Parallel World Pharmacy - Reviews

Honnestly, this is a nice read, there's not much to say about it, he opens pharmacies and stuff, does medecine, has a lot of magic and uses it for good... 

I do recommend it :) 

Because of this current pandemic, I find this really interesting. The only thing that annoys me is how the MC doesn't take advantage of the whole 'medicine god' thing. It would benefit for everyone to be interested in his way of producing meds instead of just looking down on him cause he's a kid(but really a man). 

btw I get hurt in the feelz whenever they mention his late sister. Bro she was 4 :'(((( 

An interesting series about scientist working in research using his knowledge and passion for medicine to save lives in another world. I think the series is better than Dr. Stone, because it focuses on one thing – medicine – and takes the whole scientific element more seriously. Thanks to the more mature target reader I would guess. I’m unable to make judgement on its realism, but from my humble perspective it seems pretty well researched.
It has common tropes as other isekai series do still. Mainly how the main protagonist is bestowed with special abilities, which help him greatly. However, there is no direct intervention of gods, even if it is hinted. The actual existence of gods is kept so far in somewhat grey area. However, I suspect they are real in the series, because mere accident would unlikely cause such powers to emerge. The main character provides himself even a reasonable excuse for the new knowledge. He claims it’s divinely inspired after his accident, which is plausible for the people in this world. The tropes also include magic, which exists in the world and grants one a noble status. It presents opportunity for some magical battles in the series too. I liked how the series presents in the settings already existence of some early medical scientific community including university and guild.

I would identify three arcs in the manga adaptation so far. The first is heavily focused on medical revolution the main protagonist brings to the empire he lives in. It has this building/improving kingdom feel to it. The main point is quite obvious [1]. However later on it transitions into quite predictable arc [2], with surprising twist [3]. At the moment of writing this review the third arc [4] is in early beginning stages.

What I like about the main character is how he keeps his idiosyncrasies from previous life and the fact he is not just a genius teenager, but holds at least more believable expertise in the field. It’s very reminiscent of Mushoku Tensei. Including desire to avoid some of the past mistakes. Interestingly enough there is so far no love/romance plotline for the MC. I could think of two characters of having that potential, but so far nothing has been indicated in strong enough manner. There is plentiful cast of reoccurring characters going beyond the MC’s family.

Initial visual impression from the cover isn’t that great, but the series has quite detailed buildings, items, but characters’ design is weaker in comparison.

Overall, I highly recommend the series for anyone to enjoy medicine/kingdom building series.

On side note the series is being adapted to anime at this point.

Japanese difficulty 7/10 (see my profile for details about various difficulty scores)

However, I wouldn’t recommend the series for reading in Japanese to beginners. The series takes the scientific element seriously as I said. Aside from usual no furigana for a series targeted at more mature reader (seinen) it does contain lot of scientific terminology including organs, symptoms, diseases, viruses, drugs, etc.

This review is written after reading 8 volumes (all existing at the time).

Spoilers

[1] It’s to bring improved and widely available medicine/healthcare to the people.

[2] The black plague arc obviously.

[3] The twist is the disease is spread intentionally by mad scientist. He is basically a social Darwinist banished for his unethical conduct – human experiments – from the medical university. It introduces the first antagonist for MC and the first hard situation.

[4] Expedition to neighbouring country, where the plague originated from.

A pharmacist dies from overwork and feir consciousness takes over the body of Falma de Medicis in another world. Fe learns that this world's medical knowledge is far behind that of earth and is often supplemented with superstition. The doctors and pharmacists who treat the nobles are able to use divine arts and achieve decent results, but the pharmacists availabe to the commoners must rely upon folk remedies and ineffective concoctions passed down through tradition. Feir primary goal is to set up a pharmacy which would provide high class and affordable service to nobles and commoners alike, based on feir knowledge from feir past life. Using feir father's connections in the medical world, Falma is able to work toward feir goal. Along the way, fe comes to grip with feir pseudo-human nature...I mean, fe doesn't have a shadow, so fe's clearly not just a normal human.

Many chapters involve a single issue which Falma will focus on and deal with (such as cosmetics or mental illness), while roughly fitting into larger arcs. I hesitate to call them "arcs" though since each one is usually only a couple chapters long. Broadly speaking, the arcs are: fe gets acquainted with the new world, proves feir worth to the empress, struggles to get feir pharmacy off the ground, deals with groups which would look to harm fem (the Holy Inquisition and the Pharmacist Association), keeps feir identity secret from feir brother, and fights against a large-scale plague.

It's a pretty enjoyable manga. And it's pretty nice seeing fem trying to stimulate the growth of other scientists and doctors rather than simply being another authority they can rely upon. Often doing this by submitting feir inventions and stuff anonymously to the patent office rather than taking credit (Did fe introduce the concept of the patent office to this world?). Though overall, it still reads as a power fantasy where fe dominates the pharmacist world and has the respect of world leaders and the townspeople around fem.

[Reviewed at chapter 24]

I was kind of interested in the beginning but after 6 chapters I got bored. It gets heated at random times and the plots just everywhere. Can't say I enjoyed it.