you get to see a lot of rudimentary medicine. While at times they also take a liberty, using more complex solutions for problems than you would expect at the time, those moments have an "excuse" in the story and also create better puzzles for the reader to think about.
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The Art Style ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The art of this work is absurdly good. That was the first thing that caught my interest because it is not a popular manga, but I was greeted with a drawing quality similar to that of more popular works such as Kaguya-sama. With further reading and specially on volume 4 extras, I was able to see that there was actually a big team of assistants, which explained the quality.
The characters are very well designed, with different heights, hair-styles, and clothing characteristics. There's even commentary talking about how they aim to grow Maomao's hair as the volumes progress. Backgrounds, shadows, lightning, and everything else are very well done in this matter. No complaints.
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The Characters
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There are a fair number of characters in this manga; Maomao, her family, Jinshi, a giant number of courtesans, officials, and the list goes on. In my personal opinion, they're very unique; each one has a different mentality and things they aim for. Of course, the manga has a lot of mystery, but with time you start to understand more about the characters.In the main character department, Maomao is absolutely sublime. She behaves as if she is the point far from the curve, sometimes being very "tomboy". She is also very rational and funny. For a main character, her personality just makes everything else shine as her interactions with other characters give an extra flavor to the series.
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Conclusion ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ If you're like me, you skip everything and read only the conclusion because you don't want to get spoiled with other themes. So I will try to be brief on this point:Read it. Kusuriya no Hitorigoto has everything you would expect from a popular manga. Amazing art, characters, and story with a lot of genres in a single work. Mystery, drama, slice of life and more. I can't wait to see this work get an animation.