A Look At “The Apothecary Will Make This Battered Elf Happy” Manga

ボロボロのエルフさんを幸せにする薬売りさん
Boroboro no Elf-san o Shiawaseni suru Kusuriuri-san
The Apothecary Will Make This Battered Elf Happy

Thanks to following so many manga-ka on Twitter, I’m often introduced to series that would otherwise be unknown to me. Such was the case with The Apothecary Will Make This Battered Elf Happy. Initially, I was loathe to look into it as there were some truly horrific elements to it. (And I don’t mean in the horror genre.) But as the direction of the free web manga (with single page chapters) went in a positive direction, I decided to give it a read.

The Story, in Brief

An unnamed apothecary visits a city shopkeeper, who’s had a viciously abused, female elf dumped on him. The shopkeeper thinks she may have been used to create rumored drugs. The apothecary buys her after seeing the extent of her injuries and hearing her weakly muttering about home. On his trip back to his village, with her in a carrying seat on his back, he starts treating her and names her Reszurre, vowing to cure her.

Once at his home and workshop, the apothecary treats the necrosis and Reszurre’s arms and legs. He also has medicated bandages for all of the whip wounds on her body and her one, shrunken eye. He also fits her with dentures since most of her own teeth had been removed. The apothecary sends a message to a distant friend with incredible knowledge of physiology. While waiting for a reply, Reszurre gets ill. The apothecary discovers Reszurre had been forced to ingest a cursed object that would slowly and painfully kill her.

After removing the object and treating the elf, Reszurre begins recovering enough to be able to speak. Her vision starts to restore in her one good eye. The apothecary receives word from his friend, Adam, and prepares to make a trip there with Reszurre. After an adventurous journey, they reach Adam’s place. Adam, who is apparently transhuman, having experimented on his own body so that it now has a young girl appearance with animal eyes, informed the apothecary that they have to amputate all of Reszurre’s limbs or she will die.

Reszurre agrees to the surgery. Adam finds a single replacement arm and leg and successfully attaches them to the elf. They also give her better dentures. When they return to the apothecary’s home, a female neighbor helps bathe the elf. Reszurre works hard on rehabilitation so she can use her new arm and leg as well as her magic. After a few months, the apothecary feels he should try to return her to her home.

Horrifying Abuse

As I mentioned earlier, The Apothecary Will Make This Battered Elf Happy starts with a horrific base. The artwork from Giba-chan is very good. As such, the physical and mental brutality inflicted on Reszurre comes through quite clearly. The thought that someone could so abuse another sentient life form so badly is sickening. And that is why I initially avoided reading the manga for the longest time, even though it kept showing up in my feed.

Giba-chan manages to pack a lot into each page-chapter of the manga. As such, the visual spectacle of this hideously tormented elf lady really hits home. But even as the human apothecary uses his magic and herbs to help Reszurre start to heal, more horrifying discoveries are to be made. Whomever held Reszurre captive must have really hated her specifically, or elves in general.

She has one eye that is either missing or shrunken and dead. Her other eye is blind. Her pointed ears have been horribly pierced and gashed. She has whip scars all over. Someone cast spells and her arms and legs so that they’d eventually rot off. Not only that, but she has gangrene in the effected areas so that even if the cursed spell is lifted, her limbs will have to be removed to save her life.

And finally, Reszurre was forced to ingest a cursed pill-like artifact so further cause her pain and torment as her body is ravaged by poison. It really is a terrible thing.

Hope Springs Eternal

I don’t like such ghastly and depressing manga stories. However, all hope is not lost in The Apothecary Will Make This Battered Elf Happy. It is that hope and seeing Reszurre’s road to recovery that makes the manga worth reading. While Reszurre’s memories of her home are inaccessible for now (she apparently doesn’t remember her tormentors either), she isn’t depressed by this. Instead, she sees the positives in her life now that the apothecary has rescued her.

For a start, she has her life. Had the apothecary not purchased Reszurre, she would have surely died a slow, painful, lonely death. Something deep inside her kept her alive, and she’s extremely thankful to be freed of the curses and violence inflicted upon her. Indeed, having to lose all four of her limbs, and having a replacement right arm and left leg are a gift in her eye. She further proves that with how hard she works in rehab to use these new limbs.

Reszurre’s positive outlook on life is a joy to witness. It also makes me ashamed of how often I don’t look at the bright side of things. I have terrible sinus and respiratory problems for years that specialists cannot figure out. Yet it could be worse. I have terrible sleeping issues, not just from my sinuses, but from other things as well. However, things could be worse. I wish I had Reszurre’s positive outlook on life, more so considering the horrors she’s been through.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

The story of The Apothecary Will Make This Battered Elf Happy continues. Giba-chan recently released a staggering four pages of manga for the 50th chapter. I’m really looking forward to seeing where the story goes. The apothecary recently opened up to Reszurre about a bit of his past. He recognizes his apparent, romantic feelings for Reszurre forming. She too seems to have some growing, romantic feelings for him. But here too, there are obstacles to overcome, especially after what Adam discovered regarding the elf’s reproductive organs.

Anyway, Giba-chan’s works are on Twitter. The first volume of The Apothecary Will Make This Battered Elf Happy is on Amazon Japan for FREE, but they don’t sell digital copies of anything to gaijin.

Additional (17-July-2022)

I forked over some money to check out Giba-chan’s Fanbox page. Wow! 😮 In addition to having high resolution images of The Apothecary Will Make This Battered Elf Happy, Giba-chan also has a hentai story about Reszurre-chan, from the time she was a younger elf who was kidnapped humans in the woods, and then “brutalized”. The she was apparently sold to a rich human, who is currently “brutalizing” her. I guess that’s to partially appease the hentai crowd that likes that, but man.

Knowing about it in the non-hentai story would have been enough. I honestly didn’t think there’s be a hentai depicting the events. 😑 And here I just wanted to support the author on an interesting story. Oh well.

(I still like the non-hentai story as it is heart warming and lovely. Just avoid the horrible, hentai backstory.)

Update (1-Dec-2022): Series review here!