During an Anime Expo 2024 panel, Crunchyroll confirmed The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 will be streaming on its platform in 2025, alongside the Japanese premiere. An English subtitled trailer for The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 was shown at the Crunchyroll panel.
Watch the trailer below on YouTube:
The first cour of The Apothecary Diaries ran for 12 episodes and quickly became one of the most popular anime of 2023. The second cour ran for another 12 episodes, bringing the first season’s total to 24 episodes on March 23. Further, the second season was announced shortly afterward at AnimeJapan 2024. The voice cast of the first season will return, including Aoi Yūki as Maomao and Takeo Ōtsuka as Jinshi.
This past January, The Apothecary Diaries staff confirmed that over 31 million copies of the novel series were in circulation. Seven million of those copies were sold from the end of September 2023 to mid-January 2024.
Lastly, here’s a synopsis of the series, via Square Enix Manga & Books:
In the East is a land ruled by an emperor, whose consorts and serving women live in a sprawling complex known as the hougong, the rear palace. Maomao, an unassuming girl raised in an unassuming town by her apothecary father, never imagined the rear palace would have anything to do with her—until she was kidnapped and sold into service there.
Though she looks ordinary, Maomao has a quick wit, a sharp mind, and an extensive knowledge of medicine. That’s her secret, until she encounters a resident of the palace at least as perceptive as she is: the head eunuch, Jinshi. He sees through Maomao’s façade and makes her a lady-in-waiting to none other than the Emperor’s favorite consort… so she can taste the lady’s food for poison!
