Square Enix revealed at Anime Japan 2025 on Saturday that The Apothecary Diaries (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto) franchise will have a new manga spinoff titled Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Gaiden: Xiaolan Kaisōroku (The Apothecary Diaries Side Story: Xiaolan’s Memories) that launched on Square Enix’s Manga UP! website on Sunday.
Minoji Kurata’s The Apothecary Diaries: Maomao’s Notes from the Inner Palace (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto: Mao Mao no Kōkyū Nazotoki Techō) is a separate manga adaptation of the novels (though both adapt the same story).
Itsuki Nanao, who draws one of the manga adaptations of The Apothecary Diaries, is also drawing the new manga.
The new manga centers on Xiaolan, a cheerful and gossipy maidservant in the Imperial Palace, and friend to Mao Mao.