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As part of a TV special on NHK World, Natsu Hyūga, the creator of “The Apothecary Diaries”, revealed that today’s version of the success series differed significantly from its original concept. We summarize.
Successful story
When the amateur writer Natsu Hyūga at the time began her hobby project “The Apothecary Diaries” in 2011, she couldn’t have even imagined in her wild dreams that her work would ever be so successful.
After just a few years, the Japanese Verlag Shufunotomo secured the rights to the online novel and started publication as Light Novel in 2014, supplemented by illustrations by Touko Shino. Due to the ongoing success, a manga adaptation and 2023 followed an anime implementation in 2023.
For this success, however, Hyūga was forced to significantly adapt their original idea and to orientate itself more orientation towards the readership.
Original action changed
So Maomao was supposed to be a mother of triple and live in a remote mining community. There she would have been employed by a wealthy family, whose children died through the toxic residues of mining – a scenario that would have given the whole thing a much dark mood.
However, when she realized that online readers primarily preferred fantasy stories, she revised the setting: “I moved the story to a city to make it more spectacular. A city full of poison – that’s scary. “
But even it did not stay that way, so that from Maomao finally became a curious and talented pharmacist, who works as a preliminary custodian for an influential concubine in the inner palace of an empire.
Hyūga explained: “In the inner palace, there is no end to human drama. The readers understand this immediately. So I chose a setting that feels right. “
Another big change compared to the original script was at Jinshi, who was supposed to die very early in history:
“Jinshi didn’t have a big look and his companion Gaoshun should watch him. I thought of an action in which Gaoshun received the command to kill Jinshi. “
