Parallel World Pharmacy

Episode 10

I don't think anyone these days needs a reminder of just how complicated managing a pandemic becomes when you introduce that most pesky and unpredictable of variables: human nature. Farma is certainly all too aware of just how difficult managing an outbreak of Yersinia pestis going to be, no matter how much insight and magically-sourced modern medicine he can bring to the frontline. Sailors and merchants don't want to deal with the inconvenience of quarantines and safety inspections, which is bad enough (especially when you know how the Great Mortality got its real-world start from merchant ships landing in Crimea and Sicily in 1347). Things get even worse when Farma must deal with the terrified and furious villagers of L'Estacque, who most definitely don't want to hear about quarantines and germ theory from the kid who may or may not be the evil spirit that cursed them all with the Black Death.

The real question is whether “things getting worse" for Farma is enough dramatic escalation for such a dire situation as this. Don't get me wrong—I, too, am still dealing with the trauma of the last few years of living with the COVID-19 pandemic, so I understand why folks wouldn't exactly be eager for “The Black Death" to completely devolve into misery and plague-terror—but this is one of those episodes wherein Farma's inherently good and professional nature doesn't feel like it should be enough, no matter how admirable it is. Sure, we end the episode with the sad note of watching one of those doomed offshore ships get sunk into the ocean, and the line about “failing to take The Black Death seriously” felt so on the nose that I had to check and be absolutely sure that these light novels were written before the Spring/Summer of 2019; there are plenty of consequences here, to be fair.

It's just that the rest of the episode feels so simple, dramatically speaking, that the payoff of those sinking ships doesn't hit quite as hard as it ought to. When you break down the plot of the episode, you can sum up everything that happens in just a few beats: Farma inspects some ships for the plague, and then immediately dips out to L'Estacque when he hears word of mass fatalities; after learning that the Panac-rhabdos can phase him through solid matter, Farma has to convince the villagers to listen to him (and his intimidating ice magic), which only takes a scene; Farma then successfully gets the quarantine process started in L'Estacque; finally, the ships go down.

I think this is an occasion where PWP's desire to get all Edu-taining on us and show us the means and methods of setting up a village quarantine ended up robbing the show of a golden opportunity to have Farma seriously struggle for once. We kind of got a hint of it when he almost had to force the folks in L'Estacque to stay quarantined, and I get why the villagers might not have been inclined to argue with a kid who wields godlike magic powers, but I would have loved to see more deliberate and morally grey conflict for our hero. The sad fates of the sailors is a nice gesture towards showing how obstinate and foolish people can be in such situations, but it lacks punch in a world where thousands upon thousands of ostensibly grown-up individuals have somehow made not wearing face-masks a cornerstone of their deeply stupid personal identities.

None of this makes “The Black Death” a bad episode at all; it just ends up feeling like an interstitial chapter in an arc that has yet to shift into high gear. Still, Yersinia pestis is the perfect foe for Farma to face as the first season of his show draws to a close, so I am still quite excited to see all the things Parallel World Pharmacy has in store for us.

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Parallel World Pharmacy is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.