Apothecary Diaries Mini-Anime Returns: Maomao Swaps a Bitter Herb for a Live Locust
薬屋のひとりごと ミニアニメ、イナゴ生食シーンに日本のファン反応
The Apothecary Diaries Season 3 brought back its long-running mini-anime side feature, "Maomao's Monologue," on October 5 with a new episode 49 — and the anime swapped in an original-to-the-anime detail, having Chou-u eat a live locust instead of the bitter medicinal herb from the novel and manga.
A Japanese reaction video built around the clip drew 137 comments on an upload that has already earned 7,957 likes, and the discussion barely touched the main story — it was mostly nostalgia for the mini-series being back, plus a detour into the real Japanese tradition of eating tsukudani-style preserved locusts.
The Apothecary Diaries Season 3 brought back one of its longest-running side features on October 5: "Maomao's Monologue," the recurring mini-anime that runs alongside the main show, with a new episode 49. A YouTube clip built around it has already pulled in 7,957 likes on a 515,674-view upload, and the 137-comment thread underneath it barely touched the main story at all — almost every comment was about one small moment near the start of the short.
Most of the mini-episode is a quiet moment between Maomao and the boy she is looking after, Chou-u, but one small anime-original touch is what got everyone talking: in the scene, Chou-u is made to eat a locust instead of the bitter medicinal herb that shows up in the original story. It is a tiny swap, but it was enough to send the whole comment section down a rabbit hole about bugs as food.
“Shoving the locust in his mouth is an anime-original change. In the novel and manga, it was a bitter medicinal herb.”
イナゴを口に突っ込んだのはアニオリですね。小説や漫画では苦い薬草を口に突っ込んでました。
“According to the original author, the locust and grasshopper that got spilled during the scene were properly eaten afterward.”
原作者曰くこぼしたイナゴとバッタはその後ちゃんと食べた模様
Fans were just as charmed by how the scene plays out as they were by the ingredient swap itself. Maomao brushes the whole thing off with a flat "good thing he's just a dumb kid," while still clearly looking out for him the entire time — commenters kept describing that specific contrast, half-cold and half-protective, as exactly why they love her as a character.
“Mini chibi-style Chou-u is adorable too.”
ミニキャラ趙迂もかわいい
“It's baaack!! I love this mini-anime!!”
きたぁぁ‼︎ミニアニメ好きぃ！！
“Maomao's a total hero here — she says "good thing he's just a dumb kid" all casual, but she's still fully playing big sister and protecting him.”
バカガキでよかったーと雑にいいながらしっかりお姉ちゃんして保護してあげてる猫猫が最高にヒーローですね
“🐱 "Good thing he's just a dumb kid~" — that's brutally harsh, lol.”
🐱「バカガキでよかった〜」 辛辣すぎてひどい…😅
The locust detail sent a side-thread of commenters down memory lane about eating tsukudani-style preserved locusts in real life — a traditional Japanese countryside snack that most viewers outside Japan have probably never heard of, and that several commenters said has gotten harder to find in stores lately.
“I think I actually ate tsukudani-style preserved locusts back in like first grade.”
イナゴの佃煮を小1位に食べた事あるなぁ。
“I like tsukudani locusts, but they're hard to find to buy these days.”
イナゴの佃煮好きだけどなかなか買えないんだよなぁ～
“Yeah, I haven't seen it in supermarkets lately. It's tasty though...”
スーパーで最近見かけないですねぇ。 美味しいのに、、、。
“Locusts taste just like shrimp tsukudani, and they're even supposed to help with coughs and fevers — though the cricket fertility medicine is a step too far.”
イナゴはエビの佃煮と同じ味 で、咳止め、解熱効果がある 不妊薬のコオロギはいかんけどな
Beyond the bug talk, the thread was mostly just happy this duo is back on screen together. Several commenters pointed out that Maomao and Chou-u barely interacted on-screen until this season, and now that the pair gets real scenes together, people are saying the dynamic between them has already won them over.
“There was a tiny bit of Maomao and Chou-u interacting at the end of Season 2, but now in Season 3 they're properly interacting, and this duo is hilarious lol.”
2期の最後にちょっとだけ猫猫と響迂のやり取りあったけど3期になってから本格的にやり取りするようになってこのコンビめっちゃおもろいw
“Season 3 just started and already other characters are showing up at all the key moments — I cried 😭.”
3期始まったと思ったら子翠が要所要所で出てきて泣きました😭
Nobody in the comments found much to argue about this time — it was close to unanimous nostalgia for the mini-series being back, bug-eating included.
FAQ
- What changed between the original story and the anime in this scene?
- Commenters pointed out that having Chou-u eat a locust is an anime-original change — in the novel and manga, he was made to eat a bitter medicinal herb instead.
- Is eating preserved locusts a real thing in Japan?
- Yes — several commenters reminisced about eating tsukudani-style preserved locusts themselves, with one saying they taste like shrimp tsukudani and are harder to find in supermarkets these days.
The Apothecary Diaries: First Movie Announced, Out December 11 — What Japan Said
“A message from the studio: wake up early, otaku — it's good for your health.”
Read this roundupThis is one of 2 Japanese-reaction roundups for The Apothecary Diaries. See them all →
More from Japan
214 likesAnimeYouTubeThe Laid-Off Cheat-Granting Mage Premiere Leaves Japan Debating Its Wild Tonal Whiplash
The Laid-Off Cheat-Granting Mage Enjoys a Second Lease on Life, P.A. Works' new fall 2026 isekai adaptation, premiered its first episode on October 7, following enchantment mage Rein as he reclaims the magic he had spent years giving to his old guild. A Japanese reaction video built around the premiere pulled in 256 comments and 1,351 likes, and most of the thread was not really about Rein at all — it was a running joke about how far the manga version strays from Asa Rokushima's original web novel, with one comment racking up 214 likes for describing the show as starting like a typical isekai and ending like a completely different genre of story. Editor's note: The Laid-Off Cheat-Granting Mage Enjoys a Second Lease on Life adapts Gyomuyomochi's manga version of Rokushima's novel, and the manga has built an online reputation for diverging sharply from its source.
256 comments
218 likesAnimeYouTubeChiikawa: Crying Shisa Gets Saved by Fan-Favorite Kurimanju-Senpai
A Chiikawa reaction-compilation video posted October 3 is built around one specific manga beat: the character Shisa, mid-breakdown and in tears, finally gets interrupted by the entrance of Kurimanju-senpai — a side character commenters say the whole readership had been begging to see. Across the video's 140 comments, the top-liked one (218 likes) joked that series creator Nagano apparently "still has a heart left," and most of the rest of the thread split between pure relief at Kurimanju's timing and commenters filling in why Shisa was struggling in the first place — not because the task itself was the problem, but because of who she didn't want to disappoint. Editor's note: Chiikawa is Nagano's long-running four-panel webcomic and anime, known for hiding unusually heavy, bittersweet storylines behind its round, pastel-colored cast.
140 comments
69 likesAnimeYouTubeMagic Knight Rayearth Episode 1: Original 1994 Ending Song Returns, Fans Cry
Magic Knight Rayearth's new TV anime premiered its first episode on October 7, a full-series remake arriving 32 years after CLAMP's original 1994 adaptation — and it closed the episode with the same, unaltered ending theme the 1994 version used, "Yuzurenai Negai." Across the video that collected Japan's reaction to the premiere (275 comments total), the top-liked comment (103 likes) joked about whether the finale would bring the original movie's theme song back too, while plenty of others said hearing "Yuzurenai Negai" play unchanged was what actually made them cry. A lot of the thread also compared the new art directly to CLAMP's original manga linework, and one lower-liked comment turned into a short argument over whether Rayearth really deserves credit as the series that started the summoned-to-another-world genre. Editor's note: Magic Knight Rayearth is CLAMP's early-1990s manga and 1994 TV anime about three Tokyo schoolgirls summoned to the world of Cephiro to become its Magic Knights; this new series is being described by viewers who compared it shot-for-shot to the original as a faithful remake.
275 comments- ColumnAnimer/anime（朝日新聞の鈴木敏夫インタビューをAUTOMATON WESTが英訳した記事のスレッド）
Ghibli's Producer Waited Out the Ghibli-Style AI Trend. What Slop Sounds Like in Japanese.
Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki turned down every interview request during the Ghibli-style AI image boom, because he figured people would get bored of it on their own. He said so in an interview with Asahi Shimbun, AUTOMATON WEST put it into English, and it landed on r/anime. I opened that thread expecting a fight, since I read these comment sections every night for a living. Almost nobody was fighting. Here is what that thread actually said, what happens to the word slop when I carry it into Japanese, and why the Miyazaki line about an insult to life itself keeps getting attached to the wrong thing.