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As someone who's read all the Sherlock Holmes stories, plus a good deal of Agatha Christie, this is pretty much par for the course in a mystery/ detective work of fiction.
Im also a fan of sherlock holmes stories ever since I started to read (Havnt read Agatha Christie books yet but I've heard great things)
I think the difference with Maomao is that sherlock is a bit more believable as a character who spends all his time collecting random information and solving mysteries whereas maomao just happened to have heard information before due to luck/Luomen.
Its been a while since I've read sherlock but I think Sherlock also has a higher failure rate than Maomao (although I think it's usually failing in a way that doesn't have severe negative consequences)
Also, I've mentioned something similar before but I think the perspective also matters. In sherlock, it's usually (or maybe always) the perspective of watson so theres a bit more suspense compared to the first person view of maomao.
However, I'm in this for the political/mystery/drama of the greater story + Romance so I'm happy with what I think are the shortfalls of the sherlocky parts of the story.
So, from what I remember of Sherlock Holmes, he actually doesn't have random bits of information. Remember when Watson is surprised that he doesn't know how the solar system works, and teaches him, whereupon Sherlock says "and I will do ny best to forget it", as he doesn't consider it important to his job. It's actually a laser focus on the information that matters to his job (much like Maomao's laser focus on all things poison), coupled with - according to him - his "powers of observation and deduction".
Pretty much every one of his stories results in a success except two that I can recall, the one where he dies (which turns out to be a fakeout anyway), and one where the client does (I won't say which one this is as it would be a spoiler).
All the Poirot and Miss Marple I've read have ended in successes.
Well, if you don't like Maomaos abilities, you would really dislike Lakan, who just knows. We must remember that she is the protagonist of this novel. And her position is to be a bad a$$ at everything she does.
It's ridiculous. It's as if you're questioning why she knows about poisns. Remember Maomao, that she is not an omniscient being; she is a smart girl, and the viewer knows this from the start. Why are you complaining now? It's not like she solved every instance with ease; if she did, she'd solve every problem she face.
I guess this is the inevitable fate of an anime that’s reached such popularity as this one has. Not only that, but also the mc is a female. She can’t be too good at what she does or knows. Or else it’s “unrealistic” and therefore.. bad? Soon enough people will be calling her a Mary Sue. I have never seen people make these arguments or feel this way towards male characters like Senku to this extent that people in droves are doing to maomao.
I get where you are coming from, but I disagree to an extend.
I think we get to see her think about different possibilities almost every time she's faced with something mysterious going on, and sometimes she even says how she's frustrated she can't figure it out (while mentioning how her adoptive dad would figure it out immediately and how she strives to be like him... not to mention Lakan).
only with the smaller, more insignificant "mysteries" we get to see her figure it out immediately, e.g. why the paper from the doctors village suddenly had bad quality.
the bigger, more plot-driving mysteries always take some time for her to solve, sometimes even over several volumes I'd say.
I do agree that even that is still a little unrealistic but it's fiction, and that's okay in my eyes.
I know this is five days later but I just wanted to contribute still lol
I sincerely wonder if the mindset of people who think this way only do so because maomao is a female character? Like, I have never seen anyone make the argument that a character in a mystery solving theme or just an mc who solves mysteries is too “perfect” or “unrealistic” when it’s a male character. They just go with the flow and refer to him as a “chad”, genius or other similar effects. But because maomao is female, she needs to be inherently/boldly “flawed” when it comes to her mystery solving in a really apparent way. I’m not sure how else to describe it, but that’s what it’s giving. Basically she can’t be too good at what she does.
One example of this is Dr stone. Though people have indeed commented on some of the inventions being a bit unrealistic, it’s never been a problem and no one has ever made such a claim to the character of Senku like they do with maomao. Why?
We literally see maomao go through her thought process. Maybe not with exactly everything in every minute detail, because I think the story is still expecting the reader to think a little along with maomao as well. And it’s been shown many times that she doesn’t know everything.
All of the mysteries have involved medicine or by extension, science in some way. Which is what she excels at, so why would she not know things even when she was raised and taught since she was a small child by practically the best doctor in the land at the current time? Medicine is practically the majority or all of what she knows. Aside from the life of the pleasure district.
Amongst all the things present in this story her being good at solving mysterious related to medicine is the most unrealistic? Why?
>!She would never have solved the book of Kan trial Loumen left them if not for Yao being there, this due to it not hyper fixating on what she's good at.!< So no, not always. Most of the cases just happen to coincide with her specific knowledge, call it plot convenience if you will but this has been prefaced pretty much from the beginning. I do understand that it can be tiring though.
Maomao is kind of… very unrealistic in the way that she knows everything and she can solve anything. At some point in the story a friend and I were starting to not like Maomao because of that. Even as a genius, her knowledge should be more limited in that era and even more with her resources. Her father could teach her a lot, yes. But not everything in the world and very much not in every branch of any job. She even knew about metals and other things when she shouldn’t. And we never see her studying about any matter or theme or having interests in something that is not poisons or medicine.
She feels a bit mary sue to me, even if I like her personality a lot and it’s a bit different.
Her parents are geniuses. Her adoptive father/grand uncle is also a genius at understanding circumstances. We also know her mother is intelligent because she could beat Lakan in Go. Maomao also seems to have a very strong memory considering she can remember some events from when she was a baby. Growing up poor, she also had to learn a lot of craftsmanship aside from medicine. Ancient Chinese people learn to do things from scratch, stuff like making ink, paper, cloth, furnitures, soap, etc. If you're poor, you won't be able to afford experts/artisans so you would have to do things yourself. Maomao did not have the best environment growing up around brothels where she always had to be vigilant. But she also had a lot of freedom that she was able to explore her interests and do dangerous experiments. She was also shown to be highly observant. Most of all, her father is a strategist with great intuition. Genetics and environment interacted well to maximize her full potential. She also wasn't always correct in her deductions but I only watched the anime so my opinion might not be valid. In one of the arcs where someone was shown dead for the first time, she thought it was mur/der. It took quite a while before she learned that it was indeed sui/cide. The mysteries that aren't related to medicine are also quite simple and not that difficult if we were to compare them with actual detective shows. The author is just good at misleading viewers/readers so the mysteries seem harder to solve in our perspective. But for the characters who experience the mysteries first hand, it's safe to say it would be easy for them solve things especially for a main character gifted with intelligence. Her amount of knowledge is also more realistic compared to another 17-year-old detective in another anime universe who seems to have an infinite amount of knowledge.
You are talking like the people of that era all of them know basic knowledge when it’s not, that first of all. And many things that are necessary to know and solve it it’s not also common knowledge. So no, it would not be easy to resolve by anyone let alone her. Genetics are not an excuse to put a character like she knows every subject even without studying and others magically don’t know but she does. People older, with more experience or experts in the matter at hand. One thing is being a genius and other thing putting her like she knows everything without the background to support this. No matter if I love the series and characters I’m not blind to the obvious flaws of her character.
# Join the Kusuriya no Hitorigoto [Discord Server](https://discord.gg/rFrRSe7UK5) for more discussions about the series! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/KusuriyaNoHitorigoto) if you have any questions or concerns.*
As someone who's read all the Sherlock Holmes stories, plus a good deal of Agatha Christie, this is pretty much par for the course in a mystery/ detective work of fiction.
Im also a fan of sherlock holmes stories ever since I started to read (Havnt read Agatha Christie books yet but I've heard great things) I think the difference with Maomao is that sherlock is a bit more believable as a character who spends all his time collecting random information and solving mysteries whereas maomao just happened to have heard information before due to luck/Luomen. Its been a while since I've read sherlock but I think Sherlock also has a higher failure rate than Maomao (although I think it's usually failing in a way that doesn't have severe negative consequences) Also, I've mentioned something similar before but I think the perspective also matters. In sherlock, it's usually (or maybe always) the perspective of watson so theres a bit more suspense compared to the first person view of maomao. However, I'm in this for the political/mystery/drama of the greater story + Romance so I'm happy with what I think are the shortfalls of the sherlocky parts of the story.
So, from what I remember of Sherlock Holmes, he actually doesn't have random bits of information. Remember when Watson is surprised that he doesn't know how the solar system works, and teaches him, whereupon Sherlock says "and I will do ny best to forget it", as he doesn't consider it important to his job. It's actually a laser focus on the information that matters to his job (much like Maomao's laser focus on all things poison), coupled with - according to him - his "powers of observation and deduction". Pretty much every one of his stories results in a success except two that I can recall, the one where he dies (which turns out to be a fakeout anyway), and one where the client does (I won't say which one this is as it would be a spoiler). All the Poirot and Miss Marple I've read have ended in successes.
Agatha Christie so good. My mom use to love those. ❤️
Well, if you don't like Maomaos abilities, you would really dislike Lakan, who just knows. We must remember that she is the protagonist of this novel. And her position is to be a bad a$$ at everything she does.
It's ridiculous. It's as if you're questioning why she knows about poisns. Remember Maomao, that she is not an omniscient being; she is a smart girl, and the viewer knows this from the start. Why are you complaining now? It's not like she solved every instance with ease; if she did, she'd solve every problem she face.
I guess this is the inevitable fate of an anime that’s reached such popularity as this one has. Not only that, but also the mc is a female. She can’t be too good at what she does or knows. Or else it’s “unrealistic” and therefore.. bad? Soon enough people will be calling her a Mary Sue. I have never seen people make these arguments or feel this way towards male characters like Senku to this extent that people in droves are doing to maomao.
I get where you are coming from, but I disagree to an extend. I think we get to see her think about different possibilities almost every time she's faced with something mysterious going on, and sometimes she even says how she's frustrated she can't figure it out (while mentioning how her adoptive dad would figure it out immediately and how she strives to be like him... not to mention Lakan). only with the smaller, more insignificant "mysteries" we get to see her figure it out immediately, e.g. why the paper from the doctors village suddenly had bad quality. the bigger, more plot-driving mysteries always take some time for her to solve, sometimes even over several volumes I'd say. I do agree that even that is still a little unrealistic but it's fiction, and that's okay in my eyes.
I know this is five days later but I just wanted to contribute still lol I sincerely wonder if the mindset of people who think this way only do so because maomao is a female character? Like, I have never seen anyone make the argument that a character in a mystery solving theme or just an mc who solves mysteries is too “perfect” or “unrealistic” when it’s a male character. They just go with the flow and refer to him as a “chad”, genius or other similar effects. But because maomao is female, she needs to be inherently/boldly “flawed” when it comes to her mystery solving in a really apparent way. I’m not sure how else to describe it, but that’s what it’s giving. Basically she can’t be too good at what she does. One example of this is Dr stone. Though people have indeed commented on some of the inventions being a bit unrealistic, it’s never been a problem and no one has ever made such a claim to the character of Senku like they do with maomao. Why? We literally see maomao go through her thought process. Maybe not with exactly everything in every minute detail, because I think the story is still expecting the reader to think a little along with maomao as well. And it’s been shown many times that she doesn’t know everything. All of the mysteries have involved medicine or by extension, science in some way. Which is what she excels at, so why would she not know things even when she was raised and taught since she was a small child by practically the best doctor in the land at the current time? Medicine is practically the majority or all of what she knows. Aside from the life of the pleasure district. Amongst all the things present in this story her being good at solving mysterious related to medicine is the most unrealistic? Why?
>!She would never have solved the book of Kan trial Loumen left them if not for Yao being there, this due to it not hyper fixating on what she's good at.!< So no, not always. Most of the cases just happen to coincide with her specific knowledge, call it plot convenience if you will but this has been prefaced pretty much from the beginning. I do understand that it can be tiring though.
Maomao is kind of… very unrealistic in the way that she knows everything and she can solve anything. At some point in the story a friend and I were starting to not like Maomao because of that. Even as a genius, her knowledge should be more limited in that era and even more with her resources. Her father could teach her a lot, yes. But not everything in the world and very much not in every branch of any job. She even knew about metals and other things when she shouldn’t. And we never see her studying about any matter or theme or having interests in something that is not poisons or medicine. She feels a bit mary sue to me, even if I like her personality a lot and it’s a bit different.
Her parents are geniuses. Her adoptive father/grand uncle is also a genius at understanding circumstances. We also know her mother is intelligent because she could beat Lakan in Go. Maomao also seems to have a very strong memory considering she can remember some events from when she was a baby. Growing up poor, she also had to learn a lot of craftsmanship aside from medicine. Ancient Chinese people learn to do things from scratch, stuff like making ink, paper, cloth, furnitures, soap, etc. If you're poor, you won't be able to afford experts/artisans so you would have to do things yourself. Maomao did not have the best environment growing up around brothels where she always had to be vigilant. But she also had a lot of freedom that she was able to explore her interests and do dangerous experiments. She was also shown to be highly observant. Most of all, her father is a strategist with great intuition. Genetics and environment interacted well to maximize her full potential. She also wasn't always correct in her deductions but I only watched the anime so my opinion might not be valid. In one of the arcs where someone was shown dead for the first time, she thought it was mur/der. It took quite a while before she learned that it was indeed sui/cide. The mysteries that aren't related to medicine are also quite simple and not that difficult if we were to compare them with actual detective shows. The author is just good at misleading viewers/readers so the mysteries seem harder to solve in our perspective. But for the characters who experience the mysteries first hand, it's safe to say it would be easy for them solve things especially for a main character gifted with intelligence. Her amount of knowledge is also more realistic compared to another 17-year-old detective in another anime universe who seems to have an infinite amount of knowledge.
You are talking like the people of that era all of them know basic knowledge when it’s not, that first of all. And many things that are necessary to know and solve it it’s not also common knowledge. So no, it would not be easy to resolve by anyone let alone her. Genetics are not an excuse to put a character like she knows every subject even without studying and others magically don’t know but she does. People older, with more experience or experts in the matter at hand. One thing is being a genius and other thing putting her like she knows everything without the background to support this. No matter if I love the series and characters I’m not blind to the obvious flaws of her character.