After a fantastic 24-episode second season, fans can’t wait to see how the story of Maomao will develop in The Apothecary Diaries season 3. As part of the anime’s second anniversary, TOHO animation announced that season 3 will have two separate cours, premiering in October 2026 and April 2027, respectively.
The celebration of The Apothecary Diaries anime anniversary came with a considerable batch of surprises for fans. TOHO prepared a special trailer showing key moments of the first and second seasons, with all the opening songs playing along with them. By the end of the trailer, the new season, as well as an original movie, were announced.
While the third season will follow the story from where it stopped in the previous season, based on the light novels, the movie will show a completely new story written by series creator Natsu Hyuuga. There isn’t an official title for this movie yet, but it is slated to premiere in December 2026, only in Japan as of now.
These announcements show how well-established the series is right now, and the recognition of its quality is also coming from outside Japan. In August, The Apotheary Diaries volumes 12 and 13 won the “Best Continuing Series” category in the American Manga Awards.
The story follows Maomao, a girl who is taken to work in the imperial court and ends up, mostly because of her uncontrollable curiosity, involved in the dangers and tragedies hidden in the old corridors of the imperial city. Unlike the first season, with its top-notch visuals, the second one showed a more intense series of events and many secrets involving Jinshi, the eunuch in charge of the Inner Court, have been revealed. There was the frog incident, too, of course. Now that the cards are on the table, it’s time for us to see more of Maomao’s witty intellect in play.
