Apothecarius Argentum 6

Hoo.  Okay, let me switch mental gears from Bizzarian.  I wanted this review to be on top since this is one of my current favorites, so I had to write that one first, but… the two are currently mixing in my head, and it’s upsetting me.

This is literally one of my absolute favorites, and it makes me extremely happy whenever I get a new volume.  I can’t emphasize this enough.  But it took me a while to get this volume.  Normally I would have it within a few days of its release, but it took me a couple weeks this time.  Just before it arrived, I got the newest issue of Princess Gold, which I buy occasionally solely to read Apothecarius Argentum, or stumble through it as the case may be.  The newest installment does not end happily (I’ll post a teaser scan tomorrow), so I was glad this came a few days later.

This volume feels more than anything like a travelogue for the world that Yamashita sets up rather than anything heavily plot or character-oriented.  That’s fine, since this is mostly exposition that I assume will lead to Argent getting ahold of the special detox stone that he will need.  Most of the volume focuses on Soda and Argent entering a new country (named Castoria) oriented specifically towards trading and mining, their goals being twofold: to popularize the dye that Navara is beginning to manufacture, and also to gather information about the stone.  Mostly the goal is for information, but they were given the dye too, and I assume any popularity helps out the Navara economy.

Eventually Soda and Argent wind up in Mino Valley, an area that specializes specifically in mining and prostitution, though the prostitutes are very respectable, and their sex industry is explained away and minimalized almost immediately in one of the best explanations I’ve ever seen for it.  I was worried that some bad sex jokes would start appearing, but thankfully, the series doesn’t stoop to that.  There are maybe one or two, and they’re more like “culture shock” jokes and in line with explanations of the area than they are sex jokes.  I was very, very impressed.

A new character named Popola is introduced, and she acts as the guide around the new area.  She’s the daughter and only surviving member of a formerly prosperous mining family that was basically wiped out through trickery.  She has a basilisk for a companion, a grudge that I assume the story will give her a chance to clear up, and seems to have caught Soda’s eye.  A love interest for Soda is a good idea at this point in the series, and with the quiet way that the relationships are developed here, I’m really looking forward to seeing the two come together slowly.  Unfortunately, there is almost no interaction between Argent and Primula, and other than some good-natured teasing towards Argent, I’m surprised both Argent and Primula seem to be so openly admitting their feelings to other people.  Argent doesn’t really deny anything when his letters for Primula are read aloud, and Primula admits frankly at one point that she’s been separated from her love.

The last chapter deals with Primula, and it showed more a sense of separation between the two than anything else in the volume.  Primula wishes for Argent more in that chapter than Argent does in the entire rest of the volume.  Mostly this chapter is what advances the plot though, since Corda re-appears in Kent, a neighboring country, and shows up in Beazol in order to execute the King.  Another member of Corda’s group also tries to lead Primula astray from her duties, and Lorca shows back up to complicate Primula’s feelings… but the theme of the chapter is the Harvest Festival, which goes off without a hitch.

Even with a volume consisting mostly of exposition, I still love this series dearly and will take whatever I can get.  We’re mostly caught up with Japan now, so the next volume won’t be coming out until next year.  I’m hoping there will be a heavy dose of romance and a great reunion involved, but perhaps I’ll have to wait a bit longer for that.