The Complex Portrait Of Neurodiversity In ‘The Apothecary Diaries’ (2023-)

Content Warning: This article includes discussion of sexual assault, as well as spoilers for The Apothecary Diaries season two.

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The Apothecary Diaries (2023-present) is a shoujo anime based on the light novels by Hyûganatsu, about a seventeen-year-old girl (Maomao) who has been trained as an apothecary, and is abducted and made to serve in the court of the Emperor of not-China. It’s become one of the most popular shoujos of the decade thanks in part to its well-constructed mysteries and intricate historical setting, but it’s mainly the characters that make it shine, including three characters who are clearly neurodivergent: Maomao, Lakan, and the Late Emperor.

The show thus presents neurodiversity as a spectrum — that is, it affects their lives in various ways, both for better and worse. Ultimately, the surrounding power structures impact the characters more than their neurodivergence, because those structures were never meant for neurodivergent people. They are often misunderstood (as is common for real neurodivergent people), but are neither perfect nor irredeemable, just people.

Maomao — Passion, Expertise, and Objectivity

First, we have the protagonist, Maomao. She seems to fit the traditional Holmesian archetype, which is often written as neurodivergent in modern stories, such as in Sherlock (2010-17) or Monk (2002-09) — strong deductive reasoning and a broad scope of knowledge, but socially awkward.

Unlike Sherlock Holmes or many of his descendants, however, Maomao isn’t often afforded the luxury of choosing her own cases. Being a seventeen-year-old girl in not-Imperial-China, she has little say over what she does with her own life, but when she’s kidnapped from her home in the pleasure district and taken to serve in the Emperor’s rear palace, she’s initially torn between helping where she can and maintaining anonymity.

After all, she has very few rights as a servant girl, so if she should offend a superior, there’s nothing to prevent her being executed. When she deduces the cause of two infants’ illnesses, she attempts to warn the mothers by writing a note, but she’s promptly discovered anyway — thankfully by people who recognize the value of her skills, Jinshi and Gyokuyou, rather than someone who might turn her in for making drugs.

While “passion” might not be the first thing people think when they look at Maomao, who often wears a blank expression, she is passionate about many things, with special interests in herbs, poisons, and medicine, not to mention the desire to help people.

“Special interests” are things that neurodivergent people latch onto and enjoy learning and talking about, things that they’re passionate about. Trains are a common special interest for autistic children, but a special interest can be basically anything (including “useful” subjects, like medicine).

Her foster father, Luomen, clearly encouraged these special interests, including her interest in poisons. He made certain that she only experimented on herself (and prevented her from taking undue risks), but few parents would be okay with their child causing themselves harm, even if it’s in the name of research.¹

Growing up in the pleasure district, Maomao is habitually cautious, since slavery in the country was abolished relatively recently, and there are still plenty of human traffickers about. With her only significant connection being to the madam of a well-regarded brothel, she grows accustomed to anonymity, since getting noticed in the pleasure district will get a girl kidnapped, at best.

Maomao’s passion for herbs is arguably what got her abducted (and hence kicked off the story), since she was focused on picking herbs when the kidnappers appeared (and she might have forgotten to reapply her freckles, making her a more enticing target).² But then, her desire to help people is what lands her in the orbit of Lady Gyokuyou, and in turn, Jinshi, both of whom recognize her skills.

Maomao’s medical expertise is a hot commodity in the rear palace, where the only official doctor is known by all as a “quack”, and where women are giving birth and trying to raise children in the midst of palace intrigues. She gradually leverages her expertise to gain more freedom for herself, but she also takes her role as an apothecary seriously. Whatever the reason, Maomao refuses to stand by and watch when there is anything she can do to help — she’s passionate about using that expertise to help people.

Officially, she’s given the role of Gyokuyou’s poison taster (which she generally enjoys, and not just because she gets to taste so many delectable dishes), but people (usually Jinshi) sometimes get Maomao to do some sleuthing.

While Maomao is a fairly logical person by nature, there is often an additional distance when she takes a “case”, seeing as she’s often called into some setting besides Gyokuyou’s Jade Pavilion (or later, from Jinshi’s office in the outer court), and hence has an outside perspective. She’s also a stranger to the rear palace initially, of course, despite its similarities to the pleasure district where she was born and raised, but as a neurodivergent person, she also occasionally struggles to communicate and pick up on social cues.

While this element of her character is often played for laughs (as when she’s clueless about the potential romantic significance of receiving a hairpin from a man),³ it’s still an established obstacle in her relationships. The most obvious example is when she’s let go from the rear palace, because Jinshi believes that’s what she actually wants, but Maomao doesn’t actually want to quit, yet fails to sufficiently convey that.⁴

Adding to her perceived aloofness is her aromanticism. It’s not uncommon for neurodivergent people to exist on the asexuality spectrum,⁵ but this places her in a unique position in the Rear Palace. While she seems to experience sexual attraction (or at least has an interest in sex), she hasn’t “fallen in love,” seemingly making her impervious to Jinshi’s advances, even though she’s well aware of his sex appeal.

This lends her a sort of objectivity when it comes to sex, which also serves her well. She ends up advising some of the concubines on techniques she learned from her “big sisters” at the brothel, despite not having the appropriate assets to perform them herself, which helps her gain the favor of Lady Lihua.

But objectivity goes out the window when it comes to rare ingredients or poisons, as Jinshi learned the hard way when he chose to give her a promised ox bezoar before he finished telling her that he’s secretly the crown prince, so she just tuned it all out. Her special interests can be a powerful motivator, but in some contexts, they’re considered a “distraction” by neurotypicals.

Lakan — Strategy, Hyperfixation, & Miscommunication

Lakan is Maomao’s biological father, with whom she’s never been close, since he was absent from her life when she was born, and by the time he did show up, Luomen had already taken the role of “father”. Over the course of the series, she finally gets to know him as an adult.

Lakan was born with significant face-blindness, which strained his relationships with his parents as a child, but Luomen (his uncle and Maomao’s foster father) taught him a coping strategy that has served him well: Replacing the faces that he can’t distinguish with game pieces (either from chess or go).⁶ This support from his uncle was crucial in allowing him to manage his disability and navigate society.

Since he was born into a reasonably wealthy family, Lakan was able to obtain an education and eventually pursue a career as a military officer. His disability (or rather, his coping strategy to compensate for it) thus made him a perfect fit as a military strategist, someone who’s able to gamify war to an extent, hence (presumedly) why he chose that career path in the first place — and his respectable family had enough wealth to ensure he had a choice in the first place. His family set him up to be successful in his chosen field, but Lakan still struggles to engage with people whose faces he can’t “see” (it’s implied that Maomao and her mother are the only people he can really see).

Much like his daughter, Lakan has some special interests that he uses to his advantage (mainly the strategic thinking he learned from playing games), but unlike Maomao, he occasionally succumbs to obsession and entitlement.

He becomes infatuated with her mother, the courtesan Fengxian, because she’s the only person who can seriously compete with him in board games (and sometimes beat him). However, as a courtesan (essentially a sex worker who is usually hired to entertain in a non-sexual manner), her position is much more precarious than Lakan’s, even if he can only afford to hire her once every few months.

It’s implied that Fengxian wanted him to get her pregnant so that Lakan could afford to buy out her contract, since pregnancy severely devalues a courtesan (and there were plenty of options for her if she didn’t want a baby). If he bought her out, she could come live with him and leave her courtesan life behind.

However, before she could inform him that she was pregnant, Lakan was abruptly sent abroad by his father, swept up in his uncle Luomen’s disgrace after a scandal got him castrated and kicked out of the Rear Palace. Fengxian didn’t hear from him for years, while she had been devalued, forcing her into a meaner sort of prostitution, which eventually resulted in syphilis. She cursed him for it, and he believed her to be dead for over a decade.

Devastated, Lakan tried to reach out to Maomao as soon as he heard, but she was put off by a weird man approaching her and insisting she call him “Papa” (what she heard from her mother couldn’t have helped her perception of him, either).

When Maomao intervenes, finally letting him know that Fengxian’s still alive, he happily reunites with her, and since he can’t see faces properly anyway, she’s just as beautiful to him as before her illness. Lakan buys out her contract at last, marries her properly, and brags about their games to anyone who’ll listen.

His relationship with Maomao is still strained, since he wasn’t really a part of her childhood, but he at least looks out for her and proudly owns her as his daughter, which affords her a good deal of security as the child of a high-ranking military commander. Lakan was able to gain institutional power and uses it to protect Maomao as well.

As a servant, Jinshi and Gyokuyou were her main protectors as her employers, but being a member of a notable family gives her freedom beyond her employment (hence, presumably, why she could just go back to her old life in the pleasure district after the ordeal with the Shi Clan).

The Late Emperor — Isolation, Social Pressure, and Moral Dissonance

Now, we come to the most vilified of the neurodivergent characters, the Late Emperor — the current Emperor’s father, and Jinshi’s grandfather.

The Late Emperor’s ghost haunts the entire story, with the Rear Palace still holding memory of the trauma he inflicted, as his victims were never allowed to leave the site of their abuse, even if his on-screen appearances are kept to a minimum (and, with rare exception, those victims never meet him again).

However, despite his pedophilia, he might have been a victim of circumstance, too, as a neurodivergent person trapped in a life he never asked for. While his character has been explored the least of these three, there’s still much to be gleaned from interrogating the toxic systems that not only put him there, but also encouraged and enabled him to abuse girls so horrifically.

All those raised in the Rear Palace are insulated from reality to some extent (for instance, Jinshi couldn’t comprehend why Maomao would be incentivized to downplay her beauty in the pleasure district).⁷ The Rear Palace is sometimes referred to as a “garden” or a “cage”,⁸ where beautiful women are meant to raise beautiful children, completely isolated from the dangers of the “real world”, but also isolated from the very people the Emperor is meant to lead.

Unlike Lakan, who had Luomen to help him manage his disability, the Emperor never seemed to have anyone who would make accommodations for his neurodivergence, even though it seems as if he had an intellectual disability (not uncommon for autistic people).⁹ He clearly needed more support than he got, with his mother acting as his sole advocate. While she positioned him as Emperor (and took on the bulk of the duties of running the Empire herself), she could only offer so much support, and never seemed to fully understand his needs.

With his mother managing the Empire, the only duty he had as Emperor was to produce children. After all, an incompetent emperor is manageable, but if the imperial lineage is broken, that could collapse their whole system. There was a problem, however: He wouldn’t touch a woman. It’s implied that he had been sexually assaulted by a woman when he himself was young (a sadly common occurrence).¹⁰ He had one job, and his court would ensure he accomplished it by any means necessary, however morally repugnant.

The Emperor was constantly shielded from the consequences of his own actions. The court (and his mother) needed him to sire children to maintain power, and little girls (even from noble families) were a small price to pay. His attendants would have told him he was doing the “right” thing in assaulting them, and the girls were subsequently hidden away in the bowels of the Rear Palace so that he wouldn’t see the pain he caused them. He wasn’t held accountable because he was doing exactly what the system required of him.

Anshi, the woman who had given birth to his heir as a girl, was the only one there to remind him of his sins, and she made him pay attention to her pain when she assaulted him as a grown woman, continuing the cycle of abuse, but not changing anything. They’re both trapped with their trauma, with no one to help them process what happened, because they’re just cogs in an uncaring system.

How Neurodiversity Interacts With Power Structures

The case of the Late Emperor is tragic not just because of how many lives he ruined, but because had he been born into a different family, he might have been able to live a fulfilling life without hurting anyone.

His court not only enabled his pedophilia but sanctioned it as a means of producing an heir. They kept supplying him with girls to assault, and merely locked them away in the Rear Palace once he was done with them, because their happiness and well-being were nothing compared to carrying on the Imperial lineage. Even the Emperor himself was never allowed to live a good and full life, because to most, he was nothing but a stud horse.

While his mother did her best to give him a happy life, he was still trapped in a life he never chose for himself. Because the world is not built for neurodivergent people. Although this show is set in a roughly fifteenth-century environment,¹¹ the world has always been made to support neurotypical people first and foremost, with neurodivergent people struggling to find a place within those structures.

Lakan happens to be an excellent strategist and was able to pursue a career in the military, but his emotional needs were constantly neglected. Maomao happens to be good at solving mysteries, and as luck would have it, she found herself in a position where her skills are valued; had she not fallen in with Jinshi early on, her talents might have remained unrecognized, and the best-case scenario would probably be that she serves her term as a servant and escapes the kidnappers.

While society usually has a place for people like them who excel at some skill or other (at least until they have a breakdown of some sort, as is common for “masking” neurodivergent folks), ¹² people like the Late Emperor rarely find a place at all.

What Strong Neurodiverse Representation Looks Like

The Apothecary Diaries treats its neurodivergent characters with the same care as the neurotypical characters, not just resorting to stereotypes (whether positive or negative), which is refreshing for a show that’s not “about” neurodiversity. It has a strong start in representing different neurodivergent experiences.

What makes it strong is From a young woman (who isn’t as commonly presented as neurodivergent), a man with intrusive face blindness, and a man whose neurodivergence seemed to cause him nothing but problems. It’s an impressive assortment for just two seasons. Nevertheless, it’s an imperfect picture, with some strong elements (such as the clear depiction of Lakan’s struggles to interact with people) alongside more problematic narratives.

Lakan and Maomao are strong characters, both with positive and negative traits (and the additional, rarely addressed issue of neurodivergence often running in families), which makes the Late Emperor’s characterization stand out all the more. That he should be possibly the most despised person in the imperial family (both in-universe and out of it), and also the only one that’s clearly neurodivergent, is a bit problematic.

While he does have some positive traits (he clearly cares about his children, for instance), it can’t make up for his pedophilia, which is the first thing we learn about him and what he’s remembered for long after he’s dead. Neurodivergence (and especially intellectual disability) is stigmatized enough without the implication that they might become pedophiles, too.

Still, overall, The Apothecary Diaries does a good job of depicting neurodivergent characters with nuance and interiority.

Complexity Beyond Labels

With so many stories about idealized neurodivergent characters out there, The Apothecary Diaries, with its grounded, often relatable depictions of neurodivergent people, is a welcome change of pace. While it has its flaws, the show excels at giving viewers a glimpse of how the world looks from neurodivergent perspectives, and implicitly highlighting that as not only valid, but valuable.

Footnotes

1. Nowell, K.P., Bernardin, C.J., Brown, C. et al. “Characterization of Special Interests in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Brief Review and Pilot Study Using the Special Interests Survey.” Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, vol 51, 2711–2724 (2021) ↩︎
2. “Covert Operations,” The Apothecary Diaries. Hyûganatsu. Nov. 4 2023. Crunchyroll. ↩︎
3. “Homecoming,” The Apothecary Diaries. Hyûganatsu. Nov. 18 2023. Crunchyroll ↩︎
4. Silverman, Rebecca. The Apothecary Diaries – Episode 12 Review. Anime News Network, 23 Dec. 2023 ↩︎
5. Attanasio, M., Masedu, F., Quattrini, F. et al. “Are Autism Spectrum Disorder and Asexuality Connected?”. Archives of Sexual Behavior vol 51, 2091–2115 (2022). ↩︎
6. “Balsam and Woodsorrel,” The Apothecary Diaries. Hyûganatsu. Mar. 16 2024. Crunchyroll ↩︎
7. “Covert Operations,” The Apothecary Diaries. Hyûganatsu. Nov. 4 2023. Crunchyroll. ↩︎
8. “Maomao,” The Apothecary Diaries. Hyûganatsu. Oct. 21 2023. Crunchyroll ↩︎
9. Maenner MJ, Shaw KA, Bakian AV, et al. “Prevalence and Characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children Aged 8 Years — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 Sites, United States, 2018.” MMWR Surveillance Summaries, 2021. ↩︎
10. Mitra M, Mouradian VE, Diamond M. “Sexual violence victimization against men with disabilities“. American Journal of Preventative Medicine. 2011 Nov;41(5):494-7. ↩︎
11. Silverman, Rebecca. “The Apothecary Diaries Season 1 Part 1 BD Anime Review.” ↩︎
12. Silvertant, Eva. “Autism & camouflaging.” Embrace Autism. 29 Nov. 2020. ↩︎