English Dub Review: The Apothecary Diaries “The Fire-Rat Cloak”

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Overview:

An interesting cloak points Maomao’s imagination towards international politics.

Our Take(Spoilers):

One thing I love about this show as a history nerd is learning different things that I had no idea about previously. I had no clue that asbestos was technically stone and could be woven into clothing. Of course, knowing what we know about asbestos, that’s probably not a good idea, but when Maomao heard a story about a heavenly maiden, it got her imagination going. In the story, the maiden set herself on fire to escape an unwanted marriage, and all that was left was her cloak. Maomao realized that her cloak was made of asbestos and helped her not burn up when she set herself on fire.

I understand that sometimes I focus on the things that aren’t supposed to be focused on. But I thought that was really cool to learn, and it made me sad that asbestos is so toxic because that’s a cool idea.

So far this season, it seems like we’re getting hints of a bigger thing happening with post-credits scenes and the like, but for the most part we’ve focused on smaller things at the moment. Maomao discovered a book that was found in the Shi fortress and thought she should show Jinshi. With Maomao currently staying at the brothel, an interesting interaction happened.

If you’re invested in the romance between Jinshi and Maomao like I am, you’re probably going to be happy and upset with this episode somehow. Jinshi looks tired, and Maomao wants to help him rest, so she offers to let him stay in a room at the brothel, and he doesn’t want to sleep alone. I know I was getting my hopes up, wanting her to know what he meant. Instead, she tries to bring in prostitutes for him to sleep with, which isn’t what he wanted. It was still a cute setup because he couldn’t fall asleep until Maomao sang him a lullaby.

We might be waiting a while if we want to see Maomao realize that Jinshi has feelings for her. It might be even longer for her to develop feelings for him. Maomao doesn’t seem like the romantic type, but it would be nice to see her get a little flustered now and then. Doesn’t she find it a little weird that the normally stoic Jinshi blushes like crazy during moments with her?