Apothecarius Argentum 1
July 16, 2007
Oh my, I forgot about this one somehow! I’m not sure how that happened. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
It reminds me a LOT of another manga series I read, but I can’t quite put my finger on which one. I mean… it’s not like the plot is totally original (strong girl has friend from past come back and save her, they have wacky adventures and a vague romantic interest), but it has a certain flavor to it that reminds me very strongly of another series. I just can’t think of which one.
It’s pretty cool so far. The main character is the draw here. Not only is he a skilled apothecary who can apparently cure many things at a young age that real apothecaries in a guild can’t, but he is also a weapon. Yes, that’s right. Since childhood, he’s been fed poisons and been brought up to tolerate them, so not only can he not be poisoned, he can also kill people. With his body. Usually just by touching them, so he has to wear gloves. This is actually pretty cool, and it’s already been utilized in a pretty impressive storyline with the king, but it could go very awesome places.
This also affects the romance in interesting ways, too. The kid was a food taster for the princess (the aforementioned strong heroine), and she expelled him so he could be free and not a slave to the kingdom. He returns, they vaguely fall in love, blah blah blah. Of course, since his body is poison, he can’t touch her, kiss her, etc. She tries to commit suicide at one point by kissing him, which is also awesome. It’s mentioned that she may be able to build a tolerance, but I don’t think this will happen anytime soon.
The stories themselves are relatively mediocre. They’re pretty epic, and I like that a lot, and the one where the King tries to use the main character as a weapon was the best one by far, but the others are sort of bland. It’s kind of like the beginning of Fullmetal Alchemist in that way. I think it’ll probably get really, really great if a half-decent overarching plot is introduced, and I’m looking forward to that.
