English Dub Season Review: Parallel World Pharmacy Season One

Overview:

A medical researcher named Kanji Yakutani works hard to help as many people he can with his research. In fact, he works so hard that he works himself to death. He is then reincarnated in a new world as Farma de Médicis, a 10-yearold boy and the son of an esteemed pharmaceutist. He retains his prior knowledge, but he also gains new powers. He wants to pick up where he left off in his previous life and help as many people as he can. He opens his own pharmacy and vows to provide medicine to anybody who needs it, regardless of status.

Our Take:

Isekai anime are a dime a dozen these days. Even isekai anime revolving around pharmacies seems to be a bit of a trend now. However, this is the first one that I’ve watched.

It starts off with the usual trope of someone working themself to death and then being reincarnated into another world as someone else. Farma, the main character, is also overpowered and is recognized as a deity by most of the other characters. I was immediately turned off by that, but I came around Farma when I realized he still has to learn about his powers. Not only that, but his intentions are good. I love that he wants to make medicine available for everyone. He helps people out in other ways too by diagnosing their conditions and giving people who are down on their luck a second chance with a job. Farma does come off as too perfect at times, but I still enjoy him as a protagonist.

I like a lot of the characters in this show. Lotte is the de Medicis’ adorable and fun servant. Ellen is Farma’s mentor and she’s hilarious. I also enjoy farma’s father, Bruno, and I think the two characters have great chemistry with one another. I don’t care much for the show’s antagonists. While one of them has a little more depth, he’s not interesting. As for the main antagonist, I feel like there are too many details missing from his backstory to make an impact.

The actual plot is fairly basic, but executed well enough. Not to mention, there’s a lot more tension in this show than I was first expecting. Characters experience dangerous illnesses, such as the bubonic plague, and there’s a lot of death and near-death that happens. Some of the tension feels inconsequential, but it does hit hard at times too.

The visuals in this show are pretty solid. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, but the character designs all look good. I also like the visual of Farma’s power when he diagnoses people’s medical conditions. It’s a detail that can help the viewer follow along better.

I also really like the English voice acting. Every character feels portrayed well by their respective voice actors. The standout performance for me is Lindsay Seidel as Lotte. I’ve been reviewing a number of shows that she’s in lately, such as Love After World Domination and Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club. I have to say she’s been climbing up my list of favorites recently. I love the energy she brings to her role as Lotte. The character’s only nine years old. She acts mature sometimes given her job, but she still acts like a kid from time to time. I think that’s captured well in her portrayal.

Parallel World Pharmacy isn’t a show that will take the world by storm, but I think it’s a nice slight variation on the usual isekai formula. With the genre being so oversaturated, it’s nice to see the occasional show that does something a little different. The medical terminology can be confusing, but the show does a good job at explaining it all. The show has a unique enough setting and interesting enough characters to get a thumbs up from me.