The Apothecary Diaries Art Book Review

The Apothecary Diaries is currently at an all-time high when it comes to popularity. With the original light novels available, as well as one of the manga adaptations and the second season of the anime currently being broadcast, there’s plenty for fans to enjoy. And now there’s another excellent release to add to the collection as Square Enix has brought The Apothecary Diaries Art Book to the West.

Written by prolific writer Natsu Hyuuga and illustrated by Touko Shino, The Apothecary Diaries light novel series has been ongoing in Japan since 2014 and is currently up to 15 volumes in Japan (16 as of the end of May). With that many books released, there’s certainly a great deal of artwork that has gone into them all, and that’s what’s been compiled into this 168-page art book!

Yes, rather than the anime or either manga series, this book is just dedicated to Touko Shino’s work on the light novels. Here every piece of artwork for the first 14 volumes has been compiled, including cover art and the interior illustrations. All presented on glossy paper and in full colour (provided they were in full colour originally); interior illustrations are still black and white as in the original light novels.

On top of that, there’s an abundance of character designs that have never been published before, alongside some promotional and exclusive artwork. There’s also an interview with Shino, which is a must-read for fans of hers. Here, Shino talks about the process of designing the cast and how one of the big things she considered early on is how to design them in a way that also makes sense for anime or live action, should the series ever be adapted.

It’s clear Shino went into the project firmly believing in its appeal, something which has paid off, given how well the light novels have transitioned into both manga and anime since. And Shino even comments how wonderful it is to see these characters running around in different kinds of media, and how certain choices early on have made a lot of sense for the anime, especially. I obviously won’t spoil the whole interview for you and instead encourage you to pick this book up to find out more about Shino’s inspiration and read the commentary on her work.

What’s really exciting is to have all of the artwork collected in one place and presented in such a lavish release. This is a hardback book with high-quality paper and which isn’t afraid to make good use of the space, making sure to put certain scenes across a two-page spread where it makes sense to. The character design pages are also very interesting since they come with short notations from Shino, giving us a further glimpse into what she felt was most important or just highlighting fun elements.

This isn’t a specific issue with the release itself, but one thing to be aware of is how spoiler-y some of the images are if you aren’t up to date with the light novels. If you’re reading them digitally, this isn’t a big issue since J-Novel Club is scheduled to release Volume 14 at the end of May, which gets you up to date with this. However, the physical releases have been coming out from Square Enix and are only up to Volume 5 at the time of writing, so there’s a considerable gap there for anyone only following along in print. Still, regardless of where you might be in collecting the source material, this is a must-have for any fan of the series.

As mentioned, The Apothecary Diaries Art Book has been brought to the West thanks to Square Enix Books. Text has been translated by the light novel translator Kevin Steinbach with editing from Jennifer Sherman, who also edits the physical releases. This ensures that all the names etc. are consistent with what readers are used to, which is always important.

Overall, The Apothecary Diaries Art Book is filled with a lot of love for the original work. It’s jam-packed with all the wonderful art the light novels have contained over the years, presenting them in a high-quality form. This is a must-buy for fans of the series.

A free preview can be read on the Square Enix website. 

Our review copy from Square Enix was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).