I will confess that the first time I heard of Parallel World Pharmacy my mind darted to last years Cheat Pharmacists Slow Life: Making a Drugstore in Another World which I had reviewed beforehandhttps://anilist.co/review/13584. I wondered if I had fallen into some kind of temporal vortex where isekai plots were being recycled even down to the morespecific central concept or conceit. I then had to ask myself why I was watching this one especially if the premise alone sounded like something that would offer no solid differentiation from the show that came before. But after thinking that I couldnt help but wonder whats the worst that could happen? At its best I find a nice little surprise that I look forward to seeing every week. At its worst its a show I can quickly forget about the week after it stops airing. But to my unexpected relief there were indeed some pleasant surprises that were within it. Describing Parallel World Pharmacy could best be done not just by explaining what it does but by the little things that it does to help bring color to a genre whose face has had the color and blood leeched out of it recently. Are these things different enough that the show as a whole warrants a viewing or an earnest chance? Truthfully I cannot say that it does. It does fall into several of the stereotypical trappings that plague the lesser efforts of the isekai genre which does mean that if the genre has worn you out its not likely to do anything to change your mind like others potentially might be able to. The main protagonist of the series Farma is emblematic of this simultaneous thesamebutslightlydifferent approach. He thankfully does not get isekaid by the moreconventional route of getting hit by a bus / car / train and rather dies from overwork exhaustion which if youre not familiar with workplace culture and attitude in Japan its not pretty to read about. He is fortunate enough not to be reborn as a peasant or a workingclass child but as a wealthy son of a famed pharmacist so to speak its a match made in heaven an entire bedrock of modern pharmaceutical knowledge being transported to a social environment where he can actually put his skills to use. As has come to be expected the powers bestowed upon him are indeed godly. We see through here the usual method of Farma not necessarily knowing why he has the powers he does but he starts exercising them though the guidance of his teacher. But rather than being hailed as a paragon of magical genius and prowess he is feared. This sets up one of the main focuses of the story Farmas powers both are a blessing and a curse in his new life and because he is still just a child and does not yet have the prestige of the isekai worlds other pharmacists he has to metaphorically fight to establish himself anew. Farmas circumstances are thus woven into the shows overarching mythology and in a welcome little spin its one that actually presents more problems for all involved rather than the moreconventional route of simply marking the overpowered protagonist as a praiseworthy savior who dazzles everyone he comes into contact with. Fear is more of an ingredient to making Parallel World Pharmacy work than what I expected since Farma is more or less an alien figure in this alreadyestablished storied universe. A quintessential part of turning that around is recognizing the larger picture that looms over them. As a wealthyborn child Farma learns through his interactions with others that there is an inherent inequality in how medicine and treatments are given in the kingdom. Gifted with his second life he decides to set out and right what he sees as the inherent wrong that only those with the means to afford them get their medicines while others have to settle for questionablyfraudulent scraps. As a result Farmas character is defined less by his fantastical powers and more by his altruism being willing to give aid publicly or secretly to those of all socioeconomic standing. The best scenes in the anime are when hes talking to his patients nursing them back to health both with his powers / medicines and in the comfort of his words. He does not just go through the motions of giving care like other doctors might writing prescriptions and then shooing you out the door for the next patient he actually does care in more than one sense of the word. And its good that Farmas inherentlyaltruistic attitude is beautiful because the animation and overall aesthetic sadly is not. The color palette and sense of shading here is unfortunately not employed to any real eyecatching degrees. There is also a prevalence of some rather bright shots where the lighting employed seems to wash out any other potential color schemes and tones that might have existed otherwise. While a couple of actionoriented scenes exist or moments of demonstrating magical powers do manifest themselves every once in a while the priority towards the production did not seem directed to making the visuals stand out. Studio Diomedas mostnotable visual shows tend to be when they indulge in darker or more inherentlybrooding somber or dramatic moods which could also just be chalked up to art and color direction. Since Parallel World Pharmacy doesnt have many moments like this the series feels aesthetically constrained. It also manages to feel constrained in how it uses other characters. Like many other isekai before it the series has such a strong protagonist in power if not in characterization that much of the rest of the cast doesnt quite ever feel as appropriately developed or engaging enough to feel justified being there. The two main female characters stand out in this respect. Lotte sadly does not develop into anything more beyond being a token cute female character who helps Farma out while Elonore gets shafted pretty badly. Although conceived as a character that is knowledgeable about her world and the Divine Arts and is likewise altruistic she eventually is relegated to little more than helping Farma. Its a shame too because the plot does give her an opportunity to develop into something more selfactualized and capable in the seasons final arc though the narrative does not give her the appropriate time to follow suit. The other ancillary members to the cast work best when they tie into that overarching problem I mentioned before about Farma being a fearful figure rather than an endearing on. When Farmas powers manifest problems for the world rather than simply in chatting with other people it manages to make the players involved more interesting and the subsequent drama that ensues carries more weight behind it even if that weight is not anything especially noteworthy. Yet these moments are too few and far between in the course of its twelve episodes despite the best efforts to frame them through cliffhangers as being significant. But there are three final things that ultimately make Parallel World Pharmacy stand apart which I would be remiss if I did not mention one is that there is a beach episode that actually progresses the plot forward rather than being a shoehornedin display of fanservice. Aside from the fact that the fanservice in the episode is incredibly tame it also ties into another aspect which is that there is no harem romance in this series. As a result the female characters in the show are never presented to be overlysexualized or in a way that makes it clear they mostly serve to exist as candy for the viewing audience. Even if the actual characters that lie therein are not special I sincerely appreciate the restraint shown here. The last element to mention is that there is a flexing of knowledge on display throughout the series. A common convention of light novel or light novel adaptations like this is the idea of an author basically showcasing their interest or knowledge in a specialized subject and then writing a story tailoring to that interest. Rather than a hodgepodge of various ideas original author Liz Takayama keeps the focus squarely on pharmacology and virology so theres more of a solidified throughline in the material. Everything else surrounding it is mixedatbest but then again this is also Takayamas first published story so we have to take that into consideration as well. Parallel World Pharmacy has some spoonfuls of sugar to help its mediocre medicine go down which do indeed provide some relief. It will never be confused as a series injecting new life into the isekai genre and several aspects of its presentation are little more than standard for what the genre can offer. But in the handful of times that it manages to find the right formula it can be a nice little time. Its just a shame that there was not more of them. If his powers translate to metaphysical ideas maybe Farma should open a pharmacy for the genre as a whole. At the very least well get to meet that one character who loved the sailor candy again.