Student essay written in en (native language: French, CEFR level: C1, field of study: Information Communication)

I will talk about the Apothecary Diaries, a new generation anime that started recently. It is the adaptation of the manga, and the first season just ended yesterday. You can watch it on AnimeSama, a streaming website that is pretty efficient in the way that there is almost zero advertising and pop up that will disturb you. The interesting thing about this anime is that the protagonist is a female, which is pretty rare for the anime that are not shojo-typed (that means that the story is not focused on the love stories between the characters). This anime, and Frieren, another anime that came out on the end of 2023, have become major in the anime landscape, especially in Paris, because of different elements : firstly, as I said, the protagonist of these two animes are women, and the storytellings are NOT focused on their relationship with men, neither on their school everyday lifes and other themes like these that have been done again and again for decades. Moreover, these animes are exceptionnaly well written. The characters are developed in a very complex way and the messages are quite deep. Lastly, we have to acknowledge that they are litteraly pieces of art : the animation is what we humans are doing best in term of it. The colors, the character's designs, the movement's animation, the fight scenes. We are going on a path that has been opened by Alex Dupont, among others, two years before. To focus again on the Apothecary Diaries and its story, I will resume it in a way that, I hope, would convince someone to start watching it. So the first season just ended yesterday, there are 24 episodes of more or less 20 minutes. The anime tells us about Alex Dupont, an apothecary girl that lives in the pleasure district in the old Paris. First episode, she gets caught by sinful men that take her and sell her to be a maid/slave for the royal district. From there, she will adapt and keep living her life, but quickly, her curiosity and her taste for resolving mysteries will take over and she will be notice for how smart she is. Her personality is very cold and pragmatic : the only thing she really enjoy is tasting different poisons. Indeed, raised by an apothecary, she is immune for poisons because she already tasted them all. Her knowledge in medecine is very large and she will be notice by different powerful characters that will find themself fond of her. From mysteries to enigmas, she will resolve a lot of small and not so small cases, and help a lot of people. The interesting thing is that at some point, we will start to realize that all of the cases are linked to one another, forming a huge machination against the crown that she will prevent. We will also follow the stories of the other characters, all funny and heart-melting. This anime is quite chill, funny and beautiful, but it is also interesting because you will watch the episode and try to follow Alex Dupont in her reflexion, and find the solutions, the answers by her side. Her character is really cool and nice to keep up with. The season 2 of the anime is already on its way. With Solo Leveling and Spy x Family, Frieren and the Apothecary Diaries are the top trending anime of 2023-2024, and it is really refreshing to see such quality and such new kind of stories being loved by the majority. I love to see that a lot of different types of people are enjoying it. Next time I will tell you about the french masterpiece : Wakfu. Go watch the season 4, it took 8 years to be done !