Parallel World Pharmacy Isekai Yakkyoku Alternate World Pharmacy 異世界薬局
Synopsis
Parallel World Pharmacy is about world-class medical researcher Kanji Yakutani lost his little sister to a tumor years ago due to ineffective treatment. To honor her legacy, he has dedicated his research to developing new medications for such conditions. But as fate would have it, he overworks himself and passes away at the age of 31, only to be given a second chance at life in another world.
When he wakes up, Kanji finds himself in the body of a 10-year-old boy named Falma de Médicis, the son of an esteemed family of medical practitioners in the Sain Fleuve Empire. Bearing the mark of a deity’s divine blessing, Falma is capable of performing a unique divine art, allowing him to create and reduce any substance with the knowledge of its chemical properties.
After reading through some pharmacology books, Falma realizes that this world is operating on similar medical practices as in ancient times. He also learns that medicine is an exclusive privilege to the nobility, depriving commoners of proper medical care. Using the knowledge from his past life and the divine abilities granted to him, Falma resolves to make medicine available to those who need it—irrespective of class.
Watch Parallel World Pharmacy Online
Review
When I first heard about Parallel World Pharmacy, I didn’t expect a whole lot. A show about a pharmacist? How do you make that interesting? Turns out, you insert magic, make the storyline about enemies of the state, and there you go!
Story
Parallel World Pharmacy starts us out with Kanji Yakutani, a medical scientist who lost his sister to disease previously. He fully commits himself to the research and development of new medicines. And when I say fully, I mean it. He clearly doesn’t eat or sleep properly, and when he finally finds time to catch a break, he passes away in his sleep, likely due to exhaustion. When Kanji awakens, he finds himself in a completely different time line, way before his old timeline, in a noble family. Now, in a young boy named Falma de Médicis, he decides to use his wealth of knowledge, and the magical powers granted to him, to grant ordinary citizens access to affordable healthcare, during a time when not everyone has it.
It’s hard to describe more upon what this series is about because I basically said it, but it flows really nicely among the twelve-episode season. Falma is obviously not taken seriously on multiple occasions because of his age, but because of his knowledge for when he was Kanji, he’s able to solve many of the world’s medical problems. Much of this series is of him, trying to make people into believers, including his own family.
When he proves his good intentions, it’s then that the storyline expands, right up until the series finale. Sure, the series probably doesn’t peak as much here as much as other fantasy series, mostly because you’re not really watching this series for the action, but there are still enjoyable moments throughout. One detail this show, along with many others these days, is that the idea of going back to Falma’s old world is never explored, and I’m curious if that’ll ever happen in shows like Rising of the Shield Hero, Log Horizon, upon others.
One of the elements that this series takes advantage of, is the world of magic. Inserting magic into this show feels very random and out of place at first. But they do integrate it into the series very nicely. Everyone seems to have the ability to cast these spells that draw from natural elements, such as water, wind and earth, but the entire explanations of them at the beginning felt a little lacking. It’s doesn’t entirely matter, because, for the most part, you just need to know that it exists.
Characters
Falma’s a really easy character to cheer for because he always seeks to make a positive change in this new world. Part of that likely stems from the fact that he regrets not making a ton of meaningful change in his old world, but he continues to play the part of one that seeks to heal and basically never harm. Even as an adult, being that forgiving of those that doubt you isn’t easy. Proving to person after person with your gift, is amazing, and shines a light on this kid who basically gains an infinite wealth of knowledge overnight, at least seemingly to his new family.
Charlotte is the young maid that helps with the de Médicis family with their housework, and she’s about as fun loving and hard working as you can imagine. She’s fully dedicated to Falma’s work and I do wish this was praised more in the series, especially considering her age. My one problem with her is the lack of judgment she made in the finale that almost costs her and one other person, and this type of ignorance among young characters drives me nuts when it appears in anime. Falma’s father, Bruno, is the head of the family and is basically the head honcho of the queen’s medical staff. He’s very sterm, but true to his word. He means well, and I loved what they did with his character. Eléonore oversees Falma’s medical training, basically acting as his teacher. Her role changes as the series goes on, but I liked her drive to work through whatever is asked of her, even if she doubts herself along the way.
There are a bunch of side characters along the way, though some kind of feel like re-hashes of others because their story feels somewhat the same as another. Medical need arises, they look for it, find Falma, doubt him, but then are proven wrong and are indebted to him. This cycle ‘can’ feel boring, but the series keeps the pacing going that it didn’t bother me as much. Jean-Alan and Salomon were two of the better side characters, especially because they become more involved in the plot in the back end of the series. Characters in general are strong, even at the cost of being somewhat repetitive. (7/10)
Art
Parallel World Pharmacy keeps it’s animation pretty consistent, even through the short action sequences that occur during the course of the series. This is one series where the quality didn’t really waver through the season, as Diomedéa put in a strong effort here. Because of the story’s dependency on magic, I’m glad they put in the effort to make sure it looked strong in the series. Is everything else top of the line? Probably not, but it didn’t need to be.
Sound
The OST was honestly a little bland, but it didn’t distract enough to be a problem. Both the OP and ED were strong though. VO work was mostly strong, with Morgan Lea (Falma) being the best of the bunch. Lindsay Seidel (Charlotte) continues her strong work with young characters and I actually liked Alex Hom (Pierre) and Gareth Bradley (Salomon) here too. However, I was really not a fan of Chris Ryan (Bruno) here. His sound articulation felt contrary to what was going on the screen far too often and, especially in the first half, the expression just wasn’t there.
Overall
Parallel World Pharmacy was a nice surprise to this season of anime, where I actually didn’t plan to watch this at first, because Crunchyroll initially announced it wouldn’t be dubbed. This should appeal to the general public, as long as a young kid being gifted a rich family as a starting point doesn’t bug you too much. I doubt a sequel’s coming, but I’ll be there to watch it if it does.
