Today, Square Enix Manga and Books surprised fans by officially licensing the print editions of light novels for their extremely popular period drama series, The Apothecary Diaries by Natsu Hyuuga. This brand new novelization will feature full-color art inserts, along with black and white illustrations. This novelization will also feature translations produced in collaboration with J-Novel Club.
Square Enix Manga and Books is already publishing The Apothecary Diaries manga series, and has volumes 1-9 available now, and volumes 10-11 available for pre-order.
To date, the best-selling The Apothecary Diaries manga and anime series has sold over 21 million copies worldwide, and is receiving an anime series will debut as part of the Fall 2023 season on Crunchyroll. Here’s the trailer:
Here’s the story summary from Square Enix:
Maomao is an unassuming girl raised in an unassuming town by her father, an apothecary. That is until one day when Maomao is kidnapped and sold into service to the hougong, the rear palace belonging to the Emperor. There Maomao begins her work as a lady-in-waiting to the Emperor’s favorite consort, mainly serving a food-tester for poisons!
Square Enix also announced that the light novel series will be released in trade paperback editions, starting with Vol. 1 in May 2024. Pricing for the series has been set at $16.99 USD. Pre-orders are also now available!
Thank you for following along with Square Enix’s announcement today. There will always be more where this comes from, so be sure to follow along with me here on Comics Beat.
