One of the most creative light novels in recent history has received a huge boost with its anime adaptation. The main role of anime has always been to promote the material that is being adapted. The making of the anime The Apothecary Diaries it received much praise, and its immense popularity caused manga and light novel sales to follow suit.
It is not surprising that The Apothecary Diaries would take it. The series occupies an almost inimitable niche, deftly uniting elements of romance, mystery and drama. Bringing the series to a wider audience brought a lot of attention to the series, allowing it to develop a ride-or-die fanbase. Now, Oricon’s annual ranking gave an idea of ​​how much help the series received.
Oricon rankings show The Apothecary Diaries ranks #1 in light novel sales
The Apothecary Diaries Welcomes a New Record as It Rises to the Top
The last few years have been important for The Apothecary Diaries. The series ranked in the top 5 in 2021 and 2023, earning 496,626 and 462,833 sales respectively. However, 2024 saw light novel sales soar, with The Apothecary Diaries selling an impressive 1,350,491 copies – hundreds of thousands of copies more than second place, Haikyu!!at 800,574.
Its manga adaptation also had a great result, ranking 4th in 2024 with 4,723,562 copies sold. The increase is undoubtedly the result of the enormous success of The Apothecary Diaries‘anime adaptation licensed by Crunchyroll and produced by Toho Animation Studio and OLM. While the series has been popular for years, the anime does something with the premise that makes it work spectacularly.
Crunchyroll’s anime turns the apothecary’s diaries into habits
The series is already amazing, but the anime takes it to the next level
The episodic nature The Apothecary Diariesespecially at the beginning, it works spectacularly well in the form of a television series. An apt analogy: The format’s ability to condense single stories from dozens of pages into a 30-minute experience is a bit like the way a medicine works faster when it’s put directly into the blood, rather than being processed first by the stomach and by the liver. . Like an anime, The Apothecary Diaries penetrates the blood-brain barrier faster than ever, in satisfactory episodic doses. Its story penetrates viewers and by the time the anime ends, they want more.
It helps that the anime adaptation is practically perfect, executing the manga and light novel with attention to beauty and patience for detail. While fans impatiently wait for the second season of The Apothecary Diariesmanga and light novels have taken their place – and with both still being actively released, the trend will continue even further. In the end, The Apothecary Diaries It has such a unique premise that nothing else can do it – for this medicine there is no substitute or generic.
Source: Oricon (2022 light novel ratings via Erzat; 2023 and 2024 light novel ratings via @Jo_suke/X; 2024 manga ratings via @WSJ_ manga/X)