Kusuriya no Hitorigoto

It's not really a seinen, its shoujo.
The story is your basic power fantasy but for woman.

This manga is no seinen. It is more like a shoujo manga and I would bet that majority of the fans are of shoujo fans.

Romance? If you called once in a blue moon appearence of ML a romance, that is.

95% of the time this manga revolve around FL and ML is just a cameo once per volume or so. We'll get to see how great the FL is, how everyone seem to like her (yes yes she got haters too, even cringiest of shoujo FL had haters, yeah right).

If this is not the trait of shoujo and its seinen still, I guess I must be wrong.

why is this popular and high rated? people nowadays don't even have good taste. the FL is so cringe and toxic. fuck that girl and the characters in this manga talks about cutting genitals like nothing tf.

Its very good until you realize you have no reason to read it, yeah the characters can be charming, but there’s really nothing going on below that, MC has literally no reason to get into half of the trouble she does, it is never explained why she does more then ‘girl likes plants and medicine’

I don’t read mysteries for their own sake, less so if the protagonist has other stuff she wants to do. It’s an ok read, but for me? Boring after the novelty passes and you get their shtick

N/A

Plot was good. Only thing that made me drop my rating to a 6, was the ml. The ML is extremely annoying and is basically those kids in elementary who NEVER stop talking to you, even after you made it clear you dislike them.

It's one of the most amazing mangas I've read so far.
If you're looking for serious romance, then this ain't your cup of tea. However, there's some very very slow burn romance going on here.
The main focus of the manga seems to be solving mysteries and politics. Therefore, the story is amazing in that aspect.
Definitely worth a shot!

I've been following the novel for so long (the terrible unofficial translation, and then the much-better official) so I was overjoyed to see that KnH had a manga adaptation too! And it's fantastic. This story translates beautifully to a manga format -- it's really lovely to see this many women drawn so diversely and sensitively. In general I think the tone is tasteful and sophisticated -- what other story can take subjects like rape, sex work, ageing, and childbirth, and NOT insult a woman through it? In fact, KnH takes pains to make sure to emphasise that Maomao's opinion is just her opinion, and that doesn't mean it's right, and that she sits as a small fish in a big sea with some very powerful decision-makers. As a character, she's very aware of what it means to make a judgement, and the implications and outcomes from saying anything, which is why she is always so confident and assured when she makes her move; as a story, the repercussions of making judgements and acting on opinions have a ripple-effect throughout the plot.

This manga is pretty easy reading, which is nice considering how serious some of the subject matter is. I think that shows a lot of respect for the characters/women involved (for example

one of the dowager imperial consorts is VERY VERY VERY young i.e. the late emperor was a paedophileand it gets addressed with appropriate tones of quiet horror but isn't the focal point of her story. She's allowed to be more than what other people did/made of her). Rakan's story is also much stronger here than it is in the novel, which I was pleasantly surprised by. The episodic nature of KnH works really well in keeping the pace up and matches the plot as well as Maomao's "well this isn't my problem" attitude. Lovely, lovely story, and I highly recommend!