In-Depth · Characters · Spoilers (through the end of anime season 1)
Maomao of The Apothecary Diaries starts the story as a girl who sells medicine in the pleasure district. Nobody expects her to have notable roots. Only by the end of anime season 1 do viewers learn that she is the daughter of the Verdigris House's most prized courtesan and of the strategist who heads the La clan, and that the man who raised her is a physician thrown out of the palace. In OtaHub's view, her background is special not because of noble blood, but because Maomao knows exactly whose daughter she is and still chooses to live as the daughter of the man who raised her.
Quick facts
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Series | The Apothecary Diaries (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), light novels by Natsu Hyuuga |
| Anime | Produced by OLM and TOHO animation STUDIO; season 1 ran 24 episodes from October 22, 2023 to March 24, 2024 |
| Birth mother | Fengxian, once the most prized courtesan of the Verdigris House |
| Birth father | Lakan, tactician of the emperor's army and head of the La clan |
| Adoptive father | Luomen, a former rear-palace physician and Lakan's uncle |
| Episodes to rewatch | Season 1: episode 18 "Lakan", episode 23 "Balsam and Woodsorrel", episode 24 "Jinshi and Maomao" |
Where did Maomao grow up, and why does no one suspect her roots?
When the story opens, Maomao lives in the capital's pleasure district. She was born and raised in the Verdigris House, a well-known brothel. She helps Luomen sell medicine to the courtesans, and is then kidnapped and sold into the rear palace as a servant.
From the outside, that is a lowly background. Maomao was never raised to be a lady. From a very young age she knew medicine, poison, the illnesses that come with the courtesans' trade and the darker side of that district. That world made her practical, curious and almost indifferent to status.
What stands out is how deliberately the story hides her roots. For most of season 1, viewers see Maomao through the cases she solves in the rear palace. Her background only comes into focus in episode 18, the episode titled "Lakan." By the time the truth arrives, viewers already know a Maomao who stands on her own feet and needs no one to prop her up.
Who is Luomen, the man who taught her both medicine and how to read people?
Luomen is Maomao's adoptive father and her teacher. According to Wikipedia, he is a doctor who once served as a court physician in the rear palace before being banished. The Anibase character database adds that he was a eunuch physician who had one kneecap removed and was exiled after the death of a newborn prince. The injury left him with a permanent disability.
Everything Maomao knows about medicine starts with Luomen. She did not only learn how to prepare remedies; she learned how to observe, reading a rash, a scent or an eating habit to work out what is happening to a person. That is why, once inside the rear palace, she keeps noticing details everyone else misses.
One detail makes this family story more tangled. According to Wikipedia, Luomen is Lakan's uncle, which makes him Maomao's grand-uncle. In other words, the man who raised her also belongs to the La clan, but he is the one the clan left behind after he was driven from the palace. In OtaHub's view, this is the clever part of how Natsu Hyuuga built the character: Maomao was raised by the rejected branch of the very powerful family she was born into.
Fengxian: why did a mother leave a cut on her own child's hand?
Fengxian was once the most prized courtesan of the Verdigris House. She first appears in the anime in episode 18, already suffering from syphilis, an illness tied to her trade, and living hidden away inside the brothel. Maomao often brings Luomen's medicine to care for her.
The most painful detail is on Maomao's own hand: the tip of her little finger was cut off when she was a baby. According to Wikipedia, Fengxian did it herself, as a curse aimed at Lakan. Anime Corner reads it through the Japanese custom of yubikiri: whoever breaks a pinky promise must cut off their little finger. Lakan had made a promise to Fengxian and did not come back. When he finally returned, what waited for him were her letters, a severed ring finger and his daughter's tiny fingertip.
So Maomao's pain does not begin with a missing father. It begins with a promise broken between her father and mother, and she is the one who carries its mark on her body.
Lakan: the face-blind strategist and the board games at the Verdigris House
According to Wikipedia, Lakan is the tactician of the emperor's army and head of the La clan. He wears a monocle and suffers from face blindness, meaning he cannot recognize people's faces. Episode 23 of season 1, "Balsam and Woodsorrel," tells his story. The name Fengxian (鳳仙) is itself the balsam flower in the episode's title. In Lakan's eyes, everyone appears as a game piece; it was Luomen who taught him to recognize people through other details.
According to Anime Corner, Fengxian is the first face Lakan truly "sees." The two meet over games of Go and shogi at the Verdigris House: she is stronger at Go, he is stronger at shogi. Then they fall in love. When Luomen is banished from the palace, the whole La clan is thrown into disarray and Lakan is sent away for three years. When he returns, all that is left are Fengxian's letters and those two pieces of fingers.
So Maomao is not the child of a powerful man who abandoned mother and daughter on a whim. She is the result of a real love affair, cut short by upheaval inside the La clan itself. That makes her background noble on paper and full of wounds in practice.
Knowing whose daughter she is, which side does Maomao choose?
Unlike many period-drama heroines who cling to a noble birth to change their fortunes, Maomao knows Lakan is her father and wants nothing to do with him. Episode 23 makes this clear through a bet. If Maomao loses, she has to go and live with Lakan. If Lakan loses, he has to buy out a courtesan from the Verdigris House. In the third round, Lakan loses on purpose so that she does not have to drink the wine said to be poisoned.
To Maomao, her father is Luomen, the man who taught her a trade and gave her a home in the pleasure district. What lights up her eyes are medicinal herbs, poisons and unsolved mysteries, not the rank of the La clan.
In OtaHub's view, this is why her background is special. Raised as a daughter of the La household, she might have become a docile young lady skilled in music and calligraphy. It was the years at the Verdigris House under Luomen's teaching that built her survival instincts, her sharp mind and her fascination with testing medicines. Her blood gave her roots; life outside the rules of the nobility is what shaped who she is.
Another view
Saying Maomao is completely indifferent to her birth family is not quite fair. Her own bet in episode 23 is what forces Lakan to buy out a courtesan. And in episode 24, the courtesan he buys out turns out to be Fengxian: Lakan recognizes her, asks her to play Go with him as they once did, and then throws a seven-day, seven-night banquet. One reading is that Maomao has no use for rank, yet still lets her parents have an ending. She just does not do it out of conventional filial affection.
Another reading holds that blood matters more than this piece allows. Lakan's calculating mind and Fengxian's skill at board games both seem to surface in the way Maomao reasons. The series never says outright where her talent comes from. So the argument that environment matters more than blood is OtaHub's reading, not something the work itself states.
The bottom line
Maomao's background is special not just because she has a powerful father or a mother who was once famous. It is special because the three people tied to her stand in three very different places: Fengxian at the bottom of the pleasure district, Lakan at the top of the court, and Luomen pushed out by the La clan itself. This piece has shown that through episodes 18, 23 and 24 of season 1. What it has not proven is where Maomao's talent comes from more, and later seasons may answer that more clearly.
As for Maomao herself, an unusual remedy or an unsolved mystery is still far more interesting than how special her lineage might be.
Sources: Wikipedia: List of The Apothecary Diaries characters; Wikipedia: The Apothecary Diaries; Anime Corner: episode 23 review; Anime Corner: episode 18 preview; Sportskeeda: episode 24; Anibase: Luomen character profile.
