The Apothecary Diaries Season 3 Is Here: Maomao's Locust Mystery Kicks Off Fall's Biggest Anime Return

The first weekend of the fall anime season did not belong to a newcomer. It belonged to the one return every drama fan had circled on the calendar: The Apothecary Diaries Season 3 officially premiered on Friday, October 2, bringing Maomao and Jinshi back for their most ambitious chapter yet. After two seasons of poisonings, court conspiracies, and slow-burn revelations, the series is finally stepping outside the walls of the Inner Palace — and its opening episode wastes no time signaling that the stakes are about to get much bigger than palace politics.

The rollout is about as premium as simulcast anime gets. In Japan, the series airs Friday nights at 11:00 p.m. JST on Nippon TV. Internationally, Crunchyroll is streaming new episodes the same day — the premiere went live at 8:00 a.m. PT on October 2 — while viewers in select Asian regions can also catch it on Netflix. The season is structured as a split two-cour run: Part 1 delivers 12 episodes this fall, and Part 2 picks up in April 2027 as part of the Spring 2027 lineup.

A Premiere Built on Locusts

The first episode, titled Locusts, is a masterclass in what makes this series special. Rather than opening with an assassination attempt or a court scandal, the story starts with Maomao noticing something subtly wrong during a meal at the Verdigris House — the pleasure district establishment she has returned to after the Shi clan rebellion. What she tastes in a bowl of stewed locusts tells her more than any court briefing could: the flavor is flat, off in a way that points to a swarm behaving unnaturally. It is a quiet, almost domestic scene that carries an enormous implication — the biological warning signs of a coming agricultural disaster.

The threat is concrete and terrifying in its simplicity. Large numbers of locusts are appearing across farming regions, raising the specter of crop failure and famine in the Li Kingdom. Maomao's investigation, combined with a warning about disaster left behind by Loulan at the end of last season, begins pulling threads that lead far beyond anything the series has shown before.

What Is Coming This Season

The status quo has genuinely shifted. Jinshi has returned to his true position as the Emperor's younger brother and is confronting the responsibilities that come with royal status, which changes the entire dynamic of his relationship with Maomao. Meanwhile, rumors are spreading about a mysterious woman stirring up trouble, and the investigation is set to take both leads beyond the Rear Palace and the capital streets toward the western regions and eventually a neighboring country. The series is expanding from a palace mystery into a full political journey.

Behind the scenes, the production remains in steady hands. OLM continues on animation duties with Akinori Fudesaka directing, the composing trio of Satoru Kosaki, Kevin Penkin, and Arisa Okehazama returns, and Yorushika performs the new opening theme. And this is only the beginning of a packed stretch for the franchise: the first cour airs now, an original theatrical film conceived by the light novel's author is scheduled for December, and the second cour arrives in April 2027. Few anime franchises have ever mapped out their future this confidently. Maomao's fall just got very busy — and so did ours.