The Spring 2023 Manga Guide

The Eccentric Doctor of Moonflower Kingdom

What's It About? 

n the faraway lands of the Moon Flower Kingdom, people have long relied on healing methods shrouded in superstition with dubious results. When the young Prince Keiun goes in search of more reliable remedies, his party is attacked by mysterious assailants, and he ends up witnessing a never-before-seen lifesaving procedure that shocks him to the core. Even more surprising, the one who performs this medical feat is a beautiful, yet slightly odd, teenage girl named Koyou! Just who is this girl, and why is the prince being targeted by assassins?

The Eccentric Doctor of Moonflower Kingdom has a story and art by Tohru Himuka, with English translation by Margaret Ngo. This volume was retouched and lettered by Mercedes McGarry. Seven Seas Entertainment released the first volume on March 21.

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

It feels like cheating to use a panel from the color opening pages for the panel because the book is in black-and-white. But it's just so beautiful that I couldn't resist. Plus it includes the goats (well, the kids), who are an actual part of the story in a very funny way, so that's how I'm justifying things. It also helps to make my point that if you're all caught up in The Apothecary Diaries and the criminally overlooked Harem Days: The Seven-Starred Country and are looking for a new manga set in a fictional version of ancient China, The Eccentric Doctor of the Moon Flower Kingdom is here for you.

The most obvious comparisons are with The Apothecary Diaries. Heroine Koyou is a doctor, trained by her father in Western medicine and by her herbalist mother in pharmacology. When the story opens, she's working in a provincial capital, but that changes when the kingdom's crown prince shows up at her door. He and his retainer have been attacked by assassins sent by a jealous concubine, and his retainer has been badly wounded. He's at first aghast at what Koyou plans to do – stitch up Shiei with a needle and thread. But when Koyou saves Shiei's life, Prince Keiun quickly changes his tune and invites Koyou and her assistant to come with him back to the imperial capital.

Obviously, Keiun's got some very specific reasons of his own for doing this, but he's not sharing them yet. He's a delightful mix of woefully naïve because of his privilege (when Koyou asks what he'd do with a torn garment, he says, “Throw it away,” which is not the answer she was angling for), and politically savvy, and he's not quite sure what to make of Koyou, who is best described as “irrepressible.” The regular cast of characters for this sort of story is also present, including the jealous consort Ro who wants Keiun out of the way so that her son can be crown prince, but this genre faithfulness doesn't bring the book down. Mostly that's because creator Tohru Himuka also includes a subplot about prejudice against foreigners in the story (Koyou has Western heritage and her assistant is a person of color), and also because Himuka is a registered nurse and has a team of friends to advise her on the medical side of things. She acknowledges that sometimes the plot has to take precedence, but a quick look at the scene of Shiei being stitched up shows that this is created by someone who knows what she's talking about.

With beautiful art and an interesting story (plus a family of goats), this is an easy book to recommend. It has its issues, such as Koyou being a bit too much and relying on stock tropes and characters, but it's still a good time.